Monday, January 8, 2007

Yikes! Has it really been 2 months?!

Ok..here we go.

Life in general has been ok with some very upsetting exceptions. Without going into too much detail, Rachel has joined Jackie in using heroin. Rachel is currently in a rehab and will step down (maybe today) to a partial hospitalization program. She doesn't want to go, but it's an insurance issue and also a progression issue. We found out about her using heroin (snorting it) the day before New Years Eve. We spent that whole night (Saturday) watching her detox and then she finally got an appt at the rehab on Sunday, New Years Eve day. Herman and I spent NYE on the couch at home, by ourselves, in varying degrees of shock/anger/sadness. New Years day we spent on the couch with John adn Becky, curled up watching movies and sheltering ourselves from the world. We didn't answer the phone for a few days. That same Saturday, earlier in the day before Rachel's admittance to using, we found Jackie on the upstairs bathroom floor, half dead. She was supposed to have been getting on a flight to Phoenix to go back to the half way house program that she had attended last year. Hermn picked her up off the floor and threw her into my truck. I took her to the local ER, where they admittted her into the ICU for a few days. Apparently she had been using (with Rachel) the entire week that she had been staying with us. She started to detox and because she is a diabetic, once she started vomitting..it was all over. She's out of the hospital now and staying with my mother until she can legally travel to AZ. (Court issues that I really don't know too much about other than the fact that if she goes to AZ without first going to court, she'll be thrown in jail should she ever come back to NJ.) We also received very sad news this past Saturday. A year or so ago I wrote about my friend's son (Anthony) who had osteosarcoma. This past Friday night Anthony passed away at the age of 16. He fought a brave and valiant fight.

OK...enough "debbie Downer" crap.

Me, Sue and Ali are headed to The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park CO on March 29th! We are going on a paranormal retreat with the guys from TAPS, John Zaffis and Darkness Radio. You can go here to see the details. We're sooooo excited about this trip! Ali has never ever flown before so it will be that much more exciting!!

This past Saturday Herman and I were able to enjoy the Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant due to unusually warm weather we've had here in the northeast. It was 73 freakin' degrees out!! We sat on the pier overlooking the Atlantic sipping a Corona! Jan 6 and we were sitting at the Tiki Bar enjoying a beer! It was kind of surreal, tho.

Ok...I have at least 20 loads of laundry to do and meatballs to make and sauce to cook...better get going.

Peace...and Happy (belated) New Year!