First off, congratulations on your 18 months! And good for you for not succumbing to the temptation of cracking a cold one with your old buddy, even after being around it all day. I can well imagine you have a lot of emotions going on. Like you said, it was like looking in a mirror and seeing what your life would be like if you were still drinking. I have a question: When you say you "make excuses for his drinking to be okay," are you making those excuses to yourself in your head? Or is he saying something along the lines of "yeah, I probably drink too much," and you're saying "No, man, you're fine. You have a lot on your plate" because you don't want to seem like you're judging an old friend?