Made it through another round of layoffs; sadly, we lost a person who I truly enjoyed working with. She was old enough to be my mother, but we have the same sense of humor and was fun and generous to work with (she let me steal her chips & guacamole). We would constantly tease each other about the fact that I could be her daughter, yet we had a wonderful professional rapport.

On the plus side, my evaluation went quite well, so I'm probably safe for at least another couple of months before the next round of layoffs. What's going on with the economy truly scares me because I know that the worst is probably still to come - throwing money at a problem doesn't solve it if that money is not structured and spent well, and so far I've been horrified at the lack of responsibility involved with all efforts to fix the economy so far.

The bright spot is tomorrow, appropriately the day after MLK Day, when Obama can hopefully right what's gone wrong, or at least start making progress on a real recovery; a return to fiscal responsibility.

Today I finally also cleaned the majority of my apartment, which I haven't done a full cleaning of in 2 years. 3 bags of garbage later, and I finally have a relatively clean main room (I was not moving furniture, but everything not too heavy to move was cleaned under; that's only for when I move out). The fact that I've finally done the cleaning I've looked at so many days and only been able to muster apathy for is also a good sign, since I may be heading back to where I'm actively moving forward, not just running to stand still, afraid of all that's ahead.

On the agenda for 2009, stopping smoking, limiting drinking, keeping my apartment clean, and keep my job! I'll tackle them one at a time, smoking & drinking first (plus, you know, the ongoing job thing). Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.