Ay, Julian!

After the clothes extravangaza, Dawn came over this evening. We've hung out and watched TV some this week, but we haven't talked much. "I missed you," I told her out on the back porch. "I was feeling kind of crabby this week because I didn't have anybody to talk to."

"Me, too," she said.

Dawn filled me in on the upsetting latest about her big brother. Julian hasn't stayed at home overnight since Friday. He wanted to go out, his dad told him no, he went anyway and Dad said, "If you go now, don't come back." He went. Apparently he stopped in yesterday while Dawn and her dad were out of town visiting relatives, but he hasn't been back since.

Adriana was trying to tell me some of this while we were checking out the clothes, but I wasn't getting everything. Since I'm not studying Spanish right now my capacity seems to be getting weaker. Sometimes I feel like Mr. Magoo, except it's my hearing and understanding, not my sight. I stumble around in conversations bumping into things because I can't "hear" well enough. It sucks.

Dawn said something that broke my heart--she told me her mom told her that since all the rest of them have messed up, she feels like Angel is her last chance to get one of them to be somebody. "Since I kind of messed up," was how Dawn put it about herself.

"You're getting back on track!" I insisted. Especially since she had just told me minutes earlier that she's getting into a book right now. When she started, she didn't understand it and thought it was kind of boring, but she kept going and now it's kind of like watching a novela on TV--she wants to know what happens next.

"That's more important than any grade," I told her. "I'm really excited that you feel that way about a book."

Adriana told me earlier she would like to talk to Oscar about what's up with Julian. I'll call him tomorrow. Meanwhile I have to get on with things for Joey. Last week Adriana said it would be OK if my friend worked with Joey to see if he's dyslexic. We need a clean copy of the San Miguel application for him, too. (Angel got at the first one we picked up.) Adriana says Joey failed all his classes third quarter and is likely to get held back in 5th grade. I talked to someone at San Miguel who thought it might be possible to strike a deal with Chavez that if San Miguel takes him, he wouldn't be held back. I really don't think he's going to make progress there. He needs more one-on-one attention to stay focused, I think. And we really do need to see if there's a hard-wiring problem with him about reading. He's so smart and curious and artistic; I would hate to see that go to waste because of an unidentified learning disability.