sunday morning, 11:45 am, albuquerque nm-i decide to pop into 7-11 to grab a six pack. not because i plan on spending my sunday afternoon drinking-i don't. i will in fact be spending the afternoon working on a dreaded paper for school. however i know several hours from now i will very much enjoy a frosty beer after the completion of aforementioned dreaded paper and i would like to just get the beer now. except i forget for moment that not everywhere is like my sweet hometown and there is a lock on the case at 7-11. (for vegas peoples-its a weird sunday thing where you cannot buy any drink before noon-quite odd.)this is fine. i consider leaving but i figure its only a few minutes-not a big deal. i station myself at the magazine rack with an issue of 'Shape' magazine which is an irony considering the last time i did a sit-up i might have been wearing bonniebell lip-smackers-its been a bit-and that i was using it to kill time while waiting for booze. whatev.
as noon approaches a few wizened alchies wander in. i have no judgement whatsoever of alcoholics-none. life has the ability to be shitty to the extreme and if a fellow human has chosen to self-medicate with the last legal mind-altering substance that can be readily purchased at your corner market, who in the fuck am i to judge them. i just wish the counter clerk asshole cunt-bitches felt the same way. anyone reading this knows im pretty mellow, not a whole lot really fluffs my feathers. but if there's one thing i REALLY dont like its judgemental people. so, the two squawky bitches behind the counter start saying things like-im so glad i don't drink. its so sad. yadda, yadda, yadda... im very purposefully ignoring them. so finally noon hits and me (and three old alchy men) grab our poisons of choice and head for the counters. the one woman is literally shaking her head (in the way that only self-righteous fucking fools can) and saying again "oooh, im sooo glad im not a drinker..." i take a deep breath and in the spirit of feather-ruffling say in my sweetest voice, "im from vegas, its so weird to be in place where they have this silly 12pm sunday rule." to which the two woman huffily ride their high horses talking about our states crazy amount of dwi numbers. (i cant argue that point obviously.) but i do ask them if they really think that not selling booze until noon is really going to take care of that problem. stammer, stammer-and then-"well, they should just go back to not selling it on sundays at all." by this point the three wise men were intently watching this little back and forth. i actually laughed out loud and the older clerk did not like that one bit. i gave her a huge smile and said, "yeah-that will solve all the problems, huh? then maybe everyone will stop drinking and driving!"
the problem in this state is that everyone believes that drinking automatically means drinking&driving. i will state it now for the record-the system worked for me. i will never drink and drive again. i look at my arrest as being one of the greatest gifts of my life because it gave me a second chance not to ruin my life. i have learned so much from this experience-it has been life changing. i always thought i was a "fantastic drunk driver." now i know i didn't know shit about what i was doing and im just so fucking grateful that i never hurt anyone, never hurt myself (other than the unfortunate run-in my face had with the pavement that one time...) im walking on air the last couple weeks practically feeling like i won the lottery because i got popped in a checkpoint. (rather than slamming into someone and killing them.) my dear friend gave me the fateful message after her arrest a few years back "you never think its going to happen to you-until it does." what i realized is that that message can just as easily relate to an alcohol-related accident!!! the problem is with that, you're not getting out jail the next day. you're staying. soooo, i will be drinking at home. and im totally fine with that. and when the occasion calls for it i will make sure i have cab fare, or a designated driver. or i will walk my ass home. but i will never drink and drive again. HOWEVER.....
i do not need nor appreciate judgement at my 7-11. i dont think the other guys really appreciated it either. there was a great line from a movie where a cop was asking a victim of a crime (who also happened to be an alchy) whether anyone from her AA meetings would want to hurt her. to which she replied, "we're alcoholics. we are generally happy just to hurt ourselves." so true, so true. i think judgement fits in there as well. honestly, why dont we all just judge ourselves (and maybe the people we are the closest to HAHAHA) but leave others the fuck alone! for the record, i dont consider myself an alchy, just a lady who enjoys the sauce. i dont use it for "punish" or hurt myself the way i have witnessed many alchies do. it just makes me so angry that people automatically link alcohol sale laws with dwi rates. the problem is not the alcohol per say, but rather the need for education, public transportation, quality mental healthcare, etc. if a drunk is a drunk why not use some of the millions in revenue the city recieves from dwi related fines to provide accessible free transport? if they are so fucking worried about how many lives will be lost this summer why dont they take a fraction of the money that will be used to run "the 100 nights of summer" (a sting-op throughout the summer of random dwi checkpoints all over the city every night) and use it to subsidize city-cabs that will run people home from the bars???? it is a mystery to me when there are so many possible solutions available. for the record-the three men making their purchases all were on foot, and i blew into a tube to start my vehicle so all of the huffy indignance was wasted. sadly...
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