One Year Ago...

One year ago on this day I married Renee Simms. 

It was a Saturday last year, and I intentionally began the day as I would any other Saturday.  I woke early, had my usual time in the Scriptures, and then walked my dog.  I consumed my usual Eggo Blueberry waffles then cleaned myself up.  That is where the "usual routine" ended.  I jumped in my nearly-new SUV and headed up I-270 with a rented tuxedo and overnight bag stowed in the back.  My destination?  First Evangelical Free Church, where I dressed quickly and quietly in a children's Sunday school room.  Some of my closest male friends and family soon trickled in and did the same.  From here, well, you can figure out the end of the story.  Vows were said, rings were exchanged, and just before 1:00 p.m., I was a married man.

I must say, it's been quite the ride but I am secure in the knowledge that I am doing it with the one that the Creator picked out for me before Creation even happened.  Can't wrap my mind around that one, but that's beside the point.  To know that I'm with the one I'm supposed to be with is just so freeing, somehow.  We've enjoyed the highs and learned from the (surprisingly) few lows that we've experienced.  Our lives have definitely been enriched as we've grown individually and as a couple.  I personally have been stretched and challenged in ways I never could have imagined.  The transition to married life after a many years of single-ness was pretty much smooth.  The dreaded combining of households was no big deal.  I lost my job after 14 years in February and my wife has been my rock as I have navigated the choppy waters of unemployment.  We were pleasantly surprised to discover God had blessed us with pregnancy a few months ago.

So, as we begin our second year of marriage, we continue to look forward with faith to the future.  Our love for each other grows stronger every day and I can confidently say marriage is a good thing and I highly recommend it!

I Think I Can Finally Write About This...

(Disclaimer:  The following blog post is simply an account of a major event in my life and should in no way be construed as disparaging or abusive towards my former employer.)

"I'm sorry to inform you that your position has been eliminated and you are being laid off"

With those words, (or some approximation of them), 14 years and 5 months of employment at the Post-Dispatch came to an abrupt end.  I got the call on February 22, about 20 minutes after I got home from work.  My vice-president called me at home and asked me if I could talk.  I sat alone in our darkened bedroom and listened as he said the dreaded words in conjunction with something like "continued declining revenues".  He subsequently informed me that I had worked my last day and did not need to come to work the next day.  As he finished reading from what was likely a pre-written script, I tried to process what was happening.  An HR representative came on the line and gave me details of a severance package that would arrive overnight via FedEx.

So I then had to walk into the kitchen where my wife was preparing dinner and baking cookies and do the thing I swore to myself I'd never have to do:  inform my wife I'd lost my job.  She took the news well, with only a few tears shed.  I was far from blindsided by the call, but it's never easy to take.  Periodic layoffs had been a sad fact of life at the Post-Dispatch (P-D) for the last several years.  When one of my colleagues got caught up in a layoff late last Spring, I knew in my heart that I was no longer safe and the P-D was no longer a place where I could be employed for the duration of my working life.  (This assurance was issued to me by the man who hired me in 1997.  He himself had started at the P-D as a young man and retired not long after company was sold in 2005.)  I would have began looking for another job at that time, but I was busy preparing to get married to the love of my life.  I decided to ride things out for the rest of the summer and then get started on a job search in the fall.  Well, I got as far as asking for resume help from a career counselor, then didn't do anything more until January.  I did check the online job search web sites periodically, but never seriously considered taking action.

When January rolled around, I finally got serious about creating a resume and spent most Monday nights working on it.  (YES, I know I should have had that done years ago!)  By early February, a series of events led to it being in the hands of a recruiter at a local IT recruiting company.  President's Day found me sitting that company's meeting room talking to that recruiter and some of her co-workers.  It felt a bit strange doing so, since it had been 14+ years since I'd had to dance this dance.  I put on my best professional face and played the part of an IT professional looking to advance his career.  I thought everything went rather well and was optimistic about my future with them.

By the following Thursday, I was unemployed.

The Times Since...

Wow, yeah, it's dusty in here....

moving on.

When last I posted to this blog, the St. Louis Cardinals had just won the 2011 World Series and Renee and I were on top of the world.  Well, there was that little strep throat issue of hers immediately following the Series, but hey, that's why God invented antibiotics, right?  Don't give me that stuff about big bad money-grubbin' drug companies and their drugs that they recommend you ask your doctor about....

I digress.

The time since that time has been filled with the usuals of everyday life.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years were the big highlights.  Renee and I managed to spend just the right amount of time with both of our families.  New Year's Eve was spent with good friends and we then vaulted headlong into the new year.  When we discussed our goals for 2012, one thing we agreed on was that I needed to ramp up my previously tentative efforts to find a new job.  The writing had been on the wall for some time and I had read it but not taken much action.  My company was in dire financial straits and I didn't need or want to get caught up in what might happen as a result...

Well....