Other People's Kids

Meeting Called Off, Hosts Not Told

We were supposed to have a "Josie" roundtable today with assorted social workers, "Josie", The Wife and I and her PO. Turned out to be just us, "Josie" and "Vicki". We know this because The Wife called to confirm, and they said "oh, didn't we tell you? That meeting has been canceled." So nice of them to give us a courtesy call to let us know.

Thus, with this reduced cast of characters, it turned into a fairly brief status update and Q&A session. Apparently this case is fairly unique for this area, and the county wouldn't even be involved at all if they weren't footing the bill. Hmph. It's like they don't give a s**t.

Anyway, "Josie's" PO is calling all shots, and we learned through "Vicki" that there is to be no further babysitting, plus no rides from anybody but us and her mother, home visits are still pretty severely restricted, no overnight visits to friends' houses (though they can come here), etc. Pretty much just a laundry list of dos and don'ts for this case that we should have had within the first week.

All that is pretty pedestrian and not really worth going into further here, but I wanted to tell you about an alarming development that I just became aware of a few minutes before I sat down to compose my nightly screed.

I was doing some guitar practice to renew the pretty lines I had on my fingertips last night when I had the thought I should call Mom & Dad, who are on their way back from Arizona, just to check their progress and assuage my loneliness. That's right, I miss my mommy. Bite me.

Anyway, I sauntered back to the bedroom, feeling pretty chipper and trying to think of something clever to say to open the conversation with Mom, and I walked into the bedroom and just stopped cold. I had to give my brain a chance to adjust to the input my eyes were feeding it. There lay "Josie" in my spot on the bed. She and The Wife were sprawled out, taking in some program on the television, content as could be with each other's company. This is new.

I do believe I've been replaced. Maybe I'm spending too much time with the guitar or something. I'm going to have to give The Wife a backrub or something. You know, do a little something to remind her of why it was that she was so keen on marrying me only a couple of years ago.

If you don't do things like that from time to time, a girl can forget. Can't have that.

posted by Dan @ 6:48 PM