Annoying morning

After having to get up every weekday morning at 5:30, I was really looking forward to sleeping in this morning. Sadly, it was not to be. Beth (who is spending the night with a friend) left her alarm clock set. It began chiming loudly at 5:30 this morning. Despite the fact that I can hit snooze on my alarm at least 3 times and doze back off, I could NOT go back to sleep even to doze this morning. I guess it had something to do with the fact that I had to get up, go to her room, and try to find the "off" button on an unfamiliar alarm clock. (I ended up just unplugging the darn thing.) Anyway, after doing all that - and, honestly, being really angry with Beth for leaving it set, I was unable to go back to sleep. (The only good thing is that I was able to get Elvis back to sleep. If he had stayed up, I'd probably have driven him to the friend's house and left him with Beth.)

So, now it's a little after 7:00 on a Saturday morning. I sure hadn't planned on being up this early. I had a frozen burrito for breakfast. Now, I'm bored. Ordinarily, I'd watch a movie in this situation. However, Netflix had some sort of gigantic meltdown this week and I don't have a movie here. I'm waiting for The Tenth Kingdom. It was highly recommended by a friend. However, it's 3 discs long (pushing 9 hours, I think). If I'm going to watch it, it will have to be over a weekend. I'm still holding out hope that disc one, at least will arrive today but that still leaves the others until next weekend, when I'll likely have forgotten what happened on disc one.

I've also got something else weighing on me this morning. Beth's BFF's brother is a good kid. He and BFF have been raised largely by grandparents but they've done a great job. The kids are smart, well behaved, attend church regularly, and are just generally good kids. The brother graduated from a large high school in May and was 8th in his class. Really smart. He planned to attend a nearby university and become a nurse practitioner. All that being said, he was arrested early yesterday morning. He and a friend were in a truck and pulled over for driving erratically. The officer searched their truck and found items connecting them to a string of vehicle robberies at a local apartment complex. This makes me so sad. I'm not completely shocked. I've watched him slide downhill all summer, but I didn't expect this. He graduated and then moved out of his grandparents' house, rather than live by their rules. He stopped working as much. He hung out with the wrong crowd. I'd like to spank this large man/child. Sure, he ended up with sucky parents but he had wonderful grandparents who gladly stepped in and did all the right things for him. I'm sure at this point, they feel like it was all for nothing. Bless their hearts. They don't deserve this. I do hope this serves as a wake-up call for this young man and he can get his life back on track. It's not too late now but it likely will be soon.

And, truthfully, perhaps his situation bothers me so much because it fear it's likely that Beth will follow the same pattern. I can so see her in the same situation. I've done all I know to do but realize that she doesn't have the same values I have. She doesn't see the logical side of most situations. She's so impulsive that it scares me. She knows what she should do but doesn't often take that path. She's drawn to the bad kids. She easily falls in line with them. She has no desire to do anything else. And that breaks my heart.