It’s ironic that the President who took office at the beginning of 2009 ran a campaign on “change,” because that is what the year brought to my household. Obviously the biggest change for us has been buying our first house. That change alone brought along many other changes ranging from the minor to the major. It meant moving to a new city. For TheBoyfriend™, it meant switching to a different regional office within his job (and, unrelated to the move, he even got a promotion) and for me it meant working from home a few days a week and learning to deal with a substantially longer commute on the days I come in. A new city also means making news friends and a change in the dynamics of existing relationships with people who are no longer just 15 minutes away. A new house means an endless list of projects, repairs and improvements to make it our home in ways we never could do with places we’d rented in the past. A fenced in backyard meant a new furry four-legged creature was welcomed into the family. But if 2009 is the year of changes, it’s going out with a bang.
Yesterday TheBoyfriend™ found out that per a Medicaid audit of the agency he works for, he’s not technically qualified to work in the position he’s excelled at for the last 2 years. He and about a dozen of his co-workers who are in the same boat have 2 weeks to get their cases transitioned over to other therapists and then they’re unemployed. Apparently it’s happening to such agencies all over (my guess being that Medicaid is trying to cut costs in advance of the healthcare bill and therefore rules that were mostly ignored in the past are suddenly being strictly enforced). His agency wants him back, and if he can find some way to get 10 months clinical practice, he’s almost certainly has his old job back, which is good, but obviously the absolutely earliest that could happen is October, and we still need to eat between now and then. He made ~$4k more than me so it’s over half our income that just vanished.
I’d be lying if I said it was the type of news one WANTS to hear, particularly immediately following the purchase of a new home, a new dog, and at a time when it’s no secrets that jobs are hard to come by, but I’m trying to look at it as simply a change instead of a set back. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by an old college professor of mine who asked if I might be interested in coming back and teaching one of her classes for a semester while she was out to have a baby. While at the time, I looked at it primarily from the perspective of being an awesome experience and a phenomenal resume builder, now I’m grateful the opportunity for some extra income came when it did.
We also have a couple of older friends who TheBoyfriend™ does some yard and home renovation work for from time to time. One of them had mentioned to TheBoyfriend™ just a week ago that he’d like to start a renovation of his dining room, and the other one had said just before the holiday that TheBoyfriend™ was interested, he had as much yard work to do as TheBoyfriend™ could possibly do. While those sources may not provide as much income as his job did, they do provide a not too shabby source of income during the job hunt. Speaking of job hunting, he already found two positions in a related field that he could interview for and it’s only been a day. The downside is neither of those jobs would provide the clinical practice he’d need to get back into his old job. The agency he works for now (for the next two weeks at least) is telling him they might have a position opening in February he could do and would provide him with the clinical practice he needs to get his old job back. But that’s in February, and not a sure thing. Still, we’re hoping he’ll get some kind of severance, and coupled with everything else, I think we’ll be ok until he can find something new. It’s not gonna be an easy time, but I think we’ll survive it, and be all the stronger for making it through. I’ve found that if you believe things will work out and do your best, they usually do. We’ll make it.