Well I got to visit my son today for the first time and that first hug I got was absolutely priceless. I get there and don't have a clue what I'm doing..you have to get thru a metal detector and I am wearing a hoodie with a zipper and jeans with bling on them..so they give me these scrub things to get me thru and then I could put my clothes back on. Also, the lady at the desk tells my husband he can't take his hat or keys in with him and that's all she says. So, my hubby puts them in this basket on the counter and leaves them there. Well before we went in another lady there for a visit, tells us about how you have to get a key for a locker to put your stuff in and shows me where they are and all that. No idea why the lady couldn't tell me that..I told her it was my first time so I didn't know what I was doing, but she didn't really give a crap I guess. Anyway, thank God for the sweet lady who helped me out today! Otherwise we probably would've lost our car keys and all. My son seemed ok, but very quiet...I just wanted to scoop him up and take him home so bad. But at least I got to see him which is more than a lot of the moms get..so for that I am grateful!
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I have had a rough couple of months. I have been stuck in bed all day with uncontrolable tears non stop tears. I finally desised to respond to a message from a friend on here and feel sooo much better! Just my thoughts!
Hello I am Yolanda and my 19 year old son Gary is currently incarcerated at Santa Rita jail in Dublin Ca...this is his first time ever being in jail and this ordeal has really taken a huge toll on all of us..I am a single mother and for the majority of my children's lives it has just been me and them ,because I didn't have my ex-husband, his family, or my family as a support system..I have always worked and tried to lead by example and raise my children right ..but when it came to my son Gary the outside influences over powered my teachings.....
which has led to me feeling helpless/powerless, because their is nothing I can do to get my son out of this situation..I can't post his bail because it's 1 million dollars, I can't get him a good attorney because they want $15,000 dollars with at least $7500 down..I CANT AFFORD THAT!! SO HE IS STUCK WITH A PUBLIC DEFENDER OR COURT APPOINTED ATTORNEY WHO SEEMS TO BE MORE FOR THE STATE THAN MY SON!!!!! he is going through pre-trial and this just seems as though it's going to never end..could somebody please tell me does this feeling of helplessness ever go away? and how to better cope with this so that I can be more of a strong support for my son...thanks
One week ago today my world fell apart. My son as arrested and I will most likely no see him a free man in my lifetime. He turned 20 just 2 weeks before. I don't know how to cope with this. I can't sleep. I can't breath. I can't function. This is life shattering.
Hi ladies..well my son went in on Aug. 4 and I have been writing to him and he calls often. He is waiting to be moved, but with all the overcrowding, he has to wait for a bed to open up..so..he's still in the orientation unit. My husband and I will visit him on Saturday..I am very excited to see him, but also I feel very anxious..like about what will the prison be like and all that. I have never been to one to visit or anything..and now that's where I have to go just to see my son. Trying hard to stay positive, but damn is this hard. I miss him so much. When he calls, I know he tries to stay upbeat sounding for my sake, but I hear the sadness and homesick in his voice. Been trying to keep busy working, doing 2 jobs right now, and it's 2:30 am and I still am up! Anyway, just want to say thanks to all of you for always listening and being so nice and understanding..God Bless You All!
This one was pretty good because my son experienced so many of these symptoms while inside. It helped him understand....
5 Horrific Ways Your Brain Can Turn On You Without Warning
and then to counter balance the negative.....
5 Ways To Hack Your Brain Into Awesomeness
Cracked.com
5 Creepy Coincidences You Won't Believe Actually Happened
By: Jacopo della Quercia October 23, 2012
The rational part of our brain tells us that there is nothing weird about coincidences; when you have all of human history to work with, you're going to find some spooky "What are the odds?" situations. But as we've mentioned before, it doesn't change the fact that some of these are truly and deeply weird. Like ...
#5. The Curse of the Dragon
Martial-arts legend and enemy-to-shirts-everywhere Bruce Lee might now be as famous for his "cursed" family as he was for punching people while screaming. We've written before about how his final movie coincidentally predicted the freak accident that would kill his own son Brandon two decades later. To recap: Lee's character in the movie is killed when a real gun is substituted for a prop gun, causing him to get shot for real. Lee's son would later be killed when a prop gun misfired on the set of The Crow -- not exactly a common cause of death in the modern world. But the more you learn about the Lee "curse," the freakier it gets.
His constant mirror-breaking wasn't doing his family any favors either.
First, Bruce Lee was born on November 27, 1940 during the Year and the Hour of the Dragon. This might explain why Bruce's full Chinese name translates to "Lee's Little Dragon"; however, his parents always insisted on calling him Sai Fon (Small Phoenix), which is technically a girl's name. What seems at first like a dick move on the part of his parents to emasculate baby Bruce was actually a common defensive technique against demons in Chinese culture. Bruce's wife Linda wrote in her biography, The Bruce Lee Story: "Mr. and Mrs. Lee had lost their first son, and according to Chinese tradition when future sons are born, they are often addressed by a girl's name in order to confuse the spirits who might steal away their souls." Why do we bring all of this up? Well ...
Where it Gets Really Weird:
Linda Lee approved the making of a movie about Bruce Lee's life entitled Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Throughout the movie, Bruce battles a metaphorical demon that haunts his family, but during a final confrontation, the monster loses interest in fighting Bruce and instead goes after his son Brandon.
OK, you say, it's kind of tasteless that they would actually make a movie that included Brandon's real-life tragic death (and to blame it on a demon, no less), but what's so spooky about it? Well, that's the thing: Brandon was still alive and well when they shot the movie. The whole "Lee family demon is coming for Brandon next" was written and shot before he had his freak accident.
In fact, Brandon's death happened less than two months before the release of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. The filmmakers dedicated the movie to him, and when asked about the bizarre coincidence director Rob Cohen commented: "I believe in some forms of higher power, like Fate and sometimes, I'm embarrassed to say it, God." Yes, it's so much more comforting to believe in a god who carries out elaborate murder vendettas against random families.
Dan Levine / Getty
"Guess I'll just go after Bill Hicks now."
#4. The Vast, Left-Handed Conspiracy
Getty
By now we've cycled through enough American presidents that we've got a big enough sample-set to start pulling out patterns. For instance, it turns out we really like blue- and green-eyed leaders, since we've only elected 5 presidents with brown eyes ever, in the history of the United States. To be fair though, blue or hazel eyes among white men aren't that uncommon, and we've historically been pretty gung-ho about electing white men. They're not nearly as rare as, say, being left-handed.
While only 10 percent of the U.S. population is left-handed, you'd never know it just by looking at American presidents. It turns out that over half of the last 14 presidents were all lefties, and recently, five of the last seven presidents were left-handed. Keep in mind that up until the 1970s, kids were still forced to become right-handed in school, so it took a special kind of stubbornness to remain a southpaw into adulthood.
The scissors situation is enough to break most children.
Where it Gets Really Weird:
In fact, in most recent elections you really didn't have a choice, since over the past two decades, nearly every presidential candidate has been left-handed. In 2008, both Barack Obama and John McCain were left-handed. In 1992, all three candidates for president were lefties: Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and dear old Ross Perot.
We have some more pictures of Clinton using his left hand, but none of them are work-safe.
What are the odds? They're so long that the nation would never see something like that again until ... the very next election. As you may remember, 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole was left-handed, running against the incumbent, Ole' Leftie Bill. What the hell? It's not like there's some cultural bias toward left-handers -- we bet most of you had no idea any of these people were even left-handed at all, until we told you.
So what's the only other answer if not bizarre coincidence? That left-handers are secretly a superior race who are naturally born to rule the other 90 percent of society?
#3. John F. Kennedy's Eerily Accurate Assassination Theory
Getty
The JFK assassination has made Encyclopedia Browns and Nancy Drews out of more conspiracy theorists than you can shake a second rifle at. That said, if you are expecting some big conspiracy-salad of government agencies and secret societies here, then you will be sorely disappointed. This coincidence comes from the lips of John F. Kennedy himself, just hours before his assassination.
According to "Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye," by White House aides Kenneth P. O'Donnell and David F. Powers, when the Kennedys arrived in Dallas in 1963, they opened up the local Dallas Morning News and found a full-page anti-Kennedy advertisement "bordered in black, like a funeral notice."
mcadams.posc.mu.edu
P.S. That was an ironic "welcome."
Sounds like pretty poor taste for any occasion, never mind for the arrival of a president, right? Well, it turns out nobody knew what kind of hostile territory they were entering better than the president himself.
Where it Gets Really Weird:
The ad rattled Jacqueline Kennedy more than the president. In fact, he tried to calmly reassure the First Lady that everything would be fine with these ominously prophetic words: "We're entering nut country today. But, Jackie, if somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?" Apparently, he was a Mad fan.
wiki / Mad Magazine
That exchange took place on the morning of November 22, 1963. As you probably know, Kennedy was assassinated that afternoon by a rifle fired from the window of the Texas School Book Depository. And if you're thinking, "Well, duh, how else would you assassinate a world leader?" The answer is, "basically any other way but that." Seriously, here's a huge list of prominent assassination attempts over the centuries. It's always a nut charging the guy with a pistol or knife (see: Lincoln) or some convoluted plot involving a bomb that never works (see: Hitler).
As far as we can tell, the number of prominent human beings who have been shot "from a window with a rifle" can be counted on one hand. It's simply not done that way. And if he simply meant, "We have protection against every possible assassination method except if some nuts shoots me from a window with a rifle, in which case we're utterly screwed!" then it seems like that's the sort of thing he should have shared with his Secret Service detail.
wiki
"Thanks for making us look bad."
#2. Joan of Arc and the Maid of Lorraine Prophecy
Getty
Old-time historians weren't above sexing up their accounts with a little bit of what experts call "bullshit." Legend becomes fact, real accomplishments get exaggerated for propaganda purposes (no, George Washington never chopped down that cherry tree.) But when it comes to Joan of Arc, the parts of her life that historians all agree on are so remarkable that it doesn't seem to need all that much exaggeration. She won over her chief critic at Orleans through a sudden gust of wind on the battlefield, for instance, and one way or the other she reversed nearly a century of French defeats in one year despite no military training whatsoever.
So given all that she was accomplishing, it doesn't seem that strange that a prophecy started gaining traction around France stating, "As France had been lost by a woman, it would be saved by a woman." What is strange, however, is that the prophecy was already hugely popular in France long before Joan of Arc ever wandered off into the woods and started taking requests from angels to set English armies on fire.
wiki
There was always some asshole angel in the back who would request Free Bird.
The background on that is that when Joan was 8 years old, France's Queen Isabeau of Bavaria signed a treaty with England that essentially handed the French throne to the English king. Naturally, French citizens were less than excited about gifting their country to the same people who had been stabbing their ancestors to death for decades, and so they started to cling to this prophecy claiming that a woman would save them.
Where it Gets Really Weird:
After Joan of Arc's track record of reunifying France, that prediction couldn't sound any more made-up in hindsight. But guess who most historians attribute it to?
That would be Merlin the wizard, from Arthurian Legend. Attributing anything to a fictional wizard sounds like an open-and-shut case that it probably didn't exist, but the prophecy is mentioned repeatedly through the transcripts of Joan of Arc's trial and in a ballad written by Christine de Pisan while Joan of Arc was still alive. Each mentions Merlin's prophecy as if it was something everybody already knew about.
wiki
"Seriously. One more person yells 'Free Bird' and I'm gonna start cutting until I run out of faces."
Okay, you might think, maybe Joan just heard the prophecy as a child and tried to fulfill it. You'd be wrong. Joan of Arc claimed a lot of seemingly preposterous things during her trials, but she always dismissed the idea that she was the woman from the prophecy. So we're left with a strikingly prescient divination from a fictional English wizard foretelling the downfall of England, and the only person who doesn't believe it is the girl making it all happen.
#1. The Apocalypse of Constantinople
wiki
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 is widely considered one of the most consequential moments in world history. In fact, most historians credit that moment as the end of the Middle Ages. Like a bunch of lushes getting kicked out of a bar late at night, all the Byzantines fled the city after it fell and wandered to other European hotspots before sobering up and getting to work on the Renaissance. Suffice it to say, the collapse of Constantinople helped shape the rest of history.
Naturally, that kind of colossal event deserves some fanfare on a biblical level, so it is fitting that the fall of the city coincided perfectly with a partial lunar eclipse. While this may not sound that exciting, it was kind of a big deal for everyone who saw it because of a long-standing prophecy that said, "Constantinople would always endure provided that the moon, in its full circle, did not give a sign in the sky."
"I'm telling you, I think it's trying to tell us something."
Since the moon was an important symbol of Constantinople going back to its founding a whopping 1,123 years earlier, seeing it disappear during the most important siege of the century was a pretty terrifying coincidence for everyone who lived inside its walls. And yet even with a blacked-out moon, the Byzantines fended off the incoming attackers for a little while. It took the hand of God to sweep through the city to really let everyone know that prophecy wasn't fucking around.
Where it Gets Really Weird:
According to the terrified accounts of what happened after the eclipse, the skies opened up and, for the next week, the city was besieged with "whirlwinds and terrible storms," "thunder and lightning with clouds, and a violent rain with severe hail," and "drops huge and red, similar in size and appearance to a bull's eye, fell as tears."
last.fm
They must have cut that verse.
What sounds more like hyperbole than a detailed account actually has some credibility behind it. According to the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , these made-up-sounding phenomena may have been the result of a massive volcano -- one so huge that, even though it happened in the South Pacific, it caused apocalyptic weather-weirdness halfway around the globe. So what at first seems like a staggering coincidence feels a little more like God saying, "Alright, everyone get the hell out before I drop an asteroid on this nonsense."
I had time with my granddaughter today and it is great that I still get time with her even though her mom and my son are not together. I feel bad thinking that she won't even probably remember her dad when he gets out. She is only 22 months but just starting to talk. She has a picture of her and her daddy and she asks.."where at?" It breaks my heart. I just said Daddy is busy working...didn't know what to say. Haven't talked with her mom yet to see if she will be able to go with me to visit..not sure what she'll say about that. I think of her going without child support and her visits with her dad and I realize how unfair this really is for her. I help out as much as I can but I also work and don't have much. I don't know..yesterday..I was finally in a good mood and then today I am just BLAH!!
He finally got classified..will be as minimum..thank God. He will be placed a few miles from the place he is at now. It is a farm where they can work and sounds like it will be pretty good. He seemed pleased with it. Won't be moved till they have a bed open. Until then, he remains in the orientation unit. He just started a job serving food so at least his time is going a little faster. It will be a 2 hour visit for us..which reading what some of you go thru for distance and visiting ...this is not bad. Can't wait to be able to visit.
My son's name is Josh and he is 25 years old. A year ago last June he was in a bar, and he really wasn't suppose to be drinking anyway, but..a bar fight was being egged on by a local gal who seems to like that sort of thing...well my son got up and left the bar to avoid a fight. 2 guys followed him out and my son was already in his vehicle backing up..they began beating on the pickup, smashing beer bottles on it and trying to pull him out. One was in front of the pickup and somehow slipped or something, got hung up underneath while the pickup was still moving. My son fled the scene, the guy ended up hurt pretty bad with a broken pelvis and road rash. My son was charged with attempted murder, fleeing the scene, 3rd DUI, and a few other charges. Well, after a year of court hearings, he took a plea bargain and got 5 years with 2 suspended and is now serving a 3 year sentence. They say he used the pickup as a weapon, so he is now an armed offender and must serve 85 percent of his sentence. He was sentenced on Aug. 4 and taken that day. I saw a lot of crooked stuff go on..people lying to each other, suspected money was paid to arresting officer and states attny. But guess none of it matters now..it is what it is and we have to deal with it. He also has a 22 month old daughter, so ultimately she will suffer also. All in all this just really sucks..I have never been involved in anything like this before..what a nightmare.
I am so SORRY I have not been on MISS a while. I moved 2 weeks ago to a new place and last weekend I took my daughter and two of her friends to Chicago IL. to a concert. One Direction Concert. It was SO much FUN and a memory my daughter will NEVER forget. You all have been on my thoughts and prayers!
Hi, everyone,
I wrote a discussion awhile back about my intention to start writing "Mom University" letters to my son--my reasons for doing so were numerous. I'll explain them, but first I'll explain what a "Mom University" letter is: It's a letter about academic subjects written mostly conversationally, although sometimes I do cut and paste stuff into them, especially when I am running low on time. I intersperse jokes and brain teasers sometimes, and I include pictures, diagrams, and charts, as appropriate. I write about psychology, neurobiology, geography, Spanish, literature, and sometimes other random subjects, though the listed ones are the core of my Sam's current curriculum. I don't cover every subject in every letter, because sometimes I have too much to say about one in particular. I include a little review and keep threatening to make a test, but haven't really done that yet.
My reasons for writing these letters include:
--Difficulty in getting books approved that I can order for him (five have been approved in going on five months)
--Concern over my son developing an identity related to his surroundings (maybe not totally avoidable, but I want to keep him as closely connected to me and to our family as possible)
--His problems with depression and anxiety that require him to have a focus
--My need to feel like I am doing what I can for him
--My desire to have my son learning "healthy" stuff instead of just getting a "jail" education
--My wish for him to remember the world outside of his currently constricted world
--A need to adapt mailings because some stuff--puzzles, pattern pages, examples of fonts for him to practice--gets pulled out of his mail apparently on the whim of whoever checks the mail (I'm a social worker, a pacifist, a vegetarian, and I pray and read scriptures. I'm apparently probably likely to send all kinds of trouble-making material.)
So, I wanted to follow up and suggest this to other moms and dads who might feel so inclined--my son loves them! After one such letter, he wrote to my and said, "I feel smart. I am smart. Jail is a game and I win!"
He is not always positive, but this does help.
If you would like a sample Mom University letter, send me a PM and I will be happy to send one to you. I am totally fine with if you want to send it to your child as it is or with modifications.
My best to each of us on this incredibly difficult and painful road, and to our children.
Does anyone have any experience in writing a character letter to a judge in the Federal court system before sentencing? I have to write one for my son and I want to say the right things.
My son is still there, im just been feeling so numb but he writes me alot he is ok fixen to move him to G4 still in ad seg. He is doing better but cant wait to come home.ive seen him 3 times wiith it being 8 hrs away its so hard, but still been strong for all my family.i hope you all have been hanging in been working alot.to keep my sress from worring.i miss him so much.god bless you and your great kids lots of love to you all hugs helen
As a mother I have joined a lot of clubs pertaining to my children. This however is one that I never dreamed I would become part of. After 6 years of psychiatrists, I feel that the only people that can truly relate to what I'm going through and how I feel are other mother's who carry the same pain everyday.
My son Ryan got a job in the kitchen and he says he is being picked on in there. Is it because he is new? I just worry because he is a little guy. Please say a prayer for him. Thank you!
The other night I had a dream about my son. It was so vivid and real to me. That after it was over. I started to wonder if I should read into it more. Did it have meaning? Was something wrong? It was odd in the fact that I rarely have dreams about my son...
So the dream went like this... My mom and I were at grandma's house getting ready to turn in for the night. I turned to my right and saw that my son was hanging by the ledge of the Window on the outside not the inside. But you could see his whole head and his fingers. I immediately grabed him and hugged him so tight. I just keep telling him. It's gonna be ok. What's odd is he wasn't crying he was smiling. He was definitely I tell 3 years old in my dream. In that instant, I woke up out of the dream. I was sad and uncontrollably crying because I was never gonna see my boy at the age of 3 with that big beautiful smile, that melts your heart. I might never see it. Sure behind glass... it's not the same. I miss him allot. No he is not in prison. He us in jail I can see him on weekends. But it's just so heartbreaking it's hard for me to jump on the circle with him. Meaning this is not the first time. I just want so much more for him. But he really doesn't say or do anything to make me think that he will change. I still have FAITH but I want to happen sooner than later. I think somewhere along the lines something dramatic happened to my little boy while not in my presence that I will never be told about.
So what do you guys think this dream meant?
My son just called me crying... again... he is not doing good.... he has put in several requests for mental health just to be ignored.
As I mentioned, he is 19 years old and is Bipolar. He also suffers from cycling of severe depression and is having a breakdown as I write this. He is suicidal at this moment and needs to see Mental Health Immediately. He has filed the proper paperwork needed and everytime that he try's to go to Medicine call they tell him they have nothing for him.
He was promised by Gordon County Jail that once he was put into his Administration setting, that he would be able to start getting on his proper cycle for medication. This is not happening. To add to his illness, he is getting assaulted by inmates. Since he has been at the GADP he has been attacked 4 times that I have been aware of. He has only been there since the 3rd of July.
I really need someone to intervene and remove him from the location he is in and also get him the proper medical attention he needs. He has told me if the weekend comes, he may not be here whether it's by his own hand or someone else. GADP will be held responsible.
I have already left a message and emailed the Obudsman and also contacted the Southern Center for Human Rights. I am at a loss of what else I can do.... please anyone with suggestions, it will be great. My son has attempted suicide in the past.... he was begging me for help. I'm lost...
Took me a while but I finally made it back, between moving and dealing with all of the emotions with this case against Corey I just havent been online at all. I thought this would get easier but it sure is not . I just need someone to talk to but do not even know where to start. I either just want to stay in bed all day and cry or start drinking and never quit.
