Lured out of bed for a good cause

The sound of the phone ringing woke me in the middle of the night.

Well, it wasn't actually the middle of the night. It was a little after 8 a.m, and it was my friend Joe Smith telling me that he and our friend Ken Ross were coming over soon for "breakfast at Wimbledon."

I groaned. I had gone to bed at my customary time – around 12:30 a.m. – and so it really felt like the middle of the night. I've been setting my alarm for 10 a.m. just so that I don't continue to lie in bed until 11 or sometimes noon. But 8 a.m.? Ken had said the other day that they might come over, but since he never confirmed, I figured it wasn't happening.

I said to come on over. I put on my traditional outfit, starting with my running pants. Then I lay back in bed – always a bad choice – and of course fell quickly back asleep. I woke up to the sound of their cheerful voices at the door. So I ran down, still wearing the T-shirt I wore to bed, and looking as disheveled as a person with nearly no hair can. I let them in and ran back upstairs to put on a better T-shirt and splash water in my face.

Ken had brought strawberries, one of the ingredients for "breakfast at Wimbledon." (The other is cream, which we didn't have.) Joe brought coffee, and I supplied banana bread and zucchini bread. 

We watched the better of the two women's semifinals – Serena Williams defeating Elena Dementieva of Russia 6-7, 7-5, 8-6. As you can see from the scores, it was a close match, and it had a lot of great points. Serena will play her sister Venus in the women's final. It was a good morning.

I got my taste for coffee back, which makes me feel closer to my normal self. Joe's strong coffee really hit the spot. Still, I'm trying to not get re-hooked on caffeine, so I'm drinking decaf or half-decaf.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, I learned that I was among the latest group of people being laid off from the newspaper. There were about 12, including reporters, copy editors and photographers. It doesn't affect my income, because they weren't paying me any money, but of course it does affect my insurance. I will have to pay into COBRA for 18 months, and then I will be cut off and will have to find my own insurance. I think they are trying to deal unfairly with me, because the human resources director, who called me, said the company was cutting me off from insurance the next day.

I said that's impossible because I go to the clinic every week and I haven't even received the COBRA paperwork. They said OK, July 13. Later I learned that it's illegal to cut you off abruptly and that they need to give you 30 days. They gave everyone else 30 days, and me half that.

Unfortunately, they are treating me differently, and unfairly, in a range of other ways. These are things that I am working on. 

I wish people would read newspapers. It is so sad that such a wonderful industry seems to be dying. All I can say is we had a good run. As for me, I'll deal with the job thing later. It's not really at the top of my list right now.