Alcohol without Consequences | Sober and Unashamed

While I was crossing a street in Chicago, a parked car backed into the crosswalk and stopped just short of taking me out at the knees. In anger, I slammed my fist down on the trunk of the car and shouted some obligatory curse words. The driver pulled forward into the parking spot, put the car in park, got out and punched me in the ear so hard that I had to puree all my food in a blender for the next two weeks. I thought he owed me an apology. He valued his car over my right to be disappointed with his driving. That was twenty-four years ago, and I haven’t made uninvited contact with another person’s car since.

Consequences.

Also while in my 20s, I lost $1,200 betting on college basketball during a bachelor’s-party weekend in Las Vegas. I was a big college basketball fan, so when the event landed me in sin city in March, I thought I could outsmart the odds makers with all my hoops knowledge. I won a few bets before I started losing. Eventually, I was just trying to get back to even (I wonder if that’s ever happened in Vegas before). I took so much money from the ATMs that my wife’s debit card was declined at a Blockbuster Video in Denver. I probably haven’t placed a dozen bets since, and I’ve definitely never wagered money I wasn’t confident I’d lose. That’s also the closest I’ve ever come to losing my wife (she really wanted to see…