At the tail end of April, I got into a minor car accident. I was leaving to go to work, and I realized I had left my phone at home. So I went around the block to go get it. The street that we live on is incredibly narrow - if anyone parks on the street on either side it forces the rest of us to drive in the center. Now, for those of you who know me well, you will not be surprised to know that because I am, in the parlance of hip lingo, a "goody-two-shoes", I try to move back over to the right side of the road once I have passed a parked car on the side of the street. That's exactly what I did, and since I had trouble finding the driveway to my house due to people having parked their cars on either side of our driveway, I had to slow down. And because I had been concentrating on finding my driveway, I did not check to see if someone was behind me. Which there was. And as soon as he saw that I had pulled back over to the right instead of driving down the center of the road like everybody else, he assumed I was parking. Which I wasn't. So I turned left into my driveway as soon as I found it, and he sped up - pulling my front end along with him.
According to him, this was my fault.
According to the police that showed up, it was both our faults.
According to the insurance company that debated whose fault it was for over 2 weeks, it was my fault. So I have to come up with my entire $1000 deductible to pay for my damage. And since the insurance company has declared that it was my fault, my insurance just shot up.
My wife is currently still unemployed, and I only earn about $280 weekly, after taxes and insurance.
My wife's aunt is still hanging on by a thread, and of course the stress associated with that has not come easy.
As you know in earlier posts of mine I had re-discovered the Hawaiian healing art of ho'oponopono, and I was inspired to create a line of ho'oponopono items - none of which have sold. I sent images to Dr Joe Vitale who provided the ho'oponopono training, but I never heard from him. I'm not too surprised by that, though. He has his own business empire to tend to.
We rarely get to hang out with any friends or family because I work in an industry that caters specifically to people on vacation - so there is no such thing as weekends off or spring, summer or winter break. Those unfortunately are the busiest days of the year for me, which means my off time is everybody else's workdays. Which means I never get to see my friends or family for holidays, weekends or even barbecues.
Because of all of this, as well as other factors, my wife and I have not been able to get away for any sort of a vacation for over a year and a half. The constant grind from work and now the added stress of college as well as all of the above things I have mentioned have really begun to wear me down.
And so, I have withdrawn myself from any sort of social contact. This is my standard mode of self protection, so I meant no offense if you haven't heard from me in a while.
Don't get me wrong, I understand there is no such thing as a "normal" life - that just doesn't exist. Life is what you make of it. And despite all of the above perceived troubles in my life, I actually have a very good one. I only wish it wasn't quite so lonely at times. That's the one that really makes things difficult. It's really hard to hear about all of my friends on Facebook or family telling me about how they did "such-and-such" on their weekend off, or went to this place or that on summer or spring break, or that the family got together for Thanksgiving, and sorry you had to miss out. That one is a bit painful.
Anyway, I just thought I'd stop by and explain my situation to the virtual world out here. I promise I will make more of an effort to return to 'the real world'. Just please understand it's going to take some time.
To your success and mine,
J.C.
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