How to be Shafted Long Distance

The “screw you” email I received while on vacation arrived while we and another couple were enjoying pitchers of sangria during a monsoon in a rented house in Stowe, VT.

We had planned to traverse rustic towns for a week, but it rained the entire time, resulting in washed-out roads and seemingly endless time in our rental. We were guzzling our third galvanized bucket of something fermented while our husbands debated the guitar prowess of Jimmy Page versus Alvin Lee, when this crappy news was received. They told me that although I was the best salesperson they had, I was the last to come and, therefore, was the first to be let go. Mudslides and whipping rain made the perfect backdrop for this nasty stab in my back.

As we returned home, I immediately fell into bleak depression. Every day was an effort to crawl out of bed and function in society. It’s not that the job was so great, but it was enjoyable enough. Picture the retail jewelry version of Taco Bell and you sort of have the idea. It sounds weird that the loss of a piece of crap job like this could make a person feel like she was spiraling out of control, but it was the final disappointment in a long line of suburbanality gigs since I was laid off from my last showroom job.

When speaking via telephone with my immediate supervisor, I learned that one of the partners thought so little of me that he purposely notified me mid-vacation so he didn’t have to speak with me in person. Good HR skills. The next day he left on his trip to South America to meet up with his wife and her family. It was – unfortunately – known among the staff as “the baby making” trip – more details than any of us had the urge to know! This was his second marriage and his considerably younger wife wanted her own children, not his banjo-picking progeny from a previous stint in wedded non-bliss. Immediately after his plane landed, the airport was closed and the military took over. Yes, as a matter of fact I did get great joy in picturing soldiers in flak jackets brandishing automatic rifles preventing him from leaving the country. I hear he’s a pretty quick shot also.

I spent that summer trying to figure out how to re-invent myself yet again. My jewelry business had slowed to a virtual halt, and my interior design company was down to one client. I was bummed out of my mind!

Over Labor Day weekend, my husband and I went to our friends’ house. B & B are both teachers who had entered the field after working in the corporate sector. They suggested I take the path to art teacher enlightenment. They spoke excitedly about how rewarding it is to be part of the learning process of underprivileged children; the feeling of appreciation they received from parents whose kids were finally starting to get “it.” By the time we left their house that evening, I was certain that this was my perfect new direction.