Up bright and early -- well, not early enough for Brian Leaf's 6 a.m. spin class -- to go downtown for my initial unemployment filing.
This is actually the most nerve wracking thing so far. I've read through the paperwork given to me by the Register Star and looked online. I'm not assured I'll be approved. The state could deny it and if it does, depending upon how long it takes to settle into something else, I'll have to burn through my savings.
I've been told by several who have received unemployment that I shouldn't worry and the Register Star's one concession was that they won't fight it. Still, I worry.
After that I have to get over to court to ask for a reduction in child support. A friend of mine who is a family law attorney hopefully is going to run me through the process. I set today aside to finish those two things.
Yesterday, I went to see "The Giver" and it was pretty good, but my mind wandered. Who else do I call? When? How many people should I see per week? That kind of stuff.
There's 401(k) stuff that has to be taken care of as well and then tonight I go in and clean out my old desk. Dave Shultz, who had been working at the Register Star 34 years when I got hired, will be there tonight. He outlasted yet another person! It will be tough to say goodbye. There were lots and lots of nights I'd go in to get caught up or get ahead and Dave would be there and he'd start telling me stories.
It will be the people I worked with that I will miss most. I tried on a couple of occasions to reach Jeff Kolkey yesterday. He was there when I was "taken away" and I want to let him know I will be fine and that we should watch the Mayweather-Maidena fight on Sept. 13.
A great thing about the digital age though is that it is much, much easier to stay connected when circumstances change. Yesterday, Tony Garcia, a former RRStarer, asked me to draft his fantasy football team for him since I "have nothing to do right now."
Tony is a Chicago Bears fan, which meant I drafted no Chicago Bears players. I did get him A.J. Green from my team, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Bengals defense. The only reason I didn't stick him with Andy Dalton was because someone drafted him ahead of guys like Tony Romo and Ben Roethlisberger. I was shocked.
Tony needed a representative because he relocated to Las Vegas after the newspaper let him go. We don't talk every day anymore, but we keep in touch and with FaceBook I can find out what he's doing. I want to figure out ways to hang out with old journalism friends.
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