Snippy

Top 10: Things to do when you've just been laid off

By Tina Hatch

1. Rant to a friend. Even if you knew it was coming, call a sympathetic friend and scream about how stupid the company was to let you go. Even better: Meet this friend for drinks (she's buying, of course) and share your rant with a sympathetic bartender.

2. Apply for COBRA or other insurance. COBRA is great, if you can afford it, which most people can't (when the Snippy staff was laid off, individual coverage was $400/month and over $1200 for families). Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama has more affordable plans.

3. Sleep. Stay in bed all day, if you can (or once you get the kids out the door). Getting laid off is stressful, and you need the rest. Dream about Clive Owen.

Feed Your Passion

When Amanda Storey was laid off last year, she took it hard. She loved her job, and the people she worked with — and she had never worked anywhere else. But Amanda took a negative experience and turned it into a chance to pursue her passion. She launched the website Food Revival to share her love of food with others, and she graciously shared her thoughts on her experience with Snippy.

Snippy: What did you do before you were laid off?
Amanda: I started at Southern Progress (SPC) as an intern, so SPC is all I've ever known as far as jobs go. My career looked a little like this: Editorial Intern at Southern Living, Assistant Editor at Health magazine and Marketing Manager at Cooking Light. I spent the last three years traveling all over the country, running national programs, sailing with 400 readers on a cruise ship and pitching really big ideas to really big clients.

Fiction Friday

Cover Story
By Lila James

Chapter 1
    "Out of my way jackass,” Ava called as she honked and passed a silver Audi. She sailed through the intersection just as the light turned red.
    “Your rude gesture doesn’t scare me either.” Ava said. She could see the Audi’s irate driver flipping her off in her rear view mirror. “Learn to drive and we’ll talk,” she screamed. Then she took a quick look at her passenger side window to make sure that it wasn’t cracked open. 
    Five minutes later, Ava pulled into the parking lot outside of her office building. 8:58 a.m. If she sprinted up the stairs, she should have time to grab a cold Diet Coke before joining the rest of the staff in the conference room for Monday’s planning meeting.
    If she didn’t rush up the stairs, she’d have to skip the Diet Coke or endure Harriet’s interrogation as a punishment for tardiness. Harriet was a big fan of punctuality, and since Harriet lacked both an understanding of appropriate eye contact and a sense of humor, these grillings were the bane of Ava’s existence.
    “How would you romance a new lover, Ava?”
    “What do you think women most want to know about the cervix?”
    “Is douching really a generational issue?”
    As the features editor for the regional women’s magazine, Gloss, Ava’s working life revolved around women’s issues. Only, when she’d taken the job, she hoped for more women’s political causes, business advice and health concerns. What she’d gotten was terrible puns on that time of the month, too many headlines containing the word “diva” and many, many manuscripts on potty training.
    And Harriet.
   

Top 10

From April 1, 2009

Exotic Foods to Eat in Alabama

1. Curried Goat
Yehman Restaurant
1623 4th Ave. North
Birmingham, AL
205-323-3120
A Jamaican specialty, you’ll be sure to enjoy the curried at goat at this Downtown eatery.

2. Beef Bulgogee
Stemley Stir Fry
4800 Stemley Road
Talladega, AL
256-268-9008
According to Shelley Kolankiewicz, there is “no ambience” in the mobile home that serves as this South Korean restaurant, but the food is “out of this world.”

3. Tongue Tacos
La Perla
1516 North 9th Ave.
Bessemer, AL
205-426-3975
If you’re tired of standard Latino fare, try a tongue taco from this Mexican market.

A Silver Lining
by Tina Hatch

This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Visit Friday for our final installment.

When Nancy Burleson lost her job, she found her dream

When Nancy Burleson was summoned to a conference room with the top brass from her company, she knew what to expect. "The early retirement 'opportunity' was presented to me with little fanfare," she says. "The air was magically sucked out of the room."

Welcome to Snippy!

Several months ago, the Snippy creators asked themselves, "Why not create a website that celebrates local women and what they do, while providing a place for snappy writing and lots of interaction?" (Plus, the Snippy ladies knew they would soon be jobless and needed something else to keep them occupied.) Thus, Snippy was born.

Snippy is a place for you to spill your guts, speak your mind and be among friends. Snippy is a place for honest, open conversation among women about important issues of the day. We want to create a community of readers in Birmingham and all over Alabama (readers from outside those areas are welcome, too, of course). Our writers and subjects are local — these are women you know, or women you'd like to know.

Here's what you can do when you visit:

*Read essays by local writers.

*Laugh at/ponder our top 10 lists. We're obsessive list makers. We like to highlight the quirky, the amusing or the just plain weird.

*Share your comments with the community. Help us make the site interactive by leaving your two cents.

*Submit your own story. We wouldn't exist without the talent and selfless effort of our writers. If you have something you want to say, see our submission guidelines for details.

*Meet fascinating women in our profiles section.

Check back often as we update the site and add even more fun features. Help us grow by letting us know what you'd like to see  — e-mail us at snippy@snippyonline.com.

Dream On

By Kim Hildenbrand

When I was three, I woke up extra early every Wednesday to watch the garbage truck pull up. I stared enviously, nose against the glass, as the man on the back casually hopped off, picked up the cans and dumped them into the back of the truck with a flourish. If I was lucky, he’d wave at me as he hung on the back of the truck while it pulled away.

I knew with the utmost certainty: I was destined to be a garbage man. I told anyone who’d listen. One day I would ride on the back of the truck, reveling in the sheer thrill of it, waving at the poor people who weren’t lucky enough to be riding on the backs of trucks. (And, no, I was not going to be a sanitation engineer, a trash collector, or even a garbage person — I was going to be a garbage man).

 

By Tina Hatch

This is Part 1 of a three-part series. Check back Thursday and Friday for other installments.

I've always thought of Friday the 13th as an auspicious day, a day when anything could happen.

Eat Better, Eat Healthier, Change the World (and Birmingham).

By Nadria Tucker

Lose weight, support the local economy and get a warm tingly feeling of self-righteousness.

(Photo by Photo Mojo, flickr)

Birmingham, Alabama. Publix. The woman in front of me in the checkout line tries (and fails) to buy steamed crab legs with her food stamps at $11.00 a pound. This is her idea of eating well. The woman behind me loads the conveyor belt with Wheat Thins, Lean Cuisines and a 24 pack of Diet Coke. This is her idea of eating healthy. I get out of the store with a buggy full of produce, only one plastic bag and a bill well short of triple digits. This is a victory.

Food is a business — like the music industry and the auto industry — concerned more with making money than with putting out a quality product. How does this affect you? Consider this: A fast food burger is cheaper than a head of broccoli.

Why? Animals are raised mass-produced in unhealthy and disturbing ways (remember the whole downer cow thing?). Unlike broccoli, corn and soy are subsidized so heavily that they’re in everything — in places they shouldn’t be. Read the label on a box of mac & cheese if you don’t believe me. Look closely — the “cheese” is made of corn. For these and many other reasons (let’s sum them up as Big Food — sounds kind of like Big Tobacco, doesn’t it?), what Americans eat isn’t as healthy, tasty or environmentally sound as it could be. Don’t take my word for it. There are experts out there to consult. Books to read, films to see. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Food Matters by Mark Bittman.  Food, Inc. (in theaters in June).

Because of this (and our increasingly sedentary lifestyle), we’re fat. Alabama is the fattest state in the United States. Yes, I realize that a fast food burger is cheaper than a head of broccoli (I said that already). But you can get more than one serving out of a head of broccoli, can’t you?  

All of this is why I feel good when I leave the grocery store. Because I know I’m doing my part. Here’s how you can do yours.