This was not what I would call a good week. Although I finished up pretty much where I started, or even a little bit ahead, the journey was not worth it.
The first bit of bad news was for the family: On Tuesday, older sister Susan traveled to Cebu to pick up her tourist visa to The Netherlands so that she could spend a few months with her boyfriend, who is the cousin of my friend here in Jasaan, Ron Schreuder, only to find out that it was denied. Man, those Dutch just don't know anything about or care one bit about love, do they? Susan obviously was heartbroken.
On Wednesday, I got an e-mail from my boss saying that if I didn't move back to America, I would be out of a job. My boss wanted to schedule a conference call to decide what to do with me. Lovely. (I put in for 5 days of vacation at my job at this point, figuring that I better not lose my job while I have a week's worth of paid vacation saved up.)
On Thursday, my best friend had a huge problem in his life, and I had to go help him work things out, before he just gave up entirely on things and moved forever back to Kanoland.
Fortunately... amazingly, on Friday everything resolved: I convinced my friend to work on his problems and get professional help. That evening, on the conference call with work, my boss and I resolved our differences... or actually, my boss just told me "sorry about all the worry, everything is fine", set the "overseas issue" aside indefinitely/forever, and I was even returned to work on the account that I had been (wrongly, as I stated here last week) removed from. I have to say that this is the single largest unexpected surprise (excuse the tautology) I have had in a long time.
So for a while there everything looked pretty messed up, and I thought that the various frayed ends of my life were really beginning to unravel. Not so.
Unfortunately, Susan still sits forlornly here at home with a plane ticket to fly her on to the rest of her life that she cannot use, with nothing but a webcam to connect her to her distant love.
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9 comments:
Wow what a week. At least pretty much everything turned around for you.
The chance to get a tourist visa to the Netherlands is about zero. Even if you're married it is very difficult. Many Dutch move to Belgium or Germany and apply the family reunion visa from there.
If its love he wil visit her. Glad to hear your still employed. Boy, after a week like that I would take a vacation too!
I had a boss like yours once. She would send these crazy emails (because we were also separated by distance), but when we actually talked on the phone, everything was just fine. She was just one of those people that didn't give good email.
She ended up writing me a very nice recommendation letter.
i thought stan was your best freind
Owen,
Good point. Stan is always going to be my closest, dearest friend. But, as I live here in The Philippines now, I'm making new friends, who are also important. The immediacy of my friendship with Stan has diminished with distance, although the depth and strength has not. That's natural and logical of course. I can't turn to Stan with my problems as easily as I used to, nor he to me.
I guess the only thing I can say is "Stan is my best friend too." I'm sure he understands that.
Whatever happened to Nan & Rune? The website link no longer works. And much of Michael Turner's website content is almost a year old. Why continue them as links?
Jil How is the other issues with your company.Does that pretty much secure your job now, or are you still in danger of being laid off? Also i think i know who your best friend isn"t LOL
Anon,
Thanks for letting me know. The fact is, I never click on the links on my own blog. I don't know if that is common or not... but it has always been the case with me.
I wouldn't take down Mike Turner's link because he is a friend and... I don't know... it just seems wrong to de-link a close friend's website.
Mike,
The company is still going out of business and being sold to another company. I'm not in danger of being laid off, according to my boss. Other than that, the specifics aren't important.
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