Well, well, well...here we are on the eleventh day of our flight! How time flies! :lol
So many interesting posts yesterday--and lots I'd like to respond to this morning...unfortunately, in a few minutes I have to pull myself together and go "move the car."
For those of you who live in more civilized places where your car is parked in a driveway or somewhere connected to where you live, those of us who have to park on the streets of New York have the wretched task of having to "move the car," every morning or risk getting a $45 ticket....we have alternate side of the street parking so that one side of the street can be cleaned each day...this means that for an hour and a half (usually between 8:30 and 10am) no one can be parked on the side of the street that's being cleaned...this generally means that either the night before you move the car to the other side of the street or you have to go out in the morning and move it...if there isn't a parking spot on the side you have to be on (and there usually isn't), then you have to double park for an hour and half....and run out again to move it back to the side of the street at 10am! If you don't have your car out of the way by exactly 8:30 you WILL get a ticket (better not be a minute late because they are patrolling the streets like vultures) and at 10am they are back again to catch those who haven't moved their double-parked car--again, they are there seemingly seconds after 10am. Obviously, people get tickets all the time because it's easy to forget to move it, or you can't get out there at EXACTLY 8:30 or again at 10.
So, everyone who has a car in the city (and can't afford several hundreds of dollars for the monthly fee at a parking garage) basically has to structure their lives around "moving the car." Mostly, people accept the parking tickets as the part of the cost of owning a car in the city. It's why so many New Yorkers choose not to own a car at all!
Okay, so WHY have I regaled you with this complicated tale of woe???!! Because the ordeal of having to figure out WHERE to park the car and WHEN to move the car--having to keep track of the time and which side of the street is the "right" side of the street every day reminds me of my own attempts to control my drinking.... I had to construct these complicated rules and regulations for myself--rules and regs that I frequently couldn't maintain, just like sometimes I am unable to move the car on time--either way I get a ticket! For me, the "ticket" I get for be unable to stick to my rules about drinking inevitably becomes a loss of my time, my health, my self esteem, my dreams--a loss of my SELF.... A $45 ticket is mild in comparison!
I choose to own a car here because I love driving up to Vermont on the weekends but I have to be realistic about the consequences--lots of time and energy devoted to avoiding a ticket...I choose to stay abs because I just don't want to have to spend all that time and energy avoiding falling into my own alcohol nightmare....
For some of us, mods with drinking is no big deal--it's like having a regular, non-ticketable place to park the car. For others, drinking involves a complicated system of knowing where, when and how to drink moderately--liking avoiding getting a parking ticket. Others of us, make the choice to stay abs--and avoid the whole complicated system we find ourselves having to live by...
Either way we make a choice and deal with consequences...it all depends on knowing our limits, how we choose to spend our time and energy, and what we are prepared to risk....
Okay, enough of the extended metaphor here, I'm sure you all get the point I am (laboriously) trying to make here! :eek
Better go before I get a (parking) ticket! I'll check back later...
Happy Abs day all!
:h
susan
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