89. Bad Decisions

We transferred Norman to another site. He hooked up with a woman half his age.  They dropped out of treatment together.  She dumped him the day her boyfriend got out of prison.  Thinking younger women were his problem, he had a series of short relationships with slightly older women.  Comparing them to AA coins awarded for a single day sober, Andra called these women ‘Norm’s twenty-four hour chippies.’  He got another DUI driving one home from a bar.

Andra, who’d been sober for three years before she relapsed the last time, had some insight.  “Sleeping with Norman?” she said. “A bad decision, but bad decisions just come naturally.  Having the drink, eating the brownie, buying the shoes you don’t really need –so much easier than doing the right thing.  And once you’ve made the bad decision, momentum carries you into the bad habit.  Do you know I called Norman to say I’d forgiven him?  I wanted him to come over for round two.  Some young girl answered his phone.  Otherwise, just like Norm, I might have started the same bad habit of hooking-up just because I was bored.  Bad decisions become bad habits that end badly.”

Today I will remember, bad decisions can easily become bad habits that end badly.

Sober Not Somber © 2015, 2016 by Ken Montrose

(Just a reminder: Sober Not Somber is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance between the characters and someone you might know is purely coincidental.)