Old friends and explaining the Criminal

My friend whom I hadn't seen in 3 years and before that, whom I hadn't seen in 15 years called me yesterday. She's in Israel and will be coming to Jerusalem this weekend. I am going to an Interfaith retreat Thursday and Friday but Saturday night may be a possibility. Although we need a week to catch up on things. I can't wait to see her. She is one of my nicest friends. We've been friends since we were 14. We both loved the Beatles (before the Stones came into my brain) and knew all the words to Help and A Hard Days Night because we'd see it 50,000 times when it would be re-released in the theaters. We were lucky enough to meet each of the Beatles separately after their breakup when they were in New York City because we didn't act like teenyboppers - asking for autographs and taking photos (although we may have been alot richer had we asked for those autographs then), so older girls in the know gave us that top secret info. She loved George Harrison and related to him because he was spiritual. She would speak to every one kindly - even if they were annoying - and never in a rushed manner, which used to drive me crazy if I was in a hurry to get somewhere. She never argued with her parents. She was just a good kid. She married a guy who looks like Jerry Garcia, who is as equally as nice as she (although my dad didn't care too much for him because he looked like a hippie - and still does). And they ended up with 5 nice kids. They're vegetarians and were that way before it became trendy to be vegetarian. And I'm thrilled she's here.

Today I took my Criminal daughter to an appointment with the probation officer. She has 8 - count them - eight police files since 2002. But since April she's had none. Thank God. She sat for an hour listening intently to the young probation officer tell her about the differences between adult courts and juvenile courts. About the fact that she now has a framework. She would listen and if he took too much time to explain - she'd interrupt him with an impatient "Nu?" a sign for him to get on with it. But I was surprised to see her interact with him on a much more mature level than I'd seen before. The probation officer was impressed that she made the initiative of going to the local head of the education department where we live - on her own - and she's only 14 - back in May - to say she needed to be in a school and could they please find her somewhere which would be good for her. All other schools could not handle her and she was pretty much without a school for most of the year. Well they found a place which is great for her. There would be no delinquents in this country if all the teachers were as loving and caring and as wonderful and patient as they are in this school. There's a court case coming up in October because she (together with 3 other kids) stole money from a friend's home back last January. She began school the beginning of June of this year. So we're all hoping that this school will bring miracles and a decent framework to keep her out of harm's way. And if she keeps this good behavior up, I'll have to get her another pseudonym.