So, as some might have noticed, I've been a bit distracted lately. The site news blog sometimes appears late, and/or I forget something that I'm supposed to include in the blog. Or maybe you have sent me a PM and it takes longer than usual for me to respond. And let's not talk about me being way behind in answering reviews for my premium story "Rough Stock Wranglers". Unfortunately, there's so much going on right now, that my mind is going a million miles an hour in so many different directions. I'm stressed and everything I'm involved in seems to be suffering from, not so much neglect, but a lack of focus.

Before we get into what has been going on, I want to give everyone a heads up that my site participation will most likely be sporadic over the next couple of weeks. Because of that, I have asked Cia (who has agreed) to be a secondary contact for anything Anthology related. If you're sending in a story to be proofed by the proof team, have a question regarding the anthology, or anything else, please include both Cia and myself in your PM's. For anything else, if it requires an immediate response, one of the other mods/admins might be a better bet. If you absolutely need me, you can email me at renee@gayauthors.org. The email will forward to my personal email and I'll get that even if I'm not on site.

So, what's got me so distracted? A number of things have just been adding up lately.

Family
As many who talk to me much knows, my relationship with my husband's family is strained (to say the least). That has gotten worse over the last year to where my husband has been all but disowned by his mother. I feel horrible, because I'm the reason. Not that I've told the hubby he can't see his family, but because they're trying to use me against him, and he's sticking by me. My husband is one of the most mellow people I know, but he'd finally had enough and blew up, in a spectacular way. For the most part, we've dealt with it, and it's stayed in the background. But there's been a few flare ups lately, and I just feel so bad for the hubby that he has to deal with it. He doesn't deserve any of it, but that doesn't stop them from berating him on a continuous basis. There's some other family drama with his family that, while ridiculous, we keep getting put right in the middle and for about the last month or so, I've been watching our niece's three year old little girl a couple times a week because nobody can act like the adults they're supposed to be.

On another note with family, my dad has been sick for a couple of weeks. We finally found out what is going on, and that one of his kidney's is completely non-functional at this point, and the bad kidney keeps causing infections. Dad will be undergoing surgery in the next week or two to remove the kidney and we're waiting to find out if any of the cysts or lesions that have taken over that kidney are cancerous. We're crossing our fingers, but it's scary to think about. I'm a total Daddy's Girl and my mind is constantly wondering what's going to happen. Providing nothing is cancerous, the outlook is good as he only needs one kidney, but there's still all the what ifs and they're driving me completely batty.

And the family stuff isn't over yet. Very recently, over Thanksgiving, there was a big blow up within my family. I'm not going to go into details on that, but while I wasn't directly involved, it does in a way affect me. There's a possibility that yesterday was the last time I'll see my nephew for a very long time. The not knowing hurts, and our family is in turmoil over what happened and the uncertainty of what is going to happen next.

Fraud
This one has just been a joy to deal with, let me tell you. Apparently, someone got ahold of our Verizon information and not only tried to add a new line to our account, but also purchased four iPhone 7's and charged them to our account, totaling about $3500. I never received any of the notifications about the phone purchases (which were done through bestbuy.com), but I did receive an email about the line being added. Since I knew neither myself nor my husband did it, it was clear that something was going on. There was a lot of dealing with Verizon's fraud department, who have been awesome through all of this, but then there was the police reports, going through our credit reports, doing the government identity theft stuff, and of course, setting up alerts with all of the credit reporting agencies.

It's been a nightmare, but we thought we had everything taken care of. (By the way, never think that, lol). My husband's phone started acting up, and since he's eligible for an upgrade, we figured why not. Well, with all the fraud, our order was put on hold through the credit services portion of Verizon. They told us we just needed to go to a Verizon store so that they could verify our ID and then the order would be put through. If only it were as simple as that. What they failed to mention to us at the time, is it has to be a corporate Verizon store, not just an authorized retailer. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, except it's the middle of winter, the roads have started to get bad, and the nearest corporate Verizon store is 2 1/2 to 3 hours away (one-way). So this coming week, we have to drive a total of 6 hours just to get the hubby a new phone because his job has him out on the bad roads and he can't be without a phone.

Miscellaneous
There's been a lot of little things mixed in with all of the above, but it's all minor (until it adds up). Tires on the car were bad, but we were dealing with them, until we got a flat that couldn't be repaired and ended up replacing all 4 tires. My hubby decided it was a good idea to show a coworker how flexible his glasses are (they're the kind that can be twisted, bent, etc, without breaking) and wouldn't you know, they snapped in half. I'm having my own issues with my eyes, which just keep getting worse because I have issues wearing the contacts I'm supposed to (I have Kerataconus so have to wear hard contacts and they don't seem to work well for me), so they're changing my contacts again to one that requires a 1 1/2 hour fitting before they can even order them. They're expensive, but since they're considered medically necessary, I only have to pay like a $20 copay.

Then of course, it's that time of year where the hubby and I are putting together our annual Christmas Light Show, which is actually fun when everything else is going right!

If you're still reading, then let me say, thank you for taking the time to listen. I admit that I haven't been 100% on my game recently and I hope that will change soon, but until then, if I forget something, or don't include something I should have, I'm sorry. I in no way mean to slight anybody, but right now my focus just isn't there. And if you don't see me around the site much, now you know why.

Hugs
Renee

P.S. I should note, that to those reading Studly Ranch Hands, don't worry, it will continue to post through its conclusion.