Enterprising Kid Walks off With Rake

This entry got a bit long. I'll break it up into chapters so you can easily skip over any boring parts.

Chapter 1. The neighbor kid is driving me crazy

I've been paying the neighbor kid to work in the yard. He's mowing the lawn and filling some of my flower beds with those lava rocks we picked up last winter. The problem with the neighbor kid is that he won't leave me alone. He's 12 years old. He's always knocking on my door asking to borrow my rake or my lawnmower (to mow the neighbors' yards), asking for a glass of water or to use my phone, etc. I want to be nice to the kid and support his enterprising nature--I'd rather have him mowing lawns and making some money for himself than selling drugs or getting into trouble--but I also need him to stop knocking on my door and asking to use my stuff. Plus last time he borrowed my rake he kept it for weeks and I had to chase him down to get it back. I want to relax when I'm at home, and I can't do that when he's knocking on the door all the time. I also wonder a little bit if he's manipulating me. He asked if I had any work for him to do because he needed to buy kitty litter for his kitty (he knows I have cats...so may have thought it was a soft spot?); and last night when he asked to use my phone I said "Why can't you use your own phone?" and he said it was disconnected. These things might be true, but why is he coming to me? I'm not that worried about the situation, but it's just annoying. Maybe I'll just keep my eye out for a cheap lawnmower at a garage sale and let the kid buy it off me by doing some yard work.

Chapter Two: Work is swell and I've been really busy

The job is keeping me really busy, and I've been exhausted when I come home, but I'm loving it. I am doing really fun work and I received great feedback on my first assignment, so that is helping my confidence a little bit.

Chapter Three: Grades are in.

Grades are in. I bit it in Evidence as expected, but I did OK on the rest. I actually got an A in Jurisprudence, which was really shocking considering how much of my answer was one long political rant about the way Israel handles Palestinian terrorists and their families. Usually not the way to go, especially since my views are quite different from the prof in question, but I couldn't stop myself. (The prof threw us a curve ball by giving us an exam question that required analysis of a case decided by the Israeli Supreme Court. Deep sighs all around...aren't we preparing to practice in the American court system?)

Chapter Four: UPS SUCKS

One more thing. UPS Sucks. Just use US Mail, people. They have very low rates of error, they are cheaper, and they get the job done. And if they can't leave a big package for you, they'll just keep it at your local post office for you to pick up. Stupid UPS leaves boxes at your back door if you're not home. Moreover, sometimes they put it at the back door AND hide it a little bit. (Isn't that what happened to you, Julie?). We very rarely use our back door, and there have been a few times when we've stumbled upon a package back there that had been left several days or weeks before. Yesterday Shad was in the back yard and he spotted a beat-up looking box behind the air conditioner. We opened it and it was a care package addressed to me and stuffed full of goodies for my final exams. It was dated April 27. So it had been out in the damn rain etc. for a whole month before we found it. DUMB! Couldn't they at least follow up with a phone call or leave a little post-it on the door? Plus I'm extra pissed because I probably would have done better on my Evidence exam had that caramel corn reached me in time.