Spent the night in the ER. Husband got two units of blood; I got two hours sleep sitting up.

Received a call in the middle of a meeting that he needed to go to the hospital, was very weak and dizzy. Here we go again, I said to myself.

Didn't get a speeding ticket on the way home and then to the ER. Amazing.

The meeting was bad, too. During the course of the meeting we learned that 50% of us will be cut, bumping employees with lesser seniority, and laying off the most newly hired/promoted.

In addition, those of us who are left will have our employment basis changed from 12-month full-time to 10-and-a-half month employees, permanently (forever). That's a six week furlough, approximately 12% pay cut.

We're hoping that we'll be able to take it spread out over the year, a week at a time, and not a 6-week chunk all at once. Did the latter as a teacher and it was horrible, trying to save enough money to make it through the dry spell.

Of course a week at a time means that the work piles up on the desk, waiting for your return, but it also means you won't be too terribly out of touch with what's going on. In my business, there's a lot going on all the time, except for the last week of December.

I'm most worried that this change in basis will affect retirement. If that happens--if the change in basis means that my benefits will be cut--I'm outta there.

Everything changes. Thank you for reading this; writing this entry helped clear my mind and sort out the relevant facts (instead of having ER nightmares about it).