Happy New Year

It's been a stressful end to a good year. Farewell 2009 and welcome 2010. May this be the year to kick the asses out of Congress, restore some balance to our government and gain back our national security.

The good, bad and ugly:

I have been tending to a sick little fur baby. Leo is doing better now that we finally figured out what was causing his urinary problems and bleeding. He's home resting and enjoying feeling better. He is on a new diet specially made to break down the gritty gunk that his body makes from regular (albeit high grade food) in his bladder. Eight weeks on that food going into another few weeks of another formula and then we will switch to an organic uretic food for all the fur babies so that he can eat the best grade food possible.

The Vet bill came to over $700 and I looked in my jewelry box and found gold items I never remembered I had and sold them. It will cover only a portion of that bill but I'm so glad I had that option available. The Vet tech is going to talk to the doctor about reducing the bill further for me and I have a payment plan for the balance so far.

A lawyer found me on twitter, tweeting my stress away about a very excessive ticket that Nassau County imposed upon me for a minor mistake I was correcting when pulled over. He turned out to be my savings grace. After learning about my financial woes and showing him my yearly earnings he completely -- I mean 100% waived his fee and he had already gone to court for me and went back and pleaded my case further. He got all the points reduced to zero and a fine that would have been over $400 he was able to reduce to $370. Still not great but I know he worked his ass off for me. If you need him is name on twitter is @apearl and I highly recommend him.

My father was laid off a few months ago and is almost 65 but I learned the other day that he was hired for the same position he was laid off for at another credit union. I'm so happy for him. And my mother is less stressed now because of this.

I had many phone issues with Verizon and trying to work them out took a lot of time, created a lot of stress and aggravation but I believe just about everything is fixed. I had to get a new cell phone which I wasn't thrilled about and I think it has bugs causing some functions to turn on without me pressing buttons. So I will have to take care of that after the New Year begins. But for now, I have decided to take a break from that stress. It's been non-stop working around the clock 6-7 days a week and running back and forth with little sleep for the past 3 weeks.

Currently as I write this letter to all of you it's snowing outside and the roads are icy but the heat is on inside and we are all relaxing.

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy New Year.