Urban Poly Princess

I was able to get everything my new wonderful attorney needed to file my bankruptcy AND STOP the damn garnishment. I filed a chapter 13 which means my debts will be consolidated to one manageable payment a month UNDER 200. YES, I like that VERY much. I'm not sure why they kept encouraging me to file a 7. I was the idiot that got myself into this mess and I DO want to pay it back but with the outrageous interest rates of the payday loans I had it would never happen. My brother was appalled at the relatively low amount of debt I have BUT I was taking more payday loans just to pay the other ones and I know that was crazy. I wish credit counseling had worked but this way although my credit is shot, at least I can breathe again and plan better for the future. He thinks I should AT LEAST be working 2 jobs. Of course he is working everywhere imaginable to support his family of 9 children with he and Alisa that makes 11. Nate and Noke graduated today and they have a party tomorrow. I love my family. I like attending their events and doing whatever to make them feel special. I know I have a fun family and I'm grateful for them. It was fun to meet my crazy California cousins. William is a DJ and used to mix stuff for the Jets. He did the sound for their charity concert. George used to be a DJ too. I like how talented so many people are in the family. George used to teach computer science at BYU-Hawaii. Brent used to teach ESL there AND he finished his PhD from UCLA a few years ago. My uncle Inoke STILL teaches Psychology at BYU-Hawaii. I looove that about my family too. I guess what I love the most is the gospel. There are few who haven't served missions or been married in the temple. When I went on my mission it wasn't something unusual, many of my family members had done the same AND it continues. I looove that. I love my Polynesian heritage that encourages us to celebrate and meet together to socialize and support each other. Baptisms, blessings, weddings, holidays, graduations, funerals, mission farewells and homecomings. ALL R cause for celebration. What I also love about my family is no one goes into debt to celebrate these different occassions. We are all traditional enough to want to gather and celebrate BUT we don't do it at the expense of anything else. That isn't widely practiced in my Tongan community, especially here. It's worse in California. They don't do that in Tonga, so why the need to get ridiculous here? It can be like a competition ALTHOUGH who or what people are competing for is a mystery to me. The Polynesian groups are very cliquish here too. In Hawaii the groups mix freely. Here Tongans stick to Tongan circles and Samoans do likewise. More people are getting advanced degrees which is great now, still finding an intelligent AND spiritual AND fine Tongan man is NOT happening AND I can honestly say I've NEVER found this combination. My friend David long ago came close BUT he'd always tell me how we were intellectually, spiritually, physically AND culturally compatible BUT I always thought uh NOOO NOT intellectually. He has a PhD BUT it DOESN'T mean I've EVER felt intellectually compatible with him. Of course I wasn't going to say well you actually aren't as smart as me. Spiritually, physically, and culturally he was EVERYTHING I wanted. BUT-he was sooo ethnocentric. He bought into the "I am an oppressed minority Tongan man who needs to challenge every damn thing." People aren't always out to get you, I don't think people are intentionally racist all the time. I think people are sheltered and need to get out more. People need to realize AND NOT ASSUME someone is stupid JUST BECAUSE THEY AREN'T WHITE. His liberal political views were reprehensible to me. His sister is sweet and does a lot to help the Polynesian community in Salt Lake City BUT every time I see her or her her spout off she reminds me of David AND it just GRATES on me. My current friend David is NOT culturally compatible with me BUT he has everything else. He can REALLY annoy me too however. I hope we can be friends again. I'm just not very motivated to even try right now. He has repeatedly treated me like crap which cancels out all his great qualities and although they are amazing and rare, everything else can be extremely unattractive.