Relief & Reality

RELIEF: My father had stopped into the shop this afternoon in search of his loving son and discovered I was hanging pictures with Greg at Coach Weis' house in Granger (no, I'm not advertising or, gloating, simply stating a fact... I could not care less about anything or anyone under the dome that doesn't have a direct connection to me or my personal interests... Wait, that's their unspoken policy, isn't it?). Anyway, I called the Daddy-O back once I returned to the shop. *Sigh of relief* That spot on the side of his tongue is nothing to be concerned about in a major way (i.e. cancer). That's not to say that his fight is over. It's simply not in an active state. As long as he continues to smoke, he will not help curtail the future possibility of cancer from showing up. The transitional cells appear to have taken a 'coffee break' from turning to the cancer side of existance. He, as well as everyone around him, are at some ease with this promising news. He will still have to continue to take one of the chemo-meds to help prevent future occurances from popping up. REALITY: Now my reality. This may come as a revelation to some and a reminder to others who already know. In the 1990's, I was young and stupid and did something that has come back to me in spades. I had in my possession credit cards, five to be exact, that I discovered would allow me to have and do things that I wished to do that should have not been acted upon to have or do (i.e. lack of credible funds). Well, I managed to accumulate an excessive amount of debt to these cards and found myself in deep pile of doo doo. I lived beyond my means in my twenties and I'm having to face the reality of that in my thirties. Facing about forty thousand realities to be precise (yes, forty thousand smack-a-roos). Well, guess what, they decided that it was time to hold my feet to the fire and collect their borrowed money back. For the past eighteen months I have been paying back one of those credit cards to the tune of fourteen thousand dollars. The good news is that to date, I have fulfilled my commitment to that. I'm about six hundred dollars shy. At one point, I had seriously considered chapter... whatever and, essentially cheating my way out of it but, I didn't. I stepped up to it and I'm better for it (at least emotionally, not so much financially). Well, I open my mailbox this evening and 'shock, shock, horror, horror', another credit card has decided to pursue me as well. How convienent that just as I'm finishing with one, another comes crashing in (isn't it wonderful how public records can not only help one's situation but, create more chaos in turn?). This one is suggesting that I'm indebted to them for the sum of fifty-two hundred dollars. I'm not denying the allegation, just not totally sure it's accurate to my recollection. The card has been inactive since 2003 so, I'm not sure of it's 'balance' legitimacy. Regardless, if it is indeed mine to deal with, like the one I'm currently entangled with, I will deal with that one in like fashion (everyone else gets a fair shake except, yours truly). While this may sound like me whining for sympathy, it isn't. I realize in my experience and age that we all create the life we must live up to with everything we say and do as we go through this life. I'm just not terribly happy that I was young and that stupid all those years ago. It's making the life I have now more complicated and financially challenging. As a good friend of mine from the theatre would say, 'it is what it is'. How true.