Woohoo! Had a pretty fun 4th of July weekend. Jo and I went to a friend's bbq on the fourth where we ate good food, played hostage basketball, and lit some firecrackers. You might be wondering what hostage basketball is. It's a new craze where a bunch of guys get together and make a pact to go hungry and thirsty until five people can shoot five free throws in a row. So there we were, after an hour and a half of trying to make five in a row, coming close with four in a row a couple of times, and making up new rules of two pointers and even four pointers to try to get ourselves out of the game. After an hour and a half of delirium, somebody finally ended it with a behind the house, over the roof, 22 foot four pointer. I was relieved because we were so close to creating our own society a la Lord of the Flies, and eating each others' flesh. A good time was had by all.

Yesterday, I dragged Joanne to City Beach in Fremont where Shrinkage was playing. Shrinkage is a band out of da une that is inspired by the late band, Sublime, and other punk, ska, surf bands. They played a nice set and we saw some old peeps from high school. Thanks, Jo, for staying up late last night even though you had to come into work early this morning.

In between, I went to work and didn't get spit on, kicked, or bit by any of the kids. If you don't already know, I work at a group home for boys age 6-12. They are classified as level 14 SED (seriously and emotionally distrubed), the highest level of disturbance, and most of their porblems stem from past emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse. I love these kids, but they will tear you up if you're not paying attention. My favorite part of the job is reading the kids bedtime stories at night and tucking them in. These kids lose so many teeth that I come into work with a bunch of change so that the tooth fairy doesn't get cursed at in the morning. Despite not getting injured, one of the kids did do something pretty nasty. After being put in a room we call the Quiet Room, where there rubber walls and just one door, the kid started to take off his clothes and urinate all over the walls and on his clothes. Then, he started to wring out the urine from his boxers and place it in his mouth like a rabid dog. Pretty nasty, huh? This kid had a really, really bad childhood, and he's still only 8 years old. But between these moments of insanity and chaos, we are there to give them a ton of love and provide stability and structure in their lives. The morning before this incident, the kid actually made me a greeting card saying: "Dear Francis, you are my best friend from: the kid". Sniff, sniff.