Drumming means you have a job

In case any of you were wondering what mine and Allan's Facebook statuses on Monday meant, well, we spent Monday morning at a hotel conference hall for our company's annual summit, AKA the "All Hands Meeting". Many sales reps flew in from out of state. We enjoyed free breakfast before sauntering into the conference hall, where I promptly stopped in my tracks and wondered if this was the correct room, since every chair was adorned with a bongo drum. After the usual presentations and spiels about how we did last year and where we're going this year, the fun started. Drummers from the Drum Cafe performed some African drumming for us and then had each of us participate with the bongo drums we found on our seats at the beginning. It was supposed to be a whole exercise in communication and teamwork, but honestly, I was having too much fun beating the bejesus out of my drum at an upbeat tempo to really notice the main message. After getting all worked up, we exited for our free lunch, where Allan promptly noticed bruising on his thumbs from all the exuberant drumming. Hehehehe...

As for the title of my post... well, just like many other companies are doing in the face of the souring economy, ours decided to trim jobs in an effort to reduce costs and remain profitable. So last Thursday and Friday, we lost about 10% of our workforce. There was a subdued atmosphere on Thursday as we waited with bated breath and gnashed tooth to find out if any of us would get the dreaded visit from the manager/HR/whoever was bringing down the ax. I was getting an eerie sense of deja vu, as most of you will recall what happened in October 2007. At last, Thursday ended, the announcement came that all the US-based layoffs had been completed, and Allan and I were still there, breathing with a sigh of relief. Back to work :-)

In other news-- life is... well, life is going smoothly. Todd still enjoys school. Not thrilled about after-school care, so every once in a while when one of us is having a slow day, work-wise, we'll stay home with him in the afternoon and work remotely. Little man is also slowly starting to warm to karate, now that he's starting to get the hang of it, he doesn't loathe practice so much. I'm still in the choir at church, although, if I thought our numbers were small before, they're dwindling even more! First day back after winter break, there were only 4 of us. Interestingly enough, all the parts were there, so if all else fails, we could make a good quartet. Allan's making headway with his degree, and has been keeping busy on nights and weekends! Go Allan! :-)

Not much else in the way of updates... we're just grateful to still have our jobs and be where we are. Moving onward, now!

And how have you been?