Michael and the Agéd Stepmother

The other night I was taking a group of teens from church to an activity that had been planned for them. It was a 45 minute drive, so I had plenty of time to listen in on the (aggressive) flirting that was going on between the three boys and one girl in the car with me.

One of the boys was Michael and at one point the girl asked him, "Hey, Michael, do you MySpace?" And Michael replied, "No, I Xanga."

Now, that was the extent of the conversation, and I am sure that Michael, if he even realizes I overheard that exchange, probably thinks that I am soooo old that I would never know what they were talking about. After all, what would an old person like me know about blogging, right?

I debated it for all of, oh, five seconds, and decided to look up his Xanga site to see what he has on there. And no, I don't feel like I'm violating his privacy, although I'm sure he would feel I was. I don't care. I'm not trying to "get him." I do, however, see this as a real opportunity to get a better idea of what's going on in his life, so that we can be there to catch him if necessary.

Or yank him up by his collar, if need be.

Unfortunately, he's only got three entries on there so far. So, except for finding out that he swears when he thinks we won't know, and that he has no concept of basic security (he has his full name and location on there!) there's nothing much to enlighten me as to his true mental state.

He told me, while we were talking about yesterday's shooting, that he has decided that he is bipolar. I suggested he should see a psychiatrist in that case, so that we can get a more definite diagnosis and start treatment, but he adamantly rejected the idea. So, I'm not sure what he was getting at. Is this a plea for help, or a bid for attention? I don't think it was simply information sharing. I think he's looking for something from us, but I can't figure out what.

I wish he'd blog about it, so I could get an idea of what's going on.