Wonderful news!!!......

"Live today to it's fullest, for tomorrow may never come" Upon returning to my office after lunch, I noticed someone had left me a voicemail message. After accessing the message, it was Mike Price, the child support enforcement officer for Dallas County. He said he was finally getting to review the information I had faxed him 2 months ago. He said he started to compare my information with what he had and he stated it would take him hours and hours so instead he was going to send me copies of all the payments that I had paid to the state and he wanted me to compare that to my information from the Guardian Ad Litem and report any discrepancies I noted. But the best part is he said he was granting my request to have the arrearage reduced from $400/month to the $200/month I had requested. After a year of dealing with this issue, finally I am getting this somewhat straightened out . I don't know if this will kick in on next weeks check or the following but I will call payroll on Monday and find out. Read alot more in Dr. Phil's book and I am seeing things in a whole new light. I am working hard and will continue to work hard to implement many of the things suggested in the book. One of the main themes in the book is letting go of the way you have been doing things. Even if you think you are right, if it is not working, if you are not achieving the results you want, then do something different. I wish I could have bought this book a year ago, heck I wish I could have had it 15 years ago. But it is never too late to change the way you do things. But I am the only one capable of changing my ways and finding other ways to do things. As for Tam, I have said goodbye and I have forgiven her for quitting so easy on us. I am not going to allow her or my feelings for her control me any longer. My journey now is about me, about finding out just what I can be. I have to move past her in order to heal, to grow further into being the kind of person I want to be. I have been so angry at the world, and certain people from my past in particular (as far back as high school) that it has cost me 20 years of my life. I will no longer dwell on them or my past. Daniel Zinsmeister, David ???, Michael Groff, Steven Tschirhart, and Dawn Shelton, you will no longer control my future nor cloud my past. I forgive all of you, not for you, but for me and my peace of mind. My anger towards all of you has cost me friends and more, the love of my life, my soulmate. I will not allow that to happen ever again. I have things I want to accomplish while I still have life left in me and to continue my deep seated feelings of anger and hostility towards all of you will only keep me from accomplishing what I want. Only I can release myself from these chains. I don't know where I will go in this world or what I will ultimately accomplish, but I must find out just what that can be. I have finally realized what I have known all along. I want to be a photojournalist. I want to tell stories, both with pictures and words. I have always enjoyed photography. Many years ago I had dated this young woman that just happened to be physically handicapped. I admired her strength and determination to raise her son on her own as best as she could. Without feeling pity for her I wanted to take the kind of photo's that when she looked at them, she would feel as though she was there. I have never lost that desire, but since March of 2003 when I started this blog to keep our families informed of our life in RC (and subsequently my life back here) I have come to the realization that I want to tell the story with words as well as photos. Because of this desire, I am going to change one of my other blogs, themacman, into a place of practice for this purpose. I will probably rename it, although I do not yet know what that title will be. I am going to upgrade to blogger pro so that I may post photos right there instead of just having links. This will still be my forum for my life and what I am feeling. Once I get this going, I hope anyone that reads it will please take time to critique both the writing and the photos, as that is the only way I am going to get better at it.