I write about a lot of things … sometimes about my background … sometimes about food … sometimes about my weight loss … sometimes about the ridiculous political situation in our country right now … or anything else that comes to mind. Most blogs are focused to one particular topic from what I can tell. Ours is focused on the ups-and-downs of our lives, which can be a lot of different things.
So today is to put in some good news. I’ll start however with some of the ridiculous that has befallen Roy and me over the past many years. Like I said previously, we met online and have known each other for quite some time. We’ve been married for slightly over 5 years … on 11.23.07. My daughter and my oldest son were, respectively, Maid of Honor and Best Man. It was a fairly small and relaxed wedding done in our home the day after Thanksgiving in 2007. We had a party and I did the food myself by ordering from delis and making some and having friends and family help. It was wonderful.
In December of 2007, Roy bought into the house that I owned and was already paying a mortgage on, making it so we owned it together. Just before Christmas, he was in a multi-car pile-up on I-680 in the SF Bay Area, and his car was totaled. Thankfully, *he* was ok, and that’s all that mattered to me. Right after New Year’s Day of 2008, we bought a used 4-wheel drive Chevy Tahoe that was in wonderful condition. We were both working full-time and had decent income. I won’t say “good jobs”, because in our minds, jobs are unstable and not secure, which is why we have always had other streams of income with our various private businesses. In April of 2008, we went on a 15-night cruise from Fort Lauderdale, FL through the Panama Canal that ended in San Francisco, CA for our honeymoon, stopping in Jamaica, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and 3 places in Mexico. It was marvelous to put it mildly.
Then the wheels fell off the bus.
In June 2008, I was laid off from my job. I had difficulty finding a full-time job so I was working part-time jobs on commission only. We lost our health insurance and Roy had to have necessary surgery. His job picked it up for us (thankfully) and he was able to continue on it and receive his surgery. He was off work from August through September on Disability. He returned to work on September 29, 2008. On September 30, 2008, he was let go. (There’s a lot more to that story, but it’s not necessary. Suffice it to say we had to fight for him to receive unemployment insurance, but we won because we were right.)
They stopped his health insurance effective September 30 … with no warning … so when I went into the doctor for a scheduled appointment on October 1, I was refused service. Now … don’t take me wrong … I am in *NO WAY* for Obummercare. I would rather get my own health care at my own choice with insurance that I choose or do not choose. Government, in my opinion, should not be forcing this down my throat. However, when we are PAYING for insurance, I think that we should at least be provided warning of impending cancellation, particularly when the COBRA payments are high and neither of us is working.
Anyway, the company I was working part time (retail) for offered a very minimal insurance coverage, which I thankfully took, as it covered at least something partially. They also offered Roy a part time low wage job. While we needed much more than that, it certainly was better than nothing while we searched for something else.
… and we searched … and searched … and searched … and searched … and searched … and SEARCHED …
While we are building our own private businesses, government intervention and legislation makes it very difficult to build it the way we want, so it’s slower than we have wanted. Thus, in the meantime, we needed to have a “job” that paid us a wage to be able to pay mortgages and every other thing that costs money in our society.
… and we searched … and searched … and searched … and searched … and searched … and SEARCHED …
The United States economy was tanking big time so people were being laid off by the millions and few were hiring. Companies were going out of business. However, finally, I got a break … and in April of 2009, I was offered and accepted a job working for the State of California Employment Development Department in their Unemployment Insurance Division. It wasn’t a great or high-paying position but it gave me a wage, medical insurance for us both that would start in June, and something steady.
… and Roy continued to search … and search … and search … and search … and search … and SEARCH …
Then in May … just before the end of the month … while I still had the *VERY* limited health insurance … I got deathly ill and had to go into the hospital for emergency surgery. I was assured by the hospital that it was truly an emergency but that they would work with us to pay it off a little at a time since the minimal insurance we had wouldn’t pay much of the bill. I was in for 5 days. My new insurance kicked in the day after I was released. Marvelous.
… and Roy continued to search … and search … and search … and search … and search … and SEARCH …
In June of 2009, someone from that car accident Roy had been in in 2007 decided that we looked like good targets because we had a house so they chose to sue us. We had to fight that.
… and Roy continued to search … and search … and search … and search … and search … and SEARCH …
Now … the job that I had secured was very understanding about my time off as well as about my second surgery in November 2009 … and I finished my training and I did well in what I did and I worked diligently. However, the hospital ignored all attempts made by us to work with them and started harassing us for payment and referring it to collections and not taking our calls. On July 5, 2010 (very nicely the day after Independence Day and the day before Roy’s birthday), they served us with a lawsuit for approximately $20,000. At that time, we were looking to sell our house (one that I had lived in for 30 years and raised my children in), since I wasn’t making enough money to cover the mortgage, and we were using my IRA to make payments and help us survive. We wanted to move from the over-priced SF Bay Area and find something easier to pay for and find a better job for me and more opportunity for Roy. I was doing numerous job searches.
I won’t now go into all the gory details … but it was a general mess for quite some time … with unscrupulous realtors and contractors that cheated us and others … with a bank that we had to fight to get to cooperate with us … with a car accident lawsuit … with a health insurance lawsuit … and with numerous lawyers helping us. The details aren’t important at this time. What is important is … we got out from under the house mortgage; we got out from under the lawsuits (winning on them both); we got out of the Bay Area; and I was transferred/promoted to the EDD in Sacramento. There’s more, but it doesn’t really matter. We won. That’s all *we* cared about. Roy left his very minimal part time job to move with me and to focus on our two private businesses, and we moved to Placerville (love it love it LOVE it up there) so that I could start working at the Central Offices in the State Capitol, 2 blocks from the Capitol Building.
That in itself was more complicated than apparent on the surface but I’ll just put out this much. I was told on a Thursday night that I was to start working in Sacramento on the following Wednesday when I still lived in the Bay Area. I stayed with my sweet, wonderful, college-age daughter for a few days after driving the first day to Sacramento from my home in the Bay Area, leaving at 3AM in a driving wind & rain storm. She was awesome in bailing me out of a jam until we could find somewhere to stay until we got a place to live. (There aren’t many college girls that would allow or want their mother to stay on their couch for a few days. She’s an awesome human being and I love her dearly.)
There are a lot of things that I have left out of this just to shorten this story. The story has been one comedy of errors after another. I say comedy because I might as well laugh. Otherwise, I’d sit in the corner and cry all day long. We just know that *WE* are ok … and that life goes on … and that we won.
So since that time … I moved for higher pay … and was promoted again … and received a pay raise (I will say … when I work … I am a HARD worker … and at least they rewarded that) … but the economy for hiring still was terrible, and the government jobs were few and far between as their economy was just as bad if not worse. So Roy worked our businesses … and continued to look. However, the economy has been hard on businesses … and his private mobile DJ business has suffered big time, because when the economy is bad, people will not have parties or pay for music services. Then … in the midst of it all … the IRS found a huge mistake we’d made in our taxes the year we were trying to move and sell the house and fight lawsuits and everything else … and they hit us with a large amount due. We worked that out and have carried on.
So in any event we have struggled but made it work. At least we got the house sold and the lawsuits, etc, handled and the bills paid. Sometimes we needed help from my dwindling IRA that also wasn’t earning much interest due to the bad economy … but we have made it work, which is all that really matters. We have met great friends and we have made awesome political contacts and we love where we are (as long as the current federal government fools don’t mess it up too).
Life goes on. What can I say? You make the best of what you have and carry on. What more can you do?
… so Roy continued to search … and search … and search … and search … and search … and SEARCH …
… and I had started looking for another promotion or a better job myself … yet again … to try to supplement the massive Taxmageddon that is coming from the idiot in the White House in 2013 …
So … at the beginning of December … Roy was called back about a job he applied to in March of this year. We’d nearly forgotten about it. Last Friday, December 14, 2012, he was interviewed. They called and offered him a job on Tuesday, December 18, 2012. He starts after the 1st of the year, in January 2013.
Then today … my last day of work before I take a Christmas “vacation break” until after Christmas, I received more good news. A promotion that I have worked for and asked for and applied for and wanted … came through effective today.
Our house may not have all the funds it wants right now … but we are definitely “Christmassing it” already. We choose to look for the good in things. We hope you do too.
Joy to the world …
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US …
and JOY TO *US* …
JOY TO ROY AND JILL!
Always look for and work toward the good. It is well worth it, no matter what is going on in life.
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