MetaChat - Speaking of frights

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06 June 2010

Speaking of frights →[More:] About an hour or so ago the neighborhood kids were ringing the doorbell. I held my dog by the collar and let my kids out and shut the door. Then I looked out the window. In the lawn across the street I saw a person on the ground with two other people hovering over here. I start running at top speed and yell out, "Who is that!?"

I quickly realize that it's my neighbor on the ground. Her husband and another neighbor are standing over here. I, being naive and panicked, am ready for anything. I think she is injured. I'm ready to perfomr CPR or call 911. I am so naive. She is completely passed out drunk and took some "pills". She was out performing in her band and fell out of her van in the driveway. (She wasn't driving, the husband was.) Her husband and I get her into the house and into bed. She could barely keep her feet on the ground and we kept having to hoist her up and encourage her to "walk" She was completely gone and I felt scared to leave her there. We put her on her side and that was that.

I came back inside and the kids were asking me what happened. All I could say was the truth. "She had too much to drink."

post by: LoriFLA at: 16:28 | 6 comments

Wow . .scary. But also I have to think a good thing for your kids to see. .. the ugly side of alcohol. . .

posted by danf 06 June | 17:06

Dang, that's crazy. Good job on the quick response- I'm sure if I saw someone on the ground in their yard I'd have thought what you did, that they must be injured.

posted by BoringPostcards 06 June | 17:19

Yes, I definitely thought she was injured. She was completely flat and still. It was scary.

danf, you are so right. It was a good time to talk about the dangers of drinking too much.

This isn't the first time I saw somebody flat on the ground in my neighborhood. An elderly neighbor fell in the street about a year and a half ago. I did the same thing -- kind of freaked and ran to him. He was bleeding but okay with other neighbors tending to him and the ambulance was on the way.

posted by LoriFLA 06 June | 17:46

Gah, LoriFLA! When I was in college someone passed out right in front of me in the bathroom (unisex) and he looked like he was dead. All I could think was that he was too big for me to support by myself. By the time I found someone he had come to and climbed through the window onto the roof of the adjoining wing.

Nthing that it's good to be honest with kids about this.

posted by brujita 06 June | 18:05

brujita, omg the roof? What a dangerous place for a drunk person.

That's why I was so scared. I probably haven't seen someone passed out drunk since I was in college and wasn't thinking that this might be the problem. I'm aware she has a drinking problem (She's on and off the wagon. A few months ago she called me to help her remove cactus spines from her arms because she was drunk and high and fell on her flower pots on the porch) and takes pain pills. I still didn't put two and two together when I saw her on the ground. She has also confided in me that her husband has threatened to leave her if she continues to drink and take pills. It's a mess. I feel for her.

posted by LoriFLA 06 June | 18:57

The bathroom was on the 4th floor and the roof of the 3rd floor was flat, with a border of brick at waist level. When girls tried to sunbathe there, security would kick them out.

posted by brujita 06 June | 19:28

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