Grim but Defiant Assessment

What a week, full of the typical highs and lows:

"Poetry Now!" announced it was folding, just before they ran the wonderful article about me that Dave Taub had just prepped. Oy!

US Cellular pulled their "warranty was voided as there is moisture in Earth's atmosphere" BS...I now have to buy a new phone from them or go without a cell...the upside is I have been approached about being part of a class action lawsuit...seems I am not the first person they pulled this nice profit-making gouge on.

Finally got to speak with someone who had actually spoken to my ex, Ann, since Hurricane Katrina. They wanted to remind me that Ann and I had accepted some financial assistance when we made the "what were we thinking?" move to Mississippi and she'd appreciate it back now. To her budget, and I respect this, it doesn't matter the money was to move us away from our decent jobs to stay with Ann's lonely mother, or that some was to pay Ann's car payments...a car I do not and never had any share of (I actually advised her not to acquire the $550.00 a month debt...) But I feel bad for others who may have been taken advantage of, so I will continue to try and pay back everyone who was plundered. Sigh.

Still have a job...not bad considering where I am, the state of the economy and the randomness of the universe...but they've eliminated overtime. Guess it is time to move on, eh? I have begun a major job search in three key markets...but will listen to reason...money is money and the creditors don't care where I am living.

The "ghost tours" over Halloween, that the Visitors Bureau had approached me about conducting, never materialized, the gas price increases caused such a cutback in adult class enrollment that all my classes I was teaching this semester at M-Tech were cancelled and the concert/website/DVD project I have been trying to support getting off the ground for nearly a year now is nowhere closer to growing green wings. Time to dump debris, eh?

Speaking of debris, I can only assume my hostage personal effects did not make it through the storms in Mississippi. But, considering the fact that they all lost more than was taken from me, I have to just nod. Still pissed about the total news blackout, but that's not a statement of my character.

Plus side? Looks like I'm going to have my best year, ever, as a writer...and with the Podcasts lifting off...the sky is the limit. I promised a lot of people a lot of things I need to see through in the coming months...and I'll work towards them. And, I just had my first physical in half a decade and I passed with flying colours.

I will keep the promise I made almost a decade ago...you'll hear my bones splinter and crack before you'll see me willingly go to my knees again.

And, make sure to swing by the site for the launch of the 'pod, The Digital Renaissance takes it up a notch.