New Digs - Back with Haus

I spent a fair bit of the Christmas season packing & moving. It took 4 or 5 van-loads to transfer all of my stuff, furniture, clothes, etc. to Haus' place. Most of it went into the garage; my bedroom is even smaller than the room I had in Beaverton. Although in Beaverton I also had my own living room and kitchen and bathroom. At Haus's place I don't keep things anywhere other than my room or the garage. It's a house of constant clutter and mess, with cats and dogs that poop & pee everywhere. For some reason I fail to comprehend, they give their dogs stuffed animals as playtoys. I can't imagine a better way to train a dog to rip apart furniture, blankets and clothing. The dogs are understandably confused each time they're cussed out for chewing up some soft things, after being encouraged to chew up other soft things. Their punishment & rewards are almost completely arbitrary, poor critters. Same with the boys. It's a tough environment for me to be in... but I've lived through lots worse, and I feel like I make things better there, for both the dogs and the boys. Haus, too. I'm afraid Dana's not happy about me being there; I'm one thing that she can't completely control 'cause I'm an adult. I will be unsurprised if she becomes increasingly miserable. :( I'm trying to minimize my impact and cater to her whims... but they're pretty sporadic and difficult to predict, and I don't think it's actually my impact that's impacting her. We'll have to see, I suppose.

I'm working more and more hours at Rose City. I love it. I love teaching kids, from the UberCute 3 & 4's to the eager & bubbly 5 & 6's to the amazingly talented 7-12 kids. Boys are almost always more difficult to work with but I'm wonderfully experienced at working with (relatively) large pools of testosterone. Even when I have to crack down on the boys, they respond well and they dig me. I love seeing big smiles and hearing, "Teacher!" when the kids see me. Now & then I bump into students outside of work and they're obviously tickled pink and proud to see their own teacher out in the world. Aw. I get hugged now & then, and told "I love you" now & then. It's a wonderful job for me. The management is friendly and the other coaches are great. They're all younger, by far, which kinda means that they treat me like an adult instead of a peer. That's cool; I don't really feel any impact from any work politics, and I like that.

Joey and I are doing wonderfully! Partly because we seem super-compatible and partly because we live so far away, it feels like we're still going strong with the Honeymoon phase of our relationship. At some point we'll have to deal with conflict and disagreement, but so far it's been almost entirely smooth sailing. We see each other at least once a week, somehow... bus lines run to McMinnville for $2. She comes to visit me on some weekends and I visit her often as well. Sascha likes me just fine, and the boys have accepted Joey & Sascha. It's awesome. :)

And that's been the gist of my life since Christmas. I work 3-4 days a week, I Kazum a lot, alternate weekends are boypacked, and a lot of my free time is spent with Joey. Every few weeks I dress up and do a show and get to be a superstar celebrity with a gorgeous girlfriend. I'm not nearly as broke as I used to be, though I'm still making less than I'm accruing in back Child Support each month. :( My next paycheck should be garnished in half, though, so I'll be accruing a less Child Support debt each month. That'll also leave me less than $200 a month to live on, though. Ah, well. Even though I'm poor I'm living an amazing life and I'm very happy.