Eh... history.

Financial Aid. Pain in my ass. Apparently ODU doesn't accept my step mom as my mother on my FAFSA and rejected my claim unless I do one of two things: get my biological mother's tax info, or appeal for independence. Easier said than done. I had to prove that I hadn't had any contact with her. Which is hard to do when I don't really have contact with anyone tha actually knows her. So... some weeks later I have everything I need for this appeal except the court papers. I had my mom fedex my dads death certificate, because apparently they wanted to verify my story... bullshit in my opinion. Here I am dragging all these things up for what ended up being only 3 grand. Not worth it IMO. So Monday morning I spent the entire day in the various courts of Va. Beach. BTW, I now remember why I cut off contact with my maternal family. Bunch of screwups. Every courts waiting lobby is just filled with the screwups and wastes of space we call the lower class. Coming from this class, I can say that lol. I spent many a day as a child waiting in line at the Social Security office. F that S. So I started with Juvenile and Domestic relations. There I get the change of custody papers giving my stepmom custody with my father... not quite what I was looking for to prove I hadn't seen my mother since 2000. Chica at the window tells me that that is the most recent thing in the file. I tell her to just give me the entire thing, I'll figure it out. College advisors and court clerks... can't trust em for anything. So there it is, WHAM! A single sheet of paper with 4 lines of actual non-header bs text.

"Debrah Jean Patterson is hereby denied visitation."
"Admitted to the court use of cocaine and marijuana."
"In regards to yadda yadda 3 kids."

No one has ever been that excited to find such a report lol. I was really nervous I was wasting my time because nothing had officially gotten to a judge. That was basically all I needed but it was from 2000 and alot can happen in 8 years, and ODU was being particularly assinine in my case.

Onward to civil court...
Divorce papers... 9 pages worth. Nothing really interesting there. Which dissappointed me. I was hoping for a good read about why they actually got divorced... alas.

Criminal court...
This one was kind of a stab in the dark because I had heard mention of my mom getting in legal trouble after I cut off contact. Well I hit gold again. The clerk told me there were 15 counts and it was $2 each count to get a copy... but that it was all available online. So I went home and found 8 of the counts, the rest went to a higher court and would require considerable searching. The eight were all i needed though. Eight guilty pleas to felonies ranging from check fraud to money laundering. I was like goddam.... and those genes are in me... :(

So Tuesday morning, I wake up to an email saying my request for financial aid had been denied because I waited too long. I called that office in a second. They were like sorry, better luck next time. I told her to put some paper in her fax machine. I sent over a 30 page packet I dont think they were ready for. She called me back in an hour and was like, your appeal has been approved. Financial aid hit my account today.

Point, me.

But the trip realy enforced who I do and do not want to be in this life, and how easy it is to fall into that self-pitying cycle of destitution and food stamps. And ignorance... the things I heard in that courtroom. Defense lawyers are scum, as a general rule fyi. Enjoy Ally.