I flew up to Washington to spend Christmas with my son, Nate, at his home in Gold Bar. I lived with him from October 2011 until September 2021. I left due to mental incident brought on by convincing my psychiatric medication provider I no longer needed to take my mood stabilizer. She actually said, “I like it when my patients can go off medications.”
Crazy people like me are able to live in society by taking various medications to keep them from bouncing off the walls. I look back on my life and can see each point in time when a decision had to be made, but ended up being distorted by either not taking medications (pre-diagnosis) or going off medications. So, now I have to manage my life so that I can move back to Washington. I won’t be living with my son for the simple reason he lives too far from VA medical facilities I need.
Okay, enough of the crazy stuff. For Christmas we spent it with Nate’s semi-official foster family who he lived with after leaving home at 15. There are three brothers and the oldest hosts the party every year. His wife cooks a prime rib roast, lays out hors d’oeuvres, and provides the dinner roles and dessert. The wives of the other two brothers bring the side dishes: green bean casserole, mac and cheese (cottage), and an ever-changing attempt at baked sweet potatoes (never with marshmallows on top). Refreshments are soft drinks.
It’s nice to have some place to go on Christmas. It’s nice to be included. I look forward to going to Christmas dinner there in the future when I move back.
It’s Sunday, and it snowed today. The temp is down in the 20s. This is okay other than I’ll be going back to Texas on Tuesday. That is if Alaska doesn’t cancel my flight because of COVID. It’s supposed to be in the teens when I drive back to the airport to turn in my rental. Hopefully, WADOT will have the roads clear and sanded. The last thing I need is getting in an accident. Oh, well, that’s life.
Curmudgeon: From the Bright Side of Mental Illness 