Digital Impulses

Never Prouder!: My son has graduated from High School

Tonight was a night I really thought might never get here.  This long journey started back in September of 2003 and has led through some rough patches.

But!  He did it.  The Teenager has GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL!!!

Tonight his mom, girlfriend, another good friend, his aunt and I drove over to Gardena High to watch the ceremony where the teenager and his classmates went through the traditional Graduation ceremony with all of the pomp and circumstance befitting such a monumental life event.

The ceremony was loud, boisterous, crowded and yet ultimately, very fun.  I shot a bunch of pictures and got some video also.  After the graduation ceremony we drove home and had my mom stop by for some pizza, cake and shooting of even more pictures.

Wow, what a relief.  No more stressing out about uncompleted homework assignments and all the other trials and tribulations associated with guiding a kid  and then a teenager through their school years.

We did it A.J.  Actually, YOU DID IT.

I am more proud of you than you can ever imagine. Rock on, A.J!

Drama with Pete

So this evening, before going up to PV to play Scrabble, my sister, mother, sister-in-law and myself met up at the El Torito Grill in Manhattan Beach near the corner of Artesia and Sepulveda to celebrate my brother's birthday.

What an unmitigated fucking disaster.

The service was abysmal, my food was spicy, the drinks took FOREVER to come to the table and the harried, scatter-brained waitress kept forgetting stuff that we ordered.  To top it all off, she brought my brother a hot fudge chocolate cake that was *cold* and then grimaced and said " Sorry.  I don't have anyone to sing you Happy Birthday" and left.

She then returned to the table moments later and stated that she "took a couple of the desserts" off of the bill to make up for the bad service.  Well, that did little to mollify my brother's incediary temper and so by the time the bill came to the table, my brother was steaming hot.

He grabbed his coat and keys, told his wife that he wanted to leave and then made perfunctory good-bye gestures to us outside the restaurant and proceeded to blow out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed, even going to the extent of ignoring a wave from me as he left.

This obviously left everyone feeling terrible and so we got into it over SMS text messages as I was driving up to Palos Verdes.  I took the time to mention to my brother how bad we all felt at his behavior and I got the token apology in response.

The dysfunction in this family seems to reach new and epic proportions with every family gathering.  I truly wonder how bad it has to get before it gets any better.  I hold little hope.

*sigh*.

Ho-Hum Thursday

Not a whole lot going on.  Issues with the teenager are still lingering. 

As a matter of fact, I just returned from a rage-fueled drive to the Manhattan Beach Pier because I got really, really upset with him upon entering the house and being confronted with him ignoring me as I walked by his room.

For some reason it really infuriated me to know that HE is still angry and has decided to demonstrate his anger by not talking to me.  It's unbelievable. It really is.

But. Then again, I am responsible for creating the self-centered, egotistical brat with the horrible attitude, so why act surprised and hurt now the fruits of my labor are on display?

What else can be expected when there was no line of respect ever drawn and his mother and I were never on the same page when it came time to instill discipline?

I was too busy trying to be his friend, instead of a father. 

The result of that is this. It's fucking depressing is what it is.  *sigh*.

In all of this angst and turmoil with the soon-to-be 19-yr old, I did manage to find some time to switch my printers around.  Now my all-in-one Epson CX8400 Printer, Copier and Scanner is next to Zeus, my new almighty 24" iMac and all is well with the world.

Oh, and the brat's XBox360 Elite arrived via UPS from Microsoft.  One assumes it is repaired and ready to use again, but the brat showed little interest in connecting it today, so I don't know what the deal is.

*double sigh*.

2003 / 2004 all over again: My own special circle of Hell

Un-fucking-believable.

This evening I felt as if I had gone back in time 4 or 5 years, to those black, stress-filled days, weeks and months that seemed to go on forever and felt like they would never end.

The same nasty attitude.  The same lack of respect.  The same lack of consideration. The same disregard for anyone's feelings.  The same self-centered ego trip. The same acting hard to impress the friends and just shit on the loved ones.

"I don't give a fuck". 

That's what I heard ring in my ears as he turned his back on his mom and I and walked away down the street,  with his crowd of  scary-looking, zero-head, low-life, wannabe gangster friends.  He actually WALKED AWAY, PREFERRING them to his parents.  The very same parents that would lay down their lives for him without hesitation.

Sometimes you wonder just how much disappointment the human soul can take.  Well, I gotta say:  Never underestimate a person's ability to swallow shame, humiliation and disappointment.  Tonight I learned that my capacity for these things was deeper than I thought.

Just when I thought things were good and I would never have to relive those terrible moments of long ago, I opened my eyes and there I was... standing in the middle of the street, watching him ONCE AGAIN DEMONSTRATING WITH HIS ACTIONS that he cares more about the animals in the street than he does about his parents and grandmother.

He thinks time heals all wounds.  He thinks we'll get over it.  He thinks he's the victim and we're "just trippin".

He has another thing coming.

Unfortunately for you, ACTIONS SPEAK much LOUDER than WORDS, son.

You did it again.

Unbelieveable.  Or is it?  Maybe I'm the asshole who just doesn't want to "get the message" that I am not as important as I thought I was.

Well, maybe, just maybe, today I started to understand.  You won't have to do it much longer. son.

Rest assured.

Busy Saturday

Wow, what a day...

XBox shipped to Microsoft in Texas for repair
The first order of business was that I dropped off my son's XBox 360 at the local UPS office to send to Microsoft for repair.

Copying old VHS movies to DVD
After that I drove over to a video rental store that does movie transfers from VHS to DVD and left two old VHS tapes to transfer to DVD. I was quoted $50.00 and was told they would be ready by Tuesday 5/27/08.

Mom leaves on Vacation to the East Coast
After the errands in the morning, my mom and sister came to pick me up and we went back to my mom's for me to help her load her suitcases and then head off to the airport.  The trip to the airport was uneventful and we pulled up at the American terminal.  I assisted my mom with the curb-side check-in and the tagging of her luggage.  I gave the American porter $15.00 for his help and hugged and kissed my mom good-bye.  That was much less stressful than I expected.

Dinner at Tony's for Feliz's Birthday
This evening I didn't eat at Adela's as today was my mother-in-law's birthday.  Instead, my son and his girlfriend, my wife, her mom and I drove over to the Redondo Beach Pier to have dinner at Old Tony's restaurant.

The food was great, the atmosphere was even better and we had a great time.  After dinner, I came home to wait a little while before leaving for Palos Verdes to play Scrabble with Bert.

Scrabble at Bert's
Scrabble at Bert's was sos-so.  I one 1 out of 3, and that made me 2 out 7 for the weekend. I am not playing badly, it just seems like Bert is on a gold strwak of getting the power tiles and/or incredibly friendly tiles at the time that he needs 'em.  Ah, well.  Nothing for it but to trudge forward and wait for the tide to turn.

Drama with David

So I saw my sister at the donut shop this morning and she tells me that there was a really bad situation at her house last night involving David and the mother of his child.  We spoke for a few minutes in the parking lot of the donut shop and from what Isa was able to tell me, things escalated to the point where the police was called.

It wasn't very clear to me EXACTLY WHY they fought this time around except for the fact that David got some advice from other family members about going on Disability or some such thing.

Its clear that things have reached an untenable situation with these people and something needs to be done.  A family intervention may be required before my sister ends up in the hospital in a complete nervous collapse.

God, what a clusterfuck.  And I don't see an easy or efficient way out of this, considering the fact that there is an infant involved.

Removing the Urinary Stint: 2nd procedure at Good Samaritan

SO, this morning, after a little adventure with our dog Mamas who decided to scamper out the door as we were getting ready to leave, we took off for the hospital and found relatively light traffic, arriving at the hospital just a couple of minutes after our slotted 1030 schedule time.

The process of getting registered was pretty painless aside from a little flare up between the wife and son. I had blood drawn, an EKG and an X-Ray (regardless of the one that I took with me from the doctor's visit just 48 hrs. before).

I was eventually called and taken to an area where I was sent to do yet another exam, something called a "KUV", which is a scan of my kidney of some kind.  Once that was done the family and I were taken to the 3rd floor where we were given a bed in a curtained off area and I changed into the hospital garb and lied in the bed to wait to be wheeled away.

Amazingly enough, YET ANOTHER technician came by my bed to do yet ANOTHER X-Ray, this time it was for an X-Ray of my chest.  It took just a moment and a few moments after that I was wheeled away to have the procedure done.

I was attended to by a very nice Anesthesia doctor who explained everything to me and made me feel much more comfortable than the other doctor who was my anesthesiologist on 3/13 during the procedure to pulverize the Kidney Stone.

Once I was in the operating room, the Anesthesiologist gave me some pure oxygen and then a few moments later he stated to me that he would be giving me some medicine to actually put me to sleep. 

Boy, did it ever.  When I opened my eyes again, I was being rolled down a hallway and it was all over.  I was taken to recovery and I just stayed there for a while and rested and recovered.  Eventually a middle eastern nurse came to my bed and started trying to get my urinary catheter removed.

The Catheter Removal Nightmare
What took place over the next 90 to 120 minutes was a painful nightmare almost too terrible to recount.  The middle eastern nurse in the recovery room, along with the help of another male nurse, were unable to remove the catheter.

Back in the area where my family was waiting for me, a total of five nurses (FIVE!) spent well over an hour prodding, pulling, yanking, twisting and shoving, trying desperately to get the catheter removed.  At one point , a call to my doctor was placed and he basically told them that "it has to come out, so pull it out..."

They asked me to turn over on my right side and when I did that, something loosened because not too long after that the hellish episode ended and the blasted catheter came out.

So much time had gone by that I was 100% recovered from the Anesthesia.  I got dressed, gathered up my stuff and had them wheel me out in a wheelchair down to the lobby to wait for my son to bring the car around.  As soon as the car got there, I practically lept out of the wheelchair and jumped into the car, feeling absolutely a-w-e-s-o-m-e for the first time in the last month.

The Kidney Stone nightmare starts to recede into a bad memory, thank God.

Arturo Sandoval in concert: A Review

So this evening my Mom picked me up at home around 1730 and we drove over to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Art and met up with Pete and Patricia to see Arturo Sandoval in concert.

What an Experience!

Truly at a loss for words, for two hours last night, I was about 200 feet from pure genius. I knew a little about Sandoval, I knew he wasa jazz musician of great renown, but other than that, not much.

Wow.  Arturo Sandoval is truly a wonderful, masterful Latin jazz virtuoso.  The band he had playing with him was nothing than the very best of the very best.  The drummer, the percussionist, the bassist, the piano player... all of them were absolutely awesome.  The concert lasted 2 hours and it was an absolute delightful assault on the senses.

It's evident that the people on stage are the best of the best and they played like it.

Arturo Sandoval and his band are a great live act and I will be sure to see him the next time he comes to this neck of the woods.  Highly recommended.

The day of Mom's B-Day

Pretty good day, got through it with relatively little discomfort.  Among the people who called on my status were: Isa, Dad, Pete, Mom, Bert and Patty.

The day at work went well. I was actually feeling pretty good at work, with very minor pain. During the day at work I made an appointment made to see Dr. Bogaard, the Urologist recommended to me by my regular doc, Camilo S. Jorge.

Also towards the end of the day, I got an email from Mr. Smalley at Lloyde High School, inviting me  to come and speak again at Lloyde HS Career day.  That was pretty cool and I am really looking forward to it.

Celebrating Mom's Birthday
Later in the evening Mom, Isa, Pete and his family, the wife, my and his girlfriend and I all met at the Macaroni Grill in Torrance to celebrate mom's birthday. The food was good, the service was OK and there were no issues.  Mom seemed to have a good time and she was very happy with the flat screen LCD panel that I bought her as a gift.

All in all, aside from the Kidney stone issue, it was a good Monday.

Aldo: Voicemail message from his Attorney

I just returned from lunch to find a message on my work voicemail. In the message he sez he just barely received the case notes from the P.D. and will be looking at the documents today and will show up in court tomorrow morning at 1030.

The actual case is set for 0830 and he says he has to be in court in Van Nuys first thing in the morning and will be showing up in room 240 in Inglewood tomorrow morning at 1030.  In the message he states that he can't predict what will happen tomorrow, that we need to wait until tomorrow to see how things play themselves out.

The fact that he just barely got the case notes today, a few hours before tomorrow's court date is unnerving.  He hasn't been to see Aldo, has not spoken to the D.A, etc.

I suspect things may not have an optimal result tomorrow morning and that portends to much drama for me emanating  from the women directly involved in this case that are family members of Aldo's.

I can't see the light yet at the end of this tunnel.  That sucks.