I'm back for a while

[ClingingToHope]

D14 wants to go into theater/movie production and has her heart set on UCLA -- right now. We looked up a bunch of top 10 lists -- top ten for singing, theater, acting, movie production and UCLA is on all those lists.

That's more than three years from now so we'll see.

Typing an update from the Wisconsin Dells. Had to move our annual Christmas trip to this weekend because of a bunch of conflicts.

I think next year -- Kalihari -- will be our last Christmas Dells trip. It will be our seventh year and D14 and D11 are about water parked out. Each spent maybe two hours in the water last night. Today, D14 isn't going at all and D11 isn't going either.

The only ones going back are the professor and her 11-year-old.

The Kalihari has a movie theater, indoor adventure park, driving track. It'll be a good way to wrap this tradition up.

Three weeks of basketball left and a final $500 for this season. Then a five week break until umpiring starts.

Even though I've spent a bunch this weekend, things are actually going really well on the money front. I have a schedule and a system and if nothing ever improves for me I can exist on this schedule.

Work is going well. I'm off the hit list with boss. I'm still bored as h*ll, but I'm working on some side stuff that keeps me interested. Life just rolls along.

D14 is done with the boyfriend and focusing on theater. She got the part Hedy Larue in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It's one of the leads and she's just a freshman and beat out juniors and seniors. So she's satisfied with that.

The issue now is social media/drama of high school. She was up until 1:30 a.m. last night at the resort. I thought she and her friend were working on a school dance. No. They were in a facebook argument.

That stuff makes high school even harder.

D11 has two friends with her at the resort. She had a tough December, but she's having a good January. She's still getting along well with this new friend who comes from tough circumstances.

Things with professor are going well. I like this part of the year because I have so much going on with basketball I get a lot of time to myself.

Speaking of basketball. I'm playing more and by playing more I'm playing better and when I play better I'm happier.

Here's a weird realization. When I am comfortable with money -- have some in bank and am saving -- and I'm playing basketball I'm good. That overcomes everything else. When I'm anxious about money and I'm not playing then the tension mounts. Then all the rest of it bothers me. It's like the high from running around and playing well flushes the toxins away.

Very, very, very little interaction with XW and that's good. The baby is coming some time in April or May and I'm curious how things change with the girls. One thing is she'll be off much of May, June and July. I used to be able to take the girls whenever in the summer. I'm not sure how that'll be different this summer.

But that's down the road and that'll take care of itself.