It's a small world

A long time ago, when I worked for the Department of Social Services as a Foster Care worker, my boss told me about this case she had to testify for in court. It involved a 14 yr old child who had been put into care with a foster family. The man was a high level muckety muck at Duke Power and made big money every year. The foster parents were told that the child had been sexually abused and had no sexual boundaries, and so they had to be VERY careful about how they treated anything with her...well, the foster father took this as a bonus. He then proceeded to sexually abuse this 14 yr old girl, offering her all sorts of money and gifts if she'd participate, and telling her she'd go to a group home she hated if she didn't. Naturally, this poor 14 yr old went ahead and participated.

The man's daughter caught them together. She was horrified and told her mom. The mom said it was all the 14 yr old's fault as she was a "slut" who enticed her husband. You must be fucking kidding me! They were WARNED that they had to be delicate with her for said reasons, and he took ADVANTAGE of her. They hired a high powered lawyer. My boss told me that when they tried to prosecute the man for sexual abuse, his lawyer kept going off about what a little whore this poor 14 yr old girl was, and she pressed my boss to admit on the stand that the girl seduced this GROWN MAN of 40 years or so. My boss retorted, sarcastically, "Yes, but WHO is the child? WHO is the adult?" And it shut the lawyer down sputtering for a moment. DSS won the case. The man lost his high money job and went to jail. I always wondered what happened to that girl.

Well, now I know.

Today while at the Writing Center, talking to this really cool student that I adore, she opened up to me some parts of her past. This girl and I have chatted a few times about her husband, her bad situation, her children, her life...I knew she had been abused and a former foster child. After talking to her today, I realized exactly who she was. I had HEART FAILURE when I realized...this girl is the girl!!!! I asked her coolly a few questions, and then we talked about my former boss (her caseworker), her life, her placement afterwards, and how this situation has affected her. She's doing better than I thought she would, but I sincerely fret for her now as I understand completely what she's gone through and how it affects her. I want to help her. I want to take her and her kids home with me because GOD KNOWS she's done a remarkable job of getting her life in gear and she has the strength of will to take on all of life. I respect her completely for that fact.

And I hope that fucking rapist child molester rots in jail, then in hell.

Amazing Research Papers!

The worst part about being a teacher is the grading. You would think that grading college level papers would mean that you actually get to grade COLLEGE LEVEL PAPERS, but this ideal is a sad delusion that has rarely been achieved. Sometimes I stare in wonder at the absolute morbid beauty of a particularly disastrous attempt...like now. Here are some actual excerpts from a paper that I received:

"He followed her around for forty days and frothy nights." Mmm gotta love those frothy nights...

"Some folktales talk about morels and others talk about gold." See, now, I never ran into those folktales that focused on mushrooms...

"Some stories tell of a much gentler will o' the wisp that leads brave souls to giant treasures that they were grading." I always thought they were guarding them, but heck, why not grade them? I give this treasure heap an A+ for gold, jewels, silver cups, and platinum plates!

"A more logical expiation for the light is what is called Ignis Fatuous, or false fire." How does one make amends for the light? *ponders*

"They were all built in the medieval time period when almost all of Europe was under the futile system of government." Funny, I was under the impression that this phrase described ALL forms of government...

"The surf worked the land for the nobleman in turn for protection from invaders." Wow, that's great! Tame the ocean for your own uses!

"It has obvious satiric advantage, but the invading army could sit outside the door and starve the castle to death." I think/hope he meant strategic advantage, but hey, satiric works for me! Also, I really hate those living castles that hog all the food, so I'm glad to hear that an army can starve it when necessary.

Ok, anybody want to guess what this paper received for a grade?

Ok, so now I have enough brandy...

I have consumed enough brandy now that I feel that writing will no longer be an issue. Basically, for the last three weeks I've been drinking more alcohol than I have in probably the last year. Why? I'm not entirely sure. Some of it, I believe, is due to not getting sex. Alcohol is a lame substitute, but hell it's the only one I've got. I hope to remedy this situation soon enough, but meanwhile...let me just say YAY for an ABC store being two blocks from my house! Woohoo! I have brandy (Paul Masson) and wine as my beverages of choice these days. I need to earn more money so I can drink more heavily.

Today was thanksgiving. What happened on Thanksgiving here today in Kira's house? I'm SO glad you asked! Basically, I made an entire Thanksgiving feast because my ex suckered me into it. Sometimes I am stupefied by how much of a moron I am. For many, many years I made an entire Thanksgiving feast and he always said, "I'm not helping you prepare that meal nor am I helping you clean up afterwards because I don't want it." So, whoever was visiting us would help me clean up maybe, but I'd be the one responsible for the entire mess. I would be lucky if he cleaned up his own damn plate. I thought, well shit, this man really doesn't like TURKEY. I guess he doesn't care. I guess if I want this meal, I'm at it alone! HAHA! This Thanksgiving, two weeks ago, the ex shows up to drop off kids. He says to me, what are you doing for Thanksgiving this year? I look at him blankly and say, hell, Rob, nothing. He looks sad and says, well, if you cook a meal, I'll bring the turkey.

WTF???

I said, waitasecond here....all these years (folks, we are looking at more than ten of 'em), I fixed a Thanksgiving feast and you grunted. You never helped. You acted like it was miserable. You totally did not appreciate it...and now you are telling me YOU WANT ME TO COOK A THANKSGIVING MEAL???? He just looked sheepish and repeated: I'll bring the turkey.

G'damn.

Then it didn't help that Jared chimed in that he wanted turkey. Jared isn't too into the other food items that are served on Thanksgiving, but the boy loves his turkey. Sighing, resigned to my fate, I nodded. Fine, bring the turkey.

So what happened today? I cooked a turkey with homemade stuffing. I made an asparagus casserole, a corn casserole, had cranberries, had mashed potatoes, had the turkey, had a chocolate pie for dessert....and cleaned the whole damn kitchen up myself. Then I packed up a slew of leftovers for him because I sure as hell can't eat it all. What is my problem? What is it about a man who says pathetically, "Feed me?" that just GETS to me?

It's like my student in one of my classes last week, Tucker. Tucker came up to me and said, oh Kira, you know how to make those rice krispy treats! Not the marshmallow ones, but the butterscotch peanut butter ones with the chocolate in the middle! I said, yeah, I do Tucker...why? Well, then he proceeded to beg me to make some for class the next time. I'll be freaking DAMNED if I didn't run home and DO IT. What the hell is wrong with me??? Kira, feeder of the masses! It's mostly men. I can resist a plea from a female. If any male comes up to me and says, feed me! I do it. That's got to be listed as a psychological disorder. Sigh. I think this would be the reason why every male who has dated me longer than three months has ended up gaining a minimum of 10 lbs...

What the hell is this for?

Everybody blogs these days. So here we go, I have a blog now too. WEEEEE!