Madrid & Barcelona - 2019

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Hello everyone and welcome back to the next installment of Jackie's Journeys...where in the world is she?! Let me just start off by saying I never imagined I'd be starting another one of these travel blogs so recently after the last one (for real...it was just a mere 95 days ago that I was arriving home from my unbelievable South African adventure). But man oh man am I ever glad that I am...and feeling beyond grateful, thankful and blessed to be doing it. So let's just back up a second and catch our breaths and get everyone caught up on the twists and turns of the past few weeks and months.

I was cruising along working at the Shopko Stores Corporate office, minding my own business when things took a turn. Brenda and I already had our trip to South Africa all booked when talk of bankruptcy started circulating around the office. Nothing I can do about that but go on safari and have thee absolute best time imaginable. And well maybe I gathered all my belongings in a corner of my work desk just incase someone would be packing them up for me before I returned (just trying to be practical). That was not the case, although I did receive word from a work friend while I was in Victoria Falls that it was looking like it was only a matter of time.

Monday, March 18 the official announcement came out - Shopko was closing and by April 8 all my friends and I would be jobless. What some of you may not realize, is I had only just been through the same kinda thing when JanSport closed their collegiate printing operations in September of 2017. This is certainly not the kinda pattern one wants to see replicated in their life. But I gotta say those last few weeks at Shopko were some of the best: tarot card reading department meetings, the proofing room turned into game central (enter competitive Jackie!!), alllll the sample sales, so many happy hours, and more conversation & laughter than should be legal in an office setting. I may have only had a year and a half with those fabulous Shopko folks, but they were some of the best times and I miss seeing their faces every day. (Get it together girl and move on...)

April arrived and so did the roller coaster of unemployment. There were good days, there were bad days, there were Shutterfly days, there were lunches & dinners & drinks & gelato...and oh so many resumes and cover letters and job descriptions. May rolled around and just when I was convinced I was thee worst interviewee on the planet, the unthinkable happened and I was offered a job!!! And then I did a double take when they listed a start date of June 3!! So wait, you're telling me I have the next 4 weeks to turn this into some serious Funemployment (to borrow a phrase from my Shopko peeps). I accept!! I regretted not being able to squeeze in a trip last time I was jobless, and I was set on not making that mistake again. Now if only I could find someone to drop everything and jet off somewhere fun.



Luckily it didn't take too much convincing to get my friend from church Cindy to agree. So basically I accepted the job on May 6, we did some searching on May 7, we booked airfare on May 8, and we fly to Madrid exactly one week later on May 15.



Holy cow...is this really happening?! Hotels are booked, tours have been searched out, and my bags are packed so all signs point to yep...this is in fact happening (insert every emoji imaginable right here).

So there ya have it. A little backstory on my funemployment. Per usual the plan is to post every day. But when wine is cheaper than water, we'll see how that all shakes out

Have passport, will travel ~ Jackie