A bit of joy sneaking its way back in

Found myself singing cheerfully while walking out to my car yesterday.

Used to do that all the time...pretty much all day long, around the house, I was singing. That stopped happening a while back. Heard myself singing today and thought, "Hey, I remember that guy. Kinda liked him. Hope he sticks around a while."

Probably has something to do with the fact that I mailed out a few thousand in checks over the last two days and managed to pay off all the debts I'd been saddled with before moving out and getting my own non-joint bank account, except for the bankruptcy payments and the IRS debt. 'Course that still leaves me plenty to spend the next few years paying off, but all the same it's a very satisfying bit of symbolic progress. Heaven knows I've been squeezing the pennies for months. Now I can turn my attention to the IRS -- get those monthly payments scheduled, hunker down, and finish digging out of the hole, which will take years rather than months. But paying off that $1,300 ambulance bill from the time Anya had to go to the emergency room two years ago...[sigh of satisfaction] I'm gettin' there. Since I moved out I've known I was finally moving in the right direction financially (even with the massive legal fees), but it's always nice to pass a milestone and feel the progress getting made.

Plus, it looks like Anya or Natasha or Kinya or even all three may be able to get jobs at the Russian Bear, working for my friend Ayát, who himself lived in an Almaty children's home for a few years after his mother died, and is a big fan of the Troika. Woo-hoo!

So, a good couple of days. Have to sign off now; going to go see my kids act in their church play.