Well, it looks like it is going to happen sooner than we expected.

We're heading home.

Lisa's job has been going steadily downhill for the last while, for a bunch of different reasons. The job itself is nothing she can't handle, and her old teachers can confirm that Lisa's skills are steady and she is nothing if not capable of doing the job.

To put it mildly, she's not having any fun. Everyone knows that a job is not always fun - a job provides a steady paycheck, but not always a great deal of enjoyment or fulfillment - but there are few days when Lisa comes home with a smile on her face.

Here's what she has to deal with: It's a small town market, which means everyone is trying to be (pardon my French) King Shit of Turd Pile and Lisa is on the bottom of the pile. It is a fact of the media industry that it attracts the big egos, and small towns are where the no-talent big egos get stuck, and they are pretty pissed about it. Lisa got a severe reprimand for being so enthusiastic about a news story that she asked the subject some more questions once the interview was over and they were packing up. Apparently the reporter thought she was poaching on his preserve.

To add to this, a conglomerate recently purchased the station, which means cuts may be coming in the near future. Everyone is playing a fierce game of 'Cover Your Ass', and woe betide anyone who gets in the way. Like Lisa, who nearly got fired the other week when a series of sports shots was a bit out of focus (and, we suspect, the reporter had been planning to use them for his resume tape).

This is where Lisa stood last week. Unhappy with her job, and fairly convinced that she won't have her job much longer at all - the only reason she is still working at all is because her direct boss knows she is doing a good job and stood up for her.

Then comes a call from her old company, the pet store chain. They want her to be the manager of one of their stores. Lisa's mom still works for them and she sort of let it slip that Lisa was not entirely happy with her current job.

They are even willing to pay some of our moving costs to get her back. Not enough to hire movers, but enough to hire the truck - not too bad, really. Shows they want her back bad enough.

Moving back to Calgary is a good idea for myself as well. The paper is going through the same buyout problem and actually being in the office five days a week may go a long way towards me keeping MY job.

We've polled our family and friends, and the consensus seems to be to head home, have Lisa work at the pet store for a while, while trying to get on with a production company in town, or take some film courses on the side (which is more in line with what she wants to do anyway).

The downside is that quitting the job after only three months leaves a depressing mark on her resume. Not as bad as if she got fired, but it smacks of an inability to commit to a job.

Which, in Lisa's case, isn't true. This is a case of knowing when something isn't working, and taking the best chance of getting out of it. Lisa proved her ability to stick things through by staying at the pet store for three years and over a dozen managers and assistant managers.

So.

Now begins the rush. Packing, cleaning, switching phone numbers and ISP's. And as soon as we find an apartment, we're gone.

Over in the forum:

Drinking is good for you

Tell me those stories again

Show us something dirty

Take me home, big fella