a good day...

About two years ago, I got a call around 8:00 at night. It was my son, Alex's music teacher telling me he was being taken to a hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 200 miles from home. He had consumed enough vodka and smoked enough pot to almost kill him.

I drove the 200 miles half expecting him to be dead when I got there. Thoughts raced through my mind, maybe the kind of things you think when your plane is going to crash. My son was lost, and now, maybe, he was dead.

When I arrived at the hospital, he was alive, but totally out of it. So, there I was, thanking God that my son was a live drug addict, alcoholic, and now expelled student.

A lot has happened since that day, some of it very bad, some of it good, some of it confusing, some of it frustrating.

Alex has struggled and worked. He's spent time in jail. It's been uphill. But, he's perservered.

And now, today, I picked up Alex to take him out for dinner. This is something we've done at least once a week for the last year or so. And now today, my son Alex, is a Dean' List student.

He's battled his demons. He's slayed his dragons. He's clean. He's in school. And, I'm proud of him.