Calendars! They’re A GOOD Thing..

.. so about two years ago, (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed was living with us and in one of Dante’s Infernos with his drug and alcohol abuse.

NOTE: Let me just interject here that (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed was 18 when I came into his life and because I considered him an adult, didn’t really intrude on his privacy. Maybe I should have.. maybe Chief definitely should have but it’s just the way it was. Neither of us had no clue how deeply addicted he was.

.. anyway

So two years ago he gets arrested stealing crap out of our neighbors cars.. barefoot.. at four o’clock am.

We actually didn’t find out until the following day but that’s another store for another time and one that I really don’t think I want to revisit.

Anyway.. that arrest was what prompted the first stay in rehab and because it was his first offense, they were putting him in the ARD program. That being something which, had he completed, would have wiped his file clean.

But come on.. even YOU knew that wasn’t going to happen, right??

A year after his arrest, he was called into court about his fines. He hadn’t paid anything on them and you know, they take that seriously. So they sent this letter basically saying that if you don’t pay the fine then they were going to remove him from the ARD program and there would be another trial. Or A trial. There was never a trial the first go around.

So the day of the court date comes and he’s all begging and pleading.. and the Crack Head is doing her YOU NEED TO BE A FATHER screech.. and at that point, he had been going to school to get his GED .. or no, wait.. he had just taken the test for his GED.. and so I told him and Chief that if he worked at the store everyday then we would send a hundred dollars a week up to the courthouse and his fines would be paid off by like March or something.

Mind you.. this was December? January?

I even typed a letter from Chief to the court explaining the situation and what he was committing to, etc.

We also sent him up to the courthouse with, I think, 113.00.. which was 10% of what he owed.

I figured that taking 20.00 a day out of the register wasn’t going to hurt us.

And it wouldn’t have.. if anyone did it.

You know.. maybe I’m part of the problem here but I am not going to have all this shit on my shoulders. These aren’t my kids.. she isn’t my ex.. they’re his problems that HE needs to deal with and be responsible for. I can’t help it if I refuse to treat a grown man like a child. I had 18 years of that with my first husband and promised myself not to let it happen again. Sometimes it sneaks up on me but when I catch it.. I do an about face and things like (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed’s fines don’t get paid.

Not that (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed was even worried about it. Did he ever ask about it? Did he ever put money aside from the 10 or 20 that Chief would give him if he worked longer then his self-imposed two hour shift?

Nope.. nope.. annnnnnnnnnnddddddd Nope.

So then in May? June? He had another court date. The judge told him that he had to have the fines paid by September 15th. No more extensions. If it wasn’t paid then they proceed with trial.

Now I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The kid has come around since last year.. he works every day.. and does work when he’s there, not just sits around.. and he was putting applications in for a job… and so I was like, alright. I’ll do my best to make sure it gets paid.

Which meant, that I was use my unemployment check to pay it off. I figured we could finagle the house bills for two months.. as long as the house rent was paid.. we’d make it work.

Oh.. poor delusional Leese.

I wasn’t able to actually put anything on his fines until August. My intention was to put 500.00 on it at the end of August and then the way my checks fell, I would be able to pay the remaining 450.00 of it by the second week of September.

Except in August, Chief needed 200.00 to cover a check he wrote for the store.. and then we went to Washington DC and I had to tap into some of the house rent money so by the time I got another unemployment check, I wasn’t able to pay the 1000.00 / 375.00 like I usually do .. it was something like 800.00 / 550.00.

So I had 300.00 for (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed’s fine but then Chief needed 250.00 for the store’s rent.

NOTE: Now do you understand why I went absolutely bat shit balls on Chief when he made the comment about giving him the money back for paying my tickets????

Oh.. and because I hadn’t paid the previous month’s electric bill because I put money on (No  Longer.. Maybe) Weed’s fine, it got cut off.

So I started to get REALLY pissed off that I’M the one paying for these fines while Chief and the shop are just sucking up any additional money that I have.. and the Crack Whore is always crying broke since you know.. she has all these men paying all these bills and she spends the summer laying on the beach turning into a raisin.

This past Friday was a bad day because of the oven (which I’ll still post about because it’s never really about the oven!) and I was waiting for a guy to come and look at it but he never showed.. and so when the mail came and it was from the county courthouse addressed to Chief and stating that there was a warrant out for his arrest and he had 24 hours to turn himself in.. well, let me tell you.. that was the last straw.

I called him up and told him what came in the mail and that indeed.. it was the last straw.

You see, a while ago he had child support court and after waiting all day to be called, they took some kind of break and he went off ont he court bailiff. To the extent that he got a 400.00+ fine for disorderly conduct that he never paid. That’s what I thought THIS was referring to but after looking it up the docket online, I found out that this was for (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed :: I forgot that he lived here when he was arrested :: and they sent it out because he missed a court date on Sept 7th.

Chief said that he had mentioned something to him about court but (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed said he didn’t have it or he didn’t know about it or something.. don’t remember.. and really, honestly, don’t care.

When Chief looked at the paper on Friday, he said that he would tell (No Longer.. Maybe) Weed on Saturday about it but I don’t think he did.. I don’t think he told him Sunday and I really doubt that he told him today.

Should I have remembered? Maybe.. but you know what? I can’t keep track of everything and why should it be more important to me then it is to them?

I don’t get it..

I don’t get them..

FINALLY! Got My Bail Money Back

Have I gone into this before?

I don’t remember…

Back when Chief got arrested last year, I had to put up 3000.00 for bail. That’s 10% of 30,000.00 for those of you who have no experience in these things. Up until then, I didn’t either but you learn as you go in these kinds of situations.

Luckily, I live in an area where every one of my customers have been arrested at one time or another for one thing or another so yknow.. I got a lot of street lawyer advise.

So back then.. one of my customers was a woman that lived in the second floor apartment next door. She had two young girls and even though I wasn’t to thrilled with the THINGS she did .. I did like her. She’s basically a good person.

When she found out that Chief got arrested, she gave me the most important piece of advice I had ever received. Well, pertaining to your mate being arrested that is.

She said that when I paid the bail .. I needed to put it in my name.

I had only had half of what I needed and Chief’s brother Sarge was able to give me 1000.00 and his dad was able to give me 500.00. I had given them my word that I would pay them back especially when I found out that Sarge had borrowed the money from someone he knew.

I was told that I wouldn’t be able to get the bail money back until after his case was over.. which was in July.

And then the phone calls started. I called the number on the bail receipt but it had been disconnected. I called the number listed on the internet as was told that I wasn’t going to be able to get the money until after his probation was over.

NOTE: I’m not going to go into the whole store again. It’s all under the TRAVESTY category if you want to read it but he did NOT do what he was arrested for and for the simple fact that we could not afford a good lawyer.. or even one who wasn’t used to have innocent clients, he pleaded no contest.. which I think is basically like pleading guilty.. because HE just wanted to get it over with so we can get on with our lives. He initially wanted it to go to trial but he didn’t have any confidence in the lawyer and like I said, he just wanted it over with. A decision that I DID NOT AGREE WITH.

I kept on getting different and conflicting information .. yes, I would get it back because I wasn’t part of the case.. no, I wasn’t getting it back because we had the same address.. yes, you had to wait.. no, you didn’t have to wait. I couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone and every phone number I called just made things more muddied and confused.

Hamster meet wheel.

So fast forward to last week. Or rewind to last week :: depends on your perspective ::

I had mentioned before that Weed was starting to get his life together and in doing so, he has been working in the shop to pay off his fines. Trying to find an address to mail the check to was just as confusing so I figured I would just drive up to the courthouse and pay it in person.

So last Tuesday afternoon, me and Bird drive out there and between the traffic and finding a place to park, I didn’t walk into the lobby of the courthouse until ten of four.

I ask the person at the information desk where I needed to go and he tells me that it was too late to pay on anything since they stop collecting money at a quarter to four since they close at four.

Great.

So we drive all the way back and I made plans to drive out early the following day.

Bird was kind enough to let me keep her truck over night because I wasn’t comfortable driving my van with a potentially messed up transmission out to where State Troopers congregated on every corner. She has a huge Durango and even though I can DRIVE anything.. I’m not so good with PARKING everything I drive!!

So when I drove out myself the next day, I had to drive around and around and around until I could find a parking space that I could park in only to find out that I didn’t have any quarters so I had to drive around and around and around again until I found a parking space that I could park in at a meter that took dimes and nickles.

Yes.. they exist.

Yes.. they’re not close to the court house

Yes.. I fell to my knees and praised the cell phone gods who were thoughtful enough to include a GPS in my phone.

So I make my way to the courthouse and when I get to the lobby, I ask the information guy where I needed to go to put money on the fine.

He told me to go down the long hall until I can’t go anymore.. make a right.. go down that hall until I can’t go anymore… then make another right and go down the steps.. there will be a sign outside the entrance to the finance department and as soon as I go in, the payment window will be on my immediate right.

I SWEAR that’s what he told me. I’m actually really good with directions and remembering them so I’m positive it was HIM and not ME that got me lost. Especially since there wasn’t a right turn off the second hallway I went down.

So I wind up getting lost in the freakin’ courthouse because.. yknow.. you never run into anyone that works there when you’re lost .. only when you’re trying to sneak into a closed court hearing .. another story for another time.. but as I’m roaming around like a mouse in a maze, I happen to pass an office with a little sign in the window that said BAIL OFFICE.

Heh.

Hmm.

I wonder.

Just so happens that I’ve been carrying around the bail receipt in my wallet for the past year and if they can give me some information on that, that will be cool. They’ll probably even be able to direct me to the payment window.

So I go in and there’s this really nice woman behind the counter. I tell her that I’m lost but just happened to have a bail receipt on me so yknow.. two birds one stone.

She takes the receipt.. looks at it.. and then says, “.. I’ll have so-and-so check for you.”. So she passes the receipt along and I wait. And wait. And wait.

It’s a weird feeling being in a courthouse. At least, I feel weird being in a courthouse. I get all … reserved or something. Like if I pissed somebody off with my impatience, I’d get arrested.

But then.. all the state troopers congregate on the street corners looking for wayward parkers so I don’t know what the hell my issue is.

Some time passes and then So-And-So comes to the counter and asks for my driver’s license. I give it to her. She makes a copy. Brings paper work over to me and tells me to sign it. When I do, I notice that there’s a 2100.00 check attached.

ME: Is this a real check?

HER: Um. yes.

ME: Like a real check that I can deposit today?

HER: Didn’t you ever get a check before?

ME: Um.. As a matter of fact NOT FOR BAIL, NO.

And then I sucked her attitude up just in case she decided to take the check back or tattle to the 90 year old court clerk that had wondered in.

So I get my check.. all giddy and happy because now I can pay back Sarge and Chief’s dad and still have some extra to squirrel away in my Get-Up-And-Go fund.

They gave me directions to the payment window.. I paid on Weed’s fine.. and away I went.

I called Chief’s Dad and told him to meet me at the shop because I was going to give him a check and a check for Sarge to pay them back for the loan.

It was a good feeling.. especially because I think they didn’t think they were getting  back.

Catching Up With Weed

I’m sure you all know Weed’s story but if you don’t.. or if your new here to my little insane world that keeps me sane, then here’s the down low:

Weed is my oldest stepson who decided that drinking and doing drugs was NOT the only thing life has to offer.. so he started dealing. And not only was he dealing from our house, he was also dealing out of our store. Along with the fact that one of his cronies robbed our house three times in a week ( the first week of December ’08) he was kicked out and has been living with the Crack Whore ever since.

The Crack Whore being his mother who drinks and drugs as much as he does.

Oh.. not to mention that he was arrested last year for breaking into neighborhood cars at 4am with no shoes on. The fact that he had no shoes on was disturbing enough. I mean, he literally walked out of our house and started trying door handles. But what was REALLY messed up was the things he stole.. a half roll of pennies, a shower cap, a candy bar, a car manual.

I mean.. REALLY!

So it’s been a LOOOOOONG year with him.. from trying to get him into rehab.. to trying to convince him to take rehab seriously.. but the straw that broke the proverbial camels back was when the things HE was doing caused Chief to get arrested last January.

Parents? Never name your son after their father if there is ANY CHANCE that he will grow up to be a drug dealing junkie with a vendetta for being thrown out of your house.

I honestly never thought that I would be able to look this kid in the eye again without dropping him on his ass. He still has no idea how much suffering he caused and how getting his father arrested almost cost us everything.. including custody of his brothers.

But that’s a junkie mind for you.. never look past anything that has to do with you and what you can get for what you need.

At any rate..

I, of course, have a different perspective on things because he isn’t my kid. And I had to give Chief a little bit of a lead because that’s his son and I don’t think any father could completely right off their kid. Well, maybe they can but I know Chief can’t.

I think a lot of his feeling had to do with not wanting to believe Weed was as far gone as he was… dunno. I wasn’t in his shoes but I did have to take a stance a while back and tell him that if he had any intentions of Weed moving back in that have him use the back door because I’d be moving my shit out the front door.

But time does make a difference and about two months ago, the Crack Whore contacted me in a panic because Weed needed to pay for his GED test before his next court date. Of course, the next court date was the following day and so to make sure he did what he was suppose to do, we put up the money.

He took the test and then he got another letter saying that if he didn’t pay his 1400.00 in fines, he was going to be removed from whatever program they had put him in for first time offenders and go to jail.

Of course, the Crack Whore was in a panic again.

And of course, it was me being the adult and stepping up to the plate.

I talked to Chief about what I was thinking and then talked to Weed.

Since he wasn’t able to get a decent job without his GED :: he has since been notified that he passed :: I told him that I would pay his fine BUT he had to work a few hours in the store for it. I wouldn’t give him the money.. I would send it directly to the courthouse. If he didn’t work, it didn’t get paid.

He readily agreed .. well, he really didn’t have a choice.. and I gave him a letter outlining the deal for him to present to the judge.

Everybody went along with it and I’m really surprised and excited to say that he’s been keeping up his end of the bargain. Without bitching or complaining or being a pain in the ass.

He comes in when he’s suppose to .. does things that need to be done without being asked.. and has taken a load off of both me and Chief.

He isn’t unsupervised .. not left in the store alone.. or has his friends in.. or is near the register without Chief being over his shoulder because let’s face it, neither of us really trust him .. but it seems to be working out and relationships are in the processes of being mended. Won’t say “fixed” because I don’t think they ever will.. but it’s gotten better so that’s a good thing.

Plus he’s been putting on a little weight and generally looking not as junkie-ish as he was:

April 08

December 09

Hmm.. he does look a little wasted in this picture, doesn’t he??

Anyway, I know he wasn’t because he was with us the whole day and there wasn’t really any opportunity or alcohol around to entice him.

He seems to be getting his life in order.. or at least straighter.. and for Chief’s sake, I couldn’t be happier.

This is another “keep your finger’s crossed” thing

So Guess Who Had A Bench Warrant THIS Time?

Uh-huh.

That’s right.

ME!

In fact… I had TWO bench warrants out for me from the lovely borough where I reside.

What was my devious.. heinous crime? What law did I so blatantly break that this after-sight borough sought to bring me to justice :: and pay $215.00 US Dollars for? ::

Not moving my car on street sweeping day.

Yep.

You read that right.

On street sweeping day, a cop rides along with the street sweeper truck writing out tickets on convenient blaze orange envelopes issuing a $15.oo fine :: $25.oo if you wait more then 10 days to pay it ::

Okay… so you’re asking WHY DON’T YOU JUST PAY THE DAMN THING WHEN YOU GET IT? Right? Heh..well.. that’s the thing. I always INTEND to pay it. After all.. the county court house is only about a block away from the shop… two blocks away from my house.. But it’s kind of like this theory I have that the closer something is.. the least likely it’s going to happen. Kind of like returning library books. When I lived about two miles away from the closest library, I was NEVER late with returning loaners.. but when I moved and the back of the library was RIGHT BEHIND the back of my house? Well.. let’s just say that I owed more money to them then to my mortgage holder.

So basically, the road to my hell is paved in good intentions that come in the form of blaze orange street sweeping fine envelopes!

Back to it..

So apparently, I had gotten this ticket back in December 08.

Oh.. the other thing you may be asking is WHY DON’T YOU JUST NOT PARK WHERE YOU PARK ON STREET SWEEPING DAY?

See.. that’s the other thing.

My house sits on the corner of three intersecting streets. Nice view if you can get it :: right! :: and the street sweeper only sweeps on ONE side of the street on any given day. So Monday’s it this side.. Tuesday’s it’s THAT side.. Wednesday it’s over there.. Thursday’s it’s over here… you get the point.

With all these sides and all these streets and all these days.. it’s a little hard to keep track of. I’m positive they do this on purpose because how ELSE are they going to fund the borough? Sure.. Sure.. I can right it on the calendar or set it up as an appointment on my cell phone but let’s be realistic. We’re talking about me here…

Already.. enough tirade.. I’ll get back to the store now.

So I get this envelope address to me and when I open it, I’m literally like WHAT THE FUCK? A bench warrant? You got to be fucking kidding me.

It says that they’ve tried numerous times to serve the warrant but couldn’t.

Now come on.. as many times as Chief has been in front of the ONE judge in the borough :: either for him or Weed :: you mean to tell me they didn’t know where to find me?

It also says that my name has been entered in their database and that I will be arrested unless I pay the fine within 48 hours. What they don’t tell you is that the 48 hours begins on the day they print it NOT on the day you receive it. So God Forbid if the mail is slow!

Chief comes home from the shop and as soon as he gets in the door, I whip out the paper and say, “.. what’s this?”

He shrugs. “A Bench Warrant”

“I KNOW THIS!” I tell him.. “But it’s for ME! And I don’t even REMEMBER getting a ticket.”

He shrugs again. “So pay it.”

Aaarrgghhh!!! Being with someone who thumbs his nose at authority is used to getting stuff like this in the mail is not as fun as it may sound!! LOL

The next morning :: ironically, street sweeping day on the side of the street that my car was parked on thus garnering me ANOTHER blaze orange envelope! :: I go down to the courthouse.

NOTE: As I was walking IN, the kid that works at Dunkin’ Donuts at night was walking OUT. I asked him what he was doing there and he said that they wrote him up for running a red light when it was yellow. He asks me what I was doing there and I told him I had a bench warrant. YOU? he seemed surprised. Yea.. I said.. for parking tickets. He got hysterical. No more tips for him!

So I go stand in front of the payment window where there is a constable stapling a pile of bench warrants. I can’t see if they’re for street sweeping fines or not. He tells me that the secretary will be right with me and I said “fine” or whatever. About 10 minutes go by and she asks me what I need.. FROM ACROSS THE ROOM.. I hold up the paper and say that I got “this” in the mail and before I could get another word out she says, “.. it’s a bench warrant.”

GOD! I KNOW IT’S A BENCH WARRANT! I don’t think I should have said it with as much attitude as I did being in a room full of constables but oh well.

I tell her I want to pay it.. she takes my debit card.. swipes it and gives me the receipt from the credit card machine. Says thank you and have a nice day.

Wait! I want a receipt. A REAL receipt that I can glue to my car window so that I won’t get picked up by the police the next time I don’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign.

She kind of makes like a face or something but goes back to her desk and asks me for my last name.

I tell her.. making sure to spell it s-l-o-w-l-y.

She punches it into her computer and says, “Oh.. you have another one.”

What?

Another bench warrant she tells me. For a ticket I supposedly got in January 09. Great. Fan-fucking-tastic. Don’t remember getting THAT one either.

But I tell her I’ll pay it now and get it over with AND I want a receipt for that one to glue to the inside of the OTHER side of the car so I won’t get arrested the next time I get pulled over for not completely stopping at a stop sign.

She prints out the receipt that happens to include a charge by charge detail. I happen to notice that I was being charged $5.oo for POLICE EDUCATION.

Really?

Hmm.

“Um.. excuse me,” I call out to her.. “I have an issue with this charge.”

She walks back over to the payment window and I tell her that considering the police who came to my house thought that the exfoliating beads in a bottle of Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea Body Wash were pot seeds, I think I’m getting ripped off here.

She wasn’t amused. Neither were the constables but sorry. Had to say it.

So armed with my receipts :: which are in the glove compartment of my car :: I am no longer a fugitive of the law.

After going through all this, there are two things that you can count on. One, I will still continue to get street sweeping tickets and two.. I will definitely pay them from now on!!