(no subject)

Let's try thinking, or at least writing, about anything else.

* It is the new year, so we have to start contemplating the layoff scythe. My boss confided: our group was left off of an org chart for a new project. Of course she saw the org chart because... she was in the meeting for the new project. So she is paranoid and now I have the unease and confusion that comes when you know shit is coming down the pike. Everything I have heard since they told us there would be layoffs seems to argue against us being let go. But you never do know.

* My brother is having some kind of slow-moving nervous breakdown. My sister-in-law called the other night (you know, that night) and said that he can barely move; he is lying on the floor clutching a stuffed animal. He is also heavily drinking again. They are supposed to move to Serbia in a couple of weeks so this is not really great timing.

I don't know. He has never done much of a job letting me into his emotional state, so it is hard to help. He never told me about his trip to rehab and I am not sure if he knows that I know. It was one of those "sure, don't worry about one drink a day" kinds of rehab so it doesn't really surprise anyone that he fell off the wagon. We did a Zoom call on his birthday and he was clearly drinking the whole time. 

I am also sure that part of the problem is paralysis from early retirement. He spent 15 years bitching about his job and then refusing to get another because he'd have to "actually work" (as he put it) and he was so focused on how great it would be to retire early with full benefits. Well, now he's retired, and they literally don't leave the apartment, so all he is doing is sitting there watching the world burn down. Dude has super high blood pressure and, apparently, my mom's anxiety.

( Read more... )