End of a (sorta) Chapter (sorta)

I've been a little loathe to blog lately because I have been ridiculously ragged out from my work. Now, this has nothing to do with my Government Overlords, my young coworkers, or even the folks I see everyday.

No, my stress has been courtesy of my erstwhile employer, TeleCommunications Systems. I have worked for them for 2 and a 1/2 years, and they recently lost the contract for the agency I've been assigned to. The agency wanted to clear up their contracts, and TCS was trying to become a sub-contractor. That didn't go through, and TCS lost the deal. The company said they'd try to retain us, move us to other jobs. "We're family" is how our TCS program manager put it. Or, TCS would try to be a sub-sub-contractor.

Can't say I blame them; there's four employees that were up for play, and the Government indicated that they'd like to retain the staff, even though the contract was up for bid.

Still. We're family. Family doesn't let family members dangle in the nether region between "employed" and "unemployed."

TCS, even though they KNEW they lost the bid, lorded the non-compete clause we all signed over us like a pinata. We couldn't sign with the new company without facing a lawsuit; TCS said they'd try to find us new positions within TCS, but we all knew they had no roles for us. This was the story on Wednesday. "So...here's two weeks of money and hit the road."

Thursday, TCS changed their tune. We'd be let out of our non-competes, and were free to interview with the new contractor.

Friday, TCS laid us off without even learning if we'd signed with the new contractor.

That's a nice family you got there.

Fortunately the new contractor hired those of us on the crew who'd been there for more than a couple of months. I live to see another paycheck.

So, a drop of spilled beer to Clint, the new guy who wasn't picked up by the new contractor...for now.

And, a drop of spilled blood to TCS, who made our last couple of weeks of employment as stressful as possible.

Also, as how all companies have their own lingo, I know there's no way I'll pick up TCS' phrase. Broadstreet gave me "dawg." netINS gave me "my bad." Chili's gave me "buffalo wings." TCS employees use the term "net net" a lot. In a sentence, they say "Look, the net net is that we need to improve our stock options."

Net net.

Kinda redundant, you know?

Welcome to TCS' CorporateSpeak.

So, two and a half years have been wiped clean. I'm waving good bye to nearly 100 hours of vacation time. Two and a half years of stock options, benefits...all gone.

My "family" is kinda dysfunctional, huh?

My mother, the Phoenician

The Official Five Paragraph Bitter Mom is moving to Phoenix, Arizona, next week. She just signed a 13-month lease for a two bedroom condo in Ahwatukee, which is apparently a very nice part of town.

It's weird - a woman who, until two weeks ago, had never been west of Columbus, Ohio, is now turning into an Arizonian...Arizonite? Arizonan? Arizonian-American? *shrug*

This should be a good move for her. The people at her new job seem nice, and there's certainly plenty of stuff to do. I'm sure she'll meet lots of active Baby Boomers, many of whom refuse to accept that they're aging themselves.

I think I see why Mom moved there.


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They named a road after her son. How thoughtful!

Oh...wait. There's an IKEA about 4000 feet away. Mom does love the hell out some easy-to-assemble Swedish furniture.

My state is richer than yours!

The Baltimore Sun reported it a couple of weeks ago, and I meant to write something bitter, sarcastic and snobby about it, but I was too busy rolling in greenbacks to do it.

Getting harder to be an O's fan...

...no-hit last night by Clay Buchholz, in his second major league start.

One more week until the Ravens' season begins. It's only a week. I can wait that long, right?

Right?