Digital Impulses

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*.

Aldo: 2nd phone conference with Francisco Zavala

Just got off the phone with Aldo's attorney. 

Unfortunately, here we are, 72 hours before court, and he *still* has not received any paperwork regarding the case from the public defender.  He states he expects to receive the paperwork soon, and that once he has received the paperwork, he will be better prepared to both talk to the DA and to go see Aldo.

He asked that we exercise some patience and have faith that everything will be O.K.

For now, he states he will call me back once he has received the report from the Public Defender and has had an opportunity to digest all of the information contained therein.

We'll see what happens.  This fucking nightmare cannot be over soon enough.

Aldo's 1st court date

And so the current level of drama regarding the teenager with the faulty judgment was ratcheted up about 4 levels today because he had his first court date and he was not released.

Family members were there from 0800 to 1600 and they got to speak to the Public Defender.  She was typically busy and harried and did not impart much information.  They judge in the case said little, other than to state that said teenager would be held until 3/6.

The ensuing drama, crying and gnashing of teeth at home because he was not released was elevated.

Not much to do now but to wait until 3/6 and see what ensues.  In the mean time, lawyerly options (costing thousands, no doubt) will be investigated.

This is a disaster.

Aldo and Fateful Actions: The Domino effect of unplanned choices

Unending Teenage Drama
So, this evening, after returning home from a visit to my mom's house, I am confronted with the news that the 17-yr-old son of a relative of my wife's was somehow involved in an incident at a local 7-11.

The way it was explained to me, the kid was with some friends at a local 7-11 when they decided to commit some sort of aggravated assault on some random person at said 7-11.  The victim was able to get the license plates from the car and reported the incident to the police.

When the kid arrived home with his mom, the authorities were waiting for him and he was arrested.  Much elevated drama, angst and gnashing of teeth ensued while the kid was hauled off by the authorities.

For the record, our family member states that he waited in the car for his friends and had nothing to do with what took place.  The security cameras at the 7-11 in question will bare all of this out.

Falling Dominoes
Like individual dominoes standing close together for the purposes of tipping one of them and causing a chain reaction, this evening's unfortunate incident has some very dangerous "dominoes" that could tip over, causing untold calamities to befall a whole group of people surrounding the pepetrator of the incident.

Unfortunately for the adults involved directly in the lives of these thoughtless teenagers, whenever they make certain choices or take certain actions without pausing to consider the consequences or ramifications of said actions - and believe you me, they spare nary a 2nd thought most times  - we are the ones left behind, scurrying around to pick up the pieces and tying up the loose ends of their latest clusterfucks.

The next week or two are going to be extremely tense and interesting as the events play out and the ultimate effects of this disaster play out upon the lives of the people with a direct relationship with Aldo.

I can hope that there will be some lessons learned here, but the truth is I am not really very hopeful.  Past actions are the best predictors of future events ad looking back at the recent past in the lives of the teenagers in my direct sphere of influence, the future looks somewhat bleak.

That's really too bad.  Here's hoping that the authorities with jurisdiction over this case take youth and other things into consideration when they proportion out due justice.

For the sake of the idiots involved who didn't exercise better judgment.

Blah Saturday and a RECORD HORRIBLE Scrabble match

Aside from going to Home Depot and CVS to buy Gorilla tape and Aluminum foil to tape up one of my office windows, I did *NOTHING* this Saturday afternoon.

HORRIBLE, DARK Scrabble session
Later in the evening, I went to Asela'a for dinner and then drove up to Palos Verdes with Bert.  Tense drive, with Bert being a prick when I brought up the fact that his wife's car was not parked in front of his mom's house the way he demands that it be done at his house.

So, coupled with his aura and the remanents of dealing with the aftermath of the Mary Jane visit to the house earlier last week, I kept falling into a somber and somberer mood as the night progressed.  By the time I looked up, I had lost both games by nearly 200 points apiece and could not wait to get as far away from Palos Verdes as I could as QUICKLY as I could.

I left after the 2nd game.  Way early.  Just after 2330. 

I was so, so down that Bert took it upon himself to call me 15 minutes into my drive back to Lawndale to tell me "I'm there for you if you need to talk".

I can't remember ever feeling as depressed as I did  tonight.  Fuck, what a horrible feeling.  The issues I am having with Aj are REALLY taking a toll on me.

I wonder where this is all going to end up?

Staring into the void: More family drama

It is so unbelievably overwhelming, that I don't know where to start....

Fuck it.  I'm just gonna say this:

They found it.  He copped to it.  It was destroyed.  Many promises were made. Much gnashing of teeth and weeping ensued.  Alex was at the house and spoke some words of wisdom. Subject at the center of this controversy was very emotionally upset.

The drama ramifications of this whole sad state of affairs is going to serve as fuel for the slow flambee of my liver over the next 12 to 18 months.

Un-Fucking-believable. If it's not one fucking thing wtih my family, it's another.  I don't know just how much more of this crap I can stand.

Shit.

Thanksgiving Day 2007

Shitty.

AJ and I had breakfast at Denny's and then went home and stayed at home until it was time to go to my sister's. 

For one reason or another, I didn't get to my sister's house until almost 4:00 P.M.  Right before that, I ate something bad at the Jack-In-The-Box on Marine and Hawthorne (I never learn with that place, they've nailed AJ twice, and I have been hit before today) and my stomach was really bothering me most of the afternoon.

Once we got to Isa's house, I setup my laptop and we saw some stuff on YouTube until my father and then Pete arrive a little later with his family.

Dinner was just OK although there was a lot of tension and back and forth with a lot of people at  the table.  Eventually, after dinner, my wife left and then the drama started.

Sebastian, the newest member of our family, was acting up and crying, and his father David, was not handling it very well.  At some point the baby got so angry, that he stopped crying and breathing and that amped up the melodrama to an unbearable degree.

I went outside and sat by the stairs and was unaware of everything that took place at the table after I left.  I found out later that things escalated between my brother and David because Pete felt that David disrespected my mom.  Because of this, Pete got very upset and started throwing things around the table.

I texted my son and told him I wanted to leave, but he eventually came out and we went back in the house.  The upshot of the whole event is that this is the 2nd T-day in a row that was colorized by drama at the table due to tension between family members.

I have no idea what is going to happen next year.   This is getting really bad. 

What a horrible Thanksgiving Day.  I hope'08 is better.  It certainly can't be much worse, that's for damn sure.

Runing around: Getting Paid and YACP for A.J.

Paid for L.A. Furniture Restoral Website
Finally, after two months, I was able to go see Alberto Aragon and turn over the website to him.  He paid me, and incredibly, on the way home from his shop, he was already calling me to complain about missing features... This is going to ma a major-league PITA. I can see it now.

Dinner at CPK at the Gal
After the visit to Aragon, we drove over to the Galleria at South Bay in Redondo Beach and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.  The food was OK and the service was just so-so

YACP: AJ gets Yet Another Cell Phone at T-Mobile at the Galleria
After dinner at CPK, A.J. and I walked over to T-Mobile in the Galleria where I bought A.J. a replacement phone for his rather beat-up SideKick II.  He ended up buying a Razr phone and will be alternating the SIM Chip from one phone to the other to continue accessing the Internet from his SideKick.

Drama: Son's Dental Nightmare

SO the Teenager has been suffering with a BAD toothache (to the point where he WOKE US UP last night to state that it hurt a LOT) and he was scheduled for a dentist visit this afternoon at 3:30 P.M.

Now, mind you, the dentist is in North Hollywood, nearly an hour (34 miles) from the house. What does said teenager do?  He goes to his girlfriend's house in Huntington Beach (32 miles from the house in the OPPOSITE direction of the dentist, placing him effectively, 65 miles from the dentist''s office.)

Then, all of a sudden, 20 minutes ago, I get a call from this very same teenager, asking me to tell his mom to calm down.  Why? Because he was in the middle of the 1,000,000 drama with his girl and was still in Orange County dealing with it at 2:10 P.M.  He had decided to FORGO the visit to the dentist in order to babysit his girlfriend.

I quickly dissuaded him of that supremely retarded idea and made him understand how IMPERATIVE it was that he go to the dentist TODAY, NO MATTER WHAT, since if he missed the appointment, he was likely not going to be able to go again for another week to 10 days and that would be a very, very bad idea, considering the current state of the infection in his mouth.

Eventually, he got on his way home to go to the dentist with his mom and I al;so spoke to her and managed to relatively smooth things over for them.

I don't know what the hell my boy is really thinking sometimes. 

Or, for that matter, I have no idea how much more Drama his mother can stand to create, although, weirdly enough, one would think that she seems to really enjoy being upset, with as much time as she spends with her liver simmering.

God, these people drive me *insane * sometimes.  OMG.

WASC Meeting and Dinner at CPK

The bulk of this day was taken up by a WASC (School District ~ Parent ~Teacher) meeting at Lloyd High School and dinner afterward at CPK.

WASC Meeting at Lloyd
The Meeting at Lloyd was great and I got lots of positive vibrations from both the district-level people and the faculty at the school.  AJ and I were there from 3:00 P.M. until 4: 30 or so.  I was very, very impressed at how well AJ was mingling with the people at the meeting.  He is changing before my eyes, every day it seems.

Dinner at CPK
After the meeting, we waited for my wife to come home and then AJ, my wife, AJ's girlfriend, AJ's little cousin and I drove over to California Pizza Kitchen at the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach, CA.  It was very busy and the service was only so-so.  The food was not all that either, but we seemed to have a good time anyways, aside from the baby acting like a typical 4-year old.

After dinner, I stayed in my office installing Microsoft Expression Web and browsing the Web for inspiration until it was time for the Sopranos.  I called it a night after the Soprano's at 10:00 P.M. and fell into the sleep of the deeply tired.