Bad/good/horrible/fantastic news

Isn't it funny (ironic as well) how one day you watch something on TV, something quite improbable to happen to you, and then next day, bang!, it does happen to you, and it's not a good thing, but still, you laugh with the irony of it... I've written before in my blog that I have been (and still am) a huge fan of "Married with Children", some American comedy series I grew up with (it was aired from 1987 until 1997). Some Greek TV station keeps playing old episodes every late afternoon, and the other day, right after I got back from the States, I watched the episode in which "Marcy D'Arcy" is hired by companies to pass employees bad news, news about people being laid off. The thing is, the first time she did it for her own company, she had an orgasm(!) "on stage", and so other companies thought it would be better to have someone announce massive lay offs this way, rather than in a cold "we regret to inform you that the company is in desperate need of cutbacks, so screw you, get the hell out of here, go find job somewhere else, you losers" way. Well, next day some fat, I mean f a t, ugly, with a voice so heavy you could pass her for a 60 year old dock worker, woman, came to my newspaper's offices to announce us that half of the people working there are gone, puff, history, have beens, and that the rest of us have two months and two months only to work miracles and keep the newspaper alive. Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against fat people, for Lord's sake my own mother could be described as... well... let's just say "overweight", but this specific fat woman I wouldn't mind cutting little pieces off her humongous belly and buttocks, while listening to her beg for mercy (mer-what? Naaaaaaa, not in my dictionary...). Later on, a colleague of mine who is also a huge "Married with Children" fan and I, talked about how much better it would have been if our company had sent... say... Monica Bellucci, or, OK, let's get real, say... Olga Farmaki to pass us the bad news (you need to be Greek to know Olga Farmaki, or you can just google her. She is supposed to be possibly the hottest TV persona right now in Greece). By the time she'd finished telling us the bad news, we wouldn't remember anything, and if we did, we would only be hoping for more lay offs, so she would have a reason to come back... Oh yeah, we made all sorts of stupid jokes once the fat lady left, trying to keep our spirits up...
The thing is, though, that from all the people in my newspaper, I am the one feeling guilty about my reaction to the news we were passed. For quite some time now, I have been thinking about quitting my job in June, spend that month in Austria and Switzerland using the media accreditation I believe I will be given next month by UEFA for the EURO 2008 football competition (that's "soccer" for my dear American readers, if there are any), and then flee to South America for... have no idea how long. Will I go for it? Beats me... I don't know if I will find the guts to quit when the time comes (mind you, I have already done it once, back in 2004, and despite what some of you may think, the second time is more difficult than the first one). Now, if the newspaper closes down, I will be... free, liberated, I won't have to make any tough decision, because fate will have made it for me. So, bottom line, having my paper closing down wouldn't be such a catastrophe for me, quite the opposite actually, but on the other hand, there are many people who work there, people with families, people with wives and kids, people with mortgages, people who depend on this job, they are not single and irresponsible like me, and this is why I feel guilty. Because deep down I am wishing for something that will perfectly suit me, but will be a major blow for a couple of dozens of other people (if right now you are thinking that I am a pathetic little rat, oh well, I don't blame you...).
OOOOOk, on a brighter note, five days after coming back from the States, I am happy to "announce" that I have decided to do something I have been thinking about ever since I was in my early 20s. What's that? Oh no, I'm too embarrassed to spit it out. Then, why do I mention it? Because this little thingy on the right, the counter, says that an average of ten people bump into my blog every day, and today some of those ten people may be in my shoes, may be thinking about doing something for a really long time, but kept postponing it, thinking that they don't have what it takes to go for it. If you are such a person and if you are reading these lines, take it as a sign, take it as a little pat on the back, as a little "come on, what do you have to lose, go for it!" I know one little sign is not enough to make us accept it as a real sign, but maybe later today you will bump into another blog, or you may see something on TV, or you may hear something on the radio, or a friend of yours will mention something in some phone talk you may have, and then at the end of the day you may realize that too many little signs have gathered up, so many that it can't be accidental... (Eeeeeehm, if you are some weirdo who has been thinking about committing suicide for some time now, pretend you never read this last paragraph).