Well, tonight (I guess last night, since it's after 1:00 am on Sunday) I had to chaperone a youth dance. Drama, drama, drama!!! We have different ethnic wards and branches in our stake. We have 2 Samoan wards, a tongan branch, and a spanish branch. In another stake there is also a Hmong branch, but that has nothing to do with tonight. More of an "FYI", if you will. Anyway, back to my story. Our YW Pres in our ward has decided to chaperone in shifts. So I went from 6:45 until 8:30 when my replacement showed up. Just as I was getting ready to leave, the Stake YW presidency escorted a couple of the girls out of the gym. 2 are sisters, 1 is their cousin. They were taken into a room to be "talked to", I guess. They belong to one of the Samoan wards. I guess they showed up at the dance for the purpose of beating up another polynesian girl that one of the sisters has had "words" with lately. So they cornered her in the bathroom and beat her up. So she went home, and then her dad and the rest of the family came tearing into the church, looking for the sisters, so that they could beat them up. Great example, huh? Anyway, so the stake YW President called the cops because now the girls were being threatened by an adult. Anyway, in the meantime, another girl was using the cell phone of one of the sisters to text her ex-boyfriend to talk "trash" about his new girlfriend. So he showed up looking for the owner of the phone, who was already being threatened by an adult, so that he could have an altercation with her. Confused yet? So the cops showed up, and when I say "cops" I mean 6 or 7 police cars, asking if it was this ward or that ward. Sad, right? It's a well-known face that there is a gang problem in some one these wards, and the "gangs" have named themselves according to their wards. So they call themselves "Samoan 16th" or something along thsoe lines. So it's truly sad that the cops know the names of the wards. Nice example for LDS youth to set, right? Anyway, they almost get things under control, when another fight breaks out. In the meantime, they're doing road construction and someone accidentally cuts a powerline, so the power goes out, too. So, the cops are there, kids are fighting, and the power goes out. To quote Bill Murray in "Ghost Busters"..."mass hyesteria!!" Needless to say, the dance was cut short (hallelujah!). Just think...if I had stayed just a few minutes longer, I would have witnessed it all. Seriously, though, it makes me so sad, and really sick to my stomach, actually. I know almost all the kids involved in this tonight. The other stakes haven't wanted to participate in our dances, but tonight some kids from the other stakes came anyway. And this is their experience. Next month, one of the other stakes is in charge, but I'm not sure that it's going to happen now. It's so sad that just a couple of kids can ruin the experience for so many!!! And I know that the leaders are heart-broken. I know that our stake YW Presidency loves each and every one of the youth. They have gone to great lengths to know each and every one of them by face and by name. It's hard to see so much potential go to waste with the choices that they make. It breaks my heart just witnessing it, you know? One of the sisters is a straight A student. She could so easily ruin her chances of any scholarships if she's not careful. But most youth don't think that far into the future because whatever is happening at the moment is the most important thing. Anyway, to change the subject, I also found out that a neighborhood cat is using one of my garden beds as a litter. Any ideas on how I can put a stop to that one? My sister is worried about rabbits getting to her garden in Colorado, up here I have to deal with cats and moose. I've heard that there's some product out there that keeps moose out of the garden. It's made of cow's blood. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, though. So far, the moose have not bothered my garden. But the cats...