What Drug-Free means to me...

ChellBell's school just finished up with Red Ribbon week, which is the Drug-Free portion of the annual curriculum at her school. I must admit that I was a little shocked to hear that the first graders, and even the Kindergartners, were going through a drug awareness program at such a young age. This is, of course, reflective of my age, and the fact that no one really mentioned drugs in school when I was growing up.

So one of ChellBell's homework assignments was to write a few sentences and draw an accompanying picture about "What Drug-Free Means to Me". She drew a picture of herself with a big smile, playing with the big dog (I guess he was drug-free also?) and wrote "Drug-Free is when I am helthy and do not have any bad drugs."

Obviously Drug-Free week is all about bad drugs, but I don't know how much time is spent actually explaining that there are good drugs as well. My best friend, Bec, is a drug dealer. For a pharm company, that is... It's funny that she always has a trunk full of elixirs and pills that can take your allergies away, lower your cholesterol, or take care of any, um, problems that your husband may have. These are the good drugs.

Yesterday I had Root Canal Part 2, because they couldn't finish the root canal the first time around (which only happens to people who loathe the dentist, you know). So I mustered up all the brave-ness in me to go for the second round. The only saving grace in the Root Canal saga has been the prescriptions of valium that have accompanied it. That little pill takes away the fear of the dentist so he can stick me with needles and pull the nerves out from under the tooth, and I just laugh as if we're at a picnic. I walk out of the appointment (actually stumble out with my husband holding me up) remembering very little. Evidently, after my first appointment, I told the staff how wonderful they are and asked if we could take them all to dinner. After yesterday's appointment, I evidently sent a couple of e-mails that made no sense. And my cell phone indicates that I placed a call to my sister last night, but I do not remember that at all.

ChellBell was interested in why I was so loopy after going to the dentist, and Chris told her it was because of the drugs I took. Wrong Answer! This morning she told me that Daddy had let her in on the little secret that I had taken drugs yesterday, and she wanted to remind me that it is "very, very baaaaaaaad" to take drugs and that they are not healthy... Wow -- launch into the whole discussion of prescription drugs versus off-the-street drugs. Not how I expected to start off my Tuesday morning.

But I think we're all set now, and we all understand the difference. Next week I'll be going in for a crown to top off my root canal. Just warning you in case you see an incomprehensible excerpt here on this site or receive a strange e-mail from me. Just blame it on the drugs...