Drunk Again

Last night, Saturday, I could tell that the regular weekend plan was in motion. Someone called from a cell phone looking for my wife, but left no message. Later, with her upstairs, I heard the shower and then smelled the special nightclub perfume wafting down. The whole prep process took about two hours. Her hair had to be steam rolled with some sort of appliance, and the skimpy clothes had to be painted on just right.

Finally she trotted down in her leather boots and said goodbye to our daughter and left the house with her big hair arranged and sprayed into place.

It was the usual exit. Lots of perfume, tight jeans, no bra, and special heavy duty Rustoleum makeup. Our daughter asked her if she was going to another party. I knew the next time we saw her she would be trashed. And I was right.

My daughter and I made ourselves dinner, played a video game and watched The Office. Then I put her to bed and went to bed myself.

Somehow I usually wake up every hour on Saturday nights. I try not to. I turn up the white noise machine I bought just so I wouldn't hear her stumble in the door. But at 5:00 I woke up anyway. I laid there for a long while and then I heard the car.

Too drunk to drive, she had someone drop her off and then speed away in her car. She dragged herself in the front door and then upstairs. I think she was remodeling the bathroom for a while before collapsing in "her" bed.

She made it home yet again. I don't know how or even where you can drink until 5:00 in the morning, but she does it. Of course, she might have been at a boyfriend's house, but I don't know and I don't think I want to know. I'm only sorry that her daughter will see her with a killer hangover again.

A couple of hours later I got up for church. I had to get my clothes out of her room and there she was, in bed. But whereas she usually buries herself under the pillows and blankets to avoid the sun, this time she was passed out with nothing over her face. Very unusual that she could sleep through the noise and daylight as my daughter and I got ready for church, but she did. In fact, I was so impressed that I snapped a blurred picture. But it is appropriate because she was certainly feeling blurry.

I have to admit that when she did not move, or go underground in the bed made of pillows, I thought that perhaps she had done herself in with all this drinking. I actually thought that maybe that would even be a good thing, for me at least. But at some point she did move, but not much.

A few hours later she was sitting up with a vacant look in her eyes. How can anyone who is 41 do this every weekend? Doesn't it get old? And how can you set this example for your kids?

Sometime before noon, her car showed up outside. Someone dropped it off and fled the scene. But her teenage daughter is still missing. She's been gone since sometime Friday. I assume she crashed somewhere else.