While I am many things, let’s add enabler to the list.

Going to The Lion yesterday to get a few things, I got a text from my daughter who’s leaving the next morning to go back to school.  Knowing I was going to The Lion she asked me to get her something.

“Can you get me something?”

“Sure – what do you need?” was how the texts started.

Little did I know ….

Makes me remember something that happened 22 years ago.  Ok – I did the math in my head and I think it was 22 years ago, might have been 21 years ago.  Not sure.

But over 2 decades ago Lisa and I were in Ocean City, MD at our cottage and so was my grandmother.

Now – for those of you that don’t know my grandmother – she was cool.  Lisa likes to refer to here as an “old broad”.  Not as any disrespect – but she was a lady of her time.  Spoke her mind with a firm determination but was also the kindest and nicest lady I’ve ever met.

               *Side Note 1 – I like to think that I was her favorite.

Across the street from the cottage was a 7-11 and I needed to get something so I said I was going to the 7-11 and my grandmother asked if I could get her something.

“Jimmy, can you get something for me?”, and as she asked she got up to get her purse.

“Sure, what can I get for you?”, I asked not knowing what I was volunteering to do.

Well….. my grandmother who I loved with all my heart, “Can you get me a pack of cigarettes?”

Ugh ..,,,,, yup …… going to the store to buy cigarettes for my grandmother ….

But wait, it gets a little worse ……

So here I was, a grown man headed off to the store for a pack of smokes.

Now, I had been around smokers my whole life.  My dad smoked and my uncle smoked but I had never actually bought cigarettes. 

But there I was, walking across Coastal Highway to get my grandmother a pack of smokes.

Remember how I said it gets worse …..

At the counter to order the smokes, I said to the clerk, “Can I get a pack of (wait for it ……) Virginia Slims.

Yup – Virginia Slims.

I could have butched it up and said with a deep voice as I hit the counter with my fist, “A pack of Marlboro my good man”.

Nope – just Virginia Slims.

Not my proudest moment as a grown man.

But now it’s a Saturday night and my daughter has asked me to get her something from the store.

But then the text came in.

She wanted something not from The Lion, but from something from a store next to The Lion.

She wanted me to buy here a case (12 pack) of Truly.

I get to the Truly section and there are 4 different selections of 12-packs.

I ask her – “Which one?”

And Kate responds, “The Fruit ones”.

Not helpful.  THEY’RE ALL FRUITY !!!

So I send her a pic and she tells me, “The one on the left”.

Yes, I know, buying alcohol for my underage daughter to take to college.

We’ve been around and around about his.  All three of us: Lisa, Kate and me.

And what we intelligently reasoned was/is, she is in college and we can not know where she is, or what she is doing all time.  We can not stop her from drinking. 

But, what we can do, is teach her how to be responsible.  Kate has a good head on her shoulders.  Kate has an EXCEPTIONAL head on her shoulders. 

We do trust in her judgement and she knows not to drive a car or to get in a car with someone else that has been drinking – even of it’s just 1 Truly.

So there I go into the store to get some alcohol.

Walking up to the counter, a grown ass man, I wait behind 2 people.  Guy 1 bought 2 six packs of beer.  Guy 2 bought a bottle of bourbon and a bottle of wine.  And then there’s me ……. Buying a case of Truly ….

So that’s me – The Enabler.

Made me realize, I need to stop announcing where I’m going and just go.

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