jobbbb

So I got laid off from my job of two and half years a few days ago. To think I "bottomed out" while employed there, went through a crazy first year of sobriety, learned to be a worker amongst workers, was beaten by circumstances into doing well, and then I get laid off. Well, more accurately I got fired for being 15 minutes late one day. To go from stealing things from the office ($2.50 can buy a 40oz OR toilet paper but not both, and it's not like they would miss a roll or two...).

I should have been fired any number of times on any number of occasions. I've been fired several times, directly or indirectly, as a consequence of my drinking. One generally doesn't flop into the quarry and do a good day's work when one is both brutally hungover or itching for the whistle to blow and get the beer down the gullet. And of course you get home, drink beer and whiskey and smoke cigarettes and eat a slice of pizza for dinner and fall asleep in your work clothes, wake up late the next day, maybe eat a grease sandwich before clocking in and hope people just think you're fat or sick instead of bloated and hungover.

As a result of doing the steps of AA I was able to see my part in these embarrassing episodes. I've been able to let go of many resentments against former bosses and places of work and acknowledge I was a fuck up and didn't really belong there. Just as I didn't belong in a dive bar at 2AM on a Tuesday morning, I didn't belong in certain white collar work environments. For me, ending up in both places was a result of fear, selfishness, and laziness. Afraid that I could do no better for myself, selfishly thinking my company or employ was woefully unappreciated, and too lazy to work at anything closer to what I was meant to be doing.

Now I'm unemployed! It's both a blessing and a curse. Actually it's not a curse at all, since I believe this is happening for a reason. Before getting sober I would be sure I was unemployed for a reason too; the reason being that my boss was a jerk, that late-capitalism chews up and spits out the best people, or simply that I'm cursed by genes or environment to be forever mediocre. The difference now that I'm sober is that my HP has me unemployed to get into something better.