I was trying to clean up my hard drive the other day and found some old pictures. And as old pictures usually do, they brought back tons of memories. One particular set of pictures really got me. However, first let me start this off by saying I am a control freak who obsessively has to plan. And then I have back up plans, with back up plans, with more back up plans. In my crazy mind, if I think about all the potential things that can happen, I can plan for them. That way, no matter what, I am prepared and already have a plan of action. Little did I know, there was no "back up plan" for what was coming my way.......
Back in 2005, life was great. I had a wonderful career, an amazing fiance and a whole list of "plans" for our future. My now husband Lenny, then fiance, had just got done with tons of different surgeries to repair damage from his diabetes, and I had just changed jobs. I had taken a GM position at a restaurant in a resort that was just in the process of opening. It was as close to my dream job as I could get, I thought. Things were going great! So great, that we decided it was a perfect time to start a family. (Yes, I will throw it out there....we decided to try to start a family before actually getting married. However, after about a month of trying we decided we really wanted to be married first, so we eloped. And I will save that story for another day...haha.)
Anyway, like I said, everything was going great. Then one day I am at work and Lenny calls. He suddenly went blind in his one eye. I called his surgeon who said we needed to get him to the hospital as soon as possible, that blood vessels from surgery had ruptured. I spoke with my boss about the need to leave and drive the 1 1/2hrs to take Lenny to Swedish Hospital in Seattle. He was furious. Asked why he couldn't drive himself, then said if I truly felt I had no choice I could leave. I leave, we get to the hospital, Lenny has emergency surgery. They needed to keep him overnight, so I called in for the next day. Call me a bad employee, but loved ones need to take the front seat in my mind.
Fast forward a month. I had just found out we were expecting literally the day before, and had NOT told work yet since I wanted to be sure the pregnancy lasted. I had already miscarried before. Lenny called and left me a voicemail on my personal work line reminding me to eat and drink lots of fluid since I wasn't taking care of just myself anymore. (I would go a 12 hr work day with no food, and minimal water, or anything on a regular basis.) I always listened to my voice mail on speaker phone so I could multitask, and someone walking past my office heard the message, spread the word and of course people started talking. Later that evening after I got home, my boss called. He asked if it was true about being pregnant, and I said yes. He then started in about how he "misjudged" my dedication, and he proceeded to fire me. When I brought up not being able to fire me for being pregnant, he said it was because of the day a month earlier that I went home early and called in the next day. My perfect planning was slowly unraveling.
