Good and Bad News

After all the great news I’ve heard this week, I was disappointed on how the week ended.

The week started out really well. I found out that one of my friends who is in an abusive relationship is out and in a safe location. I have been keeping her whole family in my thoughts and prayers and so it was really nice to hear that everything was lining up for her.

Then I got great news!! After a very long time of looking, applying and lots of rejection, my sister was offered a fabulous job as an account manager at Web MD. This will be a great fit for her. It will give her a lot of opportunities to grow and really shine professionally in a field that has a lot of potential – and not to mention - pay her mortgage and buy me a Christmas present. (Hey, a girl’s gotta have priorities!) Anyway, I am so very happy for Aon. You should have seen the kids and I do the “happy job dance” when they found out about it. We even called her up and sang her a “lovely” job offer commemoration serenade which probably brought tears to her eyes. (What kind of tears – she’s not saying.)

The North County Recreation Assn auction is coming together and some of the issues (like the Castle Rock and Toutle youth football teams playing at 5:30 way over in Wahkiakum County which over 1 hour away and the slow / low donation amounts) are being resolved so that we will be able to have people attend and support the youth sports in our area. Donations have been picking up and the weather is even starting to co-operate with us. I had visions of this outdoor auction / dinner / dance being in the middle of a horrid downpour all day long. (It still might be a little bit nippy and have a couple sprinkles, but nothing like earlier in the week.) So keep your fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, the work week is ending on a down note. Late Friday afternoon, we found out that our Drug Court did not get the big federal grant we applied for in May. If we got the grant, it would have “saved” our program and really helped it grow to help veterans in our area. Now it is slated to close at the end of the month. I feel so badly for my friend, Debbie, who is the coordinator of the program. She has been through so much this past year. If someone would have told me that we would be shutting down one of the original drug court programs in the state (and one of the most successful) when she was hired last summer, I would have laughed in their face. I am so disappointed. So keep your fingers crossed that by some miracle our Drug Court is saved and is allowed to continue helping people get clean / stay sober and quit doing crimes in our community.