Gonnachange

Thanks about the party.

We're going to Long Beach Island which is north of both of the towns you mentioned. We'll be staying sort of mid island in a town called Brandt Beach. Except for a couple of years when we spent the week in Cape May, we've been spending a week on LBI with my wife's family for close to 20 years so it's a tradition that the younger generation has grown up with and still look forward to.

I haven't spent much time in the towns you mentioned, but know they are nice. They're just too far for us to do a day trip; when we do so we're usually not going farther south than Spring Lake.

We're also taking most of the following week off and will be doing a number of day trips that will take us north to woods and lakes. No overnighters planned, but that may change if I can convince the family to dust off our camping gear.

Vacation Agenda

I have a very aggressive agenda for vacation. I will do the following everyday:

1. Cycle or run
2. Read
3. Walk the puppy
4. Eat
5. Not go online

Gonnachange

I'm short of time, but wanted to check and write that all is well.

Dee74

good to hear GC

D

SoberLeigh

Great to hear from you, GC!!!!!

Gonnachange

Thanks.

Slowly I'm beginning to increase the time I'm not obsessing about drinking. Some days are easier than others and there's a long road ahead, but I'm making incremental progress and my beverage of choice continues to be either club soda or water. All that is good.

Although it's about 1 PM today has been one of those "not easy" days. Ironically, the thought of having a drink started while I was lifting weights this morning. How crazy is that? I've been home for a few hours and I don't know what has energized my AV, but it's putting up one heck of a fight. That I'm going in NYC for dinner and a concert tonight probably doesn't help the situation, but throughout my journey I've rarely backed away from social events so I'm not sure why this would be any different. Another irony is that I've never liked to drink before a concert; why dull my senses and diminish my appreciation of the artists' music?

Hour to hour or whatever I'll be pulling a lot of weapons from my arsenal, including taking the puppy for a long walk, to get through the day/night so that I can wake up tomorrow clear headed, ready for a run, and with a sense of accomplishment knowing that I didn't give in to temptation. I'm hoping to leverage the continuation of positive momentum so that I sail through the next few days.

Tomorrow night I'm going out to dinner; Friday, being the last Friday of the month, I'm going with my wife and some friends to watch a mutual friend's band play in a local pub; and Saturday I have my cousin's birthday party to attend. Four days of social activities; I've handled similar situations before and am confident I'll do so again. I just wish I didn't have to think about not drinking so much. Truthfully, it's a pain in the ass and my alcoholic consumption at social events was never my problem, but I fear that an attempt at moderation while out will open the gate toward excessive drinking while at home and I'm not willing to accept that risk. So, I'll got to each, stick to club soda, and enjoy myself. Often the thinking about it is worse than actually going through it.

Thanks for reading.

SoberLeigh

That AV and the times at which it rears can be baffling and frustrating. Sometimes it seems to come out of no where and when we are doing well, feeling strong.

Keep concentrating on how well you ARE doing - the courage, determination and strength it took to get to where you are and where you are headed.

You can do this, GC; I have no doubt.

Gonnachange

Thanks for your continued support, confidence, and informative posts.

On an off topic note SL, we're taking my son back to UDel on Sunday for his junior year.

Gonnachange

We were running a little late so our dinner plans changed since we didn't have time to eat at our original choice. Not a biggie although it would have been nice. Afterward we rocked out to about 3 hours of music and I rocked the sobriety thing. I had one to be expected overpriced bottle of water and my wife had a similarly over priced beer.

Because I was concentrating on the music I didn't give any thought to alcohol, but when we got home and after playing with my puppy I did have some fleeting thoughts. My AV was trying to convince me that I was wound up (true), it was late (true), and that "one" would be beneficial in helping me relax and fall asleep (possibly true, but one probably would not have been one and I didn't want to deal with the whole slippery slope that might be forthcoming). The end result is that I poured a glass of club soda, went to bed, and fell asleep fairly quickly.

Despite a far less than normal amount of sleep I laced up my running shoes this morning and went for a short run; tomorrow is going to be a much longer run because I'm not going to be able to get a training run done this weekend. Knowing what I have ahead of me is additional incentive to only make healthy food and beverage choices today. As it is, I'm behind in my marathon training, but there's still enough time for me to safely get in the required shape to cross the finish line without the experience being a total torture-fest.

Thanks for reading.

Gonnachange

Tonight

My evening plans have totally changed. I am now going out with my son to a bar to play trivia. Clearly the dining aspect will not be up to the standard I was anticipating, but they've got to have the ability to make a decent burger, right and it's more important to me to spend time with him before he leaves for college than having a fine dining experience. Something tells me we'll be doing that tomorrow. The original plans called for us to go to a restaurant that did not serve alcohol which meant that as long as we didn't bring any there was no hope of having any, but now I'm going to be in an establishment which makes most of its profit from libations. Into the belly of the beast, but I'm not too concerned as it's just me and my son so the temptation to order anything other than club soda should be minimal.

Wish me well with the questions. :-)

Gonnachange

Updating to get the word out that last night went as planned and I had a great time with my son. We each had burgers, he had some colas and I had a couple of club sodas. Regarding the trivia, we were hanging tough until the very end when we didn't know the answer to a question with a high point value. Oh well.

Dinner plans are shaping up to be sushi and then my wife and I are going to a local pub to watch the band I mentioned yesterday.

Della1968

Just stopping in to say hi and I hope the puppy is doing well. I am looking for a senior small dog to adopt....you wouldn't think they would be so hard to find!

SoberLeigh

Hi, Della. Hope that new 'pup'.

Gonnachange

The puppy is doing very well. She's young; smart; willful; and extremely energetic, sometimes a bit too much, but I'm sure she'll mellow out as she gets older. Thanks for asking.

Della, I *am* surprised that finder a senior small dog would be so difficult a task. About a year ago my next door neighbor adopted an 8 year old dog from a rescue organization called 11th hour rescue that has a national reach and the dog is a delight. We got our puppy from our local no kill shelter so my recent experience wouldn't add any value to your cause.

Tonight

We're on for a sushi for dinner at my son's favorite restaurant. No surprise there. My wife and next door neighbor, coincidentally the one referenced above, are planning to see the band I previously mentioned, but I may bail. Not because of not wanting to be in another alcohol environment, but because I have a bunch of stuff I want to take care of before we leave tomorrow morning.

Between Wednesday night's dinner before the concert, the burgers during the trivia competition with my son last night, dinner tonight, tomorrow's festivities, and what will surely be breakfast and lunch at a restaurant on Sunday I will be SO ready to have a home cooked meal. All of what has and will be happening is for good reasons, so I really can't complain, but I am looking forward to what will be a much more routine next week once we get home on Sunday.

Gonnachange

Dinner was great and, as expected, I decided to stay home tonight. All is good. Car is rolling about 7:30 tomorrow so I likely won't be posting until Monday.

A good weekend to all.

Dee74

you too GC

D

Gonnachange

We got home last night around 8. Although we slept out only one night the days were long, in a good way, so it seemed as if we were gone longer. A relatively early night last night allowed me to get a good night's sleep and really kick butt at the gym this morning. My plan is to make tonight an early-ish one again so I can go for a run before it gets too hot. Unlike my younger years I now find it difficult to bounce out of bed and go running and I'm also not as tolerating of the heat.

My AV was relatively dormant Saturday although the setting of a very warm day, a pool, and a party atmosphere was conducive to having a "cold one". Most people, I assume, did, but I kept to the very cold bottled water the hosts made available. Pretty much the same thing in the evening when we went out to dinner. Sunday was spent at my son's college so it was a very different type of day; it was north of 90F/32C and on one of my trips to take more stuff from the car to his dorm room I passed a father taking a break in the shade drinking a beer. I chuckled, not because of any feeling of superiority or disdain, but because like me he was in the midst of lugging sometimes heavy and awkward stuff in hot/humid conditions and I thought drinking during the process was counter productive. Water to hydrate was my choice. To each his own.

Gonnachange

Yesterday I was on a path of setting myself up for failure. After finishing my run in the morning I totally lacked any initiative. Sure there were things I could have done, but there was no imperative at work, I didn't feel like doing any household tasks, I couldn't get into starting a new book, etc. I did spend time on the web, including SR, and listening to music, but my inertia was leading toward boredom and presented an opening for my AV.

It recognized the opportunity and peeked its head out from wherever it resides, but each time it did it got squashed. Not always overwhelmingly, but in the end it did not achieve its objective. Fortunately, today is shaping up as a different, and more normal, type of day.

I was at the gym around 7:30 to throw some weights around and the physical and emotional energy that I was lacking has returned so I'm looking forward to a productive and sober day.

All is good.

Della1968

Yay!! I have those days too!

Gonnachange

I'm fairly sure every one does, even as is the case with me, it's a rare occurrence.

As I wrote earlier today's a "normal" day and I'm taking care of what I need to take care of. Next up is another walk with the puppy

Jsbodhi

Just checking to say hi, will write more later xoxo