First layoff experience = NOT GOOD

After random newspeople shook my hand, wished me much luck yesterday, then cleaned out their desks and pretended not to cry while making cop calls - we find out that a grand total of zero individuals from the newsroom were outed.

Advertising and circulation were hit pretty bad. The Detail Department is all but gone. All of our open positions were annihilated.

But no one on our side left today.

Today...

I know I'm new to the professional j-industry, but I was told by newsroom veterans that they'd never experienced anything quite like this. It says a lot when these kinds of fuckups and future-driven fortune cookies make me want to sell my soul to a stable job in PR.

The Tattoo

Saturday: After drinking away layoff fears with coworkers Friday night, I bummed about the crappy Philly transit system towards the side of the city I had never ventured... and shamefully so. The length of S. 4th Street is covered with tattoo parlors, mom/pop music stores, Beyond the Wall displays, long-lined cheese steak diners and bars. Dodging the Duck tour vehicles, I found my way to the No Ka Oi Tiki tat shop and presented my first (and probably not only) tattoo design to artiste magifico, Cindy.

3 hours of insane pain and $500 later...



In other news: Not laid off yet!