Sincere efforts

Desiree:

Look, I'm trying to make a sincere effort at getting along with you,
okay.  I still disagree with some of what you're doing but that's you're
business.  As long as it doesn't put Gabriel in a bad position it's not
my concern.

Regardless of what you say about not having to do drug testing as part
of your TASC requirement I do believe that it is.  And as long as it is
then I can be confident that you are using them so I don't have that
concern about Gabriel being in your care in Phoenix.  I also believe
that at least some of your behavior that I've found troubling over the
last year has been because of drug use.  For that reason I don't wish to
hold it against you as long as I believe that you're not using them.

As for the financial issues, I do still believe that you should be
helping out more with Gabriel's needs, at least until I am back on my
feet.  But I'm not one to nag.  If you're not going to then you're not
going to and me hounding you about it isn't going to change that.  I
think we both know that I'm an ambitious and materialistic person and
that living on the cheap is not my forte.  It's very unfortunate that it
is taking me so long to get a project but I don't believe that you
really think I'm sitting around just trying to get money out of you.
And for your financial problems, well, I can empathize.  And if you
really don't have the money because of legitimate financial obligations
(including self improvement, like school) then I wouldn't try to squeeze
it out of you and I wouldn't ask the court to force you to pay it.  But
please don't try to claim that your problems are because of me.

Anyway, take it however you wish.  I'm not going to try to convince you
of anything.  I will state my case and move on.

As I've said before, I would like very much to see you do well.  To see
you use your potential.  I don't dislike you.  I do dislike how you were
behaving.  I dislike that you felt you had to be so sideways in your
handling of bringing Gabriel to Phoenix; and that you felt the need to
lie to me about yours and Kristopher's arrests.  But that's in the past
now and I think we've beaten those topics to death.

Anyway, I'm exhausted because I had a five hour interview this morning
and since I'm without car I've been using the bus/train - I had to leave
at 6:20am to make my 9am interview.  And I got home around 4:40pm.  It's
not ideal, but I'll do what I have to to get back on my feet.

Good evening.

Fox