Everwhere is walking distance if you have the time

[ClingingToHope]

Journaling.

Tomorrow I take my daughters to the car lot to test drive a 2009 Hyundai Accent. I really wanted to buy a domestic car -- I deal with UAW people occasionally for my job and I didn't want the grief -- but in the $11,000 range this was just a better choice.

The car was listed at $10,989. I know the owner of the lot and asked if he could do tax title and license for $11,000. He came down to $11,107. That means I'll have $999 left over from the payoff of the car that was just totaled.

All in all a good deal.

Girls are over and have two friends staying the night. I've mostly stayed upstairs and let them roam free. D9 is doing soooo much better right now. A totally different kid from six weeks ago. Progress.

I worked until 6 p.m. and picked them up. XW had a couple of boxes of Christmas stuff for me. It used to be my mom's. I'm guessing she thinks this is a nice thing to do. I mean I forgot she had it and I know other X's would have just tossed it.

Me? I still struggle when she does that. I feel like I'm being chloroformed from the house.

I took the girls and their friends to a Christmas store to buy ornaments. We've been adding a handful each year to my tree -- a nice tradition separate from XW. At the store I just thought "choose joy."

So much is looking up lately. Just choose joy.

Things with prof-40 are at a standstill. She has that drama with her STBXH and she says she and her family has been sick.

Not much else I can do but wait. I have her number. If nothing in a week I'll call to say hi or see if I should just move on. I'm still toying with calling the DateHookUp girl who suddenly dropped out of contact three weeks ago. I'm just curious as to what happened.

This online thing is so ... frustrating at times.

Since I have a couple of extra bucks, I'm planning on taking the girls to the gym twice this weekend. We need to get moving again.

My main job is going well and my winter side job -- basketball scorekeeping -- starts Monday. So I'm going to be pretty occupied anyway for the next few months.

Life soldiers on.