A Much Classier Set of Problems

My trip to Vancouver did not go as planned.  Gigi asked me to go with her to the Alanon International Conference.  We met on Friday morning at the Ramada hotel and were off to a pleasantly slow start of a continental breakfast followed by a half-mile walk to the beautiful Vancouver Conference Center. 

After three breakout workshops, our afternoon rendezvous did not work out and I never saw Gigi again.  I could not find her at the Friday Night Big Meeting nor at the ensuing dance.   That was disappointing since my primary reason for going to the conference was to spend time with Gigi.  Big giant crowds and conferences are not something I crave participating in.

Our hotel room was two twin beds.  Due to chronic pain, I have to use a number of pillows to position myself so I can sleep.  Twin beds don’t work for me.  The hotel would have switched rooms for us, but Gigi was not around to participate in the move.   I was not about to move all the stuff she had spread about the room.

I had parked my car across the street from the Ramada in a pay lot.  Having paid to park until the following morning at 6 AM, parking seemed like a solved problem.  It was not.  My car was towed on Friday evening since I had parked in a “reserved” spot.  It took the wonderful hotel valet an hour to find out what happened and where my car was towed to since the towing number listed in the parking lot was a non-working number.

I rode in my first wheelchair accessible taxi on the way to Drake Towing.  It was a mini-van with a manually extended ramp out the back end of the van.  It worked great.  Unfortunately, the taxi driver gouged me $18 for a $8 ride.

The guys at Drake Towing were pleasant and helpful.  They told a few jokes, took my visa card and moved my car so I had enough room to get in.  I missed a turn following their directions to get to the border and ended up driving past the Ramada one more time before spending an hour on a 30-minute drive to the border.

Having eaten only a continental breakfast and two slices of so-so pizza on Friday, I planned on stopping for fast food in Everett.  It turns out that fast food places close at 2 AM on Fridays.  I drove down Broadway in Everett at 2:05 AM.  No fast food for me.

When I got home, Lea and Michelle were gone, the clock-radio in their room was blaring music at full volume and the cats did not have any food.  I turned off the radio, fed the cats, got something to eat and went to bed.

Lea called from Redmond at 9:15 Saturday morning asking for a ride to the methadone clinic.  I picked them up at Jack-in-the-Box.  Michelle had got me a sausage & egg breakfast sandwich along with milk and orange juice.  We got to the clinic at 9:59.  Lea got her Saturday dose and her Sunday morning carry dose (the clinic is closed on Sundays) with a minute to spare.

Lea rearranged the living room yesterday.  My PC is 5 feet to the left in the corner away from the window.  I no longer have a view out the window beyond my monitor.   That is okay.  The evening sun won’t be in my eyes while using my PC.   I can look off to the right to look out the window.  There is now a veritable wall of vegetation in the sunny corner of the room.

That was a LOT of chaos in one day for me.  In all reality, nothing that bad happened.  I am out a few hundred dollars for the tow and a hotel room I did not use.  I spent more than that in a day while using.  I missed two days of swimming and Gratitude blog writing. The worst thing that happened is the damage to my relationship with Gigi. 

I could be mad at Gigi doing either the silent treatment or scolding her.   What I probably really need to do is work on being a better friend by talking with her more and taking her to some AA meetings.  She no longer has an AA home group.  She seems lost and confused.  I will meet her for a conversation later this week.

My next big problem coming up is moving out of my apartment for a week while it is re-floored with parquet removing the well-worn carpet, painted and tuned-up after almost 11 years of my living here.

Alice loved to say “I have a much classier set of problems today”.  That is certainly true for me today.  Being mindfully in the moment makes these all relatively small problems.

I am grateful for my much classier problems and continued sobriety.