I've got so much trouble on my mind.

Chuck D said it best.

Things have not gotten any better since the events of last Monday. If anything, they've gotten steadily worse.

Rhonda got her purse stolen Monday during a staff meeting. As if the violation of privacy and exposure of personal information (driver's license, credit cards, etc.) were not bad enough, Rhonda's Treo 650 smartphone (2 weeks old, $400, no insurance) and Nintendo DS (barely a month old) were in her bag. The outside doors to the school are supposed to be locked except for the office, so automatically it looks like an inside job.

After playing Barnaby Jones with Rhonda's principal over some strange out-of-state calls to Rhonda's cell phone, we are 99% sure who did it (let's just say someone hasn't shown up as scheduled for the last week). Unfortunately, without an eyewitness, the SJPD is refusing to investigate. One dispatcher in particular has gone out of her way to be as unhelpful and unsympathetic as possible.

In the process of switching her phone service to her old phone, we also found out next month's bill is going to be about $600. Obviously, this coupled with the theft, and property taxes, and our regular bills is painting a dark picture of our financial future. That bill's obviously being disputed (it's unrelated to the theft) but it's just something else to worry about.

Rhonda has been putting on a brave face at school. She had a new student the day after the theft so she made herself go to work. I don't know how she made it that day. At home, she's been a wreck. This is the first time she's had something of hers stolen (whereas I am old hat at getting robbed), so she has understandably been depressed and beating herself up over it. I do what I can, but what can you really do?

Things looked like they might turn a corner on Friday, but on Saturday the iBook the school gave Rhonda wouldn't boot. She needed to do progress reports over the weekend because she has class at SJSU Tuesday and Wednesdays and needed to prep for those days for her class on Monday night. She figured out the problem was the power adapter (which was actually sparking when plugged in). They didn't have a power adapter at Fry's (because that would be too easy) so she had to go to the Apple Store to pick one up. Another $100 and a day wasted.

(And Cal lost on Saturday to UCLA after leading the ENTIRE GAME. It's a small thing, but it ruined my day.)

On Monday when she e-mailed the librarian (the de facto IT person, evidently) how to get reimbursed, she got a nastygram from her about not following procedure and how she shouldn't be buying equipment. She didn't seem to care that it was an emergency (she actually told Rhonda, who's still a non-contract, non-tenured sub, to do the progress reports late!!!), she was just angry that Rhonda didn't follow HER rules. When Rhonda went to her principal to get the reimbursement approved, The librarian called her out when she took her class to the library. In front of her class.

Rhonda handled it very professionally and walked away instead of getting into a shouting match with the librarian. She reported back to the principal about it, and nearly punched a hole in the wall. She was still livid when she got home. I told her to let me know what she needed for progress reports and report cards and such (she was using Filemaker Pro templates the previous teacher used) and I would write her an app in Java or prepare a spreadhseet in Excel for her to do the same thing in Windows. That way she could give that skank back her laptop and not have o deal with her about it.

Today I found out my cousin and her husband are getting fleeced by their cell phone company. It looks like their phone got cloned and the company says not only are they responsible for paying for those calls, but changing their number incurs a charge because it changes the contract. This is a young family with a one-year-old on a single income and it's unbelievable that, due to deregulation, the probably don't have any choice but to pay.

That was the breaking point. I don't know how I can keep this up. I come to work some days and with all the things on my mind I can barely concentrate. On top of this, there are hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, more Republican scandals than you can shake a stick at, and I have to wonder what the hell is wrong with the world?

What is the point of having laws if no one will enforce them?

What is it with some people that rules and ego come before compassion for people having a hard time and for common decency and respect of others?

I got a meeting to go to. Then I'm going to go home and break some things.