I Like T-Shirts.

Hugh is one of the biggest guys I've ever had on my caseload. He's freakishly tall and weighs at least 350 pounds. Probably more. He is a very dark-skinned African American man who could be a character right out of the Dick Tracy comic strip. He has a soft, almost child-like voice and his face is a tiny plane on an otherwise mammoth head. Hugh is one of my best guys. He does what he's supposed to without any heavy-handed interference from me.

Last month when he came in to see me, the first thing I noticed was his crisp new t-shirt. Being a huge shirt, it had a huge O'bama '08 logo on it. It was so cool.

I was thrilled for him when I saw his shirt. This was probably one of the first time's he'd ever participated in the political process. I wanted to reach out to him and hopefully get him to open up about his experience with this election and how it differs, for him, from previous political cycles.

I was ready to listen.

Pretty excited about it, too.

Until I remembered he's serving time on a felony drug charge and can't vote even if he wanted to.

Some Days I Feel a Lot Like Jerry Springer

One of my mid-morning appointments was a girl who's been on probation for only a couple of months. She's doing very well so far - taking care of her community service and making her payments like she's supposed to. Last month she told me was having problems with the assistant manager at her job. She works at a convenience store. She'd been offered a job by a rival store for almost a dollar an hour more, but wasn't sure if she should take it.

"Take it!" I said.

This month when she reported, I noted that her employment had not changed. I asked her why.

"My boyfriend and I were separated," she said.

They were separated for most of the month of December. Turns out he works for the rival store and she knew there was no way she could work with him under those circumstances. Her current store didn't fork over any cash, but promised if she stayed, she would eventually get the assistant manager job. So she stayed.

"You said 'were separated'," I pointed out. "Are you back together now?"

They are. I asked what was causing their problems.

"He didn't want to get married," she said.

He didn't want to get married. Regardless of the fact that she had won a $300,000 gift certificate for wedding products and services that must be used within one year. Three hundred THOUSAND dollars worth of wedding. With an expiration date. And he didn't want to get married. He thinks they're taking things too fast. Wants to step back and re-evaluate. Did I mention the fact that they've already had two kids together?

Hell yeah, they were separated.

He came slinking back at the end of the month. They are communicating more now and she says things are getting better. But she gave the gift certificate to her brother who is getting married in May.

This picture has nothing to do with the story. I just wanted to post it because Live Writer makes it SO easy. It's a photo of part of the lava fields at the Valley of Fires in New Mexico. Let me know if this size works on your screen. Too big?