Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Report from Court

Wow what a day for the juvenile court system. It was packed. Salinda refused to speak to me all the way to court. She waited 10 minutes after I went into the building to come in .... sat in the van. Then when she came in she refused to acknowledge me as her parent and sat all the way across the waiting area from me. I played along and just left her alone. I actually found it kind of funny that she was embarrassed to be seen with me. After all, who should be the embarrassed party in this picture?

Saw a couple of Mike’s friends there ... one of whom was present when he stole our car apparently. He and Salinda had a lengthy conversation. It was so packed there that I overheard one of the public defenders say, “Look around! Every single one of the county probation officers and every public defender is here this morning. We should have a party!”

It took a full hour before we got into court. They lifted her stay of adjudication and assigned her to attend a cognitive restructuring group. It was very routine.

On the way home, after refusing to walk out to the car with me and offering nothing but stony silence, she suddenly asks if I am going to buy her lunch since she has missed her lunch period. I could not help but laugh out loud. I indicated that I couldn’t believe she actually could allow herself to ask. But I agreed to get her some lunch (while I planned to have nothing) and she then began to talk to me as if nothing had happened the past 4 days.

I think not speaking to her much is probably my best bet -- unless she wants to. Otherwise, it doesn’t go well.

And now that court is over and she is in a better mood, I can relax a bit more myself...

If you’re following my diet, you can check out progress here.

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