In the past year I have:
o Gotten divorced
o Left a very abusive and painful relationship
o Graduated college
o Moved to Madison
o Made new friends
o Traveled to Arizona twice
o Started grad school online
o Realized that that particular grad school was a scam and left it
o Bought a new house
o Had my disability increased
o Gotten my job with the USPS back
o Left the USPS job once I was entirely off of probation and made regular
o Gotten my relationship with my older brother back (he’s finally clean and off drugs!!!)
o Left a poisonous friendship
o Returned to my passions of art and writing
o Gotten married to an awesome guy
o Put Falk to sleep
o Gotten a new dog, Dino for Ryan
o Attended UW Madison
o Started to learn Japanese
o Gotten real health insurance with real doctors

I think that’s not too shabby given my circumstances.

A couple weeks ago I got very frustrated with our financial situation. Not because of any hole that Ryan or I dug, but because of the debt he has for his parents. They hardly pay the minimum payments. Matter of fact, they usually pay them late, which adds late fees, which their minimum payments don’t even cover. What I’m getting at is that their debt is actually going up, not down, and it’s in our name. It’s factored into our debt to income ratio for anything we try to finance. It hurts pretty bad.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time being angry and upset over this, frustrated. I’ve had my share of anxiety of panic attacks over it. None of that changes a thing though. His family is a mess, an absolute mess, and is only getting worse. His dad is on the verge of a mental breakdown, his mom is doped up on high doses of oxycotin and morphine, his brother is addicted to drugs and running up the family’s debt, his sister is a snobby bitch, and his other brother is quiet, shy and withdrawn. My point? That debt isn’t going anywhere.

So, I got an itch to do something about it. As it stands now, I make pretty good money from my VA disability. It pays my half of the bills, most of the time (when I don’t spend money I shouldn’t). We do okay. We struggle a bit, but in general we’re fine.

So, my theory is this. If I can get a job which would give me a little spending money, and at the same time, allow me to throw money at the ring payment Ryan has, and his parent’s debt, I ought to. I think I can get them both paid off in a year and a half. With that debt out of our way, his parents can make payments to me and we can actually start saving some money. This will also significantly help with my depression since I frequently feel like I am hurting or holding Ryan back. Feeling like I contribute would be a huge benefit.

So, I went ahead and submitted my resume to a bunch of companies locally. That same day I got return calls. That’s hardly ever happened. I now see that having a degree helps immensely. I interviewed at a staffing agency and was hired by them. I guess I type about 100wpm, which is even more than I thought I was generously exaggerating before. I did great on the tests for office procedures, Word, Windows, etc, but bombed Excel (I don’t care, I hate Excel). They are looking at putting me in a data entry position, which I wouldn’t mind since it’s so simple and the pay is alright. It’s not what I was making in Wausau, but it’s like zero stress so worth it.

Better yet though, is the other place I interviewed at yesterday. It’s a small office that works as a liaison between the court system, and alcohol and drug offenders. They provide alcohol and drug counseling and rehab, in addition to other things. This seems like such a perfect fit for me. Lucky for me, the director that interviewed me was from Arizona, which in and of itself gave me an advantage. “Oh, is this the one from Arizona?” she excitedly asked when I was brought in to meet her. She explained some problems they were having in the office, to which I was able to reply, “that’s not a problem, I can fix that.” Her eyes lit up. I guess their file system is a complete mess and disaster. Luckily for me, that was also the case with the recruiting battalion I worked at. I said to her, “Well I was in a situation like that before. I asked them to give me two days of being left alone, and they did. The result was that the entire file system was cleaned up, reorganized, and easy to use.” She was practically celebrating.

She noted that I have a secret security clearance, which she was pleased with. That my degree would help tremendously. My experience was perfect. She said she will be calling my references, who are all spectacular. Ed Kreiger at the Wausau Post Office, Ms. Nandrea from UWSP, and Mr. Arnold, from UWSP. All will make up lies about me and say I am stellar.

Because I already have health insurance through Ryan’s work, she said she can give me the difference in what I’ll save the company for not having to insure me in my pay, which is awesome. She also said that some days I’ll have to stay late to check in clients for a class, but that on Fridays I can go home early to make up for it. Awesome.

It really seemed like they were telling me about what I’ll be doing as if they had already decided to hire me. Like I’ve always said, if I can get the interview, I’ll get the job. I know this is true, so I can’t wait to start.

While in that happy state of knowing I will have a job I’ll enjoy soon, I decided to finally go check out that kung fu place I drive by frequently. It was great timing as they were doing training for a competition and I got to watch. It was awesome. They were also able to refer me to a Wing Chun school, which would be ideal for me. This is something I’ve been looking for since moving to WI.

I think that things are looking up. I just need to get medicated before I start my job so I don’t pull my typical “today sucked I’m going to quit” crap.

Simultaneously, Social Security is evaluating me for disability. The lady said they may put me as disabled all the way back to when I got out of the army. This would mean 8 years of back pay. She said I’d get about 770 a month. That means I’d get a settlement of 60k in back pay, at least. One can only hope.

In addition to that, the VA is also evaluating my employability because of my limitations. It is very much looking as though my disability will go from the $1200 a month it is now to about $3200 per month. I can’t say I’d complain about that.

So really, if any of this works out, things will be great. If it all works out, they’ll be even better. I can’t say I would have a hard time paying off some debt with 60-70k. That’d bail me out of my insane financial problems left over from my Ahmed relationship, pay off the ring Ryan bought me, and the debt Ryan’s parents have. We’d be sitting pretty at that point.

And on that note, it’s time to get ready to go check out the two kung fu schools while class is going on. I’m pretty happy about this, I’ve been wanting to get back into this for quite some time.