Glad you are having a good day HD. Regarding the dinner, ask yourself this: Is the purpose of the meeting really eating dinner, or is it just a clever disguise that they use to go out drinking together? For me getting sober meant some pretty major changes in my life - including changing some of the people I hung out with and the places I hung out at. If they are good enough friends, you should be able to tell them ahead of time that you won't be drinking and they should have no problem with that. But if the sole purpose of the evening is drinking....what will you actually do while you are there? Think about that for a bit.