A New Days Horizon

 I haven't written in forever...so much has happened it's unreal.
Six months ago I was arrested and thrown in jail for a sexual assault case of which I was innocent, however, backwoods justice being what it is I was afraid I was going to prison.

Finally, in November shortly before my preliminary hearing my attorney convinced the county prosecutor to drop the charges.
He dismissed them without prejudice meaning that any time in the next five years they have the option to refile charges.

While out on bond I started dating a woman I met in a gas station buying cigarettes one night. She thought I was cute and knew I lived at a local motel so she went there after she got off work. Now we have our own place.

She's got 3 kids so now I find myself playing the tentative role of step father. Its a situation I'm relatively new to and it definitely feels unfamiliar. Those of you who have followed my writings for a while understand what I mean by this.

I'm the assistant manager at a local fast food franchise as well. I got my girl a job there after her job at a prison fell through and now she's the store manager. I'm currently looking at getting a different job at a co-op in an unincorporated town a few miles away that my girlfriends oldest daughters step mother told me about.

I've been clean from meth and weed for about eight months now, my girlfriend is a recovering meth addict as well, she has a little over eighteen months clean and wants to go back to school this year to get the last couple credits she needs to get a job as a substance abuse counselor.

Its weird to think that at this time last year I was sitting in a in a cheap rundown motel shooting meth and doing maintenance work for room and board.

This lifestyle is strange and foreign to me and at times I miss the freedom of being an outlaw but there comes a time when a man must choose which road he travels.