I Am a National Statistic

There is no dancing around this elephant in the room... I have been laid-off.

I am just one of the many casualties of layoffs at my former employer over the last several years. It had been over a year since the last round of layoffs, which I think had given me some sort of false sense of security. It seemed as if we had finally reached the bottom and things were starting to improve. Of course then we got sold, and all bets were off... 

This was my second "tour of duty" at the paper. I left under my own accord in 2009 to pursue a career in teaching. I graduated from Clemson with my MAT degree in Middle Grades Education in 2010 with my Middle Grades Math teaching certificate from the state of SC. That same year just happened to be the worst year for teacher job openings thanks to the economy and the greatly slashed education budgets. I was unable to find a teaching job and after some subbing and a brief stint with the Clemson MAT program in Greenville, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to return to the newspaper.

The paper was my very first, and really only, big girl job since graduating from Winthrop in 2006. It was hard to leave the first time, I even cried when I told my manager I was leaving. It seemed as if I were meant to be there. I hit the ground when I returned as if I had never left. I enjoyed working there and worked with a lot of really great people.

Kevin and my dad are angry about the whole situation. I guess it's their protective sides showing - how dare someone hurt their little Melly/Pumpkin! I know its not the person being laid-off but rather the position they hold - its hard not to take things a little personal though. Why did it have to be me? Why was my job not important enough to keep around?

I'm not mad, I am sad... and disheartened. I feel like its not fair to Kevin. He's already supported me once when I went back to school, he shouldn't have to do it again. We had plans and hopes for our future that are all up in the air now. I am using my college roommate, Katie, for inspiration. She decided she wasn't happy with her situation and she changed it. She didn't know what would happen, or how long it would take, but she had faith and things worked out great for her.

I Blog About Bacon

According to the Dr. Pepper 10 commercial currently circulating the air waves, if you blog about bacon, you must be manly, and thus worthy of drinking their new diet soda. I have no interest in any of Dr. Pepper's unpleasant tasting drinks, but I do love me some bacon!

Some of the ladies at work are convinced that I eat bacon for every meal. While that is not the case, I do probably consume more bacon than the average person. I enjoy adding bacon to sandwiches and salads - you can't go wrong with chicken or turkey topped with bacon.

I buy precooked bacon by the pound from Costco. Their precooked bacon comes in a convenient resealable bag and is much better than the Oscar Mayer stuff. Often when I am at a loss for what to eat or am looking for a quick snack around the house I'll throw a few strips in the microwave. I am told that bacon is one of the worst meats you can eat with all its sodium and cholesterol, but it just tastes so darn good!

My love for bacon started as a young girl. My parents always made sure I ate breakfast before sending me off to school. I have never been much of a cereal person, at least not for breakfast, but I would never say no to some bacon. It seems like bacon is becoming more and more prevalent on restaurant menus these days, making it even harder to resist the temptation of the yummy pork product. Since high cholesterol runs in my family, I'm sure the time will come when my bacon consumption will need to take a drastic reduction. That will be a very sad day!

Can I Be Your Dead Body?

I have a strange desire to be one of the dead bodies on CSI. You know, the victim of a unique or gory crime that is found at the beginning of an episode in some random location with no obvious cause of death.

OK, so maybe this is not a common "to-do item" on most people's bucket list, but I think it would be so very awesome! I have always been a loyal watcher of CSI and am pretty sure I have seen every episode from the 12 seasons it has been on air. The idea of playing a dead body, just lying there perfectly still with fake wounds and injuries, has always sounded like a lot of fun to me.

I assume most of the dead bodies that appear on the metal slab in the CSI morgue are actors and actresses trying to break into the business. I have no desire to make it big, I just want the chance to play a dead body on an episode of my favorite TV show! I don't have a preference in CODs, I would just want to have a cool story to go along with my untimely demise.  

Apparently I am not alone with my odd ambition, back in 2007 there was a contest to win a chance to play a dead body on an episode. I can't believe I missed out on that! They should definitely bring back the contest - I would do just about anything for a chance to play a corpse!

Queen Bee

You might not have heard, but I am the Queen of the Spelling Bee around these parts! Every March, the Herald-Journal hosts the Regional Spelling Bee for Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union county schools. This March marks my 4th year as Bee Coordinator!

Bee Medals

Around this time each year I go into freakout mode as I frantically prepare everything for the big day. This year,

 72 third through eighth graders are

 competing for the Regional Bee title

 and the right to represent the Upstate

 at the National Bee in May. The fact

 that I am a perfectionist/slightly OCD

 only makes planning the Bee that

 much more stressful for me because

I start twitching if everything is not

 just so.

Bobble-head Bee Trophy & First Place Trophy

What all goes into planning a Bee you may wonder? Communicating with 72 local schools and then 72 school winners, the recruitment of 12 Judges and 4 Pronouncers, the compiling of 16 word list notebooks, with lists of 500 words divided into rounds and marked with tabs, printing certificates, t-shirts, trophies, medals, spelling number necklaces, refreshments, registration etc, etc, etc. The most difficult part is juggling the planning of the Bee with my normal job duties and trying to fit everything into the 8-hour work day. If only there were more hours in the day!

Luckily my obsession for detail pays off the day of the Bee and everything (knock on wood) goes off with little to no drama. The most stressful part of the day will be pronouncing the names of the 72 school winners as they walk across the stage. There will probably be a crier or two, but that is to be expected. I truly take pride in each Bee I successfully pull off and enjoy the opportunity the Bee gives so many students in the area.

Did I mention that I am a horrible speller? I find it amusing that I am always the worst speller on the stage. I have to admit, I can't even pronounce half the words, much less tell you how to spell them. It's ok - I have the word lists kids!

I Am Jealous of My Husband's Wardrobe

Sunday is laundry day in the Coy household. I do all the laundry in the house and start by sorting everything into piles - whites, work pants, jeans, sweaters, etc. Lately I have noticed I am increasingly jealous of the impressive wardrobe Kevin has built over the past few years. 

Kevin enjoys dressing well and is not shy when it comes to clothes. His metro style has led to things like Vera Bradley ties and bright green pants. Kevin had to build up his work attire when he started teaching, but I am starting to think his clothing purchases have moved from satisfying a need for a decent wardrobe to a form of collecting. 
 

Dress Shirts

Kevin wears a dress shirt and tie to school most days (although less so now than he used to thanks to his "athletic" wear). I understand that he would want a variety of shirts to choose from, no one wants to wear a boring white shirt every day, but he now owns over 30 dress shirts in an array of colors. In fact, Kevin has collected so many dress shirts that they have been relocated from our walk-in closet to the closet in the office. 

The Dress Shirt Closet

 

The Great Wall of Ties

In need of a tie? I am pretty sure Kevin has one in every color, pattern and style you can think of. At last count, there were 50 ties hanging from 2 tie racks in our closet. Kevin actually has more ties than there are knobs on the racks but we aren't sure where to hang a third rack. 

The Tie Wall

The latest collection in the KMC line is athletic wear. What started as a couple of coaches polos from Pacolet has morphed into several Nike golf polos and pullovers... I refuse to let Kevin take over another closet!

Paying It Forward

On my way to work yesterday morning, I wheeled through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru for a little breakfast. I placed my order and proceeded to the window with exact change in hand. Much to my surprise, I was informed that my order had been paid for by the woman in front of me and I owed nothing! 

I had heard of people doing this, Kevin's even had someone buy his overpriced coffee at Starbucks before, but I had never experienced it for myself. What a wonderful act of kindness! Not only was it a great start to my day, but I have to think that the thoughtful woman in the gray Honda felt all warm and fuzzy inside as she drove off. 

Sometimes the smallest gestures in life can make large impacts. My breakfast only totaled to $3.89, not much at all, yet I felt like I had received a gift valued at so much more. It is things like this help restore my faith in others. It is refreshing to know that there are still kind, caring and thoughtful people out there that like to do nice things for other people just for the sake of doing it. 

The Liberty Mutual insurance commercials come to mind when I think about random acts of kindness. One act inspires another and creates a ripple effect, which is the goal of Pay It Forward Day - April 26, 2012. The hope is to inspire 3 million acts of kindness in one day. What will you do to celebrate?

And Then Something Came Up

I remembered today that I had started a blog early last week but never actually finished it or hit "publish". I then proceeded to rationalize to myself why this was and realized that this is the case so often in life. We may have great intentions with well thought out plans but then life can throw you a curve ball and something unexpected comes up.

While I do still intend to finish that blog from last week, I wanted to expand more on this idea. I find that I often feel like I don't have the time to do things around the house that I want or say that I need to do, yet I'm not really sure why. What happens to all my "free" time between 5:30 and 10:30 at night? I'd love to say that I spend hours cleaning my house or making fancy dinners each night, but we all know that is just not true.

I spend all day in super productivity mode at work and I think that I actually welcome distractions when I get home. Sure I need to clean out the "office" that should be on an episode of Hoarders, but the phone rings, the cat throws up, daddy comes by and nothing gets accomplished. One minute it will be 7 o'clock and I think that I have all this time to get things done and then I turn around, it's 10 and I haven't really crossed anything off the list. In the case of the unfinished blog, I started it on Tuesday evening knowing that I would have late nights with Junior League and the Circus on Wednesday and Thursday but got distracted and never returned to complete it.

Kevin has always said that I need to relax more and have more down time. Maybe, if my plan for the evening is to do nothing in particular, I will be much more successful at both completing my to-do list and following Kevin's suggestion!