Tails of a 17th Street Geisha

Not sure where to begin, but I’ll start with Thursday night.

Thursday PM: I went to the gym with Gianni and we proceeded to grab dinner nearby in Silver Spring. My 16 year old niece Drea calls me 5 times during our meal (I usually don’t answer as she’s been known to excitedly call me with “urgent news” like “they’re playing Ramones at the Safeway”) Anyway, I finally answer and she tells me that her mother was throwing up, really pale and needed to go to the ER. Gianni and I head over there and take her to the ER, leaving Drea at her bedside.

FRIDAY 4:00 AM: I wake up and find Drea and her boyfriend intertwined on the couch asleep. The boyfriend is banned from the house after we catch the two of them post-sex in her bedroom. I discover from the lovebirds that Alex has pneumonia, needs to be hospitalized for at least 72 hours to recuperate, and that Alex asked boyfriend to bring Drea back home so she could rest.

FRIDAY 4:01 AM: Immediately dawns on my that I am responsible for crazy, out of control, teenager. For the next 72 hours. I start ordering her around (mistake) and telling her that she needs to sleep in her bed separate from her boyfriend, that her boyfriend can only stay for a couple of hours, and that she has to listen to me or else! She flips out and the fighting begins.

Friday 5:00 AM: After a tug of war over her cell phone (which I took to discipline her) she kicks a hole in the hallway and I threaten to kick her out of the house. I threaten to change the locks and I tell her that she needs to be committed. She runs away and I call the cops. Her mom sleeps peacefully at the Emergency Room getting her illness treated. Cops come and I give them a description of her, they let me know that if she turns back to the house, they can take her to get psychiatric evaluation.

 Friday ALL DAY LONG: I sort shit out:

1. I wait at my house for her to show up.
2. I wait for the building guys to change the locks.
3.  I get advice from my coworkers mom, who has experience with a troubled teen–coworkers mom says that all agencies (school system, childcare protection, etc.,) are passing the buck and not wanting to refer because whoever does, has to incur the expense of residential treatment $$$.
4. I talk to the social worker for the county Child Protection Services–she tells me that she can’t help because my sister is not abusive or negligant. She also recommends throwing the onus on the school system.

Eventually, I have to leave to show my condo to prospective renters. I set these appointments up on Tuesday and I had t-minus 5 days before current renters move!

Alex ends up not having pneumonia-the local docs read the EKG incorrectly and didn’t take into consideration that with her disease, pulmonary hypertension, the EKG is going to be all screwed up. So Alex gets discharged on Friday afternoon while I’m in the city showing apartment.

Drea shows up and Alex calls the cops to say that she’s returned. On Friday night she tells me that she’s too tired to go through another 12-24 hours at the ER getting Drea evaluated, so she lets the cops go. Over the weekend she tells me that they won’t send her to the “Operation Runaway” services at Potomac Ridge in Rockville (this is what they told me would happen on Friday morning)

Saturday AM/PM: I’m showing my apartment, so I just stay in the city. Not sure what’s going on in the home, but things seemed to have settled down.

Sunday AM: this is when shit hits the fan… part 2 coming up.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 7:50 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.