Chewed up and spat out... Sunny leaves LA
I have to say that I didn't expect this to happen. I firmly, and confidently believed that I would have no problem landing back on my feet after the layoff. But as life tends to teach us, sometimes the best laid plans can got to hell in a handbasket quicker than you can say "Dreams Really Do Come True." Such has been the case for me.
Having been one of the top two candidates for several positions and lost them to lack of division specific experience (or so I was told), I finally stopped the hot and heavy quest to return to Disney in time for the Holidays. Ironically, that's exactly where I ended up temping over Christmas time, with a really great group of people in Studio Operations. I fed squirrels and purchased stuff and it was fun.
But it was only a temp job and I had to give it back when all was said and done. After I got over the creeping crud (i.e. nasty, horrible cold / flu thing that knocked me out for a week), I came back to my job search refreshed and ready to take on... well... whatever the hell I could get at this point.
It was during Christmas week that, after having had a conversation with my elderly father, I was prompted to suggest to my brother that it's time for us to formulate a plan as to what we will do if something happens to our parents (68 and 79) and they will need care taking. I guess I just knew something was coming.
Last week my father was admitted to the VA hospital in Palo Alto, CA and has been in the ICU ever since. While the nurse on duty insisted he's fine (apparently the ability to sit in a chair constitutes fine when one is 79 and in the ICU), my brother learned today that my father is not long for this life. As it was put to my brother by a more informative and less glib nurse, "If this is not the end for your father, it will be soon, and until then he's going to need someone to take care of him."
As fate would have it... I seem to be between gigs and since my daddy is the world to me, there just isn't any other choice to be made.
So, February 17th, I will be leaving LA to live with my brother's family in Pleasanton, CA while we figure out what will come next with our father. From there, I don't know where I'll land. I do know that it is high time I find the place where I want to set my roots and stay a while. While I have met some astounding people and had a great time working for the company I set out to work for (which had been a dream since I was a toddler), LA has never suited me. So I'm off spend time with someone I love more than anything, then off to find out where I belong.
I hope to get to see most of you before I leave but if not, I'll still be haunting everyone online. And of course, I will come down to visit. Especially now that I have so many couches to crash on and wonderful friends who will let me into Disneyland! I guess the past six years hasn't been a complete wash after all! hehehe
I may not miss LA... but I'll miss you.
Sunny
Having been one of the top two candidates for several positions and lost them to lack of division specific experience (or so I was told), I finally stopped the hot and heavy quest to return to Disney in time for the Holidays. Ironically, that's exactly where I ended up temping over Christmas time, with a really great group of people in Studio Operations. I fed squirrels and purchased stuff and it was fun.
But it was only a temp job and I had to give it back when all was said and done. After I got over the creeping crud (i.e. nasty, horrible cold / flu thing that knocked me out for a week), I came back to my job search refreshed and ready to take on... well... whatever the hell I could get at this point.It was during Christmas week that, after having had a conversation with my elderly father, I was prompted to suggest to my brother that it's time for us to formulate a plan as to what we will do if something happens to our parents (68 and 79) and they will need care taking. I guess I just knew something was coming.
Last week my father was admitted to the VA hospital in Palo Alto, CA and has been in the ICU ever since. While the nurse on duty insisted he's fine (apparently the ability to sit in a chair constitutes fine when one is 79 and in the ICU), my brother learned today that my father is not long for this life. As it was put to my brother by a more informative and less glib nurse, "If this is not the end for your father, it will be soon, and until then he's going to need someone to take care of him."
As fate would have it... I seem to be between gigs and since my daddy is the world to me, there just isn't any other choice to be made.
So, February 17th, I will be leaving LA to live with my brother's family in Pleasanton, CA while we figure out what will come next with our father. From there, I don't know where I'll land. I do know that it is high time I find the place where I want to set my roots and stay a while. While I have met some astounding people and had a great time working for the company I set out to work for (which had been a dream since I was a toddler), LA has never suited me. So I'm off spend time with someone I love more than anything, then off to find out where I belong.
I hope to get to see most of you before I leave but if not, I'll still be haunting everyone online. And of course, I will come down to visit. Especially now that I have so many couches to crash on and wonderful friends who will let me into Disneyland! I guess the past six years hasn't been a complete wash after all! hehehe
I may not miss LA... but I'll miss you.
Sunny
posted by Sunny at 11:19 PM
2 Comments:
You are not the only one. LA is a tough place to live. I'm looking at options on the East coast and up north and Justin and Kamo have both escaped from LA. Don't think of it as a defeat, but as a great victory that you fulfilled a dream and were part of a great team of people that made movies that millions of kids really loved.
Thanks Steve!
Here's a bit of an update on my move.
It was really easy to accept an offer of not paying for rent while I get back on my feet. It was also, seemingly, a no-brainer to spend time with my Dad. But what came to light on a recent visit brought about a lot of changes in this plan.
My father is still ill, and I'm wrestling with the fact that I'm back in LA and so far from him. But it became clear, really quickly, that I am in no position to move up there and take care of him. Particularly based on what our financial needs would be. My situation would be too much of a strain on both of us, and I wouldn't be able to take a job based on the level of care he would need. I need to get back on my feet and there is no way that would happen in the proposed plan. So I'm back in LA, looking for whatever I can that will GET me back on my feet, and starting formulating a plan for where I want to be next, instead of fleeing in panic.
Sometimes you have to come close to losing something, to know how precious it is to you. And when I looked at my life here, I could see that I hadn't given it my all. I hadn't really given LA a chance to work for me. I just decided that since I couldn't stay at my dream company (or get back in), that this whole place sucked. What I had not truly realized, is how much love there is for me in this place.
When I went up north to meet with doctors about my father, my family completely turned on me, in the most ugly and horrible way. I had never felt more alone, and more frightened of my situation in life, than I was last week. And all the while I remember thinking, "I just want to go home. I just want to go home."
In my heart, my friends are my home. It's not the place where I live, but the love that surrounds me there. And it was never more apparent that I was right to want to come back, as the phone calls I had on the way home. For all intents and purposes, I was carried by their words and comfort for the five and half hour drive home.
Do I want to stay here forever? No way. But I think I might still have a little fight in me after all. :-)
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