(sorry- this ended up much longer than I had planned...)

Well first, Happy 4th everyone! As Carey said- I hope SOMEwhere saved some fireworks for tonight! Mom has a pretty awesome feast planned, for just the three of us- I must admit I'm pretty psyched.

Feels good to be home. Get some quality time with the slobber-monster pups... God I love them. They're still always so happy to see me and eager to please. :) And this is stupid, but I still just love this house. My mom has such a good eye and nice taste... It looks like it came straight out of a magazine. I wish I could do half of what she does. Hope to get to the beach at some point, but it's foggy right now.

I don't think I've ever gone into this story, but about a year ago on a saturday night, my home phone rang around 11:30pm; which always makes me a little nervous, because no one calls that phone. Caller ID shows it's my parents... and it's my Mom. My Dad's sister Nancy had just been killed in a car accident. Some kid, NOT drunk, surprisingly enough, had been going something like 110 as she was turning left out of a housing development onto the main road in her little convertible Rabbit. From what we hear, she died more or less instantly. (although I immediately found myself in trauma-doc mode, asking about her blood pressure and her injuries etc- then realized that even though my dad is a doctor, maybe he doesn't want to talk about whether or not his big sister's aorta was ruptured, vs. her neck broken.)

So that's all very sad and tragic. And I couldn't get off work to go the funeral, which I think is kind of shitty. But the thing is, we just weren't that close to her. We never saw her, and only talked to her on holidays and stuff, when mom would have to remind dad to call all his sisters. Not that they don't get along, but they just all live far apart and have different lives.

Jenny, on the other hand, is my cousin in Chicago- Nancy's daughter. And during my year in Chicago, I got pretty close to her and her family- and I just adore them. And Jenny, obviously, was a little closer to her mother than I was. So she took on the task of managing the estate, dealing with the lawyers, insurance settlements, the trial, all that. So I'm sure it consumed her daily, but the rest of us managed to put it out of our minds and carry on our little lives.

When I saw Jenny in Chicago in May, we talked about it a little bit... it was sad, and touching, to hear her talk about her mom. And I heard a lot of the trial stuff that just astounded me. I hate our legal system sometimes... They tried to claim that he wasn't guilty. When OBVIOUSLY he was. I mean, he was driving a car, recklessly, and killed another person. (he and his passenger were fine, btw.) How can he not be guilty? Well first they tried to say she was depressed and it was suicide. When that didn't work, they said "well yes, we admit she died on the road that night... but you can't prove it was from the accident." Huh? They tried to say she had a fatal heart attack right at that second. Good one, huh?!

But so then apparently they'd had some bad luck with the legal side of things- there was a last-minute change of judge (or something like that)- and the new guy was reputed to be very lenient. The kid finally pleaded guilty. Which means no trial. Which I guess is good. So all that was left was the sentencing. And they told Jenny she didn't have to go. And she said "are you kidding me? That is the only time this kid is going to have to stand up and admit that he killed my mother. You bet your sweet ass I'm going to be there." But they were worried about the sentencing... I guess he could have gotten up to 10 or 20 years or something like that, but at the other end, the lowest possible sentence was ONE DAY in jail. And with the new judge... So Jenny and everyone was steeling for the worst. That he was going to do a day in jail, and walk. So she had decided that she needed to punish him with her words- get up in that courtroom and pull heartstrings and just make him feel like shit- something that will haunt him the rest of his life. I heard some of what she was planning to say- and it wasn't mean or nasty- just heartwrenching. "she was a good nurse and a great friend (etc etc etc) but she was my only mother, and you took that from me" etc.

Sorry, this is getting way too long...

But so the sentencing was last week, and I guess as it got closer they were more realistically thinking he'd get 6 mos in a county holding cell or whatever it's called. And dad told me last night that he got 10 years in a state pen. I guess 8 are eligible for parole, but he will serve at least two.

So... I guess that's good.

But at the same time, I have to say I feel a little bit bad for the guy. His life is never going to be the same. He didn't set out to kill anyone. He's just a stupid young white trash kid showboating around in his POS car....

Well anyway, the good news is, it's all over. I haven't talked to Jenny, but I think she's probably happy with the outcome. And now we can all just put it behind us and move on and let her rest in peace.

Now i'm going to go sit on the front deck, in my pajamas, with a cup of coffee and two dogs snoring at my feet... and get a little studying done, on the anniversary of the birth of our nation. :)

Cheers peeps!
-J