Choices are hard to make and, sometimes, even harder to deal with after you’ve made a decision.

I believe that cruise captain, Francesco Schettino, didn’t mean to crash the $650 million Costa Concordia ship in Italy this past week.

What person would wish that horror on themselves, or others, in a million years? But he did. He made a choice, some really bad choices evidently about going off course, and did, indeed crash his own ship.

And people died. It’s like drinking and driving.

“Oh, I’ve only had a couple of cocktails,” the young driver said to himself as he climbed behind the wheel of his car two minutes before he ran a red light and killed a family of four on their way home from church.

I’ve always been a strong supporter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) so I tried to avoid being that man this past weekend. I knew I had two parties to attend on Saturday evening.

I was good to go on the first one because I was driving my closest loved ones to the grand opening party for the SPCA’s new Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center. Can’t mix too much business with pleasure. But I did make some hard choices at that party.

Yes, I admit it. I’m a sucker. 2 kids + 1 mother at an SPCA party = one new furry family member. Ugh, what were we thinking?

Anyway, by the time we got back to my mom’s house with our new “forever friend,” this little mommy wanted a glass of wine.

But I didn’t want to risk anything or anyone by having said glass, then another at the second party, then driving home afterward. So I took a cab.

It had been a long time since I’d been in a taxi. I have an affinity for professional drivers because I used to be a limo driver in Hollywood. But both my drivers to and from the event made me fear for my life.

They drove like Speed Racer up Mockingbird Street and down Greenville Avenue. As I clung to my seat belt and handrail, I realized I had no control over the situation. I’d either make it there and back alive or I wouldn’t. Thank goodness my family wasn’t with me.

To the best of my knowledge, my drivers weren’t drunk, just reckless; like the Costa Concordia’s captain. He thought taking a bit of a detour to give his passengers a closer look at the island they were passing would be fun. My drivers must have thought getting me to my destination quickly meant they were doing a good job.

I didn’t die, so my drivers are off the hook… for now. The same cannot be said for Capt. Francesco Schettino. He is going to have to live with the consequences of his very poor choices and probably do so in prison. But that’s a choice he made.