Hard, Fast Life Lessons

Beezer

Beezer

Well-known Member
When I was 17, I went to a McDonald's and bought a large 7 UP...poured half of it out and filled the rest with gin.

I got so drunk I passed out in a park and was nearly mugged. The hangover was excruciating.

Haven't touched a hard drink since...going on almost 40 years.

Another time in my early 20's I showed up to my warehouse job hungover and was puking in the bathroom every 10 minutes. I asked my supervisor (a 6'4 retired navy man) if I could go home. He said, "Son. If your gonna play, you gotta pay. I'm not letting you go."

In the following 30 years of work I never showed up hungover again.

Any fast, hard life experiences you wish to share?
 

Beezer said:
Any fast, hard life experiences you wish to share?
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Had a summer job when I was in High School and smoked marijuana once before going to work. It made me super stupid. Customers would come in and say what classes they were taking and normally I would know immediately what text books were required for their courses and I'd gather them up (this is back in the days when clerks got stuff from behind the counter instead of people being able to access the books and do their own shopping), but I discovered that being high derailed my brain. Luckily we had the lists posted in back, but it was a lot harder than just getting the info from my brain. Didn't make that mistake again.
 

My first and last time getting drunk was when I was about 18. Intimate dinner party at my then BFF's house..she and her husband, me and my BF and her brother who cooked the best steak I ever had. Champagne was being served. I never had it before and I must've been drinking it like it was soda, not realizing what it would do to me. I think my BF was shocked and maybe a bit disgusted by the time he got me home. I puked my room all up; kept having to change the bedding. Couldn't hide that from my mother...she didn't admonish me though. I still drank socially after reaching 21 but never enough to get me drunk. Other life lessons I learned:
~Life isn't fair.
~Everyone can't be trusted, even if they smile in your face and pretend to be your friend.
~Pay yourself first. Save, save, save...then invest.
~My mother taught me when I was in my 20s to have my own money and "never let a man know what I've got". God did that advice wind up coming in handy!
~We all do dumb things at some point, especially when younger and we make mistakes. Be kind to yourself and forgive yourself.
~"It's nice to be important, but it's also important to be nice".
 
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At two i learned not to walk on dead palm tree in a sunsuit. It rolled and i instinctively put hands out and sort of rolled with it. Their 'bark' become dry pointy needle like things. I had dozens in my hands, arms amd legs.

At 6 my first grade teacher taught me authority figures can be forgiving when their subordinate is wrong, but get furious if that person is right, proving them wrong. Later i would learn people in general often get angry when they themselves are the one doing wrong, legally or morally.

Not fast but very hard---i finally at 54 fully learned that while we can facilitate people getting emotionally healthier, we can not 'heal' them. Some people so heavily wounded they are emotional Black Holes of need--they devour everything anyone gives them and it never fills abyss of hurt carved into them.
 
I was in my late 20s and had embarked on my career as a bar fly. I was getting pretty good at it. I came home from "Dave's" totally inebriated. I had to vomit. I was standing in front of the toilet, heaving my guts up. As I arched over to keep on upchucking, I lost my balance and fell into the tub. I couldn't get out. You know you have a problem when you pray for dry heaves. No more "Dave's".
 
I learned a long time ago, to live with Murphy's Law..."If something can go wrong, it probably will". So, whenever I'm doing something that might be a risk, I try to pause, beforehand, and make sure I'm doing it right....ladder climbing, working under the car, chain sawing, etc., etc.

The last time I got drunk was decades ago....luckily, at a party at our house...so I didn't have to try to drive. I had enough beer and booze to last a lifetime when I was in the military, so now I just take a sip of wine or flavored vodka to help me sleep if I'm wound up near bedtime.
 
bowmore said:
I coworker told me the story. He was having an argument with his wife, and she said,"Well why did you marry me in the first place?" He said, "When I got off the plane from Vietnam, you were the only one standing there with a mattress on your back", implying she was easy.
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Ah, I see. :)
 
HoneyNut said:
Had a summer job when I was in High School and smoked marijuana once before going to work. It made me super stupid. Customers would come in and say what classes they were taking and normally I would know immediately what text books were required for their courses and I'd gather them up (this is back in the days when clerks got stuff from behind the counter instead of people being able to access the books and do their own shopping), but I discovered that being high derailed my brain. Luckily we had the lists posted in back, but it was a lot harder than just getting the info from my brain. Didn't make that mistake again.
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That's interesting. I couldn't work unless I was stoned!
 
officerripley said:
you cannot make someone like you.
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Not always impossible. I have put some effort into it a few times. With some success, not always but some.

In some cases where it worked looking back now I am not sure it was worth the effort.

Except perhaps for a few bosses. Sometimes to get ahead you gotta know what to kiss and when.
 
All of my life's lessons have been delivered to me hard and fast which has made me a nicer person than most, always willing to listen, always the diplomat.

It's also taught me to attack unexpectedly by stealth because revenge is a dish best served cold. 😊
 
Do not try to talk people (family & friends) into doing what you do or how you do things. Trying to force your beliefs on others does not work. Just keep quiet about whatever and many times they will see what are doing and start asking about it (or not). Some people do not want to change even if it is for the better.
 

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