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Yes, I won’t let the door hit me in the ass on the way out…
From the Wikipedia entry: "In 1988, real estate agent and con artist John Barlow is placed in suspended animation after a freak accident. He is revived in the distant future, in a confusing world filled with hypersexualized advertisements, vapid entertainment, and people who exhibit erratic, nonsensical behavior."
And it makes me a little sad that I check the comments here and see I'm the first leading me to believe that John Updike isn't as well-known nowadays as to provoke discussion.
I'm getting old.
In my case, due to a buyout, I lost me job over two years ago and felt myself in a similar place as you.
What made it hard for me is I was 63(!) years old at the time . (I know what it is like to feel "over the hill" in technology employment.
After picking up my pieces, I started freelancing and haven't looked back. I've had more fun, on my terms, than my previous three decades in stressful tech jobs. That's the easy part.
The hard part was accepting my humanity and asking for help. Ask everybody and don't be ashamed to do it. You'll find out who your friends really are and you'll get the support you need.
Good luck. You'll make it.
O'Reilly at the time was my go-to for anything tech. Loved the look of their books. I was a CompuServe moderator at the time - pre-AOL even, and ran a small BBS.