Mr. X vs. Hansen
It's been a few days since I posted, and I'm thinking about breaking this into two posts since we've had a lot going on the last couple of days. I had to take Friday off from work because our ex-tenants are suing me for their security deposit plus punatitive damages. The suit is still in progress, so I can't go into detail here -- but suffice it to say that it was an awful experience. I was describing it to someone as the type of adrenailin surge one gets if you've ever been pulled over by the police for speeding -- except that it lasted for the entire time we were in court, which in our case was at least 2-1/2 hours.
We initially agreed to try mediation: a law student, with supervision (I don't know the credentials of the supervisor), will try to mediate an agreement between the parties; if the mediation doesn't work out, the case goes before the judge. Our mediation didn't get off to a great start, and as we continued, it became more and more clear that we were unlikely to reach a settlement -- there was just too much distance between where we were as defendants and where the plaintiffs were. We eventually went before the judge, where we had to each present the evidence for our respective points of view and then the judge delivers a verdict within two weeks. I'll keep you posted as to the outcome. Either way, I certainly hope it's the last time I'll be seeing the interior of that courthouse!
I spent most of the rest of the day preparing for the flight to New York that Devon and I took on Saturday morning. Our friend Keri has a "toy every 30 minutes" rule for flying that I was taking to heart -- in addition to getting some new toys so the element of suprise is there. That meant I had to run around to a couple of stores looking for toys that are small, don't have a lot of parts and are interesting but not noisy; surprisingly, there are not that many toys that meet those criteria. I did round up some, though, and even took the extra step of wrapping a couple so there was really a suprise factor in them. I was also packing for Devon and myself (including work that I have next week), so I had a hard time cramming the right clothes into the suitcase (and getting enough room in my bag). I'm actually having Walt bring some additional Devon clothes with him because I couldn't get them all in my bag.
Our flight left at 7:30am on Saturday morning, which meant that Walt and I had to get up at 5am to get to the airport on time. This is one of the only times when Devon's early habits have been a plus; at about 5:30, we opened the door to her room, left the hall light on (but not her light) and she just woke up -- and amazingly, she was really chipper. I just ended up bundling her onto the plane in her pj's, since I was hoping that perhaps she'd just fall back asleep on the plane.
Now I have to stop and say a special prayer for the Delta agent, whomever s/he is, who gave us seats in an entirely empty row -- so we had our seat plus 2 empty ones. I think this made all the difference in the world between this being a reasonable flight and a horrorific one. Devon was able to crawl around the empty seats, stand on the seat and look out the window and generally have some room to move around. It actually turned out to be a fine flight; we didn't have any major breakdowns except for the very end when the plane couldn't get to the gate. At the point, Devon kept crying, "Outside!" and I assured her that we all felt the very same way. The rest of the flight she was great -- a handful, but she was able to amuse herself with puzzles, markers, this magnetic sketch pad and some other goodies. I didn't even have to open all of the treats I brought with me, which was great -- now we have some for the flight back home. She did insist on stripping to her diaper shortly after takeoff ("Nekked"), but other than looking like a little urchin, she did great. She didn't nap at all during the flight (that was disappointing), but on the whole I was downright thrilled.
We got the luxury treatment of having Cass and Henry pick us up at the airport and then getting to tour their fabulous new (to me) brownstone in Park Slope. Park Slope is a great neighborhood; it's green and leafy (which is something that San Francisco really lacks -- it's a strangely treeless city) and is abuts a beautiful park, Prospect Park, which I think (but am not sure) was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park.
Devon was alternately excited about the new environment and frightened. Night time was the worst for her; as I was trying to put her to bed, she cried, "Home, home!" and it was clear that she wanted to go home to bed. She had a pretty rough night, too, adjusting to the new circumstances. I hadn't really thought that it would be difficult; the last time I traveled with her, she was 3 months old. But I realized that she's a lot more aware now; she understands the concept of "home" for instance, yet her language skills and understanding are not very developed. So she knows she's somewhere new, it's frightening, but I can't help her understand why it's happening -- so I think it's all especially unsettling.
We initially agreed to try mediation: a law student, with supervision (I don't know the credentials of the supervisor), will try to mediate an agreement between the parties; if the mediation doesn't work out, the case goes before the judge. Our mediation didn't get off to a great start, and as we continued, it became more and more clear that we were unlikely to reach a settlement -- there was just too much distance between where we were as defendants and where the plaintiffs were. We eventually went before the judge, where we had to each present the evidence for our respective points of view and then the judge delivers a verdict within two weeks. I'll keep you posted as to the outcome. Either way, I certainly hope it's the last time I'll be seeing the interior of that courthouse!
I spent most of the rest of the day preparing for the flight to New York that Devon and I took on Saturday morning. Our friend Keri has a "toy every 30 minutes" rule for flying that I was taking to heart -- in addition to getting some new toys so the element of suprise is there. That meant I had to run around to a couple of stores looking for toys that are small, don't have a lot of parts and are interesting but not noisy; surprisingly, there are not that many toys that meet those criteria. I did round up some, though, and even took the extra step of wrapping a couple so there was really a suprise factor in them. I was also packing for Devon and myself (including work that I have next week), so I had a hard time cramming the right clothes into the suitcase (and getting enough room in my bag). I'm actually having Walt bring some additional Devon clothes with him because I couldn't get them all in my bag.
Our flight left at 7:30am on Saturday morning, which meant that Walt and I had to get up at 5am to get to the airport on time. This is one of the only times when Devon's early habits have been a plus; at about 5:30, we opened the door to her room, left the hall light on (but not her light) and she just woke up -- and amazingly, she was really chipper. I just ended up bundling her onto the plane in her pj's, since I was hoping that perhaps she'd just fall back asleep on the plane.
Now I have to stop and say a special prayer for the Delta agent, whomever s/he is, who gave us seats in an entirely empty row -- so we had our seat plus 2 empty ones. I think this made all the difference in the world between this being a reasonable flight and a horrorific one. Devon was able to crawl around the empty seats, stand on the seat and look out the window and generally have some room to move around. It actually turned out to be a fine flight; we didn't have any major breakdowns except for the very end when the plane couldn't get to the gate. At the point, Devon kept crying, "Outside!" and I assured her that we all felt the very same way. The rest of the flight she was great -- a handful, but she was able to amuse herself with puzzles, markers, this magnetic sketch pad and some other goodies. I didn't even have to open all of the treats I brought with me, which was great -- now we have some for the flight back home. She did insist on stripping to her diaper shortly after takeoff ("Nekked"), but other than looking like a little urchin, she did great. She didn't nap at all during the flight (that was disappointing), but on the whole I was downright thrilled.
We got the luxury treatment of having Cass and Henry pick us up at the airport and then getting to tour their fabulous new (to me) brownstone in Park Slope. Park Slope is a great neighborhood; it's green and leafy (which is something that San Francisco really lacks -- it's a strangely treeless city) and is abuts a beautiful park, Prospect Park, which I think (but am not sure) was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park.
Devon was alternately excited about the new environment and frightened. Night time was the worst for her; as I was trying to put her to bed, she cried, "Home, home!" and it was clear that she wanted to go home to bed. She had a pretty rough night, too, adjusting to the new circumstances. I hadn't really thought that it would be difficult; the last time I traveled with her, she was 3 months old. But I realized that she's a lot more aware now; she understands the concept of "home" for instance, yet her language skills and understanding are not very developed. So she knows she's somewhere new, it's frightening, but I can't help her understand why it's happening -- so I think it's all especially unsettling.
posted by Devon Szalva at
7:36 PM
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