In exactly one month, on April 29th, the opening of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! The trailers look great, everybody here at the house (as well as some neighbors) are excited to see this film. We're going as a group, and the group has tripled in head-count over the past week. We keep lending out the book so everybody can read it before the movie (Danielle has it right now).

Kenny and I were thinking aloud the other day as to why we hadn't read the book sooner... we'd heard about it, but it wasn't until last year when Randy From Nebraska (boredlurker) suggested I read it during a time in my life when comedy was desperately needed that I finally bought a copy from Amazon. Somehow reading the book did help, I tossed myself into the pages and the main theme of "Don't Panic!" kept me from blowing up. My anger at some unjust things going on last year had me in a constant state of hyper-reaction. By just following the simple suggestion of "Don't Panic", I was able to see things more clearly and act upon them rationally instead of the anger-induced irrational methods I wanted to unleash (like going to see the mayor or any top official and demanding they put a stop to the idiot-brigade.) Instead, I just mailed out copies of the incident that occurred last year to as many top officials as I could. What resulted was almost comical, and certainly positive.

When I got a link to the movie coming out, my intent was to go to New York to see it with some people from a forum I frequently go to, as nobody here was interested or excited about the film. But, when Kenny came out of the bathroom one day with his index finger at page 33 of my copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it became clear by the look on his face that he was beginning to understand why I was looking forward to seeing a movie at the theatre on opening night. Normally I prefer to wait until a movie comes out on VHS or DVD, so I can watch it in the comfort of our home. It was the first movie I'd ever told Kenny I wanted to see on opening night, in the almost twelve years of our marriage. Part of me wonders if he also was just a little nervous about me bussing it to New York with a towel to meet with a group of other Hitchhiker's Guide fanatics. But I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the book itself, which he said was one of the funniest he'd read in a long time.

Shortly after he read it, he put a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy screensaver on his computer (I hadn't even done that!), and one day while I was at work he showed the boys the trailer to the film. By the time I came home, KC was reading the book and the excitement had caught on...

The book has that effect on people; the more we've talked about it, the more people we know are asking to come along for the opening night show. We're going to have to bring both vehicles and it's possible by the time April 29th comes along we will need somebody else to drive a whole other carload. I suspect the movie is going to do well all spring, summer and possibly even into the autumn.

In other family news, one of the triops died last week. We expected the other two would die shortly thereafter, as that is what we read on every triops website. When one dies, the others usually die within days. Strangely and inexplicably, that is not the case. The other two are alive and well and continue to molt and grow.

April 7th is getting close now, and once that day comes and goes, I will be able to post about the situation that angered me to no end last year. We're confident (as are some key people) that on April 7th the final decision will show that we were 100% in the right. Sometimes battles come along and you wonder... "why in the heck is this going on?" But I think it's possible we were given a set of experiences that would allow us to share our knowledge of things from a very personal angle. I really believe that sometimes negative things happen so that positive things can come from it, tenfold. And it appears that before I even get to do what I'll be doing, some other negative chain of events are already leading to many positive changes. An overhaul of the system is needed right now, and it's good to see some top leaders are finally responding to what can only be described as a massive corruption. When cold cases get reopened at the request of the Mayor, and when society finally understands why and how the system has been screwing up, things can only improve and truly benefit society. After all, it's our tax dollars. The mistakes are glaringly obvious, and for once those who have been trying to get a media spotlight on the problem areas are finally being heard and not being dismissed as unreasonable advocates.

There's so many other areas that need to be looked into; it's my hope that Dontel Jeffer's mental health issues will also be reviewed (as he was most likely labled 'special needs' to be in that Mentor home). With so many children in the custody of the state being jacked up on pills and given a faulty-medical-science diagnosis, it's time that area of things be looked into further before worse outcomes, after decades of it going on, come to fruition. I believe if the statistics were just printed in a local paper, or spoken aloud on the evening news, alerting society to the numbers and percentages of children in the state's custody who are forced on medications, there would be an outcry so loud and in such volume it would pry the lid right off the sealed-can of corruption. When agencies team up and get laws passed that tie not only the hands of society together but even tie the legal system's hands together, something is definitely wrong. And all that needs to happen to reveal it is making society aware of it, a simple step that could lead to so much needed change. The agencies are so intertwined at this point, to levels most are not aware of, and it certainly is no coincidence that once they got in bed together that decisions began to be made not based upon what was in the best interest of each child, but what was in the best interest of all agencies involved. Just a graph showing how it effected the growth of profits, diagnosis, medication prescriptions and the differences each agency gets in federal and state funding when compared to non-medicated children would make society demand it stop. It's a simple step that starts with all of these agencies giving out their statistics and data, without any personal information revealed, just the numbers (something that is not easily googled, but if you are diligent and patient, you get some of the facts, and those alone can make your blood run cold.)

The more I research things, the more I realize that it is up to each parent to take care of their own without getting caught up in the lack of help in your own area; the agencies out there touting 'resources', waving them as bait, are only trying to lure you in so they can take over and keep things going the way they like them to be going: in circles. The more you run around in circles, the better for the agencies involved, as things go unresolved, undefined, and unchanging for months, years and sometimes, sadly, even decades. GO OUTSIDE YOUR AREA if you have to, as each state has a hospital that is known to have a high success rate. If your child has any mental health issues, call around, research online, find out what other resources are open to you on a private level. Save yourself the years of wondering what else you can do, get your child all of the testing done that is available so you can know what the situation is in absolutes, not wild guesses or trendy misdiagnosis tossed around each year to thousands per region. Once you get a grip on what's going on, you are out of that loop-de-loop feeling of going nowhere, your child will be better off, and you can actually beging to have hope and see things working out instead of staying stagnant and just feeding the incompetent system.

If you don't see positive results after a year of trying to resolve something going on with somebody you love, go outside your region. Change doctors. Do whatever it takes, stand firm no matter what tactics they use to try to get you to stay in the circles. We'd personally been in the circles for almost a decade; I would hate for any other family to have to go through the guilt you feel, as a parent, when you realize that you should have sought out better, more competent help sooner. Sometimes, as parents, we just think if we love enough, make life enjoyable enough, be consistent enough, that things will just sort themselves out. With some medical situations, no amount of stability will help, no amount of love or understanding will make things get easier or better for the one who suffers. I warn you that once you do seek help outside your region, there might be a shit-storm to follow, as local agencies will be angry... you are revealing them as the unable, idiotic circle-pushers they are. You are effecting their 'bottom line'. You are pretty much, by your actions, stating that you no longer trust their claims. You are letting them know you will no longer be manipulated to stand by and do nothing and just 'leave it all up to them'. You are their worst fear, as they are used to people, in sheer exhaustion, just giving the reigns over to them and allowing the circles of a pony ride in a fenced in area they have control over and profit from. When you jump over that fence, when you decide enough is enough, make sure you are united and strong, as a family, whatever the makeup of your family is, even if it's just you and your child. Make sure you document everything. Make sure you "Don't Panic!"

And bring your towel.