This year for Christmas, my kids are going with the ex to her parents' place in Vail. They left this morning. My parents and my sister can't afford to fly here this year, and I can't afford to even take the time off, let alone travel. I don't have any close relatives within a thousand miles. I don't even have any pets at the moment, a highly unusual circumstance for me. So, for the first time in my entire life, I will be spending Christmas completely alone, at least in the sense of not having any family around.

So, if you read my last blog entry, you know I've been waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting) to hear back about a job I interviewed for (and if you didn't read it, you know now).

I've been served with papers and need someone to advise me. Trans-friendly of course, sharp and thorough but preferably not out for blood. I'd know just who to go to if I lived in Penmarris Cove, but though I feel like it at times, I'm not a character in a Susan Brown tale.

Thanks!

Erin M. (justme)

Over the course of the past seven months my elderly Dalmatian passed away while I held her; I've lost my job, used up my credit, and had to put my house up for sale; had my wife of thirteen years request a divorce, get her own place and move out; developed skin cancer (albeit a relatively mild form); and just this past week, had our beloved miniature schnauzer, our only pet, escape and get run over and killed by a speeding van.

I ran across this on a blog the other day and thought I'd share. Apparently,

Take the quiz here!

Since I started posting Leeway, I've somehow managed to get a new installment ready consistently each Saturday morning. I'm afraid that's going to change going forward. I've come to the end of the chapters I had already written when I started, and in spite of my best intentions I've only been able to find time to edit and polish each installment in time to post it, not to write any significant new material.