Thus Says Suzanne...

health care reform at any cost

When fewer than one in four Americans agrees with the health care reform the House passed last night, why are our elected representatives so determined to ram it down our throats?  

Has anyone looked at our government's checkbook lately?  It's seriously overdrawn.  This is not the solution to the problem.

 

Pat Robertson is an idiot

The earthquake in Haiti is apparently (according to this bonehead) because they made a deal with the devil.  

it's bloody hot in here

It was frosty here this morning so I added a sweater and sat down to work.  I normally keep things on the cool side during the winter (duh, it's cheaper and I'm the only one here during the day).  I got up a few minutes ago and could not get over how hot it was in here.  Checked the thermostat and it was NOT where I had set it.  Clearly the youngster is going to need a refresher course on not touching it since she had set it to 80 degrees!  

blooper

Not so much a blooper as a rant about how this doctor dictates.

What she says - "kronkpakpay"

What she means - Chronic back pain.

I'll say it again, the only thing worse than a doctor's writing is their dictation.

this just keeps getting better and better (that's sarcasm you hear)

When the bus driver picked up the youngster this morning she told me the bus would be coming at 6:15 tomorrow and thereafter.  Really?  At the beginning of the year it came at 7:05 AM.  That's a big change.  School doesn't start until 8 AM and it's only a 15 minute drive. 

She gets out at 2:10 in the afternoon but they want to bring her home at 4 PM.  Right, because we wouldn't want her to have a life or anything.

All told, they propose that she spend over three and a half hours a day on the bus which is three hours longer than it takes to drive her.  School is only in session for six hours.  On what planet is it reasonable to have her spend more than another 50% of that time on the bus?  That's unreasonable for a kid with no issues. 

I'm so ready to get an updated IEP in place.  This is beyond ridiculous.

Roman Polanski - the cold, hard facts

I am astonished to see people coming out in support of the child rapist Roman Polanski.

Lets' be clear.  He accepted a plea deal and made a confession.  It wasn't until he realized he would actually be held accountable for his crimes that he bailed for Europe. 

Debra Winger came out in support of him yesterday whining about how this had upset the art community, and advocated for his release.  Whoopi Goldberg talked about how it wasn't "rape-rape." 

Let's also be clear about what it was and then someone can help me understand why he should be freed, and how what he did wasn't "rape-rape."

He groomed a 13-year-old girl for the act, telling her he would photograph her for Vogue, and worked his way up to partially clothed images.  He provided alcohol and quaaludes to the 13-year-old girl.  He suggested she get into the hot tub for more images and instructed her to dispense with her clothing. He disrobed and got into the hot tub with her.  He took her into the house (remember she had been been drugged and plied with alcohol) where he proceeded to engage in oral sex with her.  Then he penetrated her vaginally but when he learned she was not on birth control (why would she be - she was 13) he decided to penetrate her anally where he completed the sex act.  

It's my assertion that anyone voicing support for his freedom is profoundly intellectually challenged and/or morally bankrupt.  Justice delayed is justice denied.

scorched earth

This bus driver situation is pretty much at critical mass this morning.  The head of the transportation department arranged to have a different driver for the youngster but when I asked the driver what time to expect her home in the afternoon I was told between 3:50 and 4:00 PM.  That's more than three and a half hours on the bus every day!  She's only in class for six hours a day.  This is completely unacceptable so unless the principal (who is working on the situation this morning after an e-mail exchange with me) resolves this before the youngster gets home this afternoon I'm going to switch to a scorched earth approach to this situation.  That won't be pretty but I guarantee it will be effective.

My patience for this foolishness is at an end.

nooooooooooooooooo

Foster/adoptive parents learn quickly which social workers are worth their weight in gold, and which ones are just dead weight (or worse).  The social worker I was lucky enough to work with as a foster parent with my local foster family agency was like Aztec gold - priceless. 

I got an e-mail from her today saying she's leaving the agency at the end of the month.  She didn't offer any details but I wouldn't be even a little surprised to learn that she is a victim of the deep, deep, deep budget cuts California has made. 

I plan to get together with her before she's gone, and hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch later.  I've been truly lucky to have her as my social worker for the last three years and I'm sick at the thought of her leaving. 

no to infinity

"You are going to be completely impressed...I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there."

In 1991 Jaycee Lee Dugard was an 11-year-old girl on the way to her bus stop when she was abducted by Phillip Garrido and his wife (by their own admission).  Until this week Jaycee's family was left to wonder what became of her.  I'll save you some math and tell you that Jaycee is now 29 years old.  She spent the last 18 years in captivity, being held in Garrido's back yard.  She bore him two children, now ages 11 and 15, who have never been to school, never been to a doctor. 

How many rapes can one endure before it forever changes who they are and how they view the world?  And, suppose that happens to an 11-year-old, after having been taken from her family and life.  Suppose she endures years of this abuse while living in her abductor's backyard, bearing not one but two children by her rapist when she is just a child herself.  She gets no formal education.  Can she ever get back what was taken from her?  Her sense of safety, her childhood, her innocence, her education, her family? 

What did it do to her family who watched from their yard as she was kidnapped?  Her stepfather was viewed as suspect until this week when Jaycee resurfaced.  The marriage did not survive.  Jaycee's mother reportedly cried for a week every year on the anniversary of the kidnapping of her beautiful young daughter. 

So when Garrido says "You are going to be completely impressed...I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there," I say no to infinity.  I am not impressed.  I don't care if he turned his life around.  I will never understand his selfish and obscene actions. 

He cannot ever make right what he has made wrong.  He cannot return what he stole from Jaycee and her family. 

oh yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what I'll do (rant)

The youngster has an appointment about an hour away which is usually scheduled for every six to eight weeks.  Thursday marked the fourth occasion when she was driven down there only to be told upon arrival that the person with whom she had an appointment is not in that day.  This is a person with letters after their name, and no one on staff seems to think a courtesy phone call is in order.  This represents eight hours of the youngster's life sitting in the car for no useful purpose, six hours of my life lost, and two hours of my mother's life lost forever.

I contacted the youngster's managing social worker to let him know.  His suggestion?  Maybe call the day before to make sure the appointment is still on, and call again the next day call to make sure again.  (In spite of the fact that his office is right next door to the professional in question he couldn't be bothered to walk over to check on this.  I won't be asking for his help in the future.)

Since when did it become my job to supervise the receptionists at this professional's office?  I'm pretty sure that it's a pretty basic part of a receptionist's job to schedule appointments correctly and to contact clients when there is a cancellation.  In the real world (the one outside of foster care) I would fire the professional based on the continued incompetence of his office staff.