The Beat Goes On

The axe will fall this week and I can only hope that my neck is not cleaved with it.  I’m talking lay-offs, of course, for those of you fortunate to be unfamiliar with such terms.  I’m cautiously semi-optimistic that my job won’t be among them, but in journalism these days, the axe swings wide and one must always be wary.  I’m busy making Plan Bs and Cs and will probably be a little on edge this week until the cuts are announced, so bear with me.  Good chi gladly accepted.

In other, more uplifting news, I’m going to be an aunt again!  And twice over to boot!  My brother and his wife are expecting in mid-December and we just learned over the weekend that my in-laws are expecting their third child in January.  This will be the first grandchild on my side of the family, so it’s an especially exciting time for us.  Neither couple have any definite names in mind, although my brother and his wife are tossing around Nevalee for a girl and Chase for a boy.  I’ve never really wanted children, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a slew of names ready in the event of a Contraceptive Oops. I like Olivia (Livvie for short) for a girl or Gillian.  Perhaps my most favorite girl’s name though is Ragen — for the favored daughter in King Lear, not the president, and it’s also a combination of mine and my sister’s names (Megan + Rachel).  I don’t have many boy’s names in mind namely because I can’t see us as ever having and raising a boy-child, but after our friend’s death last week, I think that Cary would be a fine name for a boy.  What are your favorite baby names?

The past week’s happenings remind me yet again of the give-and-take regenerative nature of life.  I absolutely love my job and am worried sick at the prospect of losing it, but past experience has taught me that losing my job isn’t the end of the world and that it may actually be an opportunity to explore something else I might find just as or even more fulfilling.  And while we learned last weekend of the death of a beloved friend, this past weekend we learned of the creation of new life, one we will cherish all the more because of our loss.  As Cary himself might say, the beat goes on.