I can breathe again

A month ago, I went to court about my goofy arrest last year, something that only happens to homeless people.  Since I was homeless and just struggling to survive all winter and spring, I wasn't able to finish the community service or pay the fine that would have wiped it from my record. 

A month ago, in court,  I got the punishment, which included a fine due today that was about 20% more than what I currently make in a month.  Without that, last month would have been the month that I cold have finally taken another good sized step in raising up my artwork sales into an actual business.  I finally was going to have a little money to make prints of my drawings, get a phone, maybe get a camera, and some other things to increase my income.  But with the fine deadline, I focused on just trying to make money in other ways, in addition to just creating original drawings all day. 

The court system here in Winston-Salem works quite a bit differently than in California, where I spent most of my adult life.  In California, they don't want to put minor offenders in jail, the jails are always overcrowded.  They just want you to pay a fine, or makes payments.  With some of my own money and some borrowed, I went to make a partial payment today, if I could.  I didn't know if I could do that, I didn't know if I wasn't able to pay if a arrest warrant would be issued, I didn't know what would happen.  No one else seemed to know either.

It turned out, that I could not make a partial payment, BUT there's a grace period to pay the fine that no one told me about.  So I'm not going to jail in a day or two, and I have time to start cranking out the community service hours, draw as much as possible, and work on some other ideas to start earning more money with my work.  I was holding off on some ideas, not knowing if I was about to get a 30 day "leave of absence" from being an artist.  The only downside is that my fine/fees add up to $100 more than I thought.  I must have figured the court fees wrong. 
So, all in all, a good day.  OK, back to work.