At
around 8 am on Sunday Ashley somehow managed to get me out of bed. I went through the motions of breakfast thinking
of nothing in particular. Alberto called
around 8:45 and I admit I was cranky and so may have not been as diplomatic as
usual. Long story short – he got mad
that I hadn’t fixed the phone number like I said I was going to. I told him about the schedule we had
yesterday, but he wasn’t listening to me or my ‘excuses’ and shouted “don’t
worry I won’t bother you anymore! I’ll
even take you off the visitors list so you don’t have to deal with me!” He hung up on me and I had myself a decent
crying jag. I went on the errands I had
planned and took Ashley to her swimming lesson after which a massive tension
headache developed, pounding my brain into a pulp. It took me 45 minutes to get the new number
added to my incoming jail call account, and another 30 minutes to get the
forwarding feature to work correctly. I
had the money I was planning on depositing for Alberto that night, but by 7 pm
I just couldn’t think anymore. I skipped
most of my supper because I was nauseous, and my darling daughter cured the
worst of my pain when she demanded I put my feet in the bathtub with her. A half an hour or so later Alberto called to
find out if I fixed the numbers up and who was coming with me on Monday to
visit. I didn’t even get a ‘Perdóname’ and he used his pouty tone of voice
when he talked to me. After the call
disconnected, I gave up on Sunday and went to bed.
Skipping
ahead to Wednesday, I am so damn irritated right now I could scream. I have been going back and forth with some
new paralegal at Brian’s office for the last week trying to set up the
interview Brian requested with the witnesses.
I only know one of the guys, my husband’s cousin by marriage Anton, and
I have no desire to talk to the only other guy whose name I actually know. Ernesto is the pendejo who helped my pendejo
de un cuñado beat the ever loving crap out of Nemesio so you can understand how
it is not a good idea for me to speak with him.
Luckily my brother-in-law David is acting as a go between for the
witnesses, which makes my life easier.
There
is a reason why I prefer to email people that have a habit of pissing me off since
at least I can take my time before I respond.
The paralegal confirmed the appointment for Friday but then dropped a
bomb in stating that I was expected to supply an interpreter and apparently be
present in the office. I was livid to
the point that I literally saw red when I finished reading his email. I had to get up and leave my computer for
several minutes before I was able to draft a response, and I had a few people
critique the email before I sent it.
Below this line you will find my email and the subsequent responses.
Me:
“You have got to be kidding me, supply my
own interpreter? I am not the party who
will be interviewing the witnesses nor is it a good idea (in my opinion) for me
to be present at the office for the interviews.
I have never known a legal office that required their clients to supply
interpreters for witnesses they wanted to interview.”
Brian: “Let me see if
I can get someone out here Friday.”
Brian: “The issue is
expense. Cases like this, there is a
built in fee to pay for the interpreter however, the fee has not been paid in
full yet so it makes it difficult to provide the services necessary when the
financial component is not there however, I will try to make some
arrangements. It may require me to
reschedule the meeting on Friday in conformity with the interpreter. ¶ I will keep you in the loop.”
Me:
“Believe me if I had the money, I would
pay you in full gladly. There is nothing
I hate more than being in debt. Every
year my tax return goes to paying off old debts and I get one step closer to
getting rid of everything that went into collections when Alberto left in
2008. I still need a statement so I know
exactly what I owe. ¶ In
regards to the interpreter; at the end of the month I have almost nothing
left. I pay the bills as I am able but
without the ability to get assistance for things like daycare because
Immigration has my hands tied, my resources are stretched to the breaking
point. At this point I am thanking God I’ll
have some PTO accrued in time for the trial in 19 days otherwise I would be
unable to make my car payment next month.
There is nothing more demoralizing then having to count your pennies and
then having to decide if you get to go to the doctor or buy new shoes or your
growing child. God willing I won’t have
to do this all on my own much longer. ¶ With
kind regards, Deza.”
I
am still of the opinion that Brian is not a bad guy, just clueless of what it
is like to be a card carrying member of the working poor. It was only a month or two ago that I check I
wrote him bounced because he demanded it to pay for the Discovery for Alberto’s
case. I don’t know if he understands
that if it wasn’t for my parents, we would not be continuing with the
immigration case at all because I would need public assistance to survive. I thought I had talked about this at one point
with him, how I was unable to get the assistance we needed because Immigration
would conclude that allowing Alberto to come to the United States would cause a
larger drain as he would leach the system dry.
You know, I used to work with someone who abused every public assistance
program she could get her grubby little hands on. She was a citizen, wasn’t a minority, and felt
no remorse for cheating the system. Even
having the state garnish her wages to repay what she wrongfully received didn’t
stop her. She used her children to get
whatever she could out of the government and from what I saw she did not take
good care of them.
I
submitted a petition today for additional financial assistance from the YMCA
regarding Ashley’s Preschool. I decided
that it couldn’t hurt to ask for the help in case a spot opens up for Ashley to
attend full time. I managed to condense
my 4 years of horror into a page and a half letter which may or may not be
sufficient, but at the very least the Director now knows my pain. Dear Lord has it really been that long? The incident was in August and Alberto was
arrested in November after Thanksgiving in 2007. Someone asked me a few weeks ago if I had to
go back and do it all again, would I?
Yes, though I admit there are a few little things I would love to change
but I would have stood by Alberto. For
better or worse, in richer and poorer, so long as you both shall live? I do…
“It is difficult for
some people to accept that love is a choice.
This seems to run counter to the generally accepted theory of romantic
love which expounds that love is inborn and as such requires no more than to accept
it.”
Leo
F. BuscagliaCiao
Interesting Spanish Words/Phrases:
Perdóname Forgive me
Pendejo Dumbass
Cuñado Brother-in-law
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