Party driving

Last night i was a party chauffeur for a group of people from my boarding school. Out of the 8 people i drove that night, 3 fell asleep in the car on the way to the party, 2 of them puked on the way back, 2 more had to take care of the puking ones,  1 got an official warning from the school for having a party in her room.

Why do they do this? Where on earth could the enjoyment be? 5/8 could not possibly have enjoyed this at all.

And so comes my morale. Should i do this driving, when i'm getting paid and getting a revenue brutto about 380 NOK tonight, for making it possible for these people to party? Not that they wouldn't have got any other driver, they could easily have got a less careful and less expensive one of the type that's out driving anyways. But i don't like what i've seen tonight. Some in this group was underaged and using false legitimation. Many were too drunk. I had to stop my car thrice so people could puke. Bah!

Seems i have a job

I've been placing a lot of job applications for next year, so i can defend my car, apartment and schooling. Recently i got a phone call from Coop Mega, a grocery store, who said flat-out that they were interested in me. No talk of interviews or anything, just simply "we're very interested, call us when you know when you can come for initial training." So, scrap anyone that requires a interview unless they are particularly interesting. I've got a job! I'll quite likely be able to go the next year without gravely increasing my loan, and this henceforth is one big step closer to my freedom in living! Training starts 13th of august. 

I've thought about that selling alcohol in stores thing. I've, actually, already done something similar. Though i don't pour alcohol in peoples glass at the restaurant, i've accepted payment for alcohol that guests have already consumed or have requested themselves when i've been tending the register. This is not the active selling part, but more the control-part. This is where i check that they are of age. Though, in the store situation, it also is where the ownership of the alcohol is transferred. But it is not like me not doing this would make a difference to the positive. It could be someone in the register less vigilant about asking for ID. What i would not want to do, and this is a minimal thing that i am sure the store could be able to accept, is to restock the alcohol shelves in the store. That is actively making it more possible to sell alcohol, and something i would not want to do. If the store don't accept this, i'll probably be very displeased.

If to serve alcohol

As a sober person who believes that alcohol is the cause of too many evils for individuals and for the society, and henceforth has chosen to stay away from it myself – how can I justify me serving or selling alcohol? Where do I draw the line as to what I can and cannot do?

I've been working this summer at a hotel with a restaurant and a bar. From the very start I told the proprietors that I did not want to serve alcohol, and to my surprise they accepted it and I have now worked there about a month without even touching alcohol, accept for cleaning it up afterwards. The other people there has accepted it and does not complain about it, accept for one time when I was asked to go bring up a case of wine to the bar. The girl who asked me to do so was tired and overworked and could not do it herself, and I considered it for a while, but finally decided against it. If I had brought it, I would have quite directly been the cause of that wine being served. That not really any better then pouring it in the glass myself.

Is that being too strict? I've also preveously denied people to borrow my lemonade to mix it with spirits, and I would deny to buy wine from the city to mother (In Norway, wine is only sold in dedicated shops in the city.) I'm always saying in Norwegian that “Ska det vær, så ska det vær” - If it is going to be that way, it is going to be that way. I can't do it half-way, that would be rather worthless.

But I have to admit, I have my problems here, and I was lucky that these people accepted me not serving alcohol. When I first heard about this job possibility, I was told that I would have to serve alcohol. This was the only chance I had on getting a job because I had a early vacation and was outside of regular summer job time. So I considered it, and it gave me many restless whiles, weighing for and against. I really needed the money, but I really didn't want to serve alcohol. I finally decided that I would try it if I had to, and quit if it didn't feel right. I think I would have quit after a little while, but I was lucky and the proprietors accepting it.

But now the problem is arising again. Next year I am going to need a job. A supermarket has asked me back for a second interview, and that might force me to sell beer next year. In ways, it is more scary in a supermarket – in the hotel, the alcohol goes to dinner guests or people in bars. In a supermarket, the beer might as well be going to a rapist who is going to use the alcohol to drug down hes next victim, or it might be sold on to thirteen year olds, or maybe it'll be someones first beer? I'll have a big inner discussion before I accept that job. I hope I won't have to, and that I can get a job somewhere else instead.

Me where i don't belong;