Six Months Later ...

The last six months have been pretty bad in my world.

T got seriously ill in late March and I had to make the decision to have him put down. I know it was the right thing to do. He was not going to get better and prolonging his life would have only drawn out the inevitable. I had the vet put him to sleep on April 1, his 28th birthday.

In early March, I had to go to the emergency room because I was having chest pain, numbness in my left arm, shortness of breath and lightheadedness. I thought I was going to pass out driving home from work. It totally freaked me out because I was going 70 miles an hour on the freeway at the time. Ultimately, it was a problem with my thyroid medication combined with too much stress rather than a heart attack which was a very good thing. I'm grateful for that, believe me, but still.

My job has been my own personal purgatory since I started it in February 2009 and I've had no luck finding a new one.

My life feels out of my control and I don't like it.

But really, I do have some control.

I can have some fun. To that end, I've started riding again.

I can limit my work days to ten hours a day.

I can watch my diet, limit caffeine and exercise to reduce stress.

I can start a Freedom Fund - saving six months worth of expenses so I never have to be held hostage at a lousy job.

I can really start looking at career options so I can do work that interesting, rewarding and makes a difference.

And I can write about all this on this blog.