this shit is wack, annotated
"This shit is wack," he says as he enters my office.
"What shit is that?" I ask.
"Man, my PO [Parole Officer] says she gonna send me back in unless I get a letter from you," he says.
[Ed: This is not uncommon. We get people on parole who have substance abuse problems all the time, and I have to send letters to PO's. Half my damn day is talking to PO's sometimes.]
"What made her say that?" I ask.
"I dropped a dirty," he says. [Ed: This means he tested positive for drugs on a urine test at his PO's office.]
"What did you test for?" I ask.
"Cocaine," he says.
"How is a letter from me going to change that?" I ask.
"You can tell her that my medicine made me test positive," he leans in, the way stupid convicts do when they are trying to pull something over on someone. Watch Judge Judy--you'll see what I'm talking about.
"I'm not going to lie for you," I say.
"It's not a lie. I'm on Vicodin, and the doctor says that can make me test positive for drugs," he says. He smiles, the way stupid convicts do when they think they've outsmarted you.
"No, Vicodin makes you test positive for opium or heroin. Not for cocaine. She wouldn't believe me, and since I know it's not true, I'm not going to lie for you," I tell him.
He pauses, and frowns.
"So what the hell good are you, then?" he responds.

Indeed.


- posted by not_jane_addams @ 5:03 AM

 
Messed up.
I had a messed up session today. I'm doing an evaluation on this woman, who looks all the world like a cocker spaniel. She's calm, she's smiling, until she starts to talk about her boyfriend, and how they argue over crack and prostitution. Then she starts wailing and pounding on the table. I can't write because she's hitting the table so hard. This is what she says:

"I just don' understand why we ain't happy. We do everything together. They says that communications are important in relationships, right? We communicates! He says, 'Honey, we dry,' and I know I gotta go out and do for him and me. We talks about it, we both know the game. But he all like, 'You gotta stop whoring,' and I'm all like, 'Bitch, it's your fix I'm fixing!' Why don't he see that?"

Best Line Ever: "It's your fix I'm fixing."

- posted by not_jane_addams @ 1:20 PM

 
First post
OK.
I'm facilitating a support group for substance abusers who are male and between 18 and 24. One of them was recently in jail for battery. The topic turns to trouble with the law.

I say: What happened that you were locked up?
He says: This guy was grinning on me, and I couldn't let that go. So I stepped up in his face and says, "You gotta problem?" and he goes, "Nah, man." so I turns around, and when I turns around, he hits me. I hit the fucker back, and next thing the police are putting me in a car.
I say: What could you have done differently?
He says: Nuttin.
I say: What does the rest of the group think?
Someone else says: He did the right thing, man. You gotta stick up for your own.
I say, addressing the person who just spoke: Didn't you just get outta prison for battery?
Guy number two says: Yeah.
I say: Then maybe you should shut up and learn something might want to think of some alternatives to violence with me.


And so it goes.

- posted by not_jane_addams @ 1:31 PM

 
test...

- posted by not_jane_addams @ 8:53 AM