Better All Around

Yesterday I rescheduled my appointment and went home after experiencing waves of nausea and deciding it would be nearly impossible to function. After getting home and taking something to ease the discomfort, I went to bed and fell into a deep sleep that lasted most of the day. Today I feel much better, with only a dull headache and a little fatigue hanging on.

The publication of my letter resulted in some feedback, all positive, from random individuals. There was even a phone call from a local woman who said she wanted to thank me for the letter. That was very nice.

I reluctantly agreed to let Tim go to a concert tomorrow night with some friends. My reservations are mostly based on what I saw at rock concerts back in Ft. Wayne, where I moonlighted as a doorman at the coliseum. Many of the rock concerts there were a bizarre environment full of kids indulging in all manner of drugs and alcohol. The air would be so thick with pot smoke you could barely breathe. One of my unpleasant duties was carrying out those kids who had passed out from either alcohol poisoning or drug overdoses, both of which were frighteningly common.

One memorable example was at either an Ozzie Osbourne or Van Halen concert (they were the two worst events I worked for). I was called into the arena to find a young boy, who couldn't have been any older than 15, lying comatose on the floor covered in his own vomit. I carried him out by myself, as I doubt he weighed much over 100 lbs. Placing him on the gurney and wheeling him to the first aid station, I saw that his breathing was very shallow and his eyes were open but saw nothing. I wondered if he was dying. But when I arrived at the first aid station, the first nurse to examine him assured me he would be alright. They placed him into the next available ambulance for transport to the hospital.

That night there were many kids who went to the hospital. In fact, what I estimated at a half-dozen ambulances were on a continuous rotation between the coliseum and the hospital throughout the concert, transporting unconscious or semi-conscious children for treatment of drug overdoses and alcohol poisoning. I was in my early 20's at the time, but I made a commitment then to never allow my teenage children to attend such concerts.

To this day, I have no desire to attend rock concerts, and can think of very little worse experiences than being crowded into a mass of teens under a choking cloud of marijuana smoke trying to avoid disgusting behaviors and a vomit-covered floor. I sincerely hope the concert Tim is attending does not attract this sort of crowd.