Last week, I got laid off from my job of 13 years. It was a long time coming- the company has been struggling in this economy and I had already taken a pay cut earlier in the year. Plus, since they didn’t really have work for me, they had been outsourcing me for the past seven months to a colleague whose company needed help. So, getting officially laid off did not come as a shock at all. (And don’t cry for me yet; most likely I’m going to take a job with the company where I’ve been helping for the past several months).

Even though I knew it was coming, it was still a little sad. I’ve been there for a long time and change is always hard, and being told you aren’t needed is a blow to the ego. I mean, how dare they think they can get along without me?! With decision making like that, no wonder they can’t afford to keep me. Hmpph.

When my boss instant messaged me on a Friday, at the end of a pay period, telling me we needed to “have a talk” that day, I knew what was about to happen. And while I was getting this information, my Pandora “Poison” radio station decided to provide the most perfect soundtrack to getting canned.

First up was Skid Row’s “I remember you.” While this played, I saw a crazy happy montage in my head featuring some of the best adventures my boss and I have had together. I saw him getting pushed by a warehouse worker, remembered the time we picked out socks for him at Banana Republic during a convention, saw him giving his cabernet-fueled inspirational speeches, and of course saw us running and laughing on a beach, because that’s an important component of all good montages.

So of course, that sent me into hysterical laughter. Just as I started to settle down and feel the sad/worried/panic part of being laid off come on, Pandora then played “Bringing on the Heartache” by Def Leppard and the laughter started all over again. Then to make it even more hilarious, the next song was “Don’t know what you got until its gone” by Cinderella. Just when I started to think our Human Resources department had somehow hacked Pandora to mess with me, Scorpions came on to assure me that “there’s no one like you.” At this point I was laughing so hard that all my bad feelings started melting away, and by the time Guns N Roses chimed in with “Don’t Cry”, I was a-ok and ready to face my next challenge.