October 14, 2009

A bit out of sorts

The last few days has given me yet more stuff to think about and try and put into some sort of perspective, especially on how it all fits into God's plan for me.

Once again finances have been a bit tight. Every paycheck between now and the forseeable future (after the first of the year) is pretty much spoken for. For the first time in a long time I had to dip into my reserves (read: savings for a rainy day I set up after I lost my last job a few years ago) to pay some mounting bills. Nothing too earth shattering, but it's all about timing....see, towards the end of the year some additional bills come into play all at once: homeowners insurance, car tags/registration, property tax and finally of course, the holidays.

Sure enough, the bills all came this last week, and I can't pay them all right now. I'll have to stagger them every two weeks when I receive another paycheck, but it literally leaves me nothing left. The disposable income I do have only ends up putting gas in my car, paying the toll road charges, and maybe a little left over for an occasional Friday lunch with my coworkers.

It depresses me. Once again another year has gone by where we can't take a vaction for more than 3 days at a time and local, I can't really afford to buy any new clothes for work, fancy lunches (I've been brown bagging the same generic meat sandwich and drinking water for a few weeks now), or Christmas presents again this year. Which also means, I can't buy myself any luxury items for myself, make repairs on the house, having to turn down evenings out with friends or God forbid any other emergencies that may crop up. It sucks and I don't really see any way out of it for at least two years (until my car is paid off), or I get a second job on top of my regular 8-5 job now, plus home chores, taking care of the dog, etc. I don't want to have to go to my parents or anyone else, but the budget is razor thin right now.

And I don't know how people do it. I know for a fact there are people out there in worse positions than us. Guy across the street lost his job about a month ago, and his neighbor has been out of work for almost three months and now the house is going into foreclosure. I spoke to my grandfather the other day and he told me about 'real' hard times....times where he slept in his car for weeks because he had nowhere to live and jobs where scarce...so who am I to complain?

As if that wasn't bad enough, I elt really humbled last night. Our other neighbors gave birth to twins yesterday. Of course I am happy for them and wish them all the best. But I can't help but feeling a bit selfish and envious that they had kids and we didn't. I so despretely wanted to be a father...to raise my own child or children...and it pretty much isn't going to happen and that saddens me. My step daughter doesn't live with us, and soon she'll be 18 and already has plans to move on with her life...and it's not like we have much of a relationship to begin with.

To have this constant reminder next door that they have children and I don't is going to be a challenge for me. Last night when I found out, it more or less silenced me and after that I really wasn't in the mood to talk and ended up having a drink and going to be early.

It's raining outside today as well, and I stare out the window with my crappy lunch, a little chilly, sitting at my desk at a job I don't really like all that much wondering yet again, "Why God?, Why?"

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