Couch 212: The French Vanilla couch

I'm sorry to hear this. It's awful that they emailed him the news.

I've been complaining about my really long and utterly exhausting shifts at the hospital that I work at - but I'm also really grateful that my job is safe (actually, I can work all the hours I want right now)

Hugs to you both, Granite and Artley.

Now i am starting to panic a bit because i cant get the groceries that i need i am more worried about one of my dogs as he would rather starve himself than eat anything other than the 2 kinds of kibble he likes he went for 10 days once and i had to give in and buy the othe rkibnle and give away a full bag of the stuff he hates

Hugs granite

I'm so sorry, Artley. That''s a cold way to lay off an employee who's been with them that long. If they were worried about in-person contact, they could have at least called him. Does he get any sort of severance package?

My mom passed away yesterday (not virus related) (please no "I'm sorrys to hear about your loss"). There's been lots of different thoughts and feelings. A large portion of my therapy has been in trying to separate my mom's narrative of my life from mine and a huge amount of maternal transference with my T. I wonder how her death will change things. Has anyone else dealt with something like this? How has it changed your therapy?

Today we found out that they are completely shutting down the hotel for at least 30 days. They will reopen, but the damage will be done to the employees by then. I'll be spending the day helping my husband file for unemployment and I guess getting him put on my insurance. I'm not sure. Technically he is still an employee with them but no pay.

Additionally, the mother of a teacher friend was rushed to the hospital -- suspected COVID-19. She has multiple sclerosis. Extremely high risk. They aren't even allowed to go to the hospital with her. They understand why but they are terrified.

I'm afraid we're going to start hearing many stories like this in the next weeks.

The Paris Opera is broadcasting its performances online for free | Vogue Paris

I'm sorry Artley. That's a sorry way to end the working relationship with a long term employee. HUGS Kit

My work said hours will be reduced starting the week of April 5th. Luckily CA has a program through EDD that the employer can apply for that would allow for partial reimbursement of the lost pay due to financial hardship of the employer. It does increase the unemployment insurance rate for the employer in subsequent years but it helps in the short term. The economic slow down is starting to affect us. We supply machines to manufacturers that supply product to companies like in the aerospace industry for one, or car manufacturers, lots of different industries. So since airline travel is down, that is impacting how much people are buying for us for example.

TFW you're starting your Greek class on Zoom and you hear your cat vomiting in the background.

All this talk of Zoom shenanigans keeps reminding me of that video of the guy giving a super serious BBC interview when his kids come into the room and his wife frantically trying to get them back out.

I expect new cat to do something like this daily. So far she has disappointed me.

I'm sorry, Artley. I hope getting unemployment, etc set up goes smoothly.

I started taking calls this morning at work after a very brief training for the many things that have changed since I last took calls over 2 years ago. It's back to back calls of course, there were over 500 in queue waiting when I went to lunch half hr ago, but it hasn't been too bad so far as people are being pretty darned well behaved considering. it is really difficult though to hear their fear over the virus, instead of just reading it in messages. i'm doing what I can to not absorb their fear and keep myself calm and grounded. thankfully the powers that be came to their senses and are not expecting us to work our usual messages while we take calls. there is literally not even a couple of seconds between calls - one hangs up the new one's in your ear. no way could we also work our normal job. after lunch i have 2 more hours of calls, then 4 more hours working my normal job for overtime. I wish my company could somehow get a call out for applications to all the people in our area who have lost their jobs because of covid - we need as many bodies on the phones as we can get right now.

although i am concerned about what is going to happen when we start running out of stock on everything. i may be out of a job at some point too so i am putting all of my overtime $ in a new savings account and not spending any of it.

well back to work with me. stay well everyone.

After a visit to a nearby shelter, we are now the owners of two very talkative guinea pigs (both girls). D seems rather fascinated so far.

Oooooh pictures please!

I ordered these shoes. A bit of retail therapy!

The shoes were expensive and it will take me like a week to get them but I love the color and I've always loved Mary Jane's

I want these ones next but I gotta wait until I save up the money

The one's a bit blurry, but here you go!

Cute @LonesomeTonight

A woman from my grade school was traveling and is stuck in Ecuador.

Eta - she was staying with friends, but for some reason was in a hotel when shelter in place took effect. So now she cant get back to them. I dont think she is seeing this as an adventure.

The governor says all non-essential state employees (yours truly) don't report to work until further notice. No mention of paying us so not even sure if we are supposed to submit leave. Those of us who don't have much leave must be feeling the uncertainty. We have a lot of contractors who don't get paid unless they have butts in seats, they must be feeling panicked. Stay healthy everyone!