Tonight I'm having one of those nights....

The bills are overdue, we lost our home, and the dog died.

Allow me to clarify.

*First, the bills ARE overdue.  It's winter in Michigan:  cold (heat bills), dark (electric bills), slippery (son's car sliding-off-of-road bills), snow plow bills (16 inches a few days ago), Christmas and son/daughter birthdays since Thanksgiving (enough said - Best Buy!!!), Ann Arbor Board yearly bill/quarterly bill/continuing ed bill (procrastinators please raise your hands), BNI network group bill (due December).  There's also the orthodontist (past and present), lawn tractor from two years ago, ditto family room furniture, yearly musical bills for son's fiddle group and private lessons, son's senior photo bill, son's fee to accept and secure his admission acceptance to his college of choice, son's virtual Christmas gift of a very expensive video card, mother board, and additional RAM, not to mention groceries, gas, insurance, car payment, DirectTV (GRRRRR), my gift to myself of Christmas jewelry (GRRRRRRRRRRR - don't you dare...).  Did I mention the master bath has a continuous drip that my husband has succesfully fixed several time and believes is now unfixable?  Did I mention that Michigan real estate is in the midst of a "shifting" market?

I think I see the solution.  Get rid of the son.  OK, that won't work.

*We lost our home.  Well, " we" didn't lose it, our daughter lost her home and it is devastating to her at age 20.  Her first modest studio apartment was her bid for freedom.  She had been in dorms and had stepped up to paying for everything herself.  She had to - we couldn't!  I remember that she cried when she learned that her internet connection was going to cost her $60 dollars per month (Comcast, I think) since that is what the complex had contracted for, and that was without TV!  It was boiling in there in Indian Summer since she wouldn't turn on the AC - I thought her old cat was going to have a brain hemhorrage and half her plants died - but the electric bill was low!  She is evacuating the apartment tonight in a sublet to another student, leaving the free dresser and bookcase behind, plus the slightly more valuable microwave and toaster oven.  She is moving home again.  Failure, I think she sees it as, but failure with a cause!  She will be in Paris for study abroad from February to June.  There's the summer sublet to worry about - no one sublets from July to August that we're aware of, and her fall is her last semester so that is definitely a from-home adventure.  Doesn't Paris make up for this little loss in the bigger scheme of things?  Not to her, right now, as she also bids adieu to her boyfriend tonight when he returns to California to school, not to be seen again until June, or ever, if the fear in their relationship distance amounts to that.  Oh, to have so many small and big problems again, and so much to look forward to as well.

*The dog died.  OK, we only have cats.  One did die last year about this time from the pet food contamination crisis and it was devastating to me.  She was my cat and no one else seemed to care she was gone (about 14); they were worried about me though.  Antibiotics, hydration with an IV bag and a needle - never thought anyone would talk me into that - and fed her with high-calorie liquids squirted down her throat.  I wiped her clean, carried her around.  No one (including the vet) could say I hadn't done everything.  It was sad and preventable, except of course for the food.  You rarely see shows on television about cats, probably because they are so unpredictable that they are poor candidates for stardom.  Anyone out there have a cat who will perform, aside from coming running when the utensil is stricken against the food can or the dry cat food container is shaken?  We have had cats who have responded to their names and come running from outdoors; they have both been black cats who were rescued as strays from the neighborhood, the only two we have ever acquired that way.  Maybe being desperate makes a living thing more likely to respond to kindness?  Yes, in both cases I would say it is so.

*So as not to mislead, there is a dog story in this.  Somehow, despite not having dogs and not ever envisioning myself as having a dog, I am drawn to dog shows on television.  Dog Whisperer - tops for a period of time but I think even I know all of his secrets by now.  Dog shows - my daughter and I occasionally watch and are amazed at who wins.  Not the prettiest and most elegant candidates by far - I think that is why she likes it.  As a tenth grader, she isn't believing she is as beautiful as she is (she is - I know, I'm her mother, but she is) and holds out hope that the guys will eventually get the point that the fluff might be all that is there in some girls.  But tonight, Dogtown, my new fixation.  They don't fix them all but they do a really great job of trying.  Much less depressing than Animal Precinct where we get to see all the bad before the good.  Dogtown is great - if the animal cannot be placed, from my one-time viewing tonight, they just keep him at Dogtown!  So I guess the dog does not die.  Not in this show.

To wrap this up, nothing is ever really as bad as it seems.   Bills get paid, people fnd somewhere to live and occasionally go to Paris, love springs eternal (I am confident), cats and dogs find forever homes.  What's so bad about all of that?