Ooooh, the first day of the new year. So promising, isn’t it? One day out of the year when you actually believe you can do anything your mind comes up with. Lose 50 lbs? I can do that. Find a better job? No problem!

This year was to have a promising start. My job was going to be more enjoyable (due to the assurance I would no longer be working with a certain unnamed individual), my boyfriend and I decided that we’d like to spend the rest of our lives together (so technically, he’s now my fiancée, but -- shhhh!!-- we’ve not as yet made an official announcement), we booked a week-long vacation during March in Las Vegas – complete with NASCAR race weekend event tickets and pit passes.

But three days ago, my boyfriend (ahhh, fiancée, fiancée! … I’ve got to work on that) was laid off . The company we (well, now only I) work for announces in a corporate all-hands meeting decides the only way they can remain viable is to lay-off a quarter of their workforce, and as some extra icing on the cake, will no longer pay for any of our benefits (which were 100 percent paid, making a considerable out-of-pocket expense for anything we need/want to keep). Oh, and that certain unnamed individual? They not only keep their job, but the restructuring puts them in a position to make my job even more hellish.

It was like opposite day for one gloriously horrible day. Completely surreal. By the end of the day, I looked shell-shocked. By the next day, I looked and felt like a train wreck. The sky is falling. I’m emotionally erratic. A walking panic-attack. The next day, numb and emotionally unavailable.

Today, I must be feeling closer to rationality. Because on this first day of the new year, I can be thankful I know where my loved ones are – my kids, my parents, my friends. I’ve not lost everything I own. I still have a crappy job which will pay me while I’m looking for a new one. I have someone in my life who loves me more than anyone has ever loved me and (bless him) is much, much more optimistic than I’ll ever be. Considering the state of the world – I’m in a good place.