Long week. Long, tense, stressful, on edge week full of fear and loathing. Please let it be over.

The good news is that the business did great in November. The bad news is that virtually all of those invoices, due at the end of December, remain unpaid. So this week I’ve been playing the hardass with my clients, reminding them that the holidays are over and that, well, it’s be kinda cool if they could – oh, I dunno – like pay their bills and stuff. At this writing, I have assurances that the big check is going out today and that the runner-up at least has been approved, if not actually cut and out the door yet.

Kristi’s situation is pretty much what it was earlier this week. She passed a handful of her fails, and has spent the week flying under the radar, barely leaving her classroom, waiting for inevitable call or email summoning her to the dark room with the metal chair and bare swinging light bulb.

It hasn’t happened. She hasn’t heard a word about the OMG-WTF-EMERGENCY-OMG that caused her to spend her entire holiday break obsessively worrying about losing her job.

We think the entire issue may have fallen off the radar, a small crisis quickly overwhelmed by a much bigger one: the California state budget fiasco. I don’t plan to get into the politics here on R&K – it’s enough to say that Sacramento better get its act together and fast. Else, the state runs out of money in February, and then all sorts of hilarity follow. There’s a lot – a LOT – of frantic discussion right now over how to keep the schools open without state funds, should the budget deadlock continue. So we’re thinking that right now, 17 failing students aren’t the highest priority.

It’s not all worry and uncertainty here. We’re at the start of Q1 for me, which tends to be (by far) my busiest and most profitable time of the year; I have several regular clients and work coming in. Kristi teaches a core subject mandated by Federal law – thank you, George W. Bush – and she’s respected and well liked by her peers. We’re both healthy and somewhat financially solvent. For the time being, we’re holding it together.

Oh – and the bookshelves are done, waiting now only for a truck to drive them over to the house.

We’re having an unplugged night tonight. We both desperately need it.

NEWS: – There’s a new Members Only item, involving good friends of ours and some exciting news that we can finally talk about. If you’re already registered at R&K, log in and find out all about it! (And if you haven’t registered yet, why haven’t you?)