<p>massmom:</p>
<p>Hang in there.</p>
<p>massmom, hang in there. One day at a time for lots of people right now.
Momof2inca, I’m going to a special board meeting at our HS tomorrow am. The board is voting on a second round of layoffs which would include a 10 year certificated employee. One of the other school district’s in our area pink slipped 60 teachers and all 10 Elementary School Assistant Principals yesterday.<br>
Tough times ahead for CA schools.</p>
<p>wow…that sounds really traumatic for CA schools, ebeeeee
we are closing some schools in our district and doing other drastic things</p>
<p><<decided he=“” wants=“” to=“” pursue=“” a=“” career=“” in=“” music,=“” versus=“” getting=“” his=“” engineering=“” degree.=“” we=“” have=“” paid=“” for=“” seven=“” semesters=“” of=“” college,=“”>></decided></p>
<p>Ouch. I would have been really upset with that decision. You can always gig on the side until you hit it big in music (if every) after your regular job (nobody says you have to be in love with your job). I would be very upset if my child dropped out so close to the end with nothing firm in the wings so to speak.</p>
<p>vderon and massmmom - My thoughts are with you! No sense getting ****ed off about sitting around when he knew job was evaporating. H was in similar situation - my best advice is to be the world’s best cheerleader! Keep plugging, keep connecting, keep positive.
My H - who just landed a job just last month - went in to management to request 8 more positions and got the initial OK!</p>
<p>“b. son graduating from college has a job.” Best news on this thread yet!!</p>
<p>PS Rte: OP’s initial question—I eat!!</p>
<p>Bunsen and EmeraldKitty,
Thanks for the advice about the Photoshop discount. Yes, she’s at SPU. I will have her check the bookstore tomorrow. I guess it’s typical that she waited until the last minute to let me know this, but grrrrrr…</p>
<p>massmom: [[[[[hugs]]]]]</p>
<p>ebeeee: Yikes! How many kids are in your district, do you know? I’m wondering if it’s as big as ours. We have 17,500 kids, so I’m hoping that the cuts won’t go to the 9 or 10 year mark!</p>
<p>momof2inca, don’t they all do that? I made a preemptive strike when I saw the Adobe package among the discounted software offered by her college. I knew she’d sign up for a web design class 
at some point. If your D ever needs help, feel free to PM me - I work within a 5-minute walk from her school (I’m a fast walker).</p>
<p>And big hugs to all teachers. Hang in there, everyone!</p>
<p>Just a reminder to Dad II and others who are fortunate enough to get bonuses during 2009. Remember…those bonuses will be considered as income on the FAFSA/Profile/School finaid forms…even IF you don’t anticipate getting another bonus for the next year. You might want to consider putting aside some of that bonus money to help with college expenses for your kids…not all of it, but some of it. That way…you won’t have the issue next winter of “I got a bonus…but that was a one time thing and I don’t have it anymore and I’m not getting another one”. </p>
<p>Congrats to those who are getting those bonuses. One of the things I would do now (if it were ten years ago) is put ALL of our bonus money into college savings for my kids. I didn’t even think of that at the time…it would have been a smart move since we didn’t count on a bonus anyway.</p>
<p>Here is food thought…What if you were to defer enough of your pay to qualify for FA? Our firm has defer comp program. Wonder how FA calculation treat that?</p>
<p>I’ve been reading this thread since the beginning and have found it to be comforting. Things for us are okay, for now. My job is secure, but H’s company is having trouble. They’ve laid off all temporary workers and just announced a 2% cut. We don’t think he’ll be hit by this cut, but it’s un-nerving just the same. They are having shutdowns as well. So far, H has to take 5 weeks off between mid-Feb and mid-July. He’s been at the company a long time, so he has the hours, but these shutdowns will use all of that up (which I guess is the point - get the overhead off the books, right?). After that, it’s time without pay. We’ve lived frugally for years, so we’re well positioned for whatever’s to come, but it’s still stressful.</p>
<p>I haven’t been sleeping well and am pretty jumpy. Exercise helps, especially long walks with the dogs. I like reading about the doves in the “spa” bath and reminding myself how wonderful it feels to have a contented pet lie on my lap. It’s true - they don’t know what a recession is. I don’t know where I read it, but recently I heard that dogs can tell time, and the time is “now!” So, my fuzzy butts remind me to stay in the moment and enjoy the blessings in my life today.</p>
<p>Thank you for the thread Missy.</p>
<p>I guess it’s typical that she waited until the last minute to let me know this, but grrrrrr…</p>
<p>generally it is just saying at 10pm that they * have to* bring something for bake sale/class project tomorrow.</p>
<p>but recently I heard that dogs can tell time, and the time is "now!</p>
<p>I guess that would explain mine telling me she hasn’t been fed/ walked yet.
( she just means * I haven’t * fed/walked her! )</p>
<p>It’s amazing to be living through an example of how the parts of the economy are related. I was talking to folks in the transportion area. Their good salesmen are still making good sales…but the buyers don’t need the transportation yet because there is no demand for products to be shipped…because we aren’t buying stuff.</p>
<p>I guess it’s typical that she waited until the last minute to let me know this, but grrrrrr…</p>
<p>generally it is just saying at 10pm that they * have to* bring something for bake sale/class project tomorrow.</p>
<p>momofinca: I have this vague memory that my daughter’s school provides Photoshop to students for free if they need it for a class project. It was through the bookstore. Also, there is a free software called gimp that is very similar to Photoshop that can be downloaded online.</p>
<p>As for the topic of this thread … I was laid off from my job a year ago. I’m in journalism, and believe me, there are no journalism jobs where I live (my old paper laid off even more people a few weeks ago). I really don’t know what I want to do next; I have a part-time job now that I’m not thrilled with.</p>
<p>Luckily, my husband’s job is very secure, and he’s gotten several pay raises – so other than our rapidly shrinking retirement account, money isn’t an issue. The issue for me is that I am a talented, intelligent person who feels like my skills are being wasted. I’m over 50, so I’m nervous about how that is viewed. And I hate, absolutely hate, looking for work. The thought of looking for work stresses me out more than anything (that, and watching the Dow drop every day).</p>
<p>During the presidential campaign I dealt with stress by volunteering and being obsessed with the election. I’m watching a lot of TV (just saw the entire West Wing), and work out every day for at least an hour. I bite my nails – that has gotten significantly worse in the last year. </p>
<p>Missypie, thanks for this thread. You come up with the best ideas to discuss here.</p>
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<p>Do you think that lots of journalism jobs are gone for good? If so, that would be such a shame. Of course, I remember when we all wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein. I still subscribe to a daily paper. I’d add one or two more if I had the time to read them. I still enjoy reading the “long” articles in news magazines. After our generation passes, will there be no more “long” articles? In desperation the other day, I grabbed D’s Seventeen magazine to read on the treadmill. Little did I know that there would be nothing to read. My sister subscribed to Seventeen oh so many years ago, and there were a few articles. Now it is 95% pictures, and the “articles” are about 50 words long.</p>
<p>I’ll keep hoping that good journalism will make a come back.</p>
<p>The industry is definitely going through a realignment. People still want news – they just want it online, and figuring out how to be profitable online is the issue. Online news sites employ fewer people than newspapers (I seriously doubt Huffington Post has a newsroom anywhere close in size to the New York Times) and many of them draw their news from newspapers. The scariest situation right now is the one in San Francisco – so far, most papers that have closed (like the Rocky Mtn Post) are in cities with still one respectable daily left. But if the Chronicle in San Francisco shuts down, that leaves the city pretty much newspaperless.</p>
<p>I wonder if podcasts have hurt the industry too. I listen to Fresh Air now when I’m on the treadmill instead of reading a magazine.</p>
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<p>My cousin lost his home last year in the floods in Indiana. When I googled him, the exact same quote attributed to him came up in about 15 different on line news articles. Does whoever actually interviewed my cousin get paid by the other 14 sources, or do they lift from each other?</p>
<p>Fire and rain, I am so sorry to hear about your job loss. Sometimes I feel like the last newspaper reader in America. I like nothing more than to curl up in my chair with a stack of papers on m lap. I subscribe to 2 daily papers, 2 weeklies, and pick up a few more during the week if I have time. One of today’s papers had an interesting piece on why newspapers are in trouble:</p>
<p>[Newspapers</a> did not see the game change | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/06/2009](<a href=“http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20090306_Newspapers_did_not_see_the_game_change.html]Newspapers”>Newspapers did not see the game change)</p>
<p>hey, Mansfield, you’ve got company! My H and I have always had a newspaper subscription, even though we both read other papers on-line. I sometimes feel sad that my D - who did not get the news-reading gene, I guess - will never know the warm feeling of curling up with a fat Sunday paper on a snowy morning and sharing the sections with a spouse. I love the smell of newsprint.</p>
<p>Our local daily (to which I’ve had a subscription for 25 years) is going to some kind of half-assed delivery schedule later this month - home delivery for Thursday, Friday, and Sunday only. I don’t even want to think about it.</p>