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February, 2012

  1. Who Wore It Best?

    February 28, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    I couldn’t resist, I had to do a ‘Who Wore it Best’ just like they do in the magazines!

    So, Who Wore It Best??

    Lindsay Lohan, see Her look (love those gold heels!) She’s fabulous!

    Or
    Me:

    Doesn’t Christian Louboutin have an amazing way of making Scrammy look less “Criminal” and a little more chic??

    I had to have these shoes as “Something Blue” for my wedding. Here is their first debut:

    The pretty red bottoms got chewed up right away :( but here they are on my wedding day peeking out from under my wedding dress! They were a huge hit!

    Our photographer, Todd Reinerio did such a wonderful job on all of our pictures!

    Category Life Pre Scram, SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,, | 10 Comments

  2. Drawing the Line, Facing My Deamons

    February 24, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Our Walk Like MADD event is only one month away!

    The MADD people called me today to offer their help in my fund raising efforts for “Penelope’s Peeps”. Yeah, apparently fund raising isn’t one of my strongest attributes. I am still looking for team members to come walk with me and I am way short of my fund raising goal. Crap.

    I’ve got a question…..how do you determine if you are an alcoholic or an alcohol abuser? There is a difference, you know.

    “No one is immune to the potential power of drugs and alcohol to cause a good person to do bad things.” – William Cope Moyers, Sr. in a letter to his son William Cope Moyers, Jr.

    “I didn’t have to stop drinking, I just needed to exert more control, be a little more respectful of alcohol and what it could do to me.”                                                                                                                                                                                                – William Cope Moyers, Jr. rationalizing the extent of his drinking habits.

    BROKEN: My Story of Addiction and Redemption – William Cope Moyers, Jr. 

    After a major drinking event, I have said the infamous “Ugh, I’ll never drink again”….and then the hangover wears off or the embarrassment of whatever I said or did in my drunken stupor fades away and I am ready to go out and do it all over again. Sometimes I have taken it too far and I realize at first “Holy crap, I have a problem!”, but the next time I would get tempted to drink again, I would begin to rationalize that I don’t have to STOP altogether, maybe I just need to be a little bit smarter about it, maybe I should give myself a “2 drink limit”.

    You know, that rarely worked for me. While theoretically, a good idea, the truth is I just don’t have the will power to cut myself off after 2 drinks or even keep the steady buzzed feeling without taking it too far. I have to drink more and more until I am full-on intoxicated…..because that’s the “FUN” me, the life of the party….or so I thought.

    Is it really fun to hate yourself the next day for whatever it was that you said or did? Is it really fun to puke your guts out or shit your pants? Is it really fun not to remember anything about your night of “FUN” with your friends? (Most of the time during my drinking career, I would drink to the point of black out) Is it fun to be known as “that girl that’s always drunk”?

    That was fun for the drunk, oblivious ME who planned any and all activities around drinking….

    And what about the effects on my body and brain? I may not have gone into convulsions from withdrawal, but there were many mornings when I had the shakes and my memory was constantly fuzzy.

    I lost Penelope one night. Just plain forgot where I parked. (Really, I was just that intoxicated.) The worst part is that when I found Penelope, I drove home. WHO DOES THAT?……I’ll tell you who…..someone who should never touch alcohol again for as long as they live.

    Alcohol wants to destroy your life. Alcohol wants to destroy marriages. Alcohol wants to destroy families. It has been the cause of many broken relationships in my life, poor work performance, lies I’ve told, truths I’ve told, cars I’ve wrecked……but it will not be the death of me.

    There is no doubt about it, I am an alcohol abuser to the max. I can check most of the boxes when I take the self evaluation, but am I an alcoholic? I don’t know. My husband tells me he wouldn’t label me as an “alcoholic”, but he will definitely tell you that nine times out of ten, I drink without limits. Time and time again he will say to me “Ok honey, I think you should slow down or stop now” but would I listen? Nope. I don’t know if he doesn’t want to label me as an alcoholic because of whatever stigma he feels would be attached to it, if it is because he would have to face his own drinking habits, or if he doesn’t want to lose the me who has been his long time drinking buddy.

    SO…..Would the world breathe a big sigh of relief if I chose never to drink again? Yes, absolutely.

    And so would my mom and dad.

    I have tried to find the letter that my dad wrote to me after my crash because I wanted to share it with you. In his letter to me, he described how thankful he was that I was not harmed in the crash and at the end, he pleaded with me to give up the drinking. I love my parents so much. They have been such wonderful examples to me throughout my life. My father has been a wonderful provider, we have never “wanted” for anything. He has been the best example of what kind of man I should look for to be my husband. He is the most honorable, respectable man I have ever known. My mother has taught me……well LOTS of  stuff, but most notably  how to love and accept others, the importance of selflessness, how to keep a home, and how to be a loyal and honest wife & companion. My parents raised me to love my Heavenly Father and honor my family.

    They are not drinkers. I was not raised in a “drinking home”, so how did I become this alcohol abuser? Do I have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism?? What determines who we become? Once again, the old “Nature versus Nurture” debate…..is the shot glass half full or is it half empty?? (The sick me would have said “forget how full it is, what kind of shot is it and….where’s the bottle??)

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,, | No Comments

  3. Fully Exposed

    February 24, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Happy Friday, y’all!!

    Are you having a great day? You should be, it’s almost the freakin’ weekend! Do you have anything fun planned?

    We are going to the Daytona 500 and I am SO excited!! Bitten and Bound has already done a story about the FABULOUS Danica Patrick and her most recent crash! (Unlike mine, I don’t think her crash involved alcohol.) I just think any woman succeeding in a man’s world is a true inspiration for us all!


    Here we are, just me and Scrammy at Starbucks….fully exposed!

    At first I was a little self conscious, scoping the place out to see if anyone was looking but now as I have gotten settled into my comfy chair with my iced cafe mocha (with soy milk of course), I have pretty much forgotten I have “CRIMINAL” slapped on my leg for all to see.

    It was 81 degrees here yesterday (79 degrees today) and I had to turn on the air conditioning in our house…in February!! Have you ever heard of such a thing? I think it has been unseasonably warm for just about everyone. How is it where you live? Needless to say, Higgins and Fletcher have only worn their sweaters one time this winter.

    I have no choice but to get over the humiliation of what people must think when they see me with this “thing” on my ankle. (Sorry, Scrammy…I mean no disrespect by referring to you as a “thing”, I am only trying to make a point.) I am not going to go all summer in long pants. I find myself saying to my husband before we go out in public “Will it embarrass you if I wear this? I mean, you can see my bracelet…” He has made it abundantly clear that we are NOT going to stay home and be hermits due to what people may think when they see Scrammy and that he does NOT expect me to cover up (especially when it gets hot). He said that we are going to go about life as usual and enjoy everything as normal. (What a supportive husband I have!) We live near the beach now and we are GOING to the beach, dangit! Scrammy or no Scrammy! :) Hopefully people will overlook the stigma and appreciate Scrammy’s ever-changing bling!

    Here is an up close look at today’s fashion:  I hope the gals at Bitten and Bound will approve!

    So Fun! I prefer the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach. It is much more enjoyable than the “Poor pitiful me, look what the cops made me wear” approach! …..#1 pet peeve of mine (other than people clipping their fingernails at the office, that’s just gross)……not taking responsibility for one’s own actions! If you are guilty then you are guilty. Own up to it! It was YOU who made that bad choice. It is NOT the cop’s fault for pulling you over!

    There were lots of “characters” in the 9 week substance abuse class that I had to take as part of my punishment and the one I loved the best was “Macio”. He was always saying funny stuff. He was in the class because he got caught with marijuana and would always complain that it wasn’t fair that he was in trouble. He got pulled over for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, although he insisted that he did. For him, the point wasn’t that he was driving on a suspended license or that a huge cloud of pot smoke wafted out the window into the police officer’s face, but that he did in fact stop at the stop sign, he swore he did. In his mind, he never should have been pulled over.            Mmmmkay…..sure.                                                                                                When people are high, they think and move in slow-mo. Clear out the cobwebs, Macio! (We would say stuff like that to him, he was a good sport and deep down I know he knows he was in the wrong, not the cop.)

    The dogs and I went for a morning walk today and first we saw this:

    Now THAT’S a hard core Florida Gator fan, y’all! It even has Tim Tebow’s name written below the #15 and on the back it says “The Swamp”.

    As we kept walking, we came upon this sign someone had posted in their yard:

     

    Higgins and Fletcher were a bit offended.

    They would never dream of throwing their cigarette butts into someone’s yard!

    Plus, they travel with only the cutest accessories for any other waste they may need to “drop off” so they may take it with them to dispose of properly.

     They might have some bad habits, as everyone does, but they certainly don’t “do business” in a neighbor’s yard without an “Oopsie, ‘scuse me” and a “don’t worry, I’ll have our girl -(that would be me, y’all)- scoop that up and take it with us when I’m done”.

    That Higgins and Fletcher ……..they are such responsible, polite little citizens!

    A new question for our rock star Kathleen (I call her my SCRAMx Angel!):

    I had this one on my list when I was preparing to have my SCRAM put on, but forgot to ask. We have a newbie joining our Scrammer family next week (Welcome Emily!!) and she has had some great questions. Here is one I am sure others may be curious about:

    Will exercise have any impact on Scrammy? Can the bouncing or jarring that could result from running or jumping cause any kind of interference with Scrammy taking a reading? (Specifically treadmills, a spinning class, a pilates class, jumprope, running, aerobics class….are all of these acceptable with Scrammy?)

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, | 3 Comments

  4. Scrammy’s Pedi

    February 22, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    “The test of a man’s character is not the mistakes that he makes, but the way he responds to them. Face your mistakes with honesty, responsibility, and courage. Then move on.”

    - William Cope Moyers, Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption

    Today was a big day for Scrammy and me! First we saw Miss K at our new favorite chic salon! She had heard all about the events leading up to Scramx, but this was her first official introduction. I think Miss K thought Scrammy was rather precious! Miss K is awesome and does a great job on my hair. We went a tad darker with my blonde, but she tells me I have “dimension” now.      (She likes to use all of those very high tech terms)

    Miss K took this picture, wasn’t that nice of her? And she didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed by the fact that to all the others in the salon, she was the one with the criminal client!

    Since Miss K had me so very relaxed, I felt I needed to stay in that zone today by following up my new coif with a pedicure. I knew I would feel most comfortable going to a place where they spoke fluent English so that #1 I could explain my fancy jewelry, #2 I could explain that Scrammy and all of the area around Scrammy must be handled with tenderness and care and, #3 and perhaps most importantly, so they couldn’t laugh at me and call me a criminal in a language I can’t understand.

    I made my appointment at a place called “Lemongrass Spa”, isn’t that a heavenly name? When I sat down at the soapy bowl and was instructed to put my feet in the water, I lifted up my pant leg to expose Scrammy. I told my pedicurist that I wasn’t sure if she had seen one of these before and her reply….YES! She HAD seen one before!! Wow! What a relief!                                                   (And no, it wasn’t yours, Lindsay)

    Immediately, she drained some of the water out of the bowl to better accommodate Scrammy. How sweet!

    Since she had only ever seen one of these before and I seemed very willing to share my story, we had lots of great conversation about the alcohol monitoring system. She said that the client she had in the past who was wearing SCRAM did not share anything about the device and just had her nose in a magazine the entire time. (BO-RING!!)  Believe me, I do understand the feelings of shame or embarrassment, but personally I have chosen to take a different approach to the whole situation. At one point during our session, Scrammy vibrated so I had to explain that this happens every 30 minutes and that basically Scrammy is just checking out what kinds of products she’s using on me :)

    Today as I was choosing my nail color, I was feeling like Purple! I went with OPI Planks A Lot (From their Pirates of the Caribbean line!)

    I couldn’t stop there, I had to have sparkles! (I had to think like S and come up with something a little edgy to put on my toes!) The best part is that it is called “Battle of the Sexes”, how fun!

    Ta Daa! The finished product! I didn’t alert my sweet Gabriele to my pedicure, but I am sure that if she sees anything funny with my readings she will give me a call. (I just love hearing that German accent of hers!)

    Now that I am all pampered and freshened up, I am ready to start my next assignment from the temp agency.

    I kind of feel like “Supernanny”…..My work here is done, now on to the next problem child!

    My next assignment is at the hospital, which is right up my educational alley, so I am really looking forward to this opportunity! I will be working in the lab and I can’t wait to meet a whole new group of great people!

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,, | 4 Comments

  5. Lucy….You’ve Got Some ‘Splainin To Do!

    February 21, 2012 by Britton_Riley

            “If craving comes from the furnace of the addicted brain, then the fire in the          soul has to burn that much hotter.”

    - William Cope Moyers, Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption

    I am still reading this book and I continue to find it ever so inspiring. As I think about committing myself to indefinite sobriety, this quote really touched me and I wanted to share it with you. It describes so eloquently the drive and determination required to maintain sobriety.

    Happy Presidents Day!

    Did you have to work today? Did you go check the mail 3 times before you realized the mail doesn’t come today like I did? :)

    What a weekend we had! We went back to Tennessee in order to find a new occupant to rent the condo that we own and I’ll tell you what….I do believe we found the most perfect person! Whew, what a relief! We are new at this whole “landlord” thing.

    Round trip, we drove roughly 1.100 miles.

    Here’s the big loop we made:

    We spent a total of 17 hours in the car! Wowzers, that was a lot!

    The next time I go back to Tennessee will be to get a new battery for Scrammy and I will definitely be taking an airplane!

    Luckily the lovely lady who put Scrammy on me sent me home with this:

    That was so nice of her!

    So, if you have wondered “Can you travel on an airplane with SCRAMx?”

    The answer is unequivocally YES!

    This was the very first time Scrammy and I have traveled together since I have gotten all set up with The Mothership, so I knew I needed to consult with the lovely Gabriele in preparation for my trip. Her instructions were to take my modem with me so that I can manually “dump” daily. I knew we would be staying with A and that she didn’t have a home telephone line that I could connect to, so I had to do some creative thinking. Luckily, I found several people with home telephone lines who did not mind at all….plus it gave us time to visit together, which was an extra bonus!

    Saturday we were lucky enough to have a big reunion with lots of friends who are so special to us. It was so nice! Many of them hadn’t seen us since October at our wedding, so it was awesome to get to see them!

    When my crash happened in June, we were preparing for a wedding, a move, a honeymoon……all kinds of things were happening and changing. Needless to say this was not one of my finest moments, so we were very private about this tragic turn of  events and very few of our close friends and even most of our family did not have a clue that I had just cheated death and was facing a DUI charge.

    I mean, imagine it….here I am, planning this elaborate Fairy Tale dream wedding fit for a princess and then this gets out….”The bride is trying to worm her way out of a DUI….just wrecked that purdy BMW she drives”….(sorry, y’all, we live in the south) What would people have thought? That seems like a rather selfish thing to think, considering some innocent person could have lost their life that night.

    I guess the moral is that one decision which may seem small at the time can cause such a huge ripple effect. It can impact so many lives in so many ways, but when you are in the situation, you just don’t consider all of the things that can happen. My mister and I discussed this one night last week. I was writing my blog and he & I were talking about what I was writing about (He always wants to know if I have mentioned him. He feels like a celebrity!).

    Reflecting back on the severity of the entire situation, he looked at me and said “You could be dead right now.” I said I know and he asked if it bothers me, to which I responded “yes”. He then asked me how do I think he would have felt, how my parents would have felt. I can’t even begin to imagine. Being guilty in the past of drunk driving himself, he then said “But you don’t think about that stuff when you are in the moment, when you are ‘enjoying your friends and drinking’. You get all caught up in the party and the moment of drinking and when the party winds down, you get in the car and don’t think anything about it.”

    It is conversations like these that make me appreciate the crash. It has brought such an awareness, it has changed our habits and it has changed our lives. We got slapped with reality (and lots of really big BILLS!)

    *******

    So now here we are…..at Hooters (what can I say, they have great TV’s!), reuniting with our wonderful friends….I thought I was maintaining a low profile with my ice water with lemon when from across the table I hear “You’re not drinking??” Now mind you, the typical me would have been at least a pitcher of beer in by this time, so no wonder I got called out! I casually said no, and then the questions….they were convinced I was pregnant. Woah, folks! Slow down, hold the phone…we have been married only 4 months….but I do understand the suspicions. I walked over, hiked up my pant leg to expose Scrammy and said “This is why”. So, I formally introduced them to Scrammy!

    I explained everything and they wanted to know all the details of the crash, my punishment, how I didn’t get a DUI charge, how I didn’t get arrested, if I had a passenger, and all about Scrammy. It was once again my opportunity to hop upon my “Don’t Drink and Drive…this is what can happen” podium….with a fully engaged audience, I might add!

    I am not ashamed. I feel rather blessed to be able to sit before my peers and tell them that this is not acceptable behavior and there ARE consequences.

    I hope I made a difference.

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, | 1 Comment

  6. Take the SoberDrivers Pledge

    February 21, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    I took the Pledge! Will you? 

    Let’s keep each other safe, y’all!

    Drinking And Driving .org Pledge to never drive under the influence

    via Take the SoberDrivers Pledge.

     

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  7. All Jazzed Up

    February 16, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    This is what Scrammy wore the day before Valentine’s Day. A “b” for Britton! (That’s me!)

    And of course, Scrammy’s Valentine’s Day couture! Pretty spiffy, eh?

    I hope your Valentine’s Day was very special and I hope someone special made you feel loved! :)

    I am reading this book:

    Wow, y’all! Just wow. I am loving it! The book is called Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption by William Cope Moyers and came highly recommended by the beautiful Missy Germain, our friend at Bitten and Bound! (See her video on the right!)

    I am identifying so much with “Cope” and his story of alcohol addiction.As I read this book, I am becoming more aware that I do in fact have the disease of alcoholism. I hadn’t really given much thought to what I was going to do at the end of my six month SCRAMx sentence with regard to my drinking habits. I knew of course that I would never find myself behind the wheel of a vehicle in an impaired state again, but I hadn’t really considered indefinite sobriety…..until now. And it feels good. It feels comfortable. It feels right.

    Sobriety feels good!

    I think Scrammy is going to change my life. It was my intention that while I was on SCRAMx I would do some serious soul searching. AND I AM.

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: | No Comments

  8. Where You Go, Your Mistakes Will Follow

    February 12, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Sick Fletcher just home from the vet.

     Wow! What a week, y’all! How was yours?

    It is colder here than it has been all winter and the wind is blowing a bone chilling cold!

     Want to know where I’ve been all week?

    Well, I promised my mister that as soon as we were settled in to our new home in our new town and I had all of my legal obligations taken care of, that I would start my job hunt. My first instinct was to go to a staffing agency to find something for now. When I went, I thought I was all prepared…..until I started filling out the paperwork. I got to the part where they asked “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” Easy one! NO. Then came “Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor?” I felt my heart sink. Yes. Next question, “Have you ever been arrested?” I proudly checked the NO box. Then, with the next question I felt a sickness in the pit of my stomach….”Are you on probation?”….ugh! I have this awesome resume with all of this great education that I have worked throughout most of my 20’s for and now this. I felt at that second like it was all gone. Everything I had worked so hard to achieve and now I have to answer THESE questions on a job application. No matter how sharp and professional I appeared, no matter how good my resume looked, no matter how much education I had…..what would make this agency want to send me to one of their clients, knowing I have a misdemeanor and am on PROBATION, albeit Unsupervised probation. I knew I was going to have to explain.  They wanted a probation officer name and phone number! Since my probation is unsupervised, I do not have a formally appointed probation officer so I had no choice but to list the telephone number for the Sheriff’s office that I have to call to check in with 3 times a week.

     Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would find myself here. It will never happen to me…..yeah right. I was so big and bold, getting behind the wheel of the car all of those times after getting loaded at a bar and NOW look! It can, does, and WILL catch up to you, folks! It makes me so angry as I think of all the times I took so many chances.

     But I digress….

     SO I gathered up all of the courage I could muster and faced my demons. I went over to the lady with whom I was working and when I approached, she stuck out her hand to take my paperwork and with a friendly smile on her face she said, “All set?” My heart sunk yet again and I eked out “It makes me sick to my stomach to even have to explain this, but” ……and pointing to where it asked those questions, I began to explain that I had been in an alcohol related automobile accident and was charged with a misdemeanor for reckless driving, that I am currently under unsupervised probation, that I have listed the telephone number to the Sheriff’s office to whom I report each week, and that I am currently wearing the same bracelet that Lindsay Lohan had to wear. (She was unfamiliar and clearly does not read Bitten and Bound as avidly as my mister does, so I had to regroup and just simply explain that it was an alcohol monitoring device around my leg….I still don’t think she has a clue what I was talking about.) Pssst, Lindsay if you are reading this, there ARE people out there who don’t know ALL of your business! Yay!

     Her response? “Hmmm, so you WERE arrested?” Then I had to explain that the accident was so severe that I was transported to the hospital by ambulance and that because of my honesty, cooperation, and polite manner, the police officer chose not to arrest me. She seemed skeptical.

    Brutally honest is what I am. It has served me well thus far, although my attorney was less than pleased to find out exactly HOW brutally honest I was.

     Typically when one is pulled over for drinking and the police officer asks

    “Have you been drinking”, the answer is either refusal to answer, lying, or yes. If the answer is yes, the next question they will ask is going to be “How much do you think you had to drink?”….to which most people answer “Oh, about one or two.”…..Nope, not me! My answer…”About 16 oz. of vodka” Now that is honest, y’all.

     As luck would have it, my first assignment through the staffing agency is a 2 week term at a law office. That is where I’ve been all week. I have been so conscious of Scrammy. Is it peeking out from under my pant leg? If they saw it, would they know what it is? Would they ask me to leave? Needless to say, no dresses for me!

    I am really enjoying my time at the law office.

    The blisters have healed….hooray! I think Scrammy liked that I switched back to Dove soap too!

     

     

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,, | No Comments

  9. The Crash of 2012

    February 6, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    Hey y’all! I have not given up on the blog, I had a  major crash in my system, but…..I’m BACK!! Unfortunately this also means that all of your wonderful comments are gone :(

     This is Tom & Eli…our Superbowl Chickens!

    They are sitting on Miller Lite cans. My husband is making “Beer Butt Can Chicken” or something along those lines. It sounded super festive, and since I will not be drinking beer this year, I can at least have my chicken perched on a beer can while it cooks!

    Scrammy and I have been together nearly 2 weeks! No problems so far, except I wore boots Friday night and they were kind of tight against Scrammy and this happened….

    Yep, a blister (actually 2 of them). I turned Scrammy so that the large part that I bedazzle is over on the outer part of my leg instead of the inner part. Hopefully it heals up soon. I also changed back to Dove Soap, in case that has anything to do with it. It is possible that Scrammy prefers Dove to Irish Spring.

    I am happy to report that I have been using hairspray as I normally do without any problems! Hooray for Texas style big hair!!

    Today, Scrammy is in Polka Dots!

    I went to the grocery store fully exposed today for the first time. I have taken baby steps in my exposure of SCRAM. Last week, I wore leggings with flip flops:

    Lots of people looked, but I channeled my inner Rhett Butler

    Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn….One of the best movie lines ever!!

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,, | 9 Comments

  10. The Tipsy Transit System

    February 5, 2012 by Britton_Riley

    (Originally Written and Posted January 30, 2012)

    Scrammy’s First Beach Trip!!

    
We had such a great time and we ate here

    
We had a huge steam pot full of crab, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn! It was good…I just love playing in my food!

    The oceanside patio was super busy that day and lots of folks were drinking fun “adult” beverages and frosty beers. I was looking longingly at all of those people enjoying their cold beer on such a beautiful day in the sun and I thought oh how wonderful that must be….and then I felt the vibration on my lower leg of SCRAMx taking another reading…and that made me snap out of my beer day dream. I had to protect Scrammy, so as inviting as it looked, I had no choice but to refrain. Then I remembered how I probably would have drank way too many, had a hazy memory of our day at the beach, and I would have passed out in the car…that sure took the shine off of how inticing those drinks looked! Thanks Scrammy!! Since we’d walked down the beach to the restaurant, I had my pants rolled up a little. While I was sitting at lunch, I noticed people looking….I think Scrammy was peeking out from under my pant leg. Talk about feeling self conscious!

    As we continued our walk down the beach, we saw this guy on his big bike! We wondered how in the world he got up there! I am pretty sure the birds were thinking the same thing as they watched!

    Let me give you a few facts and statistics about where I live:
My town has a population of 43,724. We have a wonderful Air Force Base and a fabulous University.
Each year, Georgia has over 200,000 DUI arrests (thank you for this info….and by the way HOLY CRAP-OLA!)
In our town, we have 5, Five, FIVE DUI Schools (did I mention the population is 43,724??)….and yes, I attended one of our 5 fine DUI Schools….for 9 weeks. And I loved every second of it (are you sensing some sarcasm?? Because I sure am!)
BUT….we also have THIS GUY!

    
 How cool is this….It’s The Tipsy Transit, y’all!! And we found out that it isn’t just for the local University students! One night (pre-SCRAMx), we called the phone number from a bar downtown that we had gone to. I had only heard a little about the service from my Substance Abuse Class-mates so I really didn’t know what to expect They came to get us and took us right to the front door of our house! It cost $7 per person….remember how much all of this DUI/SCRAMx stuff has cost me?? This is CHEAP and SAFE!! It was awesome! The driver was a really cool young guy who asked if we had an ipod we wanted to hook up or a Pandora channel we wanted to hear. We didn’t, so he played his own music….we were cruising all the way home to Pink Floyd blaring out of this cute little magic bus. It was so much fun! There were *cough* stripper poles on this bus…or maybe they were just there for safety….oh well, guess it depends on how many drinks you’ve had! Anyway, talk about a FUN, SAFE, INEXPENSIVE way to go out for a night of craziness (especially if you are, like my friends, the kind that likes to “pre-game” while you are getting ready….okay it just occurred to me that I am getting too old for this stuff!)…it is cheaper to take the Tipsy Transit round trip, but you can do it either way.  And to think, the 5 DUI Schools in town are still thriving. More people need to be riding the Tipsy Transit, in my opinion.

    Before I left Tennessee, I learned of this other really neat mode of after-bar transportation. It is where a guy comes to get you on this cute little scooter that folds up into it’s own little carrying case (about the size of a brief case). They put this little brief case in the trunk of your car, drive you…in your car….home. When they get to your house, they park your car in your driveway, take a little bit of “cab fare” from you, unfold their scooter, and go pick up the next client! How cool is that!!

    There are lots of alternative modes of transportation when you have been drinking. Look for a cool system in your area and tell me about it! I would LOVE to learn about other things people are doing to keep each other safe!
 (Otherwise go here to the National Directory of Designated Driver Services)

    Category SCRAM, Scram Bracelet Diaries | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,, | 1 Comment

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