Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Okay, so yesterday in counseling I learned how to make a crack pipe. (You know those tiny roses that come in a little tube that you find at any gas station or convenience store, called “love roses”, they are cheap crack pipes. Just take out the rose and insert a little piece of a brillo pad and you have a homemade crack pipe.) Anyway, WOW! People have such ingenuity and intellect and they use it to make homemade crack pipes rather than for something good. I can’t believe that fifty percent or more of our class is spent talking about drugs, drug regulations, or gangs, movies etc. There is more small talk than there is talking about reform and patterns of behavior that need to change. It is almost like our counselor is phoning it in, or in other words not even trying. I show up at 2:30—class basically begins at 2:45 once everyone else shows up—we get a break at around 3:30 for 15 minutes—Then back to class which usually ends at around 4:15-20. The two hour class usually ends up being only about 1 hour and 15 min. to 30 min. I am in no way complaining because it makes it easier for me, but as an objective outsider I would be worried about the full worth of the class.

Another reason why I am a bit fed up with these meetings is because I don’t see anyone taking them very seriously. Don’t get me wrong, these classes are an important asset within a reforming user’s life because it is something that almost forces them not to use. When you have to endure drug testing in order to suffice your probation officer, or in my case Associate Dean of Students @ Denison University, there is an element of restraint that is almost coerced out of its patients. It’s not like A.A. meetings where subjects are attending on their own admission; all of the out-patients are required to finish this program in order to resume their regular lives. A few of the people that I am in class with feel dependent on the meetings. They claim that they don’t know what will happen to them once they leave. I tend to agree, the program is only 8 weeks long (2 months out of a year), and therefore it only serves a temporary need. However, it is dependent on the patients themselves whether or not they employ the techniques that they learn in the class in the rest of their lives.

Okay, I never got around to posting yesterday so I’ve decided to make this a dual-blog. Today’s class was even more worthless than the last; I am beginning to see a pattern here. We talked about prostitution, golf, fishing, the Kentucky Derby, and the rest of the class was spent giving driving directions on how to get to the various driving ranges that are around Lexington. Well we did spend about 10 to 15 minutes discussing activities that we will participate in as an alternative to using. The counselor passed out a worksheet, and out of the four people who showed up to class today only two of us actually filled in the little boxes in the sheet. This class is BULLSHIT! I mean we spend almost 2 hours in class and maybe 20 percent of it is dedicated to talking about our problems and alternative solutions. I guess being in the class that requires a total of 24 sessions, sometimes there can be a lack of things to talk about.

Yes, I have to go through this whole process in order to go back to Denison and get my undergraduate degree, but if they really wanted me to stop smoking there are a lot of much better ways that this problem can be handled. Our counselor is very unconcerned about whether or not we will use drugs or alcohol after we finish this little program. Hakim, one of my fellow classmates who finished today, said that he may smoke again but isn’t really sure that it’s worth it. I am not a dumbass. I know this boy is going to blaze up later on today or later this week. He’s got his counseling done to suffice the court and now he can go back to the life he was living. Look, if I were going to keep smoking weed after the 8 weeks are over I sure as hell wouldn’t give my counselor that impression. I just don’t understand sometimes. It seems like the two most sane, intelligent people in the class are me and this late 40’s recovering alcoholic… and that includes the counselor. I am now through five classes, and by Friday I will have completed six. YIPPEE!! What a wonderful life.

Anyways, Yankees play the Red Sox in Fenway this weekend so I know what I’ll be doing. What will y’all be up to? Drop me a line. Pollac_g@denison.edu. Peace.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

So, today’s class was about as close to useless as possible. We ended up spending most of the time talking about how to grow marijuana, and about whether it was moral or not to tell someone that you know where they can get some weed. If found myself sitting there saying to myself, “what does all this have to do with staying clean?” So I raised the question, “How is it possible to stay clean when all of our memories and great experiences that we can remember revolve around doing drugs or drinking?” The counselor/group leader was perplexed on how to answer this particular question and said, “Well we’ve got to look past these situations and begin to focus on a new life for ourselves. It is never healthy to dwell in the past and focus on the negativity that those situations have caused. You have to look at the consequences.”

And yes, the consequences couldn’t be more real. I am here in Kentucky with my mother and my little baby boy (my cat) with nothing to do but think about what has caused me to be in this situation. I can always blame the administration of the school that I attend for being oppressive. I can blame my roommate for being careless about smoking weed in my room. I can blame just about anyone and anything for the situation I am in but ultimately it was my own fault for being irresponsible about my actions. These extreme consequences are the biggest reminder for me of the problems that being a pot-head can cause. I mean I guess I was lucky to go through the last years of high-school smoking pot every day consistently and still getting exemplary grades because when I got to college and continued with those actions I lost focus. Maybe it’s because I lost my core group of friends, or that I didn’t have the 100% guaranteed alarm clock that was my mother but whatever it was I was stupid and was always trying to take the easy way out. Well guess what, to those of you who think that taking the easy way out is the way to go…. You’re WRONG!!! I am paying for it every day right now… 1300+ SAT score, national honor society in H.S., Student Athlete Award for Varsity baseball… I had everything going for me until I went to college and fucked it all up. I am here to teach you all a lesson.

Anyways, drug abuse class is making me feel a lot better about myself because I see the extreme struggle that some of my classmates have had to go through. I mean I couldn’t imagine being a dad at 22 years old, and being on probation for a whole slew of misdemeanor felonies. Or being in my fifties wondering why I had wasted my whole life drinking and doing dope with nothing to show for it. I am 21, 3 years through an accredited university, reforming pot-head, with no REAL problems other than I cant seem to avoid trouble. Just when I think I’m safe, something happens to remind me that I can never take my safety for granted. As long as I am at Denison I have to employ a healthy sense of paranoia in order to achieve my goal: graduation. It is easy for some to go through four years at Denison smoking pot every day, or possibly even selling it, as long as you don’t get screwed over by funny situations like fire drills caused by underage drinkers looking for thrills at 3 AM. (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!)

It frustrates me to think that these irresponsible, immature, little rich assholes think that it is O.K. to pull a prank like that thinking that they will be all right… no one will ever catch them. You’re right they won’t, but people who do not deserve to get in trouble, who weren’t involved in vandalism/mischief that is detrimental to the school, are in jeopardy because you give the security full reign to search their rooms. Taz – I hope you live everyday with the overwhelming guilt that you have caused major problems for me and my family, not to mention your boy Spaull is going to go through it too because I am not writing a statement for him until you fess up to the trouble that you have caused, and that’s final. Sorry Spaull, you’ve been a good friend, but I’m not willing to help your situation when you and I know damn well that we don’t deserve to be in this position, and if it wasn’t for your “so-called” boy, we wouldn’t be. You haven’t lost your freedom like I have and I think it would be good for you to pay for your boy’s mistakes as well.

Now that that’s off my chest… Big up’s to UCONN’s men and women for being the most dominant basketball program in the nation. I know a lot of people back home are reveling in the mass hysteria over dual national championships. Good shit boys & gals. Curt Shilling also looked dominant in his first start as a Red Sox uniform… looking for better things to come from Pedro however. Yanks lost again, will be looking for that to continue, even though we all know it won’t.

To all my people who support me through this B.S. --- Much Love. Peace.

Monday, April 05, 2004

Well today was my first day of school assigned drug abuse counseling and there is much to say. Ironically, the first day of my counseling was also my girlfriend’s birthday so obviously I am catching slack from that on the home front. Since it is her b-day I might as well give her a shout out--- HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISIL… wish I could be there to give you some lovin’ on your big day, unfortunately Denison has got me doing some bullshit to make them happy.

Okay, so counseling was interesting to say the least. One of the participants mother died over the weekend because she was hit and killed by a drunk driver and that was what the first 30 minutes of the class was dedicated to hearing all about his story and offering him advice about how not to relapse into drug usage. I feel so unbelievably terrible for him. He is 19 yrs. Old and now both of his parents are deceased. He has a 17 yr. old sister as well who has a 2 month old baby. Both of them were involved in the accident but luckily survived with only minor injuries. He now has to step up and be the leader of the family because his only other brother is in L.A. serving 5 years in prison for assault. WOW! If that story doesn’t make you feel blessed to have the life that you do, I don’t know what story would. What is even more depressing is that he brought the newspaper report about the accident with him and was glaring at it the entire time. He also said that he sleeps with his mother’s bloody jacket every night because it reminds him of her. My first day of counseling and this is what I have to face… I was nearly in tears seeing what this boy had to go through.

But the class seems cool… there is a recovering crack head/alcoholic/ex-con, three younger guys like me who are in there for dope (all of which said, “What the hell are you doing here man?” when they heard my story of how I arrived at counseling.), two recovering alcoholics, and one in there for cocaine/heroin abuse. Needless to say I am in the company of people who have been struggling with addiction for many years, and I won’t say that I am better than them because we are all there for the same reason. I am in this program to satisfy the requests of some evil power, AKA Sarah Westfall. Oh and I found out today that Denison officially screwed me over because the counseling I’ve done so far is unsatisfactory and that I am not allowed to register for classes or housing next semester. Can you say FUCKED!!! Anyways, I am signing off for now, but you will hear more from this one very pissed off individual.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

O.K. I've got a few spare minutes and brief access to the wonderful world of cyberspace so I thought I'd chime in with a quick blog.

I was thinking to myself recently as I sat in my new home in Lexington, KY and suddenly it hit me. What am I really breathing into my lungs right now? Am I breathing in radio waves? Other peoples cellphone calls? Wireless web? I mean if I swallowed my cell phone I could still recieve calls because the waves would penetrate my skin, right? Maybe I've had way too much free time over the last few months because of my suspension from college or maybe I've always had these thoughts just not enough time to put serious thought into them. But recently I've been having some of the stupedest, yet most perplexing thoughts/ideas/theories running through my head.

In my life I have always looked at my brain as a reflection of one of Jackson Pollack's works... if your not familiar he does the paintings that look like mutiple colors of paint splattered across a canvas, well thats all they are really. I envison all of my random thoughs as the 'multiple colors of paint' that have been splattered across my brain, or in other words 'my canvas'. Lately these paintings are getting very complex and multi-layered, almost so much so that I cant completely decipher what they truly say. I think about the path that this life has brought me to and how absolutely screwed up I've become over the last six years. I guess you could say I took a detour that has provided me with a lot of interesting life experience, but has given me few rewards other than those I retain inside my own brain.

10th grade, High School -- Smoked pot...loved it. Didn't have to stop smoking it until about 3 months ago when I got caught by my 'LIBERAL' arts university, a.k.a. Denisuck, for having a little bit of it in my desk. It has been an interesting experience for me and I have welcomed it with open arms... well O.K. not so open arms, but I cut my usage down considerably and have quit for the last month because of the random testing that I am about to endure. I had planned to quit once I graduated from school but I guess my life has now been taken out of my control.

Anyways, before I go I would like to pay hommage to the sunshine that has entered my 'stormy' life as of four months ago. Her name is Isil and she is the best thing that has happened to me in a long time. She knows me better than I could have ever imagined and she loves me to death. I never envisioned a relationship so wonderful but now that I have it there is no looking back. The last four months has been so much easier thanks to her and I had to put her on here because she is a significant aspect of my life that I dont want to ever lose. I put money in her stock and it has been paying dividends every say since then. Anyways, if your reading this Isil... I love you.

For everyone else.. until next time.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

First things first... who is this Blogger guy anyway? I think he's trying to cop on my style. I mean people have been calling me Grogger for over 10 years. (Simple explanation of why: my first name is Greg and I sometimes tended to be out of it, or in other words...GROGGY. My good friend's father (who will remain nameless) was our baseball coach, and one day out of the blue he just started calling me Grogger. Which later expanded to 'Grogman', 'Groggenstein' and just plain 'Grog'. Let's just say that nickname never really faded away and people still use it to this day. Anyways, my real point is that this Blogger person is merely an imposter, or simply a knockoff variety of an original. Ha!

Now that I've gotten that out of my system I must proceed to the real reason why I am here at the Blog machine. Two of my good friends, Alex Veale and Scott Towler, have put me on to this interesting forum for expressing one's innermost random thoughts. God knows I've got a lot of those. This is my first 'blog', or shall I say 'grog', and I am simply her to forwarn the blogging community of "THE RETURN of CUERVO". Not even Senora Nunez could prevent this from happening and it was only a matter of time. By the way Scott-- Alex's name in that class was "Chavi Pescado Pintura" (Chavi Fish-Painter for those who no habla espanol). That big dummy up front was Sr. Nunez. Oh and thanks for having my back in this whole thing with Denison (both of y'all) it is unfortunate, but what are you goona do.

By the way... Denison has imposed a quite rediculous sanction --- on top of suspending me for the Spring '04 semester, which wasn't bad enough, I have to go to Group Counseling/Therapy for 2 hours, 3 times a week.. for the duration of 8 weeks. I will be in class with people who have committed serious felonies, and addicts who are in their mid-30's. Depressing right. I was in the waiting room for my first appointment a few days ago and I was reading a copy of Discover magazine, more specifically an article about this new liquid metal-glass. That's not the point however, there was a middle aged man next to me reading a highlights (you know the magazine you read when your a kid, the one where you find what's wrong with the picture.) I know I'm in the right place when a 35 yr old male is reading a magazine for kids. Thank you Denison for continuing to hold jurisdiction over me even when I am not in school, it feels sooo good. Ha!

No offense to the school, but when you have students of the school rambling on numerous blogspots about how much weed they buy and how much beer they drink, I find it quite funny that you chose to pick on me. I was found with .2 grams of mary jane OK, and somehow my punishment is worse than someone in Tennessee who was arrested with possesion of 2 oz. of weed. They only get probation and testing once a month... no counseling, no suspension from school...NOTHIN! OK, OK, I'm done for today.. but I'll be back with a vengance.

Cuervo's back people... watch out.

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