Serenity Prayer in Italian

In my job, I see pilots at the end of their working day, and overhear plans to go out to one bar or another, and every now and then I hear about their plans to drink, for lack of a better term, “saved beers.”

I can recall exactly one time in my life that I ever “saved” alcohol for later. It was in 1993, in St. Petersburg, Russia. I bought a bottle of Russian vodka, and decided to save it for my 21st birthday. Then, I drank the entire bottle within a 24-hour period. Mostly at a college party. I remember the beginning of the party, but the end is a little fuzzy. I think there were police involved, and some college kids jumping out the balcony on to the snow drift below, but I stayed because I was, after all, 21-years old.

So I have to chuckle when I hear conversations of saving booze for later. One pilot I spoke with yesterday said that all day on Labor Day, people were offering beer to him, and the poor soul had to say “no” all day (pilots have a rule about drinking alcohol 6 hours before they are on-call for flights). So he put two beers in the fridge. Finally, last night was the night, and he had it timed just right. If he gets home at 10:30PM, he could drink the two beers, have a good night’s sleep, and still be within his six hour limit!

I just shook my head. I would never be able to do that! I sincerely hope he enjoyed his beers.