Tribulation

UCR's Heat Concert was on the day of Emily's birthday party. Music was blasting through our part of the city all day and into the night. It got considerably louder as the night wore on. We finally called the police at 11:30 in the evening as our windows, the dishes on our counter (and our nerves) rattled with the booming of the music. They said that they couldn't do anything about it and that we had to contact the UCR police. We contacted them and they said that there was nothing that they could do about it and that if we had a "complaint," we had to take it up with Vice Chancellor Jim Sandoval (who by the way, doesn't have to live with the consequences of the Heat as he lives safely tucked away in his quiet neighborhood in Orange County).  

The concert finally ended just after midnight but various after parties broke out throughout the neighborhoods. Christian had to be up by 5:30 for meetings. I had to turn on some white noise so that the kids could get some sleep. But nearly just as bad as the concert itself is the lack of concern and sympathy we got from people because it really didn't bother them that much (and that is all that really matters, right?)...well, they figured it was just one day out of the year. I mean, who cares that there is utter lawlessness as long as it is only for one day...well, until they decide that they want a concert in the summer as well and hey, wouldn't it be nice to have a big concert in the fall as well to welcome the students back to school? 

Apparently, the city's noise ordinances doesn't apply to the school because they are a "state" entity.  The concert has drawn criticism for years. The outcome, well, they ended the concert this year at midnight instead of 1:am like last year. We should all be thankful and shut our mouths, right? Although, they stuck it to us because I think it was overall louder than last year.

We live miles from campus and it sounded like a huge party one block over. That is just out of control. I spent all morning on Monday writing letters to the Chancellor, Mayor and our city Councilman. A few of our neighbors wrote as well. None of us got any kind of satisfactory reply. We got some courtesy notes from our councilman's office but the University has been utterly silent.

They noted our "positions" and invited us to some neighborhood association meeting next week.
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We also found out on Tuesday that someone hijacked our credit card in Florida. They changed our address and bought around $800 of swag before we were able to cancel it. We had a difficult time changing our information back to the original information that we set up the account with and wondered how on earth they managed to actually change it! Apparently, they have Christians SS#.
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I found out this morning the results of the 6th grade lottery for the STEM Academy. Basically, a third of the students has to drop out of the program, move or get "bridged" out and more than half of the students on the waiting list before us has to decline in order for us to even have a chance of attending. The chances of that are slim to none.

I need some good news...anybody got any?