Mandatory Meeting

I mentioned a couple of days ago about a mandatory meeting for work I was going to attend on the 11th. They called yesterday and said they had moved it to today. I just got home from it. Here's what took place:

The city manager gets up to speak and talks about how we are all worried about the economy and the price of gas and how all cities are suffering along with their employees. Then she goes on to tell us how much they appreciate the employees so we're throwing you a pizza party. Then she tells us not to leave after we are done eating (I didn't eat because pizza is no longer in my diet). So everyone ate pizza and visited with each other and said hey to those we don't see very often and the city manager gets back up and tells the city council to come forward and they do. Then several of them express their gratitude as well for all the employees and then they hand out an envelope to everyone and tell us to wait to open them until everyone has their's and then we all open our envelopes and we all got a $1500.00 bonus check. Granted, they took out taxes and TMRS and all that, but still. Not at all what I was expecting. They mentioned something about a reserve fund, but it was kind of hard to pay attention as I was looking at that check. I think I teared up a little bit.

I knew the day I went back to my little city that it was the right choice for me. Things like this just make it more obvious as to why.