I want to apologize up front for the bitching and moaning that are to come...I needed an outlet and what better way to vent than to update my otherwise quiet blog with irritated ranting. If you're not in the mood, please, move along. I won't be madatcha.
So, within a matter of days of my last uber-positive post, things sorta fell apart. The little red sister arrived, which was disappointing. I was a week late and was so excited that my body was tricking itself into all-day morning sickness. So there's that. And the same day that that little bitch arrived, Hubby was laid off from work. It's been over a month now and I'm starting to come unhinged.
The layoff was not due to anything he did. He was just next in line. He works for a company that prints and cuts labels - soup can labels, paint can labels, juice bottle labels. His job is to take the large, printed sheets and cut them down to specific sized labels. He belongs to a union and when he got this job, I believed that the union was going to be a great thing. Turns out that unions, and the politics associated with them, can really be a pain in the neck.
Another department at his company has been in negotiations with the company for months on their contract. For one reason or another, they just won't agree to the contracts that the company is offering to them. And each time a new offer is put together, it's a long process. As a way of proving to the company that everything they've stipulated is necessary, this department has slowed its production to a near standstill. They're putting out as little product as they can, which results in next to nothing for Hubby's department.
There have been other cutters laid off prior to Hubby, and we've just thanked our lucky stars that he wasn't included in the lay off, but this time, we weren't so lucky. He's been told that once production picks back up, he will get a call to come back to work. He trusts in that and has been collecting unemployment, and intends to continue to do so, until he gets that call. He has the highest seniority of all the folks on the callback list, so he's at the top of the list. His wife, however, is not so confident.
Who knows how long it's going to take to get this contract signed? It's already been months! Who's to say it won't take another 6 or 9 or 12 months before they can all come to an agreement??? He told me that he feels a "loyalty" to this company. That he doesn't want to go work for someone else because he likes the people that he works with, he gets along with the big boss, he makes good money and has good benefits... It's already been almost 5 weeks that he's been off work.
Here's the part where I really start bitching...:-P
He has no desire to even START LOOKING for a new job until he's been laid off for four months. That was the amount of time he told me that he'd be willing to wait. So, whether I like it or not, he's taking that summer vacation that I swore he wouldn't do this time around. And what does he do while he's not working? NOT A GD THING! He plays WoW from the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed. He pauses here and there to do things like: go to the kitchen and make a sandwich for lunch, go to the kitchen and unload the dishwasher - after I've called and had to ask him to do this, and stop in the kitchen to pick up the dinner that I made after I worked all day and then drove home for an hour. I think I'd have a less difficult time dealing with this layoff if he did something productive while he was home. Pick up around the house. Get started on one of the many projects you talk about doing. Make dinner. ANYTHING!
I was aggravated when I got home last night and nothing had been done. He couldn't even manage to certify with unemployment without my reminding him. Really?? Your brain is THAT taxed that you can't remember to do the one little 10 second thing that you have to do to earn your 2 weeks' pay? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!!?????
His game is down for maintenance today. He swore he was going to do some work around the house, since he couldn't play all day. I didn't want to shit on him, but honestly, I will believe that when I see it. I think he'll maybe do a load of laundry, which I'll have to fluff and fold when I get home. And perhaps he'll do a half assed job of emptying the dishwasher, since he "doesn't know where certain things go"... And then he'll probably create a new character on the game on a different server that ISN"T having maintenance today because that's what all the rest of his lame ass friends are doing today.
I can't stand it. Get off your ass, Buddy! Do some work! Look for a job! Do something to make your wife not bitch about you right now!!! That's all I can do right now. Every conversation I have is somehow centered around the fact that I don't have money to spend (because, sue me, that's what I enjoy doing...Whether it's on food or makeup or getting my hair done or *gasp* paying the effing bills) or my husband is a jackass and I'm fed up to my ears with it!!!
He hasn't left the house since Mother's Day. And the only reason he's breaking that record this weekend is because his mother would murder him if he didn't show up.
But what can I do? I can't force him to look for a job. I can't make him be more helpful at home. Sure, I could get angry and yell and tell him he sucks at life right now. But what will that accomplish? I'll tell you what would happen if I did that - he'd backtalk his way out of it, make me feel guilty for making him feel like "less of a man" and then he'd storm off to his cave and we'd continue on for the next 11 and a half weeks the same way we have been for the last 5. I wish to God that I could change him...
There's a country song, 'The Man I Want to Be,' that says everything I wish he would say and feel. I wish he could get to that point where he realizes that he acts like a selfish child 90% of the time. And I wish that he had the desire to change.
Okay...I think I got it out of my system. Until someone asks me how I'm doing. At which point, I will provide them with far more information than they ever wanted when they were simply being polite and hoping for a polite 'Fine, thanks,' in return.
