Other People's Kids

Almost Vacation

I've been counting the days until vacation and hoping against hope that things at work don't turn south enough that The Boss asks me to postpone. Things are now coming together at work and it looks like I might actually be able to take off Friday night.

That being the case, I'm whipped and don't feel like writing a whole lot (and probably won't be writing much while I'm vacating) but I owe you the latest on "Josie".

As regular followers of this series of domestic screeds know by now, we hung our asses in the wind (sorry, Mom) for "Josie", sticking up for her against the Powers That Be because she was about to be sent up and we felt that would be the worst possible thing for her long-term. Our side won that one and she's been with us since. The social workers have started again with the too-frequent home visits, but we've just had to content ourselves with beefing up our spy network and clamping down when we can.

Well, now "Josie" has a job, and she's started telling us she has to work until such-and-such a time when she really only has to work until an hour or two before that. She's been hanging around with a mind-boggling array of boys who have started calling the house a LOT. She's been treating her best friend pretty shabbily. She drank alcohol last weekend and thinks she's fooled us. In short, she's forgotten completely again how close to the edge she is, and I reckon she's about to pitch herself into the abyss any day now.

I know she loves us...I'm comfortable with that. Now she's just a girl who knows way more than she should about adult life who is grappling with emotions I'm all too familiar with. When I was a teen I had pretty close to an ideal family situation, and even I had this stupid, undirected rage against nothing. I suspect most teens have that to one degree or another, but when you combine that with knowledge of and familiarity with sex, alcohol, drugs and whatever else, you have a pretty much unstoppable moron on the loose. And that's what "Josie" is right now.

So I'm praying for two things in particular right now: 1) that she doesn't hurt herself or anybody else when the fall comes and 2) that we have another crack at her in 9 months or whatever when she gets back from whatever lockup she gets sent to.

What else can we do but redouble our efforts to save her while letting ourselves detach a little bit emotionally so it doesn't hurt quite so much when she goes?

Pray with us, won't you?

In the meantime, I'm preparing for an entire week of nothing in particular to do. I'm gonna drink coffee and soda, read (a lot), fish, swim, walk, talk with the most beautiful woman in the world (it's a good thing I'm married to her), visit with the folks, and maybe take a field trip for a day to the town where I went to college and visit some people.

I'm gonna eat melon, grill steaks, watch the pelicans, listen to music, lay in the sun, and generally lay back and smile.

Life is good.

posted by Dan @ 6:27 PM