justelisa's Xanga

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:15:23 GMT

i cannot believe all the damage that can happen in 10 minutes.. i'm soo stressed right now and soo tired. i guess only some ppl know. but whatever happened made me realize that the few friends that i have are truly great friends... thank you all soo much for offering me to stay at ur houses,, lol.. i couldnt even decide on where to stay cause everyone wants me to stay with them.. and i know there are some friends who i don't really talk to anymore, we sort of drifted apart. i know they all talk about me and to be honest i don't really give a shit.. i am dealing with too much right now that i don't want to have to think about these stupid ppl crying because i don't call them... well i don't remember the last time i got a call. everything that happened last week just made me realize who my real friends are and to be honest they are all i need. i think i am going to stay in my house next week but i basically can only stay in the basement i don't want to impose on ppl, i feel so bad. what a great fucking birthday this was,, i guess i will never forget my 24th birthday for as long as i live.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:46:37 GMT

wow another year has gone, i cannot believe how fast the time is moving... last night was sooo much fun, got soo drunk off my ass. went to anita's family party thing and slept over since i obviously couldn't drive..it felt soo good to party like that again. ok so my new years resolution is kind of similar to last years,, i will lose 25 more pounds by june,, i want to lose as much as possible before my surgery. i did pretty good on my diet this past year but just kind of got side tracked these past couple of weeks cause of all the holiday dinners and stuff so i have to get back on it.. well anyways,, happy new years everyone

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 17:23:35 GMT

i got back from cuba on friday and i miss it soooo much.. it was so much fun and the people there are soo nice. omg the hot guys over there..lol.. they are everywhere. i really want to go back maybe next year with just friends, cause going with family kind of sucked cause my mom was there.. so i didn't really drink that much even though it was all inclusive. we stayed in this resort called 'barcelo solemar', it is soo nice there. oh man i miss it soo much, now i have to go back to work.. starting with today, i'm closing so i'll probably be there until about 12 and then i have to work on christmas eve and i'm guessing boxing day but i haven't checked the schedule so not sure what time yet but knowing dave i'm guessing he gave me closing again. he's probably just getting back at me for going away..

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 05:59:44 GMT

i cannot believe that i am going to cuba on thursday.. i can't wait.. my mom, bro, sis, and grandmother are already there.. they went yesterday and i'm meeting them there on thursday cause i didn't want to take that much time off from work.,... i hope the weather is good and there better be some damn hot looking guys....lol... i get back on the 22nd.. but really really really late so i'm not gonna get home until like 4 am i think.. and i have a feeling that dave is going to schedule me that morning cause it's the last sat before christmas and he asked me if i could work that day i said that it's a sat and i don't work sat anyways,, he said that i told him i could work a couple days before christmas blah blah blah so i said 'ok fine'.... i just don't know how the hell i'm going to find out what time i'm working since i won't be here to check...ugh, and if he schedules me in the morning i am going to be sooo freakin tired and probably such a bitch.. oh well.... whatever,, i don't even care anymore..

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 02:36:18 GMT

i don't understand how adults can act sooo freakin immature.. i am getting soo tired of all this stupidness.. i can't hang out with certain people when the other ones are around because they can't stand one another.. this is bullshit.. and i really don't understand how you can just be mad at someone without a valid reason, it just makes everyone else that much more uncomfortable and i really don't know what else i'm suppose to do.. i fucking hate sociallizing with immature idiots so maybe i should be the one to cut them off since they never call me to hang out anymore anyways.. well whatever,, i'm done

Monday, October 23, 2006

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:43:19 GMT

i had this dream the other night where our store director dave got transfered to another store.. everyone was in this dream, janelle, audrey, dalia etc... and we were all sooo happy that we finally got what we wanted. now usually my dreams don't come true or anything but i really hope in this case it does.. that would be freakin awesome, i can't stand him... but on the bright side he's letting me go to cuba in december.. i can't believe kenny and him decided that it would be alright if i go.. i'm leaving dec 14 which is the week before christmas and comming back the 21st i think, i thought for sure i wouldn't be aloud to go, it's a good thing my mom made me ask him.. oh and my mom said she will pay for the whole trip which is soo awesome and it's all inclusive. i don't care if my family is going to be there i have never been in a place where alcohol was unlimited so i am going to go nuts.

so halloween is next week.. ugh i freakin hate halloween, i hate wearing a costume and giving out candy, we usually don't since molly's not here to do it anymore. haven't decided yet if i'm going to go to a halloween party yet but if i do then i HAVE to buy a costume because apparenly no one is aloud in unless u're wearing one and it has to be a full out body costume,, ugh.

next week i have too many hours at the bay,, i shouldn't complain because i keep saying that i need money but i'm going to be soo exhausted by the end of next week.. i'm working wed, thurs, friday 6-9:30 and then sat 12:30-6:30 plus my usual mon-fri at TRU,, i am going to die... but i need money cause i think i'm going to be buying a car pretty soon,, maybe next week, we'll see.. it's a 97 cavalier and it's in great condition for $2700 which is good.. so i don't think i'll be going out much within the next month cause i will officially have no money.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:49:32 GMT

so i dont' know if everyone knows but i got a job at the bay and now i'm working two jobs,, it's soo tiring sometimes and my back is killing me soo bad right now.. TRU wants me to start working closing and weekends now instead of my usual mon-fri 9-5.. and see i would except that i now have the bay which i work evenings and weekends.. now my dilemna is that TRU doesn't know about the bay so i don't know what to do.. should i tell them that i found another part time job because i needed extra money or should i just tell the bay that i can't work let's say tuesdays and sundays and tell TRU that i can only close tuesdays and work on sundays.. ugh i don't know what to do...

i recently joined the 'oasis' gym with anita.. i got an awesome deal and i know i'm suppose to be saving money but i would be a complete idiot if i didn't take this deal so u see i just had to. i think i'm gonna start going tomorrow and me and anita decided that we were gonna go every morning before work no matter what, which would mean going at 7 in the morning, i hope i can wake up.,,lol

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:55:45 GMT

my mom went to court yesterday and this psycho guy is going to stay in the hospital until they can find a more suitable place for him to stay.. he is not allowed back to his house or else he will go to jail.. i am soo glad, now we can get on with our life. We are also going to be on much music on sunday i think it is at 10:30 in the morning.. on this new show called 'music is my life'.. they read the article in the paper a few weeks ago and called up my mom and asked if my brother wanted to be on the show and he said sure.. they were at our house a few times filming all this stuff, the guy who does the show is sooo freakin hot so i was completely fine with that.. i'm probably gonna sound like an idiot on the show though.. oh well.

Violent neighbour finally in the right place

Peter Galanos will sleep tonight in a nice comfy bed at the Whitby Mental Health Centre.

This is good news for Peter, 32, though he does not think so. Now, he is sure to get the meds and monitoring he needs.

This is good news for Graham Crescent, in Markham, where Peter lived, 'til last night, with his parents.

This is really good news for Nicolas Lastoria, 16, who lives across the street with his mom, paramedic Elsa Ferraro.

Sanity rules. Justice, too. Finally. What is really deranged is what took so long.

Nicolas, you may recall, was stabbed five times by Peter Galanos in the belief the lad and his sisters were witches.

The attack was so savage the kid could hear air wheezing from his lung through a hole in his side.

One minute, you're working on your mini-bike in the garage, the next you're in critical condition at Sunnybrook.

A Newmarket court turned the knife last month by sending Peter home on a "not criminally responsible" ticket.

So, stabber and stabbee lived 44 metres apart.

Sun readers, knowing a raw deal, quickly turned Elsa's house into Fort Knox, donating alarm systems and such.

All in fear of the guy across the street.

That is no way to live.

Which brings us to a hearing room at the Whitby hospital. The Ontario Review Board has the power to overrule court edicts in mental health cases.

Panel chairman is Dr. Hy Bloom, a forensic psychiatrist. The other four are doctors or lawyers. No dummies.

But even Simple Simon could figure this one out.

"We believe he is a significant threat to the safety of the public," begins centre psychiatrist Dr. Karen DeFreitas.

We could have stopped right there, checked Peter into a ward and gone home.

But let us cross our Ts.

DeFreitas tells how in 2000, he nearly ran someone off the road, then threatened to finish the job with a steel bar.

How he went off his meds in 2004 and wrecked his car.

How he went off his meds again, heard voices, and on April 22 tried to gut the neighbour's kid, Nicolas.

See a pattern? Bad things happen when Peter is off his meds.

'Til now, his mom and dad were to make sure he took them.

'Til now, he was to see a shrink, oh, once a month.

But he could live where he wished, including Graham Cres.

"This is quite psychologically harmful to the victim and his family," Dr. DeFreitas tells us.

The Newmarket court knew that. The public safety issue, too.

Sadly, the decision to send Peter home was made without the cops, Elsa or the provincial victims' office knowing about it.

Peter's drinking and dope-smoking (which surely don't mix with schizophrenia pills) and his proximity to Nicolas were also on the record.

What were they smoking in that courtroom?

Anyway, back to reality.

The panel puts a "detention order" on Peter Galanos.

Whitby doctors call his shots for a year. They will house him while they scout other digs -- a halfway house, an apartment, or a relative's. Nowhere near Graham Cres. through.

"This is overkill," complains his lawyer, Stephen Labow.

Bad choice of word, "overkill," considering the crime.

Another word: "Decompensation," used a dozen times yesterday in reference to Peter.

To fall apart emotionally and mentally. The onset of psychotic events.

Wherever he lives, the hospital now has the power to bring him in at the first sign of trouble. Doctors likely will replace the pills with twice-monthly injections.

You can't help but feel sorry for Peter Galanos. There he sits, looking stricken, nary a word. Soft grey suit, muted floral tie, black hair slicked back.

On one hand, Peter is ill. On the other, he butchered a kid.

The panel takes 10 minutes to rule.

"This is the best possible scenario for Mr. Galanos and for Nicolas," York Region Det. Const. Stu Betts tells me after.

Nicolas and Elsa are happier than I've seen them.

The teen has new Pumas and jeans to replace the ones bloodied in the attack.

"I won't have to look out all the windows before I go to bed."

Says Elsa: "What a weight off my shoulders. I can go home, go outside, go shopping, and not worry about my kids.

"We can have a normal life."

Peter "is disappointed," says his lawyer.

May I speak with him?

"No, he's inside. They're admitting him right now."

Glad to hear it.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 13:26:50 GMT

Mike Strobel

Thu, August 31, 2006

Victims live in fear while an attacker walks

Let me take you inside a Newmarket court for a lesson in victim's rights.

Her Majesty the Queen versus Peter Galanos.

Mr. Justice William Gorewich presiding.

The Aug. 14 transcript is 35 pages and full of stops and stutters, so I doubt the matter takes more than an hour.

Then Galanos, 32, is freed to return home, across the street from the boy he knifed nearly to death 16 weeks before.

Galanos believed Nicolas Lastoria was a witch.

Court learns this after the psych report is finally tracked down. Someone checks the cells to see if Galanos has it.

Finally it is scanned by Gorewich, defence lawyer Stephen Labow and Norm Chorney, a summer fill-in Crown.

Galanos is paranoid schizophrenic. How risky is he? The shrinks' report surely says, but there is little mention in court.

Except ...

"Well," pipes up Chorney, "it's a bit of a worry, more than a bit of a worry, in that the report says while he's currently free of his symptoms on medication, his history of compliance is poor ..."

The judge interrupts to discuss how to declare Galanos "not criminally responsible."

Chorney tries again.

"In view of his past history of poor compliance, I would think the public has to be protected to the maximum extent possible from his failure to take his medication ... and from his possible abuse of alcohol and street drugs."

No one says it, but I know from court records that this refers to a road rage incident in 2000.

Galanos was convicted of dangerous driving. A weapons charge was dropped.

I wish someone mentioned this on Aug. 14.

Or how young Nicolas was when he was attacked (two weeks shy of 16), how awful his wounds, how shocked his family.

Chorney is mum on that. The judge can keep Galanos in a psych ward at least until the Ontario Review Board has a look at him. (A hearing has since been set for Sept. 20.)

But the notion doesn't even come up.

Alas, Nicolas and his mom, paramedic Elsa Ferraro, are unaware that a verdict is being rendered. So, even, are the cops.

Much is said on Peter Galanos' behalf, though.

A model patient, his lawyer reports. Loving parents.

Chorney agrees to a "not criminally responsible" verdict and release on conditions.

The judge gives Galanos a month to arrange regular dates with a psychiatrist.

Take your meds. No weapons. Stay away from the victim.

"We might as well go whole hog here," adds the judge, so no booze, no narcotics.

All this is covered by a peace bond until a permanent order can be written. The surety? One hundred bucks.

The deal is done 'til Nadine Prince, from the Victim Witness Office, rushes in.

What's the problem, wonders the judge.

Prince says she is here only because the lead investigator, York Regional Det. Const. Stu Betts, chanced to see the verdict pop up on his screen.

(It is remarkable that Betts was not forewarned. He knows every nuance of the case. What was the Crown thinking?)

Nicolas' family should have been here, Prince tells court.

"Well, that's all very well and good," says Gorewich, "but you know the issue is, and the Criminal Code says, that you have to deal with these cases in the least onerous fashion to the accused ...

"Do we simply keep him in custody indefinitely?"

What about the impact statement? It's a victim's right.

"Well, with great respect ... (it) wouldn't have changed (the decision)...

"It may have helped the victims get something off their chest ..."

"The concern," Prince cuts in, "is that the young man (Nicolas) is still living in that home."

"Well, what do you do?" the judge says, outlining the terms.

But Elsa needs time to move her son, says Prince.

"I feel like I need to go and let them know as soon as possible." And off she dashes for a phone.

And Peter Galanos walks free.

"Good luck to you, Mr. Galanos," says Justice Gorewich.

"Thank you."

"All the best," replies the judge.

Kind folks try to right a wrong

You know a wrong when you see it.

My e-mail has hummed since I wrote of the release of the neighbour who attacked Nicolas Lastoria.

Some noted the security fears of his mom, Elsa Ferraro. So yesterday vans start pulling up to her house on a leafy street in Markham.

First, Jay Robitaille, 32, who owns Door Doctor in Durham. Elsa now has a secure garage door opener. You may recall Nicolas was in the garage when Peter Galanos attacked.

"My wife read your column and was touched by the son's story," says Jay. "We wanted to make sure he feels safe in his own home."

Next Carmine Panaro, 40, owner of Reilly Lock in North York. His gifts? Alarm system, new locks and window bars.

"Peace of mind," he says.

An electrician is putting in security lights.

"I can't find the words to thank them all," says Elsa.

Her paramedic colleagues have petitions in hospitals.

"This is no good for Peter either," says Elsa. "He should be in an institution getting help, being monitored."

The Sun will treat Nicolas to running shoes and jeans to replace the ones bloodied in the attack.

The kid is staying with his dad out of town, but he returns home to start Grade 11 next week. Should be one helluva What I Did This Summer essay.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 19:27:45 GMT

Neighbours fear for safety

Aug 26, 2006
Martin Derbyshire
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Fear has gripped a once peaceful Graham Crescent.

Neighbours who used to watch their children play together now share the concerns of a stabbing victim's family.

A teenage boy was attacked by a man who didn't take his anti-psychotic medication.

But that man is back among them now, after a judge found him not criminally responsible for his actions.

"More than 50 per cent of the people on this street have young kids, they're talking with their neighbours and they are afraid," said David Campbell, who lives next door to where the attack occurred. "It happened just three months ago and suddenly he shows up, free as a bird."

Nicolas Lastoria was stabbed by neighbour Peter Galanos, 32, a man he'd never met.

Mr. Galanos was charged with aggravated assault and weapons dangerousbut released last week.

"We are very concerned," said Po Hang Lam, who lives down the street. "We have two young kids and I'll have to warn my wife and my whole family."

Besides being concerned for their own safety, most neighbours' thoughts are with Mr. Lastoria and his mother Elsa Ferraro, Mr. Campbell said.

"She is extremely concerned," he said. "Right now, her son is living with his father, but he has to come back to go to school. He's got to carry on with his education and his life and every time he looks out the window or goes out the door, there's this man who is free to do whatever he wants. Sooner or later it's going to crack. It's like a time bomb."

Down the street, Barabra Gouveia is throwing up her hands in frustration.

"I'm concerned about any crime in my neighbourhood, but there's really nothing more I can do," she said. "We have to go along with what the courts say. I used to think this was a very nice place to live, now I'm wondering what's going on. It's getting scarier and scarier."

Mr. Campbell said the entire block is afraid.

"He's over there right now, in the house alone, with no supervision," he said.