The Next Phase

The next phase was to begin as my son left his father and stepmother's home to go to school in a city a few hours away.

Just before leaving, he wrote,

already talked to my dad and m. they were very cool. turns out
m was talking the way she was more to scare me than anything else.
they kinda wished p hadnt become involved in the situation all the same
cause he doesnt need to be in this situation theyd rather try and regulate
it here. like i said no more smoking or any drugs this year (well i will
smoke A LITTLE when i go to amsterdam this year, but i dont see that as a
drug problem as long as im not smoking regularly at that point). im also
cutting back on the sauce. its not a total solution but frankly given the
problem to be confronted its not going to be an overnight thing. this
might seem like a cop out of the solution but frankly if i can do this
thatll already be something. i havent told you half the stuff ive done
and if you want to actually know about it youll have to talk to me on aim
so the quitting drugs alone is already quite a step (sorry, its not about
being mean or anything, but there are things ive done that i do not want
p and d to worry about and i dont feel comfortable telling you
about them in an email). please dont send this to them, its not necessary
and i will be EXTREMELY DISSAPOINTED if you do. thanks for everything.

I did not send the email to them. Or to anybody else until this.

His next email was pretty funny,

just heard this mitch hedberg joke thought it was appropriate in light of
the way the p has reacted to this problem. here you go

So they say alcoholism is a disease. But it's the only disease you can
get yelled at for having. "Damint Otto you're an alcoholic"...."Damnit
Otto you have lupus".

gotta love mitch hedberg.

There is a lot of truth in that!

Less than a month later, we were in crisis mode again. On September 12, I received the following email,

I sent you a letter yesterday but you never responded back. I need to
know if you can send a money order to me asap for like 300, i have no cash
and neither my father nor p has received my atm card. Consider it
part of the money that you were gonna loan me. I know normally i needed
to wait till oct/nov but since I cant get at any of my money I'd really
like it if you could just send a little now so I dont have to keep
borrowing money from people. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Luv ya.

And so began the next phase of his addiction.

1.
please please please please go to the bank BEFORE work today and put that
money in. I have no money whatsoever, and thought you were going to put
it in after work yesterday. please take care of this. its urgent. thank
you.


2.
sorry for the angry sound of my last email, but i think i have to skip
school now cause i dont even have the money i need to buy a metro ticket
to get there...


3.
alright, i got my host brother to loan me the 2.20 euros i need for the
metro today but please put that money in today, as always thank you very
much. on a lighter note I just sent d an empassioned plea for her to
either a.) give me a personal loan in the form of the money I will be
getting back from financial aid that belongs to them, or b.) cosign on a
loan. I was very reasonable, and I think she should give in. I'd still
prolly need a loan from you (because of the Euro being in such shitty
shape, and based on what Ive spent and what people around me have spent
I'd say i need a little less than 500 dollars a month) but at least then I
won't need as much and I won't need it quite as soon, which would give you
more time to get your financial life squared away before loaning me a
large quantity of money. If she replies negatively I will probably send
her an email something along these lines.

Well in that case, do not bother trying to get ahold of me this year as I
am not interested in talking to you until it is time for me to leave the
country. Do not expect to be getting your money anytime soon as I need it
to live on a day to day basis until I find enough customers to deal to to
support myself. Thanks for nothing.

Obviously not true since I have that small loan and your larger loan
coming to me (so i will not have to resort to illegal activity in order to
support myself), but they don't know that and if their are still going to
be that unreasonable I feel no need to make their lives any easier and I
feel no desire to ever return to their household, except to retrieve my
belongings. Im hoping it doesnt come to that because they have nice
houses Id like to use for traveling this year, but hey with the loans from
olaf and you i can afford hostels and such. Thanks again for the help
(you are an AMAZING person, and once again sorry for the more angry emails
i sent you earlier), tell me what you think.


4.
please please please take care of this immediately, i have NO (!!!!!!!!!)
money. you told me youd do it today. come on! im trying to be nice
about this but this is not cool. please HELP ME!