July 5, 2024 - Friday

We didn't do too much today. I'm actually looking forward to getting school started again, just so we have something going on during our days. Granted, we're not doing anything because I'm not making any plans and I could change that if I wanted to...but I don't. Not yet. 

I took the kids to the pool for a while and talked to Justina while we were there. She is really struggling down in New Orleans. She is feeling like she has no purpose right now. She has no job, no friends, and no car. She has no prospects. She's just sitting in her dad and stepmom's house, while Chris gets completely wasted every single day and makes her miserable. I could not put myself back in the position of living with an alcoholic again, not ever. I don't know how she's standing it. Even when I wasn't in the line of fire, being around people who are drunk every day is really hard. It's tough to explain, but just imagine being around a drunk friend, except they're supposed to be your parent, and it's never-ending. They're falling over, slurring their words, talking nonsense, drooling, and can't be counted on for anything. It's just an unstable and scary feeling. I wish I could have given her a different life. I told her we'll be moving back and she is always welcome with us, but she's made it clear she doesn't want to live somewhere where she can't smoke weed. She may change her mind someday.

I also talked to Dawn for about an hour today. We had so many good talks while we were at the beach and I just wanted to try and keep up the relationship. It's easy to talk to her on the phone, not awkward or anything, but it was a little boring. She's excited for Ben's birthday dinner though! He's talking about cancelling it because nobody seems to want to do it. But I think they do want to do it, they're just terrible about communicating with each other.