"ABC it's easy as 123...."

Those of you who have been through the trials and tribulations of Braden and school might enjoy this.

I got a letter from the school the other day. Dread filled me instantly. I sat at the kitchen counter and opened it, a feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach. Wait a minute...."It gives me great pleasure to inform you," the letter began. What the??? It went on to say, "that your child has been selected by our faculty to the Nazareth Area Middle School's "Talon Club"!!! The Talon Club has been established to honor and recognize students who have set high personal goals and strive to reach them. The recognized students have achieved academically, exhibited great character, present themselves as a positive role model or established a personal set of values admired by others. I am excited about our new members and wish to offer my congratulations to you as parents for supporting and encouraging your child."

Isn't that great? There's a display in the lobby of the school with his picture and a list of some of his school accomplishments. I'm going to go down there and take a picture of it...much to his dismay I'm sure. I'm thinking about sending a copy to some of his past teachers with a little, "TOLD YOU SO" attached.

"Someone left the cake out in the rain"

There must be some sort of black cloud hanging over my head right now...and I'd like it to go away.
We had a very nice weekend with JJ's brother. He seems to be a good kid who was obviously on his best behavior...please and thank you all the time. However, he appears to be over-medicated and is very slow to respond to questions and gets very easily confused. I'm doing a little investigating into the medicines he's taking, although I'm not sure there's much I can do about it.
While I was driving him home, I got into a little accident. There was a large accident, and traffic was detoured. I drove a few blocks on the side road, and at one of the intersections, I stopped at the stop sign, looked both ways, then pulled out a bit to see if I was able to get back to the road I wanted to be on. When I saw that I could, I pulled out into the intersection. But, there was a car driving down the street and I hit it. No one was hurt...although I could do an entire blog entry on the kid driving and his very pecular parents. The kid was obviously speeding, and I could fight this, but I don't know if it's worth my time since it happened about an hour away from home and what-not. The cop recommended I fight it, but it might cost me more to take off work and drive there than the actual fine will be.
Tuesday, I was coming home from work and stopped at the end of my driveway to get my mail as usual. WHen I was turning to pull into the garage, the mail started to slip off my lap, and I instinctively went to grab it, turning the steering wheel in the process. I hit the side of my garage! Enough to do even more damage to my car.
There's another hearing in December when we'll find out if the temporary ruling by the judge in our mortgage case becomes permanent. That would be the best case scenario. I'm trying to think positively, but the way things are going right now, it's a little tough.
And, as if all that isn't enough, I missed my period last month. I'm 99% sure I'm not pregnant, and this is the start of menopause, but it's making me miserable....well, miserabler. I have had all the symptoms of getting my period, crankiness, a couple of pimples (including the ass pimple) and a craving for sweets....but no period.
And, speaking of periods. My daughter has informed me that she's pregnant. Not interested in getting married to the 30 year old guy she's been dating on and off, and she's not sure what she wants to do with her life. She is sure she wants to keep it, but not sure about how she plans on supporting herself or the baby. I've given her all the advice I can think of, and assured her that I will do whatever I can for her regardless, but really this is her decision to make.
Stay tuned for my next post where I'm sure there will be a plague or locust to report on.

"It's a famly affair"

Well, we got a bit of good news. At least for the time being. A judge has ordered an escrow account set up, so all customers that had mortgages through the bankrupt mortgage company can continue to pay the monthly payment they've been paying, until this whole mess is sorted out. The "new" mortgage companies have to accept that this is being done and not report anyone for "nonpayment" or report anything to the credit bureau (or whatever you'd call it). At least that gives us a little breathing room, and some time. There's also a class action suit being filed against the company, but I doubt that will amount to much. There's talk of a lawsuit, personally, against the president of the company for fraud. Supposedly the company has assets of $60 million, but liabilities of $100 million. I don't particularly want to split -$40 million.

I got a call last week from the agency that has JJ's brother Andre. We've been trying to arrange some sort of visit for him, JJ and Andrew (the one that comes her semi-regularly) but JJ's caseworker has never been able to come through. We dealt with Andre's agency directly, and made it happen. He's here for the weekend. It's the first time the three of them have been able to spend more than two hours together in years. So far, everything is going great, and they're all having a blast. Tonight, the three of them and Braden and a couple of JJ's friends are at a haunted amusement park. JJ just called to check in. All out of breath from laughing so hard.

I cried at school the other day. I have a girl in my class, B. She's bright, attractive and acts like the toughest, most streetwise, slutty, foul mouthed teenager you could ever meet. Her and I usually get along and I can almost always talk her down when she goes off. The other day she got into with another student, and got really personally nasty with him. She had to write him an apology letter. She was pissed. To quote her, "I'm not writing that fucking little prick a letter, he should write me one for pissing me the fuck off." I asked her if she didn't feel even just a little bit badly for hurting his feelings, and she said no. A few minutes later, she started sniffling and said she hated me for making her feel bad for not feeling bad. She reluctantly agreed to start writing the letter, and it was the usual "I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, I shouldn't have said what I said"....then she started practically gouging the paper with her pencil. I could tell she was very angry and I warned her to be careful what she was writing, because it was, after all, in writing. She finished the letter and thrust it at me, just daring me to read it. It said, "I'm an awful person. I hate myself. My life sucks and it makes me feel good to make you feel bad. I want other people's life to suck too. Sometimes I just have to share the hate I have for me with other people. It makes me feel good and I'm sorry for what I said and that I took my hate out on you. Please forgive me." After reading it, tears started for me. When she saw me, she started crying and asked if I thought she was bad. I assured her that I didn't think that for even a minute. She said, "Miss, you have no idea how much you mean to me. You're the only person in my life who even gives a shit what I do and cares enough to tell me to "knock it off". Thanks Miss." How do you reply to that one? I gave her a hug and she asked if she could speak with the other student to apologize in person. He agreed, they did, and that crisis was over. Except for the fact that she's getting cited for what she said.

My ass pimple is going away.

Okay, you all know about what we're going through right now with our mortgage....nothing new there, except no one seems to think they can help.
My house has become infested with bugs. I went to the "bug store" as Allan would call it, and they said it was a grain weevil (?). I found the source....an unopened box of milkbones. I've removed the source, but the bugs are still around. Not as badly, but still around.
My phone stopped working. I have no dial tone on any of my landlines. The computer works, and there's a signal at the outside box. Someone was supposed to come yesterday, but they never showed, so now I have to wait again today. I should charge them the $45 every 15 minutes they're going to charge me.
And, to top it all off, I woke up this morning with a pimple on my ass.

My life sucks.

My life sucks big time.


(and I know there are people worse off than me, but right now I don't care.)