Ever get these...the 3 am phone call...they are never good are they? Back in my younger (stupid) days the 3 am phone call was usually a bootie call and being the dumb, lovesick girl that I was...I would come running...even driving 45 minutes to get there...ok - little off track there. But usually that call is someone in trouble - they've been arrested, they need a ride, they caught their boyfriend cheating, etc. Or someone is drunk - they want you to party with them, they are remembering you really were the right one for them, the caught their girlfriend cheating, etc. And the call I got at 3 am this morning was no different. It was my ex-husband (ok we are still married but I moved out a year ago today no less) got picked up for drunk driving.
I don't know any particulars about how drunk or anything - he was calling to see if I would pick him up after his arrainment - but I really wasn't surprise by the event. For a big guy, close to 6 ft and pushing 220 - 230 lbs, he really can't hold his alcohol. He is silly drunk on oh I'd say 6 or 7 beers and if it's hard alcohol at all - hell, he is out of the game after 2 or 3. But you could never tell him this. I think it was a pride thing, again back to his size, there is no way a guy of his size was going to admit he couldn't hang with the baddest of the bad. Still I tried. I told him several times that he was going to get picked up some day because he doesn't realize his limits at all.
This is the 2nd person I know that got picked up in the last month. Him 30 years old and the other, well, has to be in at least their mid-30's as well. I don't understand this at this age. Knowing that it's an automatic driving suspension of 6 months, how do you function without being able to drive? How do you get to your job to support your family and how do you drive your kids around to all of their stuff? I would think it would be a major source of embarrassment.
That's not to say I am innocent. I KNOW there are several times in my life I should not have driven anywhere. Times I don't even remember driving home. And I actually got picked up for DUI back in 1992 - but you see, that is part of my point. That was 16 years ago. And that's not to say because it happened in my early 20's it wasn't any less irresponsible - just more understandable perhaps given who didn't spend their early 20's partying. I still go out with friends for drinks but I would like to think I pace myself now so that I'm not taking huge chances at the end of the evening. I don't drink to get drunk anymore. I don't know what I would do if I lost my license and couldn't get us anywhere we needed to be. When I lost my license with that DUI, I lived at home with my mom and she drove me to work and picked me up every day. Is that what I would do now pushing 40 years old, have my mommy drive me and my kids every where we needed to go? Not really where I want to be in my life at this point. And that's even touching the fines and the mandatory jail time.
And I'm also not fooling myself, I know that there really is a vast degree of difference between how I feel I am at the end of the night and how impaired I actually might be if I took one of those simulated tests that gauge your reaction times. If I am honest, I probably do still take some risk when I drink. I used to always say, "it's not illegal to drink and drive - it's only illegal to be drunk and drive" . That's logic for you huh? In our state, the legal limit is .08. For some people that could realistically be one drink. 16 years ago it was .10 and my BAL was .186 - almost twice the legal limit. Did I think I was fine? Of course I did. Was I? Probably not. I had been drinking for like 8 hrs straight - so I highly doubt it.
Ok - so this post is turning on me a bit...I'm not coming off so well...(hehe)...all I was trying to say is that at some point in your life, the drinking has to become secondary. Drinking doesn't have to be to get drunk. Know your limits. Make that 3 am call for a ride home then, rather than a ride home after you've been released from jail.
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