Stress? What stress?

How many people want to not have to go to work at their current job ever again? I see most people out there nodding in agreement. I figured I would get quite a few who would see themselves in that question.

Now try these on for size: How many people's bosses mentioned in December during their annual review that their office *might* be closing at the end of the fiscal year? How many people's bosses have yet to mention it again, yet the company's Henchman is calling the office returning Boss' calls? How many people have a boss that says things today like "if you hear from {insert leasing company name here} let me know because I need to see if they're going to leave the rent the same." leading me to believe he's now NOT planning to close the office?

Oh, just me?

Add to all of that the fact that I need to be qualified for the machine portion of the state CSR (Certified Shorthand Reporter) exam by the middle of August that is going to be given at the end of September and it's getting pretty darn close to the middle of July! The online school has also added hours to the weekly requirements and the instructor has taken away some of the "cheater" hours we used to have and isn't giving us as much hourly credit for other things. The result of those two things is I have to come up with an extra 5-6 hours a week in my already too tight schedule. No pressure there.

It is really odd to consider the fact that I really WANT/NEED Boss to close the office and lay me off. To be honest, it makes financial sense for the company to do so. With the changes that they've made in recent months, this entire fiscal year, really, my job is no longer actually necessary because the sales reps can either do the presentations/research by themselves or just call the Marketing Department to do it for them since there is a whole section of people there to do it for them. I'm redundent as it stands now. I even already have a plan as to how I would spend my day being "unemployed." Now I just need Boss to pull the trigger and fire me already (but give me a good severence package) so I can get it all done.

In the mean time, my schedule looks something like this on weekdays:

• 6:30 a.m. Get up and start my day
• 7:30 a.m. Leave for work
• 8:00 a.m. Arrive at work and start to "look busy"
• 10:30 a.m. Finish actual work I need to get done for the day (sometimes the week)
• 11:30 a.m. Go to my 30 minute lunch
• 12:30 p.m. Return from my 30 minute lunch to continue to look busy and hope that there's something for me to do all afternoon.
• 4:30 p.m. Leave for home
• 5:00 p.m. Arrive home to relax/clean/feed the cats/do laundry/take care of anything that needs to be done before I "go" to school
• 5:30 p.m. Start school (this used to be at 6:00, but I had to move it up 30 minutes because of the additional hour a day requirement)
• 10:00 p.m. Stop and "come home" from school and finish relaxing/cleaning/feed the cats again/doing laundry/taking care of anything I didn't get done before school (this used to be 9:30 until the additional hours requirement)
• Somewhere between 11:00p.m. and 1:00 a.m., I generally go to bed and hopefully go to sleep.

My weekend schedule:
Sat:

• 9:00 a.m. Get up
• 9:30 a.m. Leave for work at Photo Job
• 10:00 a.m. Arrive at Photo Job and prepare myself to 'act a fool' all day in order to make small children smile and capture the essence of said children
• Somewhere between 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. I get off of work. If I get off early enough, I go home and take a sweet, sweet nap. If it is after around 3:00, I go home and "go" to school again to make up for any hours I missed during the week and to complete my Saturday hours.
• Between 10:30 and 11:00, I go to bed

Sun:

• 9:00 a.m. Get up, try to do a Bible Study of some sort
• 10:00 a.m. Get ready for Photo Job
• 10:30 a.m. Leave for Photo Job
• 11:00 a.m. Arrive at Photo Job and prepare myself to 'act a fool' all day in order to make small children smile and capture the essence of said children
  Somewhere between 1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. I get off of work, go home and finish up any missing school hours and get weekly log turned in
• Fall into bed... nay, collapse into bed and get ready to start the whole thing over again.

(Oh, and if you're wondering what generally falls through the cracks and doesn't get done. It's cleaning. My house isn't DIRTY per se, but clutter.... that is another story.)

Wow, if you made it this far through this whine, I'm impressed. Okay. I've got to go look busy again.