I've had some time to think about it, and I've decided getting fired was a blessing.  I knew from the beginning I shouldn't be there.

Here is the prayer that I said:  Please, God, I want this job so bad.  I need this job so bad.  Even if it isn’t right for me, please let me have it to tide me over until the right thing comes along.  I have to pay my bills.

Okay, so…

I got the job.  By the time I got fired three days later, I’d already fallen in love with a dog, who is now walking around my house being a huge, happy mistake.  Oh, he loves it here!  (He barked all night long!) And my paranoia level is through the roof, because my landlord and I didn’t start out all that well, and this giant, friendly beast is a huge breaking of the rules.  And I knew all this, and I did it anyway.  Because the dog is beautiful, and sweet, and will make someone a devoted lifelong companion.  If I can find that person.  What if I can’t?  I knew I couldn’t keep him from the beginning.

Here’s what I learned:  I owe my former boss a heart-felt thank you.  Whatever the motives behind it were, he did me a favor.  God knows me much better than I know myself, and I have no business ever setting foot inside a shelter again, unless someday I want to volunteer at one of the no-kill shelters, and even that would probably be unwise.

I made a friend.  I know my supervisor, Debbie, was in no way responsible for the loss, and everything she had to say to me yesterday (at least four days’ worth of conversation) made it clear that she missed me.  She still wants to be my friend.  She even looked into it and let me know that the requirement of working in an animal care facility was only for the distance-learning course.  To attend and do the online classes, all you need is tuition.

Here’s what I hope to keep from this:

God gave me the job I begged so hard to get.  It did tide me over until the right thing came along—I made $220 in my time there, and that check will be mailed to me on Friday, which will carry me through.  Meanwhile, the job I got is great.  My supervisor’s nice, my manager hired me before he even met me, I’ll be working in the back with very little exposure to customers, they started me off at a wage I had to work at Citigroup for five years to reach, and I’ll have health insurance.  God knew what he was doing all along.  I could have just said, “Wheeee!”