[huntress]

Life is good here.

Closure on previous events: I decided to not file IG charges against Candice (acting dept head) provided she left me alone simply because I wanted a pleasant last semester without drama. I must have gotten old, but my happiness is far more important than revenge. She left me be and I did my thing until it was time to go.

As of last December, I was finished teaching. As of the 22nd of January, I have been effectively retired (I had tons of terminal leave). Since the beginning of May, I've been a complete and unrepentant civilian. Yes, that means I have a medical marijuana license and I shamelessly sleep anytime I want.

I'm making amends with my parents these days, too. My father was diagnosed with lupus this spring after getting progressively sicker and weaker and spending time in the ICU. I drove down and spend a couple of weeks with them to ease their burden as much as possible (and apparently, the moral support did wonders). I plan to drive back in a few weeks to check in and make sure they're all right, but things are much, much better between us now.

Last Friday night, we got a letter from the DAV advising us that I'm now officially a disabled vet. Here's how all that went down (because one word when twelve will do is a sign someone isn't really trying):

I figured I might be eligible for some sort of disability, but wasn't sure. We never counted on it. Anyway...I followed the sage advice of those who said I should suck up my country pride and go to the doc anytime something was wrong, just to make sure it got in my records. It may seem like nothing to me, but I wasn't the professional. Like I said...I'm country. We'd only go to the doc when we thought we'd severed a limb, so this was a change of approach. For the most part, I was pretty good about it.

Anyhow, so the next thing...wait. You have to understand how the system works, kinda. You get stuff in your records as you're injured (which yes, is a huge pita), then you are scheduled exams with VA doctors regarding all of your claims. They run tests, check your records, and ask you questions about it, then write their final recommendation regarding your rating status. People (online and offline--this seems to be "common" knowledge) say that when you visit the VA doc, you should be having "the worst day of your life." Yeah...I couldn't do that. I just went in and told them the blunt truth. This is what happened; this is what I can and can't do; this is how it does and doesn't bend, etc.

Based on my single sample, the honest approach is clearly the best. I came out with an initial rating of 90%, meaning that our full and probably permanent retirement is not in question now. Michelle is still working full time or close to it because she loves what she does and she wants to pay off her student loan and car before we drop that and just...be.

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