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May 29, 2008

Umbria villas

I just got off the phone with my mother and she really ran me in circles this time. She was going on and on about a trip that she is planning for my father’s 50th birthday for the whole family to Umbria. She went on to tell me about how beautiful it was there and that the suggestion actually came from my grandmother as a place that my father had discussed wanting to take her to years earlier. She told me about the incredible luxury villas Umbria and went on to say that she was trying to find the best accommodations for all of us, which are 10 in all. She said that she looked into Umbria apartments and villas in Umbria but that only the luxury villas could truly accommodate all of us comfortably. She went on to tell about the luxury Umbria apartments that she was looking into, but that they seemed way too small for the price. Finally, I just had to interject “Mom, where is Umbria?�. She was so wrapped in her excitement that she had forgotten to explain to me that Umbria was in central Italy and that my father had always wanted to go there since he was younger as he had some distant cousins living there. He had seen pictures of this region and found it to be very beautiful.

I assured her that I had never heard about these cousins, and was she sure that Grandma was telling true facts and not off on a tangent again. She assured me that a few years ago; my father had made a brief mention of this region and about his cousins who were there. She said that he dropped the topic and they just never seemed to get back to it. She had completely forgotten about the whole Umbria thing until Grandma mentioned it when she was looking into this trip.

Well, I did look it up on the internet and found that it looks quite amazing. There are lots of things to see and do, and the food and wine seem to be one of the biggest attractions in this area, and my father does love to eat. I think it will be interesting to make this trip with our family, probably a very interesting way to see a foreign country but I must go for my father’s birthday. After all, what kind of son would I be if I said no?

Posted by juliusp at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

data recovery

Last month my life ended... Fortunately is was temporary...

Yeah yeah ok, something was wrong - but it's wasn't any of the usual suspects: I still had my girlfriend (at least I think I did), I hadn't been thrown off my course (yet), I'm still as good looking as ever (smile)...

The reason that life was not so good is due to my f**king laptop computer, or to be more specific - something inside it called a hard disk. I've got lots of cool stuff on my computer: movies, tunes, pictures, questionable web content.... and lots of boring stuff: coursework, more coursework... etc.

And how did this happen ? Well, I dropped my laptop off my desk onto a carpeted floor. When I picked it up the thing had frozen. So I rebooted, and it said the hard disk was not recognised. And this is how it has stayed ever since.

Ok, I may not be a techie but I had just realised how important the little flatish thing inside my laptop that says 'Seagate' was... and now I can't get to my files.

When something on your computer breaks (eg. a mouse or keyboard), you simply go and buy a new one. But when a hard disk breaks, simply buying a new one means you lose all the data that was on your old one.

So how do you get the data off ?? If the problem is not something simple, then the answer is that you require the services of a data recovery company: but make sure you get a good one.

Google data recovery and you'll get loads of companies - and the prices are odd: some charge $199, others will charge $1199... apparently for the same thing. So, I duely sent off my hard disk and $199. I then waited for my recovered data to arrive, which it didn't.

'What's the problem ?' I asked, 'Why can't you recover it ?'. I was told that the hard drive had a type of problem that they couldn't fix & recommended that I send it off to another (three times more expensive) data recovery RAID company that could recover the data. I asked for my hard disk to be returned. Two weeks later it arrived in a poorly packaged envelope. I then sent it to the recommended data recovery company.

A few days latter I got a call from them saying the data had been recovered successfully... Phew I thought, but what was the problem ? Something called 'bad media' - apparently down to the surface that holds the data being 'unstable'. I'm on shakey technical ground already so I'll leave it there. $799 later I have my files back, but I had to get a good company who knew what they were doing for it to happen... And the moral? Don't drop your laptop I guess.

Posted by juliusp at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2008

Games

Now that school is over and I am home with my parents, I have nothing to do. To pass the time I have been playing lots of internet games. I have been surprised to find how many internet games are out there. I have also be surprised to find how much diversity in the crowd of online gamers there actually is. Now that I think about it I am not so surprised since I am not the kind of person I would think of when thinking about internet gamers either. I think everyone has that kind of stereotype, but I really think that at one point it may have been valid. Now with the ever increasing influence of the internet and computer technology with peoples homes, it accounts for the extreme diversity of the types of people I have met playing online games. The other day for example I was playing online dominoes through one of the big online search engines with a stay at home mother who was just playing to pass time between lunch and when he kids come home from school. Another day last week I was playing against an older woman in Wyoming who had nothing to do since her husband was out ranching and she had finished all of her errands. I have met people who are playing while they are supposed to be working, and kids who should have been writing book reports. Every one of us was united by the fact that we all had this forum that could link us all around the world and keep us entertained for as long as we needed. It has just been a really great lesson for me in diversity. Only two weeks in to the summer and already I think I must have met people from twenty different countries, some of which did not speak english, and people from ten or fifteen states. I just never though that I would be learning something like this from playing internet games, but I guess that is the thing about good lessons, you never know where they are going to come from and when they are going to really appear to you.

Posted by juliusp at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

Dual diagnosis

Dual diagnosis is a condition in which an individual suffers from both substance abuse and mental illness. Unlike with an ordinary addiction where in it’s easy to determine that the psychological symptoms are caused by the drug intake, co-occurring conditions like this one make it difficult for health care providers to identify where one ends and the other condition starts. In most cases, the drug addiction and mental illness interact with each other causing adverse effects to overlap. One condition may aggravate the symptoms of the other and vice versa.
Rationale
Numerous studies have been conducted to understand the reason behind substance abuse in patients suffering from mental disorders. Most experts are inclined to agree that these types of people use drugs and other psychoactive substances for that matter for the same reason as other addicts – they want to feel better about themselves and to belong. Addiction becomes a coping mechanism for them to find a niche where they can interact with other people in spite of their prevailing mental condition.
Addiction to treatment
In other cases, drug addiction arises from a dependence on medications that are used primarily to treat the mental disorder. Drugs such as anti-depressants are readily associated with treatment and patients can easily justify that they are trying to overcome their illness instead of succumbing to yet another problem. Dual diagnosis patients are usually hooked on their own medications because they perceive these substances as effective in alleviating the symptoms of their mental illness.
Addiction and mental illness
Studies also show that drug and alcohol addiction may cause what is called a substance-induced psychosis in some patients. However, this problem may be alleviated once the drug or alcohol is out of the patient’s body. In the case of dual diagnosis, substance abuse tends to aggravate the symptoms of the mental illness and since patients usually come with fragile dispositions, treatment should be handled with care that is far different from the usual rehab for substance addiction. While there are many rehab facilities operating all over the country, not all of them are equipped to take in patients suffering from co-occurring conditions. These individuals require specialized services.

Posted by juliusp at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

Talent Auditions

So I have this...friend. His name is...Matt. Matt, ummm, he's not very bright. And ahh, well, he just got himself fired. Well now, it wasn't really his fault, I mean, in all reality it was her fault. I mean, everything would have been fine if she hadn't come into mi...his life and put these ridiculous notions into his head. I mean really? Did she really have to make him think that he had the remotest possibility of getting even one of the many acting jobs she told him about? But that's how it all went down.She strolled into the large, yellowed, flaking paint covered, fired brick three story building that served pretty well as the quasi district headquarters of the Juke Box Inc. multi blockal corporation. It started when he was young. Really really young. When he was two, his mother dolled him all up in a cute little toddler sailor suit-you know, the ones that are all baby blue and white? She took him downtown and set him on a little table and so began his baby modeling career-and ended it. But then, when he was thirteen he got his second chance. His mother, again, dressed him up in some scary eighty's style fluorescent pink and green wind suits (that was all the rage back then) and took him back to the same agency and got him in to some auditions for teens. He thought that was all over now, though. He figured it was a product of his youth, his innocence, his boyishly good looks. But when She sauntered up those faux leopard skin carpeted creaky stairs and into m....his office she told him about some acting auditions taking place near by. Nothing big, but just big enough to rekindle those long lost dreams of stardom and fame. And so I went with her, all the way downtown to the large windowed thirty story building that he'd visited some fifteen years before, and psyched himself up for his three movie auditions. When that was over, he drove himself on down to the agency headquarters for his modeling auditions. And that's when I remembered I had a meeting with my boss. Safe to say I was cleaning out my desk in the morning.

Posted by juliusp at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2008

Dahn yoga

For vacation this year my mother and I are going to be doing a week retreat together. We have both been Yoga teachers in the past in two completely different styles and so we thought that it might be fun for us to go to a retreat where we are practicing a form of Yoga foreign to both of us. The retreat is in southern California and is centered around the form of practice known as Dahn Yoga. This Korean style is integrative with Qigong and Tai Chi. It is called Yoga because of its search for mental unification with its highest potential. For my mother and I it is a totally different planet of yoga. We have both been teachers of various forms of the classical Indian Yoga styles which employ different types of movements and paces to achieve very similar goals. My mother's practice is a more about the exercise and well-body aspect of its goal. My style is more about the control of the mind to achieve spiritual and eternal aims. I am much more of the traditionalist when it comes to Yoga, where as my mother is much more of an American convert to Yoga. This retreat is going to be good for the both of us because I feel it will give us each a new perspective on our own practices as well as of the other's. Dahn Yoga is a totally different set of movements then either of us are used to so we will both be learning something totally new. At the same time it employs both of the goals that my mother and I stress individually and this exposure may give both of us some kind of insight in to the thought patterns and stylistic differences between our two very unique styles. Though neither of us prescribes to any one guru or teacher's dogmas, we both have developed such strict and rigid practice forms for our classes that this experience may help us also to loosen ourselves up to the fact that there are many ways up the same mountain we are both trying very hard to conquer.

Posted by juliusp at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2008

security cameras

Recently on a trip to a local Walmart my children kept pointing out to me all the little black bubbles on the ceiling. I feel like an idiot that I never really noticed them before. I was trying to explain to them that they were security cameras and that they were used to monitor people and make sure that they weren’t stealing. Well, my 12 year old started trying to find places that he could stand that the surveillance cameras could not see him. He would say mom look that camera can’t see me, and my daughter would quickly point out another camera that could. It was hard for me to believe, however, we literally discovered that there was no place in our local Walmart store that the security system could not see us, even in the parking lot.

Now I do realize that surveillance security is a necessary thing, but I kind of felt like a rat in a maze, when we realized that from the time we entered the Walmart parking lot until the time we left it was completely documented by Walmart. I know that Walmart is a hot spot for people to try and rip stuff off, but it was rather frightening to me the excessive amount of cameras in this place. If you think about it, maybe Orson Wells wasn’t so far off base, when he spoke of big brother watching us everywhere that we go. These days there are cameras at many traffic lights and all over the place. I realize that in this day of the sue happy people, that documentation is necessary, but we are now in a place, where everything we do is being watched. It is hard to believe that anyone can get away with anything with the way things are structured and yet somehow they can. Even the school buses our kids ride on have video surveillance to document any suspicious or illegal behaviors on the trips to and from school. Although, some documentation of these things is a necessary precaution, I am not sure that we are not trading our rights to privacy in order to protect us from the evil in our society.

I guess if I think about it, I would definitely would be glad for the complete camera surveillance at Walmart if my child were to go missing there. It could definitely provide information that could help the police and possibly lead to finding a missing child. With how many different cameras they have running in that store, how would they ever find the documented information that they need quickly?

Posted by juliusp at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

Flowers

Having flowers delivered to your workplace is a great way to get people to take notice of you. I have had friends who actually send flowers to themselves at work, just to have people fawn over them when they read the card. Some have used the old secret admirer trick and some have actually made up a guys name to send them. I think this is a bit corny, and I never realized that people would go this far to get people to pay attention to them. I personally think that this is going a bit too far.

I think it is a lovely gesture to send someone a beautiful flower arrangement at work or at school. I think it does get them noticed, but I prefer to think that most are sincerely from someone else and not just being sent to them by themselves. These days it is really easy to send flowers. As a matter of fact, I just this past weekend sent flowers to my mother for Mother’s Day. I had not realized that Mother’s Day was upon us, with finals etc, so I quickly hopped online and found a florist that offered same day delivery. I picked out a lovely arrangement which had lilacs in it. I have always loved the smell of lilacs and they are my mother’s favorite as well. The arrangement I chose came in a beautiful glass vase and made a lovely gift for Mother’s Day. She got them on time, and was completely thrilled when she called to thank me for them. Now she will never know that I completely spazzed and forgot all about Mother’s Day. She would never forgive me for forgetting her. When she gets together with her friends they will ask her what she got for Mother’s Day, and if she has to tell them that she didn’t get anything, she will be mortified, or so she says. I think, knowing my mother, she would probably just make up some elaborate thing that I sent her, just to make me seem like the good caring son, the whole time cursing me under her breath.

I am just glad that my quick thinking and help of the handy dandy internet saved me from the wrath of Mom, which is worse than anything I can imagine. Quick thinking and knowledge of the online flower world really saved the day.

Posted by juliusp at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

May 13, 2008

alcohol treatment centers

One thing that I randomly thought of is that a lot of people who really do have the alcohol addiction do not even realize that they are addicted. Like, for example, in my previous articles I was basing my thoughts on the idea that people really want to be cured. I realize though that very often that is not the case. For example, I used to have a neighbor, who, very unfortunately passed away, who drank severely and almost every weekend, but never could admit that he really was addicted to alcohol. Every time that his wife tried to talk to him, he would deny that he is addicted and continue on, without any changes to his behavior. His wife was saying that he needed to go to the alcohol treatment centers, or at least get some sort of addiction treatment, but he was refusing any drug treatment, since he was sure that he was not addicted. I cannot believe how hard it might be for someone to live with a person who, for sure, is addicted to some sort of substance, and yet, denies it in full force. And, again, any type of alcohol addiction therapy would not be advantageous if the person who is being treated denies it. In my classes, I have learned that if a person is mentally and emotionally willing to get better, that is already a huge part of the deal, since some people get better by even thinking about how they would feel if they were better. I know that a placebo effect has a 30% chance of curing the person, meaning that if a person takes a sugar pill thinking that it is a medical pill of some sort, then, given that three out of ten people are cured this way, the person has a thirty percent chance of combatting the disease without any pharmacological intervention. It is crazy to think about it though, since then all these powers come to mind, and the role of holistic healing becomes much more prominent. There are all the thought transmission exercises also that just prove that there are higher powers than the ones that we are aware of, and we need to be respectful and knowledgeable about them.

Posted by juliusp at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2008

Pet meds

My buddy just got a new dog and I am so excited to spend time with it. It's the coolest little blond lab puppy with those big beautiful eyes you see on all of the dog posters in office buildings. I went with him to pick out the dog and we looked at a bunch of dogs. It was at the shelter right here in town and I was surprised at first to see how many dogs they had and to hear how many of them were just plain stray dogs. We had this huge long checklist to pick out the perfect dog and the list was a little bit to picky in places, but I think that it came out with the right dog. We had it narrowed down to bugsy, this dog, and another puppy but since Bugsy is a lab we just had to get him. He is only about six months old so he is really small and really too cute for his own darn good. I had to go out today and get him his pet meds from the store to keep his immune system strong and to keep him from getting fleas since it is now spring and he's outside as much as we are, which is all day long. That's one thing that has surprised me the most about him so far, since I have never had a pet before, is that he has to take a lot of pet meds and it is really hard to give them to him. I mean it's not the hardest thing in the world, but I just imagine what it's going to be like to give them to him when he is a two years old and a monstrous beast, like the vet said he would be. Right now we are all in that period where we just faun over him and he is just getting used to us. Apparently he had a rough beginning, but he has taken to us pretty quickly from what I can tell, but like I said I don't know much about dogs. Now our big task, to keep our security deposit in this apartment, we need to train him. Now that classes are over we will plenty of time to whip him, not literally, in to shape. I am just so happy that I have finally gotten a pet. I have always wanted a dog and now I have one on my lap.

Posted by juliusp at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

May 08, 2008

Family health insurance

I have recently been looking into purchasing family health insurance. The problem with buying this insurance privately is that it is extremely expensive, unlike when you get a policy through a big company. It is really difficult to be able to afford an all inclusive plan when you are on a fixed income. I recently looked into a family health insurance plan through the state that I live in. They talk a good talk, but the problem is that they have been holding my application for over 2 months now, and I can’t even get a straight answer on when or if I will be eligible. I have children, and we are living without health insurance and wondering every day if relief is coming. I have now had to purchase some catastrophic insurance to cover the family, and even that payment is over my head.

Why is it that they make health insurance so unattainable for working class people? I really do wish that we had a system in place, as in other countries; where by everyone in the country could receive the medical care they needed at a reasonable price or even for free. It just seems to me that the biggest problem with this is that the doctors and pharmaceutical companies in this country don’t want to give up there high and unreasonable fees. They want to charge as much as they want to, and get actually get it in many cases the way the system is now. If they were forced into a health care for all system, the bottom line would be fixed pricing that might force some of the doctors to live a more modest lifestyle. That is their bottom line. There used to be a line in the Hippocratic Oath (oath that doctors take when graduating from medical school) and it said to help everyone equally regardless of their ability to pay. Obviously that line must have been completely eliminated from this oath, since we can see that is not the way medical care is being given.

Health insurance and being able to take care of your family members in their time of need, should be a right as a citizen of the United States, not a privilege. Let’s stop allowing only the rich to get the care that they need, but let us take care of everyone as if they were our mother, sister, brother, uncle, or child. It is time to put our foot down and fight for what is right.

Posted by juliusp at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

Loans

I think that loans are a good idea, but also a horrible situation to have to need one. It is a means to an end, but no one really uses loans like they were meant to be. I do not think many people take out loans with the intention of paying it in full. They either refinance, buy something different, or sell it. You can get loans for just about anything now. Loans for college, homes, cars, furniture, medical and dental bills, boat and rvs, even credit cards are loans. Now that I think of it, we pretty much live off of loans! Now that is scary. I guess loans are better than leases, at least you have collateral and equity in whatever you take a loan out for. Too bad loans aren’t more like bartering. Like you could trade something for whatever you wanted…We got screwed on cosigning a loan, using our own savings as collateral. Of course, my dad said nothing would happen, and we believed him. Of course, we defaulted on the loan and were stuck with it, not him. Even though it was in the companys name, we had to guarantee it, so we were ultimately responsible. We ended up having to file bankruptcy because even the savings we guaranteed it with was not enough to pay it. It sucked. At the time, bankruptcy stayed on your credit for 7 years, then they changed to 10 years. So we are still waiting to be out from under that word! We have great credit otherwise. It is just having the word bankruptcy on your credit report that people don’t like. I have heard it is getting increasingly difficult to even file bankruptcy. I think people have that in the back of their head, that if things ever get really bad, they can always file. But the government is making that more difficult. I do not think there is even a chapter that you can file now that wipes everything clean anymore. It is all restructuring and paying it back over time. Which is good in most situations, but it would have sucked badly if that was our case. Just hope you never get in that situation.

Posted by juliusp at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

Car insurance

You know, I think that I believe that if some people were not so litigious by nature and not trying to get something for nothing, our insurance rates would not be so outrageous. The average person these days picks up the phone and makes that dreaded call for the auto insurance quotes. Then the average person has to go and find a bathroom quickly. I personally think next time I have to call for auto insurance quotes, I will just place the call from an appropriate sitting position on the toilet. The representatives of the auto insurance carriers are always (or most of the time) very helpful and empathetic because they have to buy car insurance too. I wonder what happens if the attorneys that come on television enticing you to call them if you have been injured in an accident and it won't cost you one penny unless they can recover a bundle for you, realize and/or take any responsibility for their actions. Ultimately, car insurance keeps going up because they continue to find people out there whose neck starts to hurt the minute the commercial comes on even if it was six months ago that they were in a teeny, tiny little fender bender. Perhaps, the attorneys that are really the ones that are prospering from those lawsuits should be required to pay more for their auto insurance. Maybe if you have ever filed a claim for anything other than your medical bills and your car repairs, you should have to pay more for your insurance. Shouldn't there be categories that if you have filed one claim against any car insurance carrier, you should be in the one claim category and if you have filed two or more claims against the auto insurance carriers, you should get placed in another category and each time you file a claim, your insurance goes up proportionately according to how much money you personally received from the claim and how much your attorney received, especially when we know they all go into these situations knowing how much the auto insurance industry is willing to pay for specific injuries and the like. And how about those little hot shot young men and women out there that should have failed driving school and believe that their sex appeal is based on their daredevil antics on the road. I know it costs a fortune to purchase car insurance if you are under a certain age, and that alone penalizes the young drivers who drive as if their parents are sitting in the back seat.

Posted by juliusp at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2008

marriage counseling

When it comes to marriage counseling, I am on the fence. In a lot of instances, it would probably be beneficial. But there are also those situations where, you are just delaying the inevitable. By the time most couples seek marriage help, it is too late. I think the moment you realize you are having marriage problems, take it seriously. Especially if there are children involved.

My parents had a rough relationship my whole childhood, but they stayed together, miserable, and not realizing how it affected us. Then when I turn 18 and move out, get married- they decide to get a divorce. So twenty years of screwing around, and then you decide to make a change. It Doesn’t make sense. Meanwhile I have a skewed view of what to expect out of a marriage and what to give in return. I am just making it up as I go along. Then you add in the same type situation on my husband’s side- what then? We both have screwed up examples from our parents.

The way I look at it, if you decide someone is right enough for you, that you want to marry them, I would advise making it clear that you will be open to marriage counseling should any problems arise. If you are going to spend your lives together, and most likely create new ones in the process….make it enjoyable. It is just like home owners who live in their crappy, outdated house for years. When it comes time to sell, they make all the upgrades they always wanted in order to sell it. They could’ve done it sooner and enjoyed them themselves, and possibly not wanted to sell.

The bottom line is, don’t be too proud to admit you are wrong, or that you need help. If you were willing to marry someone, you owe it to yourself and your spouse to do whatever necessary to make it work. It is the one thing in your life that should be worth that. In the long run, you will appreciate the fact that you are working at your marriage, and not just throwing the towel in when things get tough. It doesn’t matter who you live with, you are bound to have turmoil. So at least this time you have the benefit of loving each other. You will also find a new sense of appreciation for your spouse.

Posted by juliusp at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

May 06, 2008

resorthoppa

Well, I have done very little traveling in Europe, but when I did visit Italy a couple years ago, I wish I could have known about Resorthoppa. Dragging your bags from point A to point B can be such a pain in the rear end - especially on to trains and buses. They are not exactly service oriented at the train stations and bus stations and I am too old to be lifting and toting my heavy bags. I think it would have been a fabulous thing to have Resorthoppa waiting with a limousine or taxi or something to help me get to my next accommodations. My biggest fear was not being able to pull my bags up in the train or in the bus before they slammed the doors in my face or started moving along without me. Wouldn't it be a nice bon voyage gift to be able to make those arrangements for friends or family that might be traveling with the same limitations that I have. I think when my brother heads for Ireland next year and has to get off of a plane in London to get to another airport in London to catch yet another plane to Ireland, I might just arrange for him to have that service provided and save him some time and trouble moving around in an area he is totally unfamiliar with. Or better yet, maybe a helicopter to whisk him off with plenty of time to spare and not have to race around and figure it out on his own. I wonder if this service is available in Hawaii? Would be nice to be picked up by a helicopter in Honolulu and flown over to Maui then have a limousine ready to drive me to my beachfront rental house and then the same thing on the way back home. I suppose the cost is something to consider but I need to consider staying home if I can't afford to pay for personal attention in the way of getting from one place to another. I am not exactly a 'resort hopper' but I know I could get used to being treated like I am special -- what am I talking about? I am special! I will just have to budget the appropriate service in to my travel plans from now on. How much does it cost to travel first class?

Posted by juliusp at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2008

Drug detoxification

When I was growing up my life was very different than people would think. Although seemingly normal now I went through some pretty tough times as a child. As young as 5 I have memories of my mom, a single mother, leaving me and my older brother, only 7 at the time home alone every night. She would sleep during the day, and didn’t hold a job. I do know that we did get food stamps and some services from the government, since my dad was not in the picture. Our home a one bedroom apartment was always disheveled and there was never any food in the house. Occasionally we would have some microwave dinners, but other than that we ate cereal and drank water or iced tea at home. School was our safe haven. When we went there we felt like a real part of everything. Our teachers were really nice, and we got free breakfast and lunch at school, and I remember stuffing in as much as I could especially on Mondays, by then I was really hungry. We went to stay with our Aunt when I was about 7, so that my mom could go through an alcohol detoxification program, but we were back with her about a month later and nothing really changed.

Occasionally we would get to go to Aunt Marie’s to spend the weekend, and all I remember was how pretty I thought everything was, and how much food there was. We would always ask before taking anything, and Aunt Marie was very generous. Aunt Marie passed away when I was 9 and I remember going to the funeral with my mom and brother. I think Aunt Marie’s death hit my mom really hard because all I remember was how bad things got after that. At 9 and 11 my brother and I had become extremely self reliant. We got ourselves ready and out to school. Every evening we came home and did our homework and watched TV. I thank God for my brother, he really watched out for me when my mom was not around, which was most of the time.

Well, eventually the school caught on to what was going on and at 11 and 13 they sat us down and asked us questions about our mom and we told them the truth. We were moved into foster care, which actually worked out well for us. We were placed with a great family that took us both together. I later learned that my mom had a crystal meth addiction and had entered a drug detoxification program. Although we continued to visit with mom through the years, we were never returned to her care again.

Posted by juliusp at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)