Forcible expulsion from the hamster wheel

Well, between the time I set up this blog and when I actually had time to start writing it, the title “Escape from the Hamster Wheel” has taken on a whole new meaning. Originally, I intended to write about traveling with my family. We love to go on adventures big and small to escape the tedium of daily life (permission slips, laundry, parental shuttle duty, softball practice, PowerPoints, alarm clocks, dress shoes and deadlines). My husband, two daughters and I LIVE for our next vacation. As soon as we return home from a trip, we’ve barely unpacked and my husband is trying to figure out where we can go next, and when. We’ve accumulated some tricks and tips along the way, both for traveling with kids AND traveling on a limited budget. (More on the definition of limited budget in another post.)

Since I titled my blog, my position with a Fortune 10 automotive company has been outsourced and as a result, quite soon I will be without a job for the first time in sixteen years. I have worked part-time, with stretches of full time plus, since my oldest daughter was born. Rather than escaping the hamster wheel, it seems I am being forcibly expelled from it. Though upsetting, it’s not necessarily heartbreaking. My organization had become a miserable place to work, with little to offer besides good friends and a paycheck. (More bitterness later.) I don’t want to apply for a job with the vendor. If my company already doesn’t respect our organization and individual employees, I can only imagine the level of respect we’ll get as employees of a supplier company. The same management and leadership will be setting the tone and calling the shots. So though I feel devalued, disrespected and bitter, I can’t say I’m all that sad. I am hoping we can make it on one income for a little while until I can figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I’m burnt out on my current line of work after the last couple of years, and tired of forcing my trapezoid-shaped peg into a round corporate hole. And puckering up and kissing that hole.

I’ve always been a budget traveler (trained by my dad, who took us on a lot of good trips on the rather un-luxe salary of a bank branch manager and a teacher). I appreciate that he showed me that travel isn’t just for the wealthy, and that you can venture off the I-75 track between northern Michigan and Florida. The challenge, now, is how to travel on a more limited budget. Though my husband would be happy traveling with a tarp, some toilet paper* and a tub of beef jerky in the trunk, I'm partial to hotel rooms. Preferably hotel rooms where you aren't afraid to walk barefoot and come equipped with a coffee maker.

We are fortunate that my husband can work almost anywhere – he’s either working at the kitchen table or traveling rather unpredictably. Now that I’ve been cast out of corporate life, we may have a little more freedom. This blog will probably veer between our obsessive desire to travel and the often-comical outsourcing process I’m going through. Bear with me while I vent my frustration. I’ll try to do it with humor.


*Note - he'd probably be fine without the toilet paper, too.