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So this week was an adventure. I had a whole load of home visits on one day...and for the first three quarters of the day I was 0/3. Three long drives to home visits, and three no-shows. Awesome. The fourth meeting of the day actually happened. That was a relief.
The weekend was crazy. Had three kids pulled from a home (no one's fault, primary caregiver was hospitalized, other relatives were not appropriate caregivers), one kid who went AWOL for two days and ended up in the hospital. Had to pull a kid on Monday because Dad lied to my face and Mom continues to be a very difficult person. Had one kid almost kidnapped by a prominent local religious leader. Good times, overall. Except not really.
I went to a mental hospital for the first time in my life. Interesting experience. Not nearly as scary as they look on television, but this was a private facility, not a state facility, so that probably had something to do with it.
I baked some crazy cupcakes - blue cupcakes with blue frosting and whipped cream cores. Since I'm not a fan of frosting, I eat the cupcake cores with nothing but whipped cream (my mom gave me a device that cores a cupcake so it can be filled with something tasty).
Also, Dingo the dog escaped. Again. In a most spectacular fashion. When I called the local police to report him missing, I described him this: "White, with a red tint along his back till about halfway up his tail, forty to fifty pounds, wearing a black collar, a lime green harness, and likely dragging a length of chain." The officer on call laughed when I mentioned the part about the chain. She was nice, though, and took down my phone number and promised to call if someone called in about him. Cody and I walked the neighborhood calling for him, drove the neighborhood. We even split up and went in opposite directions. I checked all of Dingo's usual haunts. I even went into the cemetery across the street.
In the middle of the night. The cemetery. Now, I'm a rational adult. I'm a competent martial artist. I was still creeped out. I was also on the lookout for any pairs of caucasian men digging up graves, but I was super creeped out. I was wishing I'd had a canister of salt (inspired more by Hocus Pocus and less by Supernatural) or a better flashlight or, better yet, a shotgun loaded with rock salt (thanks, Sam and Dean). But I ventured into that cemetery (surprisingly not locked up at night despite having impressive gates) because I wanted to find my lost puppy. We prayed. We ranted. We discussed putting him up for adoption. We went home and tried to sleep. I woke up on the dot on Friday morning and heard a yip that sounded suspiciously like Dingo's. And there he was, sitting outside the fence. Some soul had wrapped his chain around a fence post and left him there for us to find. God answers prayers, kids, even ones that seem silly.
(Although I did entertain the notion that our next door neighbor, who bears the brunt of Dingo's yipping, might have kidnapped him for the night just so he'd be quiet.)
Court on Friday was crazy because we had a bunch of emergency hearings shoved in with a trial (that we were all pretty sure would settle). The emergency hearings involved my almost-kidnapped kid and parents who are very acrimonious and are likely to get divorced. I was pretty proud of being able to use some lawyer know-how to stop the angry mom from trying to make an end-run on the child custody arrangement we're going for. Alan, the assistant attorney general I work with, invited everyone in court (staff, not parents) to lunch, and I was the only one who said yes. It was slated to be an awkward lunch. If his girlfriend showed up, I'd have been super third wheel. If she didn't show up, well...Alan is old enough to be my dad. Not sure what we have in common besides lawyering and poetry. Luckily for me, we ran into some DCFS caseworkers at the restaurant and ended up sitting with them. One of them is...like me! Mormon, feminist, well-educated, huge Supernatural fan, and is becoming a BBC Merlin fan. We talked about YA lit (Divergent, Mortal Instruments series) and how, on BBC Merlin, Uther must die. She and I had a great time. I think our super geeking out was entertaining to the others. So what could have been an awkward lunch with Alan ended up being a super fun lunch with Kobie. Win! And now I have two new Facebook friends (I am still weird about friending people I don't know in real life).
Cody had scout camp, so Angela came over, and we ate pizza, shepherded the dogs, and watched some Stargate, which was really good times. On Saturday I hung out with my girl Sei, who I haven't seen in forever, and then went to the Pride festival to hang out with my girl BenTen. When we were discussing weekend plans, the lawyers were planning on getting together to play tennis. When they asked what I was doing, I told them I was going to the Pride festival, and they all looked a little taken aback. When I told the social workers I was going to the pride festival, they were all very enthusiastic. Mostly I was going to hang out with BenTen. We ran into an old friend of ours from college. Chris was an artist and an improv actor, and apparently he is now all graduated and still doing both things, and very successfully! He's a super sweet guy, and lots of girls in college liked him. I bought a couple of his posters, one of which I plan on hanging in my office since it says "Family" (admittedly the family in question is the Skywalkers, but hey, that describes the dysfunction of some of my kids' families to a T). Also, I bought a couple of skirts.
I cannot unsee the one dude who was wandering around wearing nothing but a rainbow jock strap. Urgh.
I got lots of sun this week. When I was between meetings, I hung out at the library park and got paperwork done. Also, I am making an earnest attempt at learning shorthand, because I think it could come in super handy in my job in the future (even though court proceedings and important interviews are always video recorded).
Also, I learned that if I'm feeling lazy, as a matter of self-care I should be lazy, because then there comes a point where I feel like I've been lazy too long and I am all enthusiastic about doing chores. Unfortunately, when I am too lazy or don't mark completed tasks in HabitRPG, I actually die.
Whoops. Better keep better track of that business.
All in all, however, this has been a good week, and I am hoping next week will be calm. The judge who usually presides over my cases is going on vacation for the first time in years, so there will be fewer court hearings this month. Also, my coworkers are planning on pranking one of the other lawyers in the office, and since I went to law school with him and have goofy pictures of him, I am assisting in the pranking.
Hope this next week is a good one.
The weekend was crazy. Had three kids pulled from a home (no one's fault, primary caregiver was hospitalized, other relatives were not appropriate caregivers), one kid who went AWOL for two days and ended up in the hospital. Had to pull a kid on Monday because Dad lied to my face and Mom continues to be a very difficult person. Had one kid almost kidnapped by a prominent local religious leader. Good times, overall. Except not really.
I went to a mental hospital for the first time in my life. Interesting experience. Not nearly as scary as they look on television, but this was a private facility, not a state facility, so that probably had something to do with it.
I baked some crazy cupcakes - blue cupcakes with blue frosting and whipped cream cores. Since I'm not a fan of frosting, I eat the cupcake cores with nothing but whipped cream (my mom gave me a device that cores a cupcake so it can be filled with something tasty).
Also, Dingo the dog escaped. Again. In a most spectacular fashion. When I called the local police to report him missing, I described him this: "White, with a red tint along his back till about halfway up his tail, forty to fifty pounds, wearing a black collar, a lime green harness, and likely dragging a length of chain." The officer on call laughed when I mentioned the part about the chain. She was nice, though, and took down my phone number and promised to call if someone called in about him. Cody and I walked the neighborhood calling for him, drove the neighborhood. We even split up and went in opposite directions. I checked all of Dingo's usual haunts. I even went into the cemetery across the street.
In the middle of the night. The cemetery. Now, I'm a rational adult. I'm a competent martial artist. I was still creeped out. I was also on the lookout for any pairs of caucasian men digging up graves, but I was super creeped out. I was wishing I'd had a canister of salt (inspired more by Hocus Pocus and less by Supernatural) or a better flashlight or, better yet, a shotgun loaded with rock salt (thanks, Sam and Dean). But I ventured into that cemetery (surprisingly not locked up at night despite having impressive gates) because I wanted to find my lost puppy. We prayed. We ranted. We discussed putting him up for adoption. We went home and tried to sleep. I woke up on the dot on Friday morning and heard a yip that sounded suspiciously like Dingo's. And there he was, sitting outside the fence. Some soul had wrapped his chain around a fence post and left him there for us to find. God answers prayers, kids, even ones that seem silly.
(Although I did entertain the notion that our next door neighbor, who bears the brunt of Dingo's yipping, might have kidnapped him for the night just so he'd be quiet.)
Court on Friday was crazy because we had a bunch of emergency hearings shoved in with a trial (that we were all pretty sure would settle). The emergency hearings involved my almost-kidnapped kid and parents who are very acrimonious and are likely to get divorced. I was pretty proud of being able to use some lawyer know-how to stop the angry mom from trying to make an end-run on the child custody arrangement we're going for. Alan, the assistant attorney general I work with, invited everyone in court (staff, not parents) to lunch, and I was the only one who said yes. It was slated to be an awkward lunch. If his girlfriend showed up, I'd have been super third wheel. If she didn't show up, well...Alan is old enough to be my dad. Not sure what we have in common besides lawyering and poetry. Luckily for me, we ran into some DCFS caseworkers at the restaurant and ended up sitting with them. One of them is...like me! Mormon, feminist, well-educated, huge Supernatural fan, and is becoming a BBC Merlin fan. We talked about YA lit (Divergent, Mortal Instruments series) and how, on BBC Merlin, Uther must die. She and I had a great time. I think our super geeking out was entertaining to the others. So what could have been an awkward lunch with Alan ended up being a super fun lunch with Kobie. Win! And now I have two new Facebook friends (I am still weird about friending people I don't know in real life).
Cody had scout camp, so Angela came over, and we ate pizza, shepherded the dogs, and watched some Stargate, which was really good times. On Saturday I hung out with my girl Sei, who I haven't seen in forever, and then went to the Pride festival to hang out with my girl BenTen. When we were discussing weekend plans, the lawyers were planning on getting together to play tennis. When they asked what I was doing, I told them I was going to the Pride festival, and they all looked a little taken aback. When I told the social workers I was going to the pride festival, they were all very enthusiastic. Mostly I was going to hang out with BenTen. We ran into an old friend of ours from college. Chris was an artist and an improv actor, and apparently he is now all graduated and still doing both things, and very successfully! He's a super sweet guy, and lots of girls in college liked him. I bought a couple of his posters, one of which I plan on hanging in my office since it says "Family" (admittedly the family in question is the Skywalkers, but hey, that describes the dysfunction of some of my kids' families to a T). Also, I bought a couple of skirts.
I cannot unsee the one dude who was wandering around wearing nothing but a rainbow jock strap. Urgh.
I got lots of sun this week. When I was between meetings, I hung out at the library park and got paperwork done. Also, I am making an earnest attempt at learning shorthand, because I think it could come in super handy in my job in the future (even though court proceedings and important interviews are always video recorded).
Also, I learned that if I'm feeling lazy, as a matter of self-care I should be lazy, because then there comes a point where I feel like I've been lazy too long and I am all enthusiastic about doing chores. Unfortunately, when I am too lazy or don't mark completed tasks in HabitRPG, I actually die.
Whoops. Better keep better track of that business.
All in all, however, this has been a good week, and I am hoping next week will be calm. The judge who usually presides over my cases is going on vacation for the first time in years, so there will be fewer court hearings this month. Also, my coworkers are planning on pranking one of the other lawyers in the office, and since I went to law school with him and have goofy pictures of him, I am assisting in the pranking.
Hope this next week is a good one.
