Happy New Year??

   I was asked to shovel my sad ass out of bed at stupid o'clock in the morning to get my mom to the hospital for a procedure to reduce chronic pain she's been dealing with for years. God bless her, I don't know how she does it. She's had this procedure done before and it didn't work. She wanted to try it again with a new doctor but when she got there, she changed her mind. I can't say I blame her. She's a pretty savvy consumer and just wasn't happy with how she was treated. It's December of 2020, or level 12 of Jumanji, if you will. I'm a little afraid of January.

    There's an incredible amount of pressure on 2021 not to be a colossal shit show. I can only hope for some sort of new treatment mom hasn't tried that will finally work. She's really been through the gamut of what's out there. It gets understandably depressing after a while. The romance of a New Year won't last long. 

    A new president is a bright spot for me, I have to admit. I will have to keep mum about this to a lot of my friends who were disappointed in November. We, as a family took a major economic hit over the last 3 years so I could use someone who didn't bankrupt a casino! A president, love him or hate him, is not a king. Things will not magically improve on January 22. It will take time. I'm inclined to go from optimism to how about things just not get worse? 

   2021 is going to require a lot more patience than I currently have. It would seem my only option is to keep my horizons short. This is an age old struggle for me but I'm not giving up. If I'm going to survive a Master's program, I won't have a choice. There is a ton of work ahead of me and it looks pretty intimidating from here. It would be helpful to remember that I am not obligated to pull off everything by myself. Asking for help before I get myself overwhelmed would be refreshing. 

   A decent job would also be a nice change but let's not get crazy. I still need to figure out doing what, exactly. I'll settle for something part time and for now, I may be stuck with substitute teaching, assuming there is any. My best bet is to be grateful for what we've got. Welcome 2021, behave yourself. None of us want to know if rock bottom has a basement.