The Character Therapist: How Does That Make You Feel? and Mini-Assessment Giveaway!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

How Does That Make You Feel? and Mini-Assessment Giveaway!

My first How Does That Make You Feel was a terrific success...with lots of you writer folk commenting to get your name in the hat for a free mini-assessment! My friend Jennifer K Hale was the winner, so I'll be getting the intake form to her via email ASAP.

But don't despair! This will be a regular feature on my blog...so everyone else will have multiple opportunities to get a free mini-assessment.

Here's the scenario:

You just closed on a new home in a beautiful new neighborhood this past week, which is why you've been MIA on the blogosphere for a while. You've finally settled in, and invite your parents to come and stay to celebrate your child's birthday this weekend (also, why you've been absent on the blogosphere). On the morning after their arrival, at around 8:40 a.m., the local police arrive in body armor with guns drawn two houses down to shut down a commercial marijuana grow and hash lab.

And how in the heck to you make your parents see that this could be any street in America, not just ones in California where their only granddaughter lives? Yes, yes...this is definitely an autobiographical scenario. If you want further details, email me and I'll send you the link from our local paper. Couldn't they have waited just one more week to make the raid?

For the mini-assessment, PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL! I don't want anyone to miss out because I have no way to get in touch with you.

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Katrina S. Forest · 632 weeks ago

Hmm... I suppose I could find a bunch of newspaper articles from equally nice neighborhoods that document similar cases. But probably my argument would be, "See? The police force here is very effective and took care of it just like they were supposed to."

1 reply · active 632 weeks ago

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jeanniecampbell 76p · 632 weeks ago

lol!! yes, they were very effective. made two arrests. it was quite the commotion. thing is, we knew they had a grow house in there. they were paying almost $4000/mo for rent up front in cash, so we knew something was fishy. that, and the cloud of marijuana smoke that came out of their front door when we went trick-or-treating there....

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jessicarpatch 25p · 632 weeks ago

Based on my real parents, I'd automatically go with God. "It's a mission field. Obviously, God has us here for a reason and you're seeing this because you need to intercede on our behalf...and you know as well as I do, if God put us here, He'll protect us." After they leave, I have a come-apart and whine to God then try to take my own advice and see it as future book fodder. Pretty sure that's exactly how'd it 'd go down. :) What a fun new series, Jeanne! My email is: jrpatch(at)yahoo(dot)com

1 reply · active 632 weeks ago

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jeanniecampbell 76p · 632 weeks ago

book fodder----definitely! my husband and i just felt like God could have waited another week before bringing justice! we're so glad they were caught, of course. they were using their garage as the grow, which meant they had tons of vehicles outside the house, which was rather an eyesore in the neighborhood. but it all worked out in the end. my poor parents will just have to deal. :)

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Lex Keating · 632 weeks ago

On the one hand, there would be some relief that the police were doing their jobs. On the other, I would be a little aggravated with my real estate broker for being less-than-forthcoming about the neighborhood. These things can and do happen anywhere, but if drugs become enough of a problem in a neighborhood, the cops will sometimes stop assisting the few law-abiding citizens on the block because they consider the crime in the neighboorhood "too petty" to make their quotas. (Yes, I've had cops in our area say this about subdivisions they've decided to give up on.) And we'd probably have to have some solid "prayer therapy" with grandma to remind her that God hasn't fallen asleep at the wheel. Email lexkx1[at]gmail[dot]com

1 reply · active 631 weeks ago

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jeanniecampbell 76p · 631 weeks ago

you know, i think our realtor did say the house was likely a grow, but the area of the country where i live, pot is like cigarettes elsewhere. it's so common and accepted, and everyone doesn't even look at it as drugs. the residents kept to themselves, and apparently everyone in the neighborhood knew and just turned a blind eye, since they caused no disturbances (and why would they? and risk getting caught?) sigh. prayer therapy it is.

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MSS · 632 weeks ago

I'd feel resigned. After all, it's California, land of fruits, nuts and flakes. I guess in your case, it's job security! ;)

But I'm curious as to what you told your daughter? She'll likely see more of this kind of stuff as she grows up.

1 reply · active 631 weeks ago

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jeanniecampbell 76p · 631 weeks ago

definitely job security. almost 90% of the folks i work with have a drug or alcohol problem.

my daughter wasn't around to see it, thankfully. she was at daycare. but i've been very open and honest with her about drugs and how bad they are. she sees the results all around her.

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Lucy · 632 weeks ago

My family is not easily rattled. My most likely response to the event: "Well, that was interesting." Though I might also make it a point to get to know all the neighbors in person before letting my kids out of my yard.

Never will forget the story in the news a while back ... little Johnny getting into Grandma's marijuana cookies. She had a scrip, and used the cookies to take her dosage. To small people, a cookie is a cookie--except it put him pretty well out for the day.

2 replies · active 631 weeks ago

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jeanniecampbell 76p · 631 weeks ago

okay...hadn't heard the johnny story! do you have a link for that somewhere? and leave me your email address so i can include you in the character assessment giveaway!

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Lucy · 631 weeks ago

Ah, sorry! I thought the form would show it when you read the comments.

I'll be sending my address to your email, along with the link for the news story. It made a quite a few national publications at the time. Thanks!

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Clar · 632 weeks ago

No matter what my mom would say "Move back to Washington." XD

1 reply · active 631 weeks ago

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jeanniecampbell 76p · 631 weeks ago

they've tried this multiple times, to no avail. mainly because we DID move back to my hometown, and lived with my folks for 6 months. my therapist license didn't transfer and i absolutely could not get a job. it was awful. they know there would just be more of that in store for me were we to move back.

leave me your email address, clar, so i can put your name in the hat for the giveaway!

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Lindsey · 631 weeks ago

And all the research I did on neighborhood crime stats was for nothing.

After spending so much time going from finding a house to preparing it for a weekend visit, of course that's what has to happen. I moved into a house where, when my mom was over to help me paint, a "nuisance" at the house next door lasted for several hours. I'd spent months working for this and the initial impression is that it might be a bad place to live?

On the other hand, I've learned form recent experience that sometimes family can be more understanding than you think when faced with difficult situations such as this one. I'd work to remember that any negative reaction is coming from a place of love and parental concern, but I'd also be analyzing everything even remotely related to the house purchase and the move. After imaginary conversations in my head with the realtor, coming up with additional angles the local news could take, researching similar situations and so on, it would eventually fizzle out. I'd still feel that defensive frustration whenever it got brought up, though, until it finally becomes a funny story.

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jeanniecampbell 76p · 631 weeks ago

in my family, this is already a funny story. :) my brothers have given me quite the hard time over it, and even my parents were able to laugh after they weren't so scared they went to the basement. thanks for popping over and following my blog!

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iotamanhattan 48p · 631 weeks ago

This made me laugh because I had a similar situation. We're British, and 6 years ago moved to America (we've moved back to the UK now). After a few months, we'd bought our own house, and moved into it from our rental. Lovely, safe, family-friendly neighborhood. We had my parents-in-law to stay from England. Their very first morning, we were having breakfast, and through the window, I caught sight of police running across our front lawn, guns in hand. Followed by more armed police and a police dog. I took my kids and parents-in-law down to the basement. found out later that there had been a break-in two doors along from us. Imagine what a great story for my parents-in-law to take back to England - confirming all their worst fears about America, and yes, it IS just like on the tv.