I can’t imagine an intervention is the easiest thing to go through for an addict, but I can’t imagine it’s harder than what the people that care have to go through during the addiction period.

Watched an episode tonight about a 40 something year old man that was an alcoholic. A series of bad events led him to the alcoholism and eventually took over his life. The man lost his wife, lost his job, and was near rock bottom. His family, friends, and most importantly his son & daughter decided to have an intervention for him. Pissed…he fought it hard – he even said “I didn’t go out without a fight” after he finally decided that curing himself was more important that losing his children.

After 80 days in treatment, he was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer.

Three weeks later he died.

His daughter and son were interviewed at the end of the show, both clearly sad that they lost their father. His daughter said how proud she was that he made it 104 days being sober before he died. His son said that he watched his dad cheer for him at his basketball game days before his dad died and he was happy his dad watched him “almost make a basket”.

Perspective on my own life with my addictions…yep…just got a ton of that…

Couldn’t get the link to work right: http://www.aetv.com/intervention/int_episode_guide.jsp – it’s Season 7, Episode 93 (Bret)

Tags: addiction, alcoholism, intervention, Parenting

Headed out to Chase Stadium last night with the kiddos, their mom, and her fiance for a night of baseball with the family – yes, family – we have a well adjusted divorced family structure.

Click on the picture or the link below it to view all the pics.

View the full set of AZ Diamondbacks vs. LA Dodgers on Flickr

Tags: AZ Diamondbacks, Chase Stadium, LA Dodgers, MLB Baseball

Every milestone deserves a celebration.

Ours just means a bigger party.

Join us as we commemorate not only 8 great years since our first issues rolled off the presses, but also as we honor the talents, minds and ambition that have driven the Valley to become a burgeoning metropolis with a diverse and inventive population. In celebration, 944 will be mixing award-winning musical acts, notable artists, cultural institutions and a few surprises from both here and across the country at W Scottsdale from August 28-30.

RSVP for Friday on Facebook

RSVP for Saturday (Pool Party) on Facebook

RSVP for Saturday (Evening) on Facebook

RSVP for Sunday on Facebook

I happen to have an extra ticket for each day, so I’m going to leave it up to you guys to post this up and spread the word as much as possible, and I’ll hand out my extra ticket for each day to the person that promotes this the most.  Post it up on your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (wait, does anyone have that anymore, because I don’t), etc…and comment back here to let me know you’ve spread the word.  I’ll keep a watch on everyone, and on the day before each event, the winner of each ticket will be announced via Twitter/Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter (@beaufrusetta)

Friend me on Facebook

You really don’t want to miss out on this…it’s going to be awesome.

Tags: 944 Anniversary, 944 Magazine, Entertainment, Fashion, Nightlife, W Hotel Scottsdale

Wow – the Michael Vick topic has definitely gotten heated this morning.  Let me first admit that I was sluggin’ down some serious haterade about the whole ordeal in the beginning, but as time went on, and Vick started moving forward, went through jail, and got back to his life…things changed.

Michael Vick made a mistake – there’s no question there – a BIG mistake, however, he went through the justice system, paid his debt to society, and yet, he still can’t catch a break from some people.

Michael Vick has been granted a second chance at his career by Roger Goodell.  He’s been put on a conditional reinstatement, of which he will miss 2 preseason games, has already missed a lot of training camp, and will miss 6 games of the regular season.  This is on top of losing every asset he’s acquired, and having to completely start his life over.  The one thing he has going for him…he’s one hell of a football player.

I’ve gotten involved in a few of the conversations this morning, and honestly, no one has created a compelling argument on WHY he shouldn’t be allowed to play football.  Let me give you some “reasons” I’ve been told and my answers to them:

“He’s a role model” – agreed, football players are role models, but I’m fairly certain I didn’t hear Manny Ramirez ever say “I did steroids because of Jose Canseco” – or hear a plea in court by someone arrested for DUI and Manslaughter say, “I got drunk, I drove, and killed a man because of Daute Stallworth”.  Give me a break – children look up to a lot of people, including sport players, and shockingly, their parents, but children can still distinguish right from wrong.

“He shouldn’t be allowed to go back to football” – why?  What if he was a plumber?  Could he get back in to plumbing?  Michael Vick is a highly skilled and trained professional football player.  If you committed a crime outside of work, should you be let back to work in the trade of which you are skilled at?  Should you even be allowed to work at all?  Some people seem to think that he needs to just be unemployed for the rest of his life because he’s a professional football player and that profession happens to come with a “spotlight & money”.  He shouldn’t have to apologize for the skill he’s trained in – he didn’t shoot some one on 3rd & 9 in the fourth quarter for gods sake.

“the Eagles signing him is a bad PR move” – really?  Kind of like when Paris Hilton’s sex tape came out – bad move – right?  WRONG!  I’m pretty sure that all Eagles games will now have the Howard Stern affect – more people that hate Vick will watch simply because they “hate” him.  Guaranteed…

Unfortunately, someone in the spotlight like Michael Vick will be put under far greater scrutiny than “John Smith” the data entry clerk from a call center.  He did something wrong, he admitted he did something wrong, he paid his dues to society under the judicial system’s rule, and he’s having to start his whole life over, yet everyone thinks he “hasn’t paid enough”.

When will it be enough?  At what point do you stop beating him down and let him prove he’s changed?  People will lift up career criminals that are fighting with an addiction to heroin, and keep “giving them a chance”, yet a football player has to be put under further scrutiny and beat down even further because some people over at PETA are a little pissed off?

Boo hoo…bring on football season…

Tags: Michael Vick, nfl, Philadelphia Eagles

Great, more names to tarnish MLB history.  The New York Times is reporting that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are said to be on the list of MLB players that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.  Both heavy hitters, and both contributed to the Red Sox 86 year Championship drought…what now?  I can see Manny being on the list…duh…but Ortiz?  C’mon…Big Papi???  Say it ain’t so!

Of course it’s the New York Times that’s reporting this – I’m sure there are plenty of Sox haters working there, but still…news like this doesn’t look well on the famous come back of the Red Sox to pull through “the curse” and get 2 World Series Championships in 4 years after an 86 year slump.

Read the full article on NYTimes.com

Tags: 2003 steroids, boston red sox, david ortiz, manny ramirez