"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.