honeypig

My RAH said this exact thing about the goody 2-shoes to me also, referring to the fact that when we met 20 years ago, we both smoked cigarettes, drank a lot and in general lived a much more party-type lifestyle. In the past years, I quit smoking, drink seldom, eat healthy, took up running and biking, finally got a more "career-type" job and in general have done things in what I perceive to be a more mature fashion.

When he leveled this accusation at me as part of the reason he chose to spend every afternoon upstairs in his model-building room drinking, I somehow had the presence of mind to tell him "I don't know about YOU, but I would be very disappointed in myself if I HADN'T changed and grown and learned things in the last 20 years. I wouldn't think my life was too well spent if I was still hanging out in the same bars, talking stupid w/the same people and living for the weekends."

I think you should take this into consideration--since when is it a BAD thing to be level-headed and responsible?

Interestingly, when my RAH was first making some noise about maybe possibly quitting drinking at some point, like your A, he also had to fix his sights on "doing something big" to motivate himself and made some half-assed plans to walk a half-marathon as somehow being the goal that would get him sober. Again, luckily for me, I had witnessed this process before and knew it to be so much BS, which it was revealed to be in a matter of a few days.