Summer Time is Here

I borrowed a couple hundred from my roomate so I am getting my motorcycle next week! To say I'm a little excited would be a gross understatement. I gotta get plates for it, get insurance set up, and find a helmet that fits but... other than that, I'm good to go! Hope we get hit with some decent, warmer weather in the coming weeks so I can get some good riding in. I put my two weeks notice in at the phone job. I really don't need it and can't stand it. I also realized that once I'm not paying on my bike or the few hundred on my credit card, that will free up a LOT more money per month. Several hundred actually which is about what I make at the 2nd job...

I can't wait to have my weekends free... then I have no excuse to write... :P

The gym is really calling my name. I think I weigh more now than I ever have before. Blegh... but whatever. I need to cut out the pop and the fast food. That phrase keeps popping up and I know what I need to do but I don't for some reason. It's hard but I need to get off my butt and motivate myself to go exercise. And I have a wii so I have no excuse. Shoot, do the boxing for a couple minutes and that'll make ya sweat.

Although CA is still very attractive, if I'm not happy and content here, I won't be happy and content anywhere. I'm really focusing on accepting life the way it is. I think it's been helpful that my former boss was moved to another position. My focus is just shifting, I guess. I've thought of moving back to Valpo but really not sure. I think I might stay in Demotte but move soon and try and find a newer, nicer place to live. I might get licensed to foster in the next year or so. As long as I have a roomate who can pass the background checks, which I do, then I can contact an agency (other than White's, where I work, of course) and get licensed. Kind of scary but I think it would be a great challenge. One of the hardest but most enjoyable parts of my job is learning how to parent kids, especially the difficult ones. Some of the stuff would blow your mind.

Foster Parents

Nothing tugs at the heart strings quite like a little girl screaming for her mother... as you drive in the opposite direction. All while knowing the pain of that separation is better than the ramifications of allowing immediate reunification... or no removal to begin with.

There still seems to be this stigma in our culture about foster care, as if the foster parents are to blame for the problems in our society... while all along, the birth parents should be the targets. Now, let's assume that it's a given that there will always be people who don't belong where they are... whether it's foster parents in it for the money, judgmental people at your church, or the party animal who works for a Christian organization. There are people who sneak through the cracks, who are in it for the control, for the money, to "save" all the children out there. These people get weeded out. But for every bad seed, there are far more who are in it because they genuinely care about children.

Can these same people argue against the foster care system when a 2 year old comes in says fuck repeatedly, a 5 year old who has killed another human being, or a 4 year old with an STD? There are some who will still argue that these children should belong in their birth home... so that they can be beaten and locked in closets, told they are worthless and stupid and pieces of shit, denied food? And don't even get me started on the sexual abuse...

On top of this, there is very little money for adoption out there these days. Some children aren't getting any money. Children that will need years and years of therapy and counseling, perhaps even stays in residential care due to their extreme issues... and yet we support a war and spend billions on another countries problems while we have an endless supply of our own!?

When you raise children of your own, you have the opportunity to lay the foundation and then build on that. Yet when you foster, you take children into your home who have cracked and broken foundations... and then attempt to repair it.

The next time you encounter foster parents, just remember some of this...

Ross's Leather Pants

I was on my way to court yesterday for one of the kids on my caseload. Having the bad memory that I do, I almost always forget one thing on my way out the door. Forget to brush my teeth, forget my belt, forget my iPod. This particular day I forgot to put gel in my hair. Well, I can't stand just letting my hair sit there. I guess I feel more presentable and professional if my hair looks nice (since I don't just buzz it these days). I'm half an hour early for court so I stop by a Walgreens and finally pick out some super thick hold gel.

I know it will be really sticky but I have toilet paper in my car that I keep for emergency purposes. Spills, runny noses, emergency cleanups. I would keep paper towels but toilet paper is small and easier to hide under my seat. I get in my car and spread some gel on my hands. This stuff is super sticky and I get some on my face. So, I put in my hair, work some magic in the mirror, and then grab some of the toilet paper. The toilet paper doesn't work as I rub and rub, I just end up getting all this little pieces of paper all over my hands. I had to rub my hands together for several minutes to make them unsticky enough to put them on my steering wheel and stick shift.

It wasn't nearly as bad as Ross in the leather pants... but pretty close. I made it to the courthouse and washed my hands before I had to shake anyways hands. It was a pretty funny incident...

Meh

I love that word. Meh. I can't wait to leave this place and go to heaven. No worries, no sickness, no jobs, no drama, no negativity, no failed dreams, no false hopes, no broken relationships, no hurt children...

Maybe when you don't have any good reasons to stay here... I probably gotta put up with another 50 or so years or this crummy place until I get to enjoy eternity.

San Diego, CA

I want to move to California... if I find a job, I'm gone... I'm sick of winters, I'm sick of potholes and crappy roads, I can count my friends on one hand (that I hang out with on a semi-regular basis), I'm not going to meet a girl her and I don't want to meet a girl here, the job market is aweful here... I think I've just lived in Indiana for 21 years and it's time to move somewhere else.

And I want a new job by the end of the summer anyways. Mine isn't horrible but I am stuck unless I get a Masters... I still have zero desire to really return to school. So, we'll see. I don't know why but that's the only thing that has really gotten me excited since August is the thought of moving out there. I've never wanted to move anywhere before, I've been perfectly content here until I went out there for my brother's wedding.

So, we'll see. If God wants it to happen, it'll happen. I would have to make a certain amount but I already have several opportunities for places to rent (which is really weird) soooo...

Bosses, aka The Black Plague

Bosses are like the Black Plague... they lay waste to everything in their path, there is absolutely nothing good about them, they do nothing positive for society, and the world would be a much better place without them.

Rich

If I had a penny for every time I encountered a bad driver, I would be the wealthiest man alive in weeks...