Reasons I am happy today:
- Jack is home with my sister and her husband, where he belongs. Now they can commence being a family.
- The Princess had an appointment with her orthopedic surgeon this morning. She's healing well and she's cleared for any activity she thinks she can handle. Yay!
- Bubba was pretty well-behaved at the doctor's office and at the high school, which is hard for him.

Reasons I am unhappy today:
- I got a call from the sheriff's department, asking for permission to question Bro again regarding an incident separate from the one that happened last weekend. The consequences of this incident may end up being more costly than those of the other.

I'm not just unhappy about this; I'm royally pissed off. And although I believe that the consequences for these exercises in poor judgement are Bro's alone, I know our family will be taking a hard hit financially.

And it will affect all of us, not just Bro. I will have to work more hours. Hubby, the primary breadwinner, will be pressured to make more money somehow. The Princess is fearful she may not get a car. Even Bubba feels the stress this crap puts on the rest of the family. There's a tension in the air around here.

What give kids the right to think they can cause this kind of damage with impunity? Who gave them the power to cause harm to others, their families? What makes them such hot shit that they don't have to worry about consequences or the shame they bring on their families?

As much as I try to remind myself that this is his problem, not mine, it still causes me shame. It still makes me angry with Bro. It still will fall to us to provide timely financial compensation. It will still be us paying the lawyer, driving to court, providing transportation so Bro can fulfill the requirements for court-assigned punishment.

You bet your ass he'll pay us back every single penny, but it will be a while before he can defray the cost with a job that pays minimum wage.

This damn thing will be hanging over our heads for quite a long time, I think. I hope the anger I feel goes away soon.

Edit: I think I have pinpointed how I feel about this: You know how when you're in a car accident and it's not your fault, but you know this will cause you a major problem financially and disrupt your life for a while, AND YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG, but you're going to have to pay for it anyway? Yeah, that's it.