Not the drama I expected...

Well, this morning was DH's first day at his new job. He was so excited!!!! It felt so good thinking that soon he would be bringing home a paycheck again, and it also felt so good to think to myself "he's at work." That's kind of hard to explain, it really was just a good feeling, kind of like maybe things are finally getting back to normal....

Anyhow, before bed last night, he packed a lunch, laid out the clothes he was going to wear, and planned on what time to leave, etc. This morning, he got right up at 5:00 (a miracle in itself), got dressed, I wished him luck, and he left for work.

At 6:45 am, I got DD up for school, then I laid down for a few more hours before I had to go pick up some prescriptions for my mom, and then go to work.

At 10:30am, I got a call. "Hello, is [DH] there?" "No, he's not, can I take a message?" "Yes, this is [John Doe] from [Widget Company], DH was supposed to start work here today? He never showed up."

I called DH's cell phone, no answer.

I immediately started to panic. Did he kill himself? (I didn't think so, he was so excited to work, he would've at least showed up first)....Did he fall asleep on the way to work and get in an accident? Did he have some kind of mental illness episode and if so, where on earth was he????

I didn't know what to do first. I was so scared!!!

I decided I would get dressed, wake up Jim, and see if maybe Jim had some idea as to what was going on.

I was only a couple of steps away from Jim when the phone rang, it was DH. I have never been so relieved in my life. Considering all the stuff that's gone on in the last year and a half, I cannot believe how worried I was!!!!

So what happened, you ask?
DH was supposed to meet [Mr. John Doe] at 7am at [Widget Company].
DH showed up at 7am and Mr. John Doe wasn't there, and none of the other employees were expecting him.
DH talked to the secretary, and discovered that Mr. John Doe had left a contract for him to sign, agreeing to $10,000 a year less than had been agreed to over the phone. DH didn't sign it, he wanted to talk to Mr. John Doe and find out what was up.
Since nobody was available to train him, DH sat down and started to work as best he could. In the first two hours, he fielded several calls from bill collectors, calling for Mr. John Doe. Somewhere in the context of that, he learned that the company was being sued and that all the employees had to be out of the building by January. He also learned that the last two payroll checks that the employees had received had bounced. So he walked out and went to his therapy appointment instead.
Apparently, Mr. John Doe finally showed up at 10:30am and, not seeing DH there, assumed he had not shown up. Hence the call to me. DH knew I would be sleeping, and he had no idea that he "hadn't shown up" for work, so he just waited to call me until later.

I told him he did the right thing (except, LOL, maybe, with the exception of the "not calling the wife" part)

He was commended in therapy, too, for not taking the crap and for making a wise decision, so even though usually something like this would lay him down really low, he wound up feeling pretty good about himself.

And the two hours he did spend "working" were enough to motivate him to want to go out tomorrow and apply for similar jobs with companies that were more stable.

What a weird day.