End of December

Well, well, well.

I finished NaNoWriMo with another win, but it was difficult.  Note to self: Do NOT take a week off in November!  Second note to self: If impaneled on a jury, get a lighter weight laptop!  I had a lot of catching up to do and it was very difficult, not counting schlepping the dinosaur age computer downtown every day.  I had a 6k word day followed by a 5k word day and those two back to back nearly fried my brain.  But, I made it to 50k within the time, so...  yes.  Scraped a win.

My duty to the criminal justice system in my county ended on 12/19.  It was a rough month!  The Grand Jury doesn't hear trials (as I'm sure you know) but hears testimony from police and witnesses and decides if the DA has enough evidence to indict.  It's only for felonies.  And, the way it is set up here is that there are three juries: #1 hears murder, rape and child abuse cases; #2 hears drug crimes; #3 hears property crimes.  I was on #3, but let me tell you, there was a LOT of crossover from jury #1 into our jury.  We heard a murder case (gruesome, with surveillance video and autopsy photos), rape cases, a pedophile case, domestic violence, and an officer involved shooting.  There was nothing 'property crime' about our duties.  Oh, sure, there were dozens and dozens of car thefts, embezzlement, identity thefts, burglary, etc, but our jury duty was often distressing, horrifying, overwhelming and triggering.  Thankfully, we had an excellent group.  Only one supporter of the current regime and he was not a raving lunatic but a retired businessman.  The other six were as liberal as could be, self included.  In fact, we got along so well that we are having a jury reunion in February.

Jury duty ended on 12/19 and the kid and her gang arrived on the 12/22.  Her gang includes herself, her husband, her big enthusiastic golden retriever, and, now, the husband's 17 year old nephew.  That's a houseful!  I had to do some furniture shifting and bed rearranging to get it all sorted out.  We had a lovely time together, though, despite the somewhat crowded conditions.  I got to spend some quality time with my darling daughter, and nothing beats that.

An aside: The teenager is a good kid, as far as teenagers go.  Lol.  Poor thing, his parents are both flakes (his dad is Rob's favorite brother).  He was living with his mom but she decided to move in with her boyfriend and didn't have the space or the interest in having her only child live with her.  I'm sure he's better off not being there, but what a crappy thing to do to your only child.  His dad lives in a travel trailer with his own mom, while they are remodeling her house.  No room for a third person there.  His other grandmother said he could come for a week or so but that she was about to leave for Arizona to her senior snowbird community and he wouldn't be able to come with her.  So, basically, every immediate adult in his life dropped the ball.  So, he moved from Florida to Washington to live with his aunt and uncle. 

Here's a funny thing: about a week after he moved in with them, I had an email from Zoe apologizing for her behavior as a teen.  That made me laugh.  The boy had an online girlfriend and ALL he would do was sit in his room on the computer.  It was driving Zoe mad!  I laughed and laughed...  In a turn of good luck, his virtual gf broke up with him and a couple of days later two girls at his real life high school asked him to sit with them at lunch.  One has since asked him to the winter formal, and now he has a real girlfriend.  All is well.

Saving the best for last:  My big news is that I finally did it.  I broke up with T.  It ended 'not with a bang but a whimper'.  We both acknowledged that this relationship had run its course and wasn't working for either of us.  Yes, I initiated the break up, and I owned that, but it hasn't been good for a long time, and T agreed with me.  We parted amicably and I hope we can remain friends.  We still have details to sort out - separating our phone accounts, closing our shared bank account, she needs to collect a bunch of furniture and stuff from my house... all of that and more.

It was such a tremendous relief! 

Here's the thing.  All of that furniture shifting was motivating.  Last month I had given my nice leather couch, chair and ottoman to my cousin.  The set was very nice but too big for me and too big for my house.  I asked T if she wanted it and was told no.  I tried to sell it to various people I know and no one wanted it.  I finally found someone who would really like to have it and that was my cousin who doesn't have any cash to spare.  So, I gave it to her.  It felt so good to get it out of the house!  It was like a plug being pulled.  The energy in the downstairs started to flow better.  So, when I had the kids coming for five days and had to do some rearranging in the bedrooms, well, I just kept on with the energy improvement efforts.  After they left, I took T's big dresser out of my bedroom and put it (temporarily) in the guest room (aka: Zoe's room).  I asked T if she wanted the bedroom set.  She had brought it from her old house to mine when we moved in together.  I had already switched out the enormous bed frame.  Now the giant dresser is out of my room and the nightstands are going today.  She said that she wants the furniture for her brother, but she can't pick it up for a while.  That's cool.  As long as it's out of my way, and out of my bedroom.  Again, the energy feels so much better!

So, I'm feeling pretty good!  Feeling like the new year has a lot of potential to be awesome.  I get to start out with the release from an untenable situation and that feels wonderful.  I have good stuff planned for the coming year.  My rancher friend has moved heaven and earth in order to take a vacation and is coming to visit for a week.  Another friend and I have a plan to travel to Chicago and do some crazy public service project...  ok, not crazy, it'll be fun!  I think we are going to be planting native grasses on the lake shore.  Whatever!  The point is to meet up and have fun in real life.  My friend KA and I are planning a long car trip.  And, I will be going to Long Beach to visit Lisa (just as soon as her sister leaves).  I will also be teaching more self defense, and who knows what else.  Staying busy! 

Happy New Year, friends!  I hope the coming year is good to us all. 
Blessings of the Goddess on you and your family from me and mine.
Love,
E