It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Or so describes last week.

We'll go in reverse chronological order, so as to go from the bad to the good. Because, why on earth should we mope over bad news when there is good news?

Anyways, Friday morning I went into work to find out that I was one of 11 individuals (from a company of 33) who were getting fired, and I had to clean out my desk and leave. I kept hearing the "you're a young [female] mechanical engineer with FEA experience, you'll get a job in no time" speech. Lord willing, it is true, but getting jobs has never been easy. As a friend later pointed out, my experience level has about doubled since last I was looking, so maybe that will help.

Funny story from leaving. I am staring at this box of textbooks and I muttered to myself "I don't know how I'm going to do this." Unbeknownst to me, a fellow former employee had been walking by at the same time and said "Don't worry, you'll be fine." I looked up and laughed "Oh, I know that. I mean I have no idea how to get this box down to my car." He grabbed his coat and carried the box for me. We had to prop the outside door open with a chair so the other guy could get back in (he was beyond caring whether or not that would set off an alarm).

Saturday I met with a recruiter, and so I am looking. Right now I am thinking of this as an extended vacation. It will make it easier for me to get to Ft. Wayne for New Year's (especially since Don has agreed I can make the trip myself so he doesn't have to fuss with figuring out how to take time off around the holidays when his job is programming for a department store.) And as my mother pointed out, maybe this is a blessing. Maybe it means I can get a job closer to the near west side. Maybe this will be a good time to start cleaning up my house before I have to move at the end of the summer.

Which brings me to my good news -- on the evening of Dec. 7, I got engaged! It was a surprise when he proposed, but not 100% surprising. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is Dec. 8. Don told me early in November that we should do something for that day because it is his favorite feast day. This whole planning that far in advance is not typical to our relationship, so it had me wondering. Well, we changed plans a little -- instead of going to the Latin Mass on the feast day, we went to the English Mass for the Vigil at the Immaculate Conception Church in Cleveland. My parents were married at the Mac. I hadn't been there since my grandmother's funeral, but when I was younger I attended there more regularly than my own parish. After Mass we started to pray a rosary, but they turned off the lights on us part way through and we had to leave before we got locked in. Then we went to the parish spaghetti dinner. During dinner Don made some comment about how some days he thinks he should give up on planning things because they never work out right. I failed to realize the significance of his statement. After dinner, we went to St. Williams for Eucharistic Adoration. But, as a perpetual Adoration chapel, there was always someone else there, so we prayed silently. After St. Williams we went back to my house and finished the rosary. After the rosary is when he proposed. Then, Don decided he couldn't give me the ring in my living room, so we drove to another church that had a nice nativity painting outside. He said some nice words there that I was already too happy to remember, and then gave me the ring.

We're still obviously in the early planning stages. We are looking at one of the middle Saturdays in July.