Betterlife1

On day 35 today. On one of my previous posts I mentioned that I had four events in the past three weeks that I was concerned about. The reason I was concerned is that they were all either social dinners, or parties that I would normally drink. The final one was last night. I'm happy to say that I got through all of them with flying colors. No drinks and although I had a little bit of desire at times to drink, not an overwhelming amount. Here are my observations of these events:

1. I found eating right when I got to the event helped ward off cravings to drink.

2. I found after the first hour or two, most people stopped drinking and I stopped feeling "out of place" by not drinking. Quite frankly, other than one person razzing me a bit, no one else really could give a crap if I was drinking or not.

3. Out of the four parties, two were genuinely fun, and two were genuinely boring. If I drank at them, two parties would STILL have been boring and the other two STILL would have been fun…although the next morning would not have been fun!!

4. I was quietly laughing to myself talking to someone who was drunk and slurring. Made me sad that I know that could have been me when I was drinking. No surprise, it wasn't the most enjoyable conversation.

5. After a party, I LOVE the hour or so leading up to going to bed, knowing I didn't drink! What a wonderful rewarding feeling.

6. I drove my wife's drunk ass home for once!!! That's a real first!! Kidding aside, she really wasn't too drunk, since she's a "normal" drinker. On the off chance she has 2-3 drinks in a night, she gets a little loopy! Great feeling driving home and not worried about getting pulled over the entire ride.

7. Here's my favorite one! Even sober, I can still make people laugh. To me, its just so much fun to be able to make someone laugh! Not that Im all that funny, but its nice to know I still can…

Hope this may help someone here. As always, thanks SR for always being there for what is, and will be the beginning of the rest of my life!!