Halloween Get together

It was Halloween day October 31,2009 and I was planning on getting together with a couple friends I met from the Mental Hospital I just got discharged from. I met one of the girls at about 2pm in Berkeley near Center Street and Shattuck. I picked her up , we embraced in the car and said how happy we were to have met back up after our mental hospital experience and we went and parked near a park to get free parking. She said she was a little disturbed we were meeting on Halloween and that her mom told her that evil people prayed to Satan on that day for bad things to happen. I told her that my angels were bigger and stronger than their angels and she had nothing to worry about. She asked about me if I were one of those evil people and I said no pretty noshalantly, but she worried I hadn't looked her in the eyes when I said that so I said sorry and looked her in the eyes and said I wasn't evil and that she could trust me. So we walked on through downtown berkeley and talked. We got a hold of our other friend and found out she was a little far away so we would have to wait and look through some of the shops around berkeley while we waited so we did. My friends cell phone had died because she had stayed over night at her sisters in Richmond and didn't charge her cell phone so I let her use mine to call her sister and tell her what we were up to. My friend was a little uneasy on her feet, which she had told me she hadn't slept good the night before last and that she had been uneasy on her feet and having trouble because her doctor was out and the other doctor wouldn't prescribe her the sleep meds she needed and the other meds she was taking kept her from sleeping. So a couple times while she was walking she grabbed my arm and we would walk arm in arm which I had no problems with. I was there for her to be her support and care no matter what. We all three of us had built a kind of interesting strong friendship in the hospital that we desired to continue outside of the four walls of the hospital and this was our first physical meeting afterward. It was kinda cool. I had had the idea in the hospital that there was some followup needed after the hospital that was not available that we could create for each other in which we would check in with each other daily or weekly and ask some of the same questions they would ask you in the hospital, how are your meds going, are you taking them, which ones, are you sleeping well, are you eating, how is your bowel movements, are you using any particular coping skills and how are you doing today? It was a kinda keeping tabs on one another and it was cool, then we talked about regular life stuff too and did fun stuff together, etc. So we waited for our friend to meet us and then after meeting talked about what budget we were all on and that would determine what we would do together and where we would eat, etc. So we decided we wanted to get drinks first so we walked to Walgreens and got some cheap drinks and then walked to the park near my car and hung out and did check in for about 1 hour and went to the bathroom. Our one friend smoked so being outside helped her be able to smoke whenever she wanted to. The smoking didn't bother me, I just really met her again for the first time out of the hospital and I was not going to start telling her about thd dangers of smoking or whatever. She just needed a friend from me and me other friend right now and that is what we were going to be for her. So after we talked and went to the bathroom at the park I had the idea that since I had the car and we could go anywhere that we go to Emeryville to the Pubic market where we could all decide on getting whatever Ethnic or American Food we wanted and its cheaper there than some sit down restaurants in berkeley and that some cool stuff might be happening there since it was Halloween. So we all decided that was a good idea and we left in my car and had a lot of fun eating and talking and listening to live music that was there. I took pictures of them both for my cell phone at the park so I could link up with their phone numbers there pictures so that was cool and I took photos of their and my food too at the Public market. Then after dinner and lots of time talking we decided to go to a local Bowling Alley near one of their homes. So we went their and played pool for an hour and drank soda pop and socialized. It was so much fun and I even got to teach one of the girls how to play pool! We had a blast then I took one girl home and we all hugged and promised to call each other that week to follow up and maybe hang out next weekend and that this meeting was such a good idea and healthy for us mentally and socially. Then I took the other girl home to her dorm near Cal Berkeley Campus. At the end of the night I realized our experiment of getting together with fellow patients and building new relationships was such a positive thing and even though we were all having rough weeks in some ways we could still reach out and be there for each other and help each other even if just in a small way and that it worked! I recommend it to anyone out there who has gone through a mental hospitalization that if they can connect at all with one or a few of the patients in there and follow up afterward and just be a friend to each other that maybe that can help them in whatever they go through post hospitalization and transition them back into society a little easier and help them build other new relationships and keep old ones going better. So this weird Halloween day and night turned out to be a huge success! What a miracle! It shows that if you put yourself out there socially anything positive or negative can happen and maybe get you out of the rut you are in or help the journey!