Monday, January 28, 2008

No Pass for You

Well, Katie is still on Jeopardy. She might get off before PC II, we don't know at this point. So she might still have some sort of pass, but as of right now she doesn't.

So I'm booking my return flight for Monday from PCII. If she does earn a pass then we can do one day on Sunday (why take a red-eye Sunday night if I'm still going to miss work on Monday anway, when I can take a non-stop during the day?).

First call

We had our first call with 'S' on Friday, and she was very nice. While we are going to miss 'A', 'S' does seem to be on the ball.

Katie is going to go up to get off of Jeopardy today, and 'S' says that she has been working hard, though still has some honesty issues and the rebuilding of trust to work on . We are set for PC II in less than two weeks, but still don't know if Katie has earned another pass with that or not ('S' is supposed to find out this morning on that).

It also turns out that the last regular season basketball game for the girls is on the night we fly out, so we also are having her check to see if it is ok if we go to it (we probably won't be able to make the freshman game (at least not all of it), but should be able to be there for all of the varsity game). I don't know if Katie has been going to any of the away games as manager, or if she will be there at all. Still, it isn't like we have anything else to do that evening before PC II anyway (though I have seen some people talking about meeting at a local restaurant).

Thursday, January 24, 2008

firming up plans

Some changes. I don't remember (and I'm too lazy to check) if I mentioned, but we have a new family rep now - 'S'. 'A' didn't leave, but is now doing staff instead. She will be missed.

We actually have our first real call with 'S' tomorrow night, but I did talk with her briefly yesterday, to find out the status on Katie and the next seminar. She is still in Jeopardy, and still not supported for level 5, so no PC III. Instead we will do PC II the weekend before.

Not completely bad news, though not good. We had other plans on the PC III weekend, so we can now do them. What it does mean is at best we could do PC III in April, which would put, at best, PC IV in August. Of course, throughout this entire time, when has anything worked out under the best case?

What we still have to find out tomorrow night is if she gets another pass with PC II. If so then we could do the two days (Sun-Mon) afterward. Diane has her realtor's convention on that Tuesday, so she has to be back in Vegas for that, and I'll fly hom then. If she doesn't have a pass then I'll fly home on Monday.

But we did get cheap flights out (though I haven't booked mine back yet, as I don't know which day I'm returning), and I don't think we will need a room for her, as she won't be at level 5 so she won't be staying overnight with us.

We are also going to ask about going to the last girls basketball game - it is away about an hour north from her school. I don't know if it would be an issue, or if she would even go. Making the freshman game will be a bit of a rush - we basically would have to go straight there from the airport and not loose much time getting out of Vegas (arrive 1 pm, lose and hour, drive for 3 - that is the start time of the game). But then she isn't with the freshman, she is a manager for the varsity team anyway. But we have to ask 'S' about that as well.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Songs in my head

Lately it seems like I constantly have songs running through my head - like someone has picked a soundtrack for my life, but it constantly gets stuck for hours at a time (even in my sleep). So last night on our call with 'B' another one hit, and I almost laughed out loud (and it wasn't funny).

Katie is on Jeopardy (and no, it isn't the Jeopardy theme, but the Greg Kihn song ("Our loves in Jeopardy"), or even worse, the Weird Al Parody ("I lost on Jeopardy") right now.
A part of me should feel frustrated (not about the music going on over and over and over again in my head) because there is a good chance we won't be doing PC III next month now, instead doing PC II a week earlier. Which of course would mean at least 2 more months before a possible graduation. But I'm not, because learning to deal with these setbacks is exactly what she needs.

I am frustrated because I hate being in this limbo state of not knowing what is going to happen, not being able to plan (and in this case not being able to book our flights). But in a way I'm almost relieved, because it has been so long since we did PC I (back in April of 2006), doing PC II wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Ben suggested the possibility of doing both, but we just can't swing that (it would mean us being out there for almost 2 weeks, and there just isn't any way we can afford that, nor can leave Katie's two brothers home for that length of time at once (they are good boys, but even so 4-6 days is quite a bit, evne with people checking in on them (and we have no relatives around either, except their older brother who can't just take a couple weeks off from college))). And we don't know if she would have a pass with PC II like she will with PC III.
So still we wait. We will call Ben mid-week next week to get a final determination, as we will run up against that wonderful 14-day advance purchase limitation to get out there.

So I don't see this as a bad thing, either way. But I do want it to be settled, that is where my frustrations are right now.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

More progress

We talked with 'A' last night - she had to reschedule our normal call. Still good all around - Katie is on manor service, and only needs a little over 200 more points for level 5 - she is hoping to go up next week. So it really looks like we will be doing PC III in February.

I didn't realize that the pass with PC III was an overnight one. Right now it looks like we would just do two days though - with travel and all even that is pushing it for the amount that we can be gone. I laughed though, because for the first time CC's scheduling is actually in our favor, slightly. Diane has a conference in Vegas right before PC III, so the night before I have to drive back there to pick her up (I'm hoping to come in a couple of days early for the pass). Having to have Katie back by 8 pm the night before works out well for us then!

Now we just have to get final confirmation next week that she is eligible so we can actually book the flights etc. And figure out how to pay for them of course. That is not getting any easier.

Friday, January 04, 2008

New Year, good start

We had our weelky call with Katie and 'B' last night. Diane and I laughed a bit, because Katie comes in and says she has to cut the call short (to about 20 minutes) because of the basketball game. We both immediately responded that we should then whine about it for 15 minutes - and Katie immediately caught it and said NO! We didn't of course, but it was fun turning that table on her (and it actually worked out fine for us as we had dinner reservations anyway for Diane's Birthday).

The call was really good, going over her pass as well as her new years goals. She was commended on them by both 'B' and 'A' because instead of the 3 or 4 pages of junk she usually did she simply had a few, straightforward concise goals.

We talked a bit about how realistic they were - she is saying she wants to graduate high school there - but that would mean she needs something like 9 more credits after what she is already taking now, and we said that just wasn't realistic. What would be realistic is for her to complete her junior year by this summer, so that when she gets out she will be where she should be in school.

She has started the 18 year old meetings, and is staffing the pre-discovery meetings. She is also working on her points, and she thinks she can go up for level 5 next week (she should be able to be voted up and just wait to complete the staffing). Angie said we should know by the 15th if she is going to make it for PC III in February.

It is such a change to start talking about her actually coming home. We have not wavered on our committment, but she is really working to make PC IV in June. One way or the other she will be out of there in about 9 months (at most) (either graduating in June or August, or because she turns 18 in July and leaves, or the last loan (assuming we get it) runs out at the end of the September).