Fine Place For A Day Full Of Breakdowns Takes More Than A Meltdown To Show Us How

I'm not sure if I need to point this out, but stress management? Is not one of my strengths.

The past two weeks have been stressful to say the least. Shawn's job (which we thought was secure) started to get a bit dodgy. Last Friday, after a week and a half of uncertainty, Shawn lost his job. Partly because of the economy and partly because of his shady boss but whatever the reason, the outcome remains the same - Shawn is officially unemployed.

The plan has always been that he would one day start his own business. We thought that maybe this was an opportunity (a sign? a kick in the pants?) to start the ball rolling. We threw around a few ideas - moving to Kelowna to start the business in a city with less competition, selling our condo and moving back into downtown Vancouver to be right in the thick of things - but in the end we decided to stay put. Shawn is an audio video designer; he designs elaborate entertainment systems and sells the equipment required to complete them. He deals in luxury goods. Luxury is the devil right now. People can't get far enough away from luxury. So plans for Shawn's business have been put on hold and his job search has begun.

Shawn's unemployment + me being absolutely convinced that I was pregnant = a Very Stressful Time for us. Fortunately, my womb is blissfully empty (Tia, I am choosing to ignore you and your "false negative" warning) and Shawn has a job interview lined up for tomorrow. He's lucky that he has a lot of contacts in the industry and managed to finagle a job interview for a position that he knows is unfilled. If offered this job, he will be taking a 20% pay decrease from his last position, which sucks but isn't the end of the world.

Which brings me to yesterday and my meltdown.

Yesterday I had a job interview.

And that is pretty much all I can say about that. I wish I could say more because my brain is bursting, but I can't. I'm kind of peeing my pants right now, but in a good way. The bad stress has turned to good stress all of a sudden and I think I can return to my regularly scheduled program of lentils and vegetables for lunch instead of licorice and cookies.

Shawn and I went to our favourite restaurant last night and ate burgers and poutine (sober poutine is almost as good as drunken poutine - who knew?) and talked about everything that's happening right now. We don't have a game plan but we have a few ideas. It feels good to know that we're in this thing together, that even if I stay at my soul-sucking job, at the end of each day I get to come home to an amazing man and two insane yet adorable puppies and we'll make it work somehow. I feel so lucky and optimistic that this is all going to work out. That's not to say that there won't be more crying or head-melting, I mean I am who I am and let's face it - I may not have stress management skills but when it comes to overreacting and dramatizing even the smallest situation? I'm your gal. Stay tuned for more crazy ...