I watched movies all day on Christmas Eve 2019, three months before COVID closed Consolidated Kapolei, perhaps permanently. I don’t remember what I watched. Maybe Cats. I do remember being woken up with the house lights on and the police telling me I had to leave. But after 8 hours in a theater chair, and 750 ml of vodka, I couldn’t use my legs. Not for any kind of meaningful support. I had kicked over a large soda cop full of urine that I had been using to avoid stumbling through the lobby. It was in my best interest to comply, but I wasn’t lying. I couldn’t use my legs.
They ended up removing me on a gurney and I rode in an ambulance, sirens blaring to Queen’s-West. And that is where I spent Christmas detoxing through the new year.
It gets better. Sometimes worse. But better lasts a lot longer lately.