Sucks to be You
This weekend was a good reminder for me of exactly why I choose to be sober. And how happy I am that I am sober. Maybe happy isn't the correct word; maybe relieved is.
Dick and I had a housewarming/birthday party this weekend and invited damn near the whole community. There were a couple people I left off. Some were simple errors, some deliberate.
At around 1:00 a young girl walks into the party. She seems relatively friendly, relatively sober - harmless. Harmless that is, until she bolts for the bathroom and makes a small deposit on my carpet. She hugs the toilet for a good half hour, and tells me she lives about 8 minutes away. She's in no condition to ride her bike, and I am certainly not strong enough to carry her that far.
I offer her water and try and clean off the vomit that has dried on her face, hands and arms. The smell of the antibacterial wet wipes makes her ill and she starts heaving again, unable to even get a swallow of water in.
I watch her heave and gasp for breath in between outpourings of alcohol, discomfort, and stomach bile. I've been here many, many times and don't envy her one bit. I think about how deceiving alcohol can be. You can LOOK fine. You can APPEAR sober. Until she put her head in her hands, I had no idea that she was in such an advanced state of inebriation. I know from experience that her head is spinning, her stomach is trying to escape through her esophagus, and she just wants to go home and pass out.
The crowd is at a loss as to what to do with her. The only male at the party who came with her has disowned her (what a prick) and we have no idea who she is. Worried for her safety, we call the police to come escort her home. The sergeant takes one look at her still-heaving body and calls the paramedics. They are equally alarmed. She is no longer expelling liquid but simply dry heaving or pulling up what she must have digested days ago. They convince her to go to the hospital for observation, possible alcohol poisoning. By now she is sober enough to be embarrassed and remorseful. Two feelings that I ALSO do not want to feel again in relation to alcohol.
She comes over the next day and says that she is fine, but her present of scrubbing bubbles and offer to clean the bathroom tells me otherwise.
Staring across the room at her, I cannot help but feel relieved that it is her in this position and not me.
I just can't afford to be there anymore. Period.
Dick and I had a housewarming/birthday party this weekend and invited damn near the whole community. There were a couple people I left off. Some were simple errors, some deliberate.
At around 1:00 a young girl walks into the party. She seems relatively friendly, relatively sober - harmless. Harmless that is, until she bolts for the bathroom and makes a small deposit on my carpet. She hugs the toilet for a good half hour, and tells me she lives about 8 minutes away. She's in no condition to ride her bike, and I am certainly not strong enough to carry her that far.
I offer her water and try and clean off the vomit that has dried on her face, hands and arms. The smell of the antibacterial wet wipes makes her ill and she starts heaving again, unable to even get a swallow of water in.
I watch her heave and gasp for breath in between outpourings of alcohol, discomfort, and stomach bile. I've been here many, many times and don't envy her one bit. I think about how deceiving alcohol can be. You can LOOK fine. You can APPEAR sober. Until she put her head in her hands, I had no idea that she was in such an advanced state of inebriation. I know from experience that her head is spinning, her stomach is trying to escape through her esophagus, and she just wants to go home and pass out.
The crowd is at a loss as to what to do with her. The only male at the party who came with her has disowned her (what a prick) and we have no idea who she is. Worried for her safety, we call the police to come escort her home. The sergeant takes one look at her still-heaving body and calls the paramedics. They are equally alarmed. She is no longer expelling liquid but simply dry heaving or pulling up what she must have digested days ago. They convince her to go to the hospital for observation, possible alcohol poisoning. By now she is sober enough to be embarrassed and remorseful. Two feelings that I ALSO do not want to feel again in relation to alcohol.
She comes over the next day and says that she is fine, but her present of scrubbing bubbles and offer to clean the bathroom tells me otherwise.
Staring across the room at her, I cannot help but feel relieved that it is her in this position and not me.
I just can't afford to be there anymore. Period.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 6:22 PM.
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