I'm not thrilled these days to hear about AIG in the news, no matter what it is. This was just a tiny mention on ABC news of the bonuses AIG employees will get. My ears perked up when I heard that, as when we transitioned from 21st Century Insurance to AIG last December, one of the things they told us was that bonuses were a thing of the past, AIG didn't do bonuses.
What they should have said, of course, was that they'd no longer give out the tiny bonuses peon employees like myself were used to getting. Don't get me wrong, as a peon of long standing I was always happy to get anything from 21st Century, and lately from 21st Century when it was half-owned by AIG.
But I should have realized (call me naive) that the big guys or Fat Cats as I prosaically call them would not be included in that prohibition. Frankly, though, it isn't anything I ever thought about. Like a true peon, without ever expressing it to myself in words I thought the less those guys at the top thought of me the better. Boy, did that one turn out to be true. And I wasn't going to tempt fate and think of them, either.
While still working for The Beast just before the big layoff, and when we were terrified AIG was going to fold and take all our jobs and all our benefits with it, it used to irk us when people would say that the government should let AIG fail. Besides the world chaos and ruin that some people predicted would happen if AIG went under (which I thought of not at all but wanted others to think of much), this would have mainly impacted people like me, who needed their salaries to live, and not the movers and shakers. They'd still have their millions and billions, and what would we have? Zilch, nada....
Well, it didn't happen, and since I'm getting my severance pay bi-weekly and not all at once, I hope it never does. A pittance to those movers and shakers, it's what's helping me plan my life after many, many years at one company, 21st Century/AIG.
Ironic Note: when AIG sells off 21st Century as part of it's personal lines claims division, the buyer will market it in California as, no kidding, 21st Century. It seems the name of AIG has been too sullied by the taint of financial ruin and the mishandling of funds. And we just dropped 21st Century and became AIG Direct in January 2007..... Life's like that, to quote The Bonzo Dog Band and date myself.
And Now For Something Completely Different
It's raining and storming here something fierce on my 34th day of unemployment. We don't usually get rain with a lot of wind here in Southern Cal, but that's what we have today. I planned to take the enormous bags of yarn I sorted out yesterday to the senior center but I don't think I want to do it in this weather.
There were three huge plastic bags, the kind you buy in TJ for a dollar, and I'm not even finished, I have more yarn squirreled away in various closets.
Mostly what I gave up was acrylic yarn from the days when I crocheted but didn't knit. And there was also some cotton yarn in there, though I kept a little. I don't know why, I hate knitting or crocheting with cotton , it has so little elasticity it's hard on your hands. I'm also becoming a yarn snob, to quote my sister, preferring natural fibers to synthetic these days.
I'm trying to clear out some stuff, in preparation for the move. The move I'm still not sure that I'm making. The move that's been put off a month. I'm moving, I'm just not sure where. I'm doing everything to avoid making a decision, to actually say, yes, I'm moving to San Diego. I'm letting everyone, including myself, assume it. Think I should try something different, seeing how time's a-passing?
Christmas is coming and I'm just not ready for it. Maybe if I tried to experience it as the spiritual holiday it is, I'd do better. I'm not feeling particularly spiritual these days, I seem to blow hot and cold with that sort of thing. I thought I should be a nun a few months ago, and before that a Sufi. Seriously.
I was moved by Gordon's concert last Sunday night of highlights from the Messiah, but it was momentary. Maybe I have to cultivate it. That's a thought.
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