Christmas Eve

Almost forgot. The Christmas Eve stories of my job and my life. Let's start with the Child Protection office. Newborn with recent heart surgery sent home with maternal aunt. She will likely not be able to care adequately for this child but the doctors at the hospital felt it was in baby V's best interest. Who am I to argue with that august group? Maternal aunt is probably not prepared to be awake at night; to have to go to the medical appointment followups; and to deal with the diabetic and character-disordered dad and soon-to-be-released from prison sister (who has her own mental health issues).

Supervised visit for Mom #2. She was fraught with panic on Friday because the SV center would not allow her child with a contagious infection to visit. Never mind that Mom needs to get into and stay in CD treatment, address her bi-polar disorder and domestic abuse issues. Get her a d*#n visit ASAP. Scheduled visit and mom began to pick at the care of the child - socks don't fit; clothes are ugly; not taking care of my baby like I would "take care" of her. Did not ask about the infection or anything else except when is my next visit! She has been on my caseload since Thursday morning and i have spent hours dealing with her issues already. Not a good sign.

Mom who let the Level III sex offender "keep his stuff" at her house. She is not remorseful and does not see why Child Protection would be concerned. Father of her two younger children indicated no concern for him either as the perp had adolescent victims in the past and his kids are toddlers. Never mind that he did not ever finish sex offender treatment. These are your neighbors folks. Walking and breathing and waiting for you to relax for just a minute. They are preying upon your kids at My Space and Facebook and lord knows where else. I suppose chat rooms and gaming sites. Well Mom did not get the kids back home - they went to Paternal Grandmother. We will see how long that lasts.

My mother finally surfaced from her most recent "desaparecido". She did not have CNAs available so Ms POA simply decided to take her to her home (I suppose)! No notice to anyone or need to comply with orders that she pretends exist for Mom to have a CNA at all times. She makes me mad. I will get a chance to speak and laugh with my mother for a couple days now. I anticipate she will be more relaxed and at ease. No fussing CNAs or busybody worry wart types trying to quietly kill her. Long may she live. Kids will also be excited to talk with her.

Time for a shower. Kids will be walking in the door soon, bursting with enthusiasm to open Christmas Day presents. Let the mayhem ensue.

Merry Christmas everyone. Peace on this Earth, for at least a few minutes today.

Patty Cake

Portrait sessions are coming along. Word of mouth really is the best advertising you can get. This mother and daughters session may have been the most fun I have had this week. Once everyone loosened up and we started to play, the session time started to fly. Here is one daughter doing something she and her mother usually do. We worked at having the girls be themselves in front of the camera. I will have to send the photos in because they are still on my laptop.

chest cold

have had this annoying chest cold for days. at first it was a nuisance, but the air quality here in town really stinks right now. that means more wheezing and hacking and coughing. i don't want to go running off to the doctor's office, but i know what happened before. i let it continue and had pneumonia. two weeks in bed and so tired i could hardly stand. bad news if that goes this way again. can't coach basketball from the bedroom. so that means i have to endure the poking and prodding and questions at the clinic so that they can tell me what i already know. prednisone for two weeks and then call if the symptoms have not changed enough. do what i must do. do what i must do. do what i must do. takes too much time from work for all this, but better now than later.

My Favorite

The best photograph I have taken in the past couple of weeks was thought out and planned. I was wearing my therapist/social worker hat at the moment that I was inspired, but managed to let my right and left brains talk it out. Here is the result of not stepping on my own creativity. The family likes it too!

Christmas Countdown

We (meaning my wife) finally coaxed the three of us into putting up a Christmas tree. First time in many years that we have not made it out to the lot to fuss and argue over cedars, pines and spruces. Fake tree, ugly tree. We are only home a few days this holiday season because we are taking much needed breaks from school and work.

We are working at getting into the spirit of this important holiday season. There is just so much stuff. Medical procedures, picking out new phones for my recalcitrant teen, work, family, shopping, dogs, photography workshops, portrait sessions, freebies for friends and family. Recent works can be found on flickr and zenfolio. Hope you find some peace in the craziness.

I Don't Want to be Here Anymore!

My daughter managed to forget her key to the house again. She used this as an excuse to hang out with her friends for three hours this afternoon. She was so cheery when I tracked her down at the friend's house. Of course, she walked in the door angry and ready to shoot bear. I tried to engage her in the simplest of conversations, but she gave me the cold shoulder. I put my foot down and told her I could simply wait it out. I then told them (her) about my taxing day. I think I got her attention. She talked and talked and talked. Then after the talking came the spewing of many days (maybe weeks) of unmoderated anger. Dumping all her hurts and fears on her dad. I listened and she played her best pity cards; you don't give me strokes or good feedback; you don't listen to me; I am always wrong. No go. No tears from me this time.

Studio Family Session

this was the first family session I have had this year. We had some fun, with the two of us rolling around on the floor. This first photograph was an "accident as I had left the Fuji S3 in b/w mode. I liked what I saw though a decided to keep it. His father, step-mom and grandmother were there with him as well. But nothing beats the pure joy of shooting with a free thinking child.

We jumped and kicked our way into some pleasant and fun poses. Here he was able to just lie down on the seamless and talk with me, while I asked him questions about sports teams. He likes the Vikings and his favorite NBA player is Yao Ming. His dad likes da Bears, though so I guess Sundays are tough going at his house.

Last but not least, to wrap it all up before the rest of the family came in. We just got to be a kid thing. He started by taking some quick images of his dad.

Just as I was about to leave, I got a phone call from one of my oldest college friends. We had a great chat about family and connections. Photos help bring all that together for me.

Dance

Crayon Dance, originally uploaded by Lukasia.

sometimes you have to get out of the rut you find yourself in. doing the same things over and over again does not make one creative, although it might mean one is productive. i like this photo as a simple b/w photo. it has some emotional intensity to it. i simply wanted to play a bit with PSE5. this is the result. some may like it; most probably won't. life is like that. if we only do things to make others happy, we lose ourselves in the process of doing so. even though we are a more independent society than most Asian nations, we still have pressure to succumb to what is the dangerous "middle ground" of mediocrity.

yesterday, my lame sister sent us all another cheery email extolling her generosity as a guardian for my mother. unfortunately she gave permission for us to "ignore" a court order that does not exist. she continues to practice Mickey Mouse law. i have also come to understand that she thinks of The Law as a penultimate practice. she confuses legality with ethical or fair or just. she must know that the lawyers created The Law for their own benefit using cheesy language to obfuscate reality. she thinks that because she tackled law school, that she has transcended non-law school mere mortals. underestimate your enemy and you have probably already committed a grievous error, perhaps fatal.

so mediocrity or creativity. there is room for both. we can't always seek to excel everywhere. let others take the lead at times. go for it.