Semi-relief

I have to admit.  I have been totally selfish with this whole government shutdown.  I just want a paycheck!  We've had our fair share of financial hardship times in our marriage.  We were at a point where other than the furloughs from earlier this year stressing me out, we were financially okay.  We didn't have an over abundance of money, but we had enough to pay our bills without me stressing constantly.

(in case a certain family member is reading this - and I'm sure she isn't - we do not have a ton of money because we now live in a "mansion".  Our house payments will have only gone up $75 a month once our veterans abatement kicks in in January.  So who wouldn't have done it?  There.  I've got that off my chest.)

So when this whole shutdown thing became a reality, I started to stress out big time.  I am a planner.  I have to plan my budget.  And not knowing when we will get paid is a killer for me.  My anxiety went through the roof - I haven't been sleeping, it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest and I feel like crying at the drop of a hat.

And it didn't help that people kept telling me not to worry about it.  Hello!  Major cutback in income.  Who wouldn't stress over that?

And to top it all off, Tim is gone.  He usually can calm me down - or get me pissed off telling me to calm down that I forget about being stressed about bills.  And, if he were home while this whole mess was going on, he could at least be working with a friend to bring in some money (unless he was a lucky one who still had to go to work and work without pay - which we now found out that they will get paid but we aren't sure if it will be on the normal payday or after the government opens up.).  Of course, he is active duty right now so he is working no matter what!

I am so grateful that we have our jobs and extremely grateful that we will get our paychecks at some point.  I feel soooo terrible for those people whose income depends on tourists or depends on employees who no longer frequent their establishment because they aren't working.  I can't imagine what those people are going through!

I hate to say it, but I'm glad the republicans are making a stand.  I was happy about it to begin with, although stressed about how it affected us right now.  I guess we'll see how this goes!