I Haven't Had An Alcoholic Drink In over 340 Days.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Stop. Don’t congratulate me. There is more to this story.

The odd thing is, there is no particular reason I have not had a beer or glass of wine. It has nothing to do with drinking too much and wanting to cut back or quit. Yes, in my younger days there were many nights I would drink in excess (then again, who ever woke up and thought, “I wish I had drunk more last night!”) But those days are long since past and in recent years (decade?), has never happened or even come close to happening.

My cousin and his wife and my brother all came to visit me last Memorial Day weekend and we bought a large case of beer. I noticed yesterday I still had the same three remaining bottles of beer in the fridge and had forgotten about them. Why? I have no idea other than I simply forgot they were there, plus just never felt the urge or desire to drink them.

There is some precedence for this - when I lived in Berlin, I had become a coffee addict - drinking sometime two or three entire pots of coffee in a day. That was really strong coffee - the proverbial jet fuel Germans like to drink and I was sucking down caffeine like there was no tomorrow. Then one day I stopped - not for any particular reason, and not a conscious effort - just stopped drinking coffee and switched over to another (current) vice, Diet Coke. Only recently, about 20 years later, have I had the occasional cup of coffee, maybe 2 cups per month, if that.

Now that I know they are there, I might have those beers sometime - who knows, maybe after working in the backyard today or tomorrow? Maybe not until my family comes to visit again (mid-June) or maybe not for a few months.

So, for no particular reason, I have not had an alcoholic drink in almost a year - and didn’t even really notice until I was trying to find room in the fridge yesterday and noticed those three remaining bottles from last year are still there.

I have to admit, even I find this odd - especially the fact that I had not really noticed until yesterday!

Has anyone else ever just stopped drinking/eating/doing something, without really consciously planning on doing so?

2

I did. Long story short, beer and to a lesser extent mixed drinks started giving me horrendous heartburn and migraines. One day a friend of mine came over with a case of beer (she lives out of town) and I realized that the case of beer in my fridge was hers from the last time she came over…before she got pregnant. For some reason I still keep beer in my fridge. Every once in a while I’ll open, drink about half and feel the heartburn coming on and stop. I dump more of them (just ones that have been sitting in the fridge for months and months and months) so I have a cigarette receptacle for my garage then I drink.

I certainly haven’t ‘quit’ but I went from probably 5-10 drinks a week to 5-10 drinks a year. I imagine it’ll swell back up at some point if I get the heartburn under control and I find myself at bars more often. That’s really the main thing about it. It’s really the beer that does it (the heartburn) and most people don’t have gin, tonic, ice and limes ready to go at their house and since I really don’t mind not drinking, it’s not a big deal for me to say ‘no thanks, I’m fine’.

3

Well, I stopped drinking years and years ago with a small bit of planning - I realized that I was getting hangovers from ridiculously small amounts of alcohol, and just decided it wasn’t worth it. We have some booze left over from our wedding that was almost 10 years ago, and it’s still in the cupboard. Last summer I opened the Bombay Sapphire gin to make a gin and tonic to see if they really do taste good, and discovered that Bombay Sapphire gin is actually drinkable, but I gave the rest of the bottle to my brother-in-law who likes gin.

4

I used to smoke marijuana pretty much every day. I was never one of those to smoke all day long. I’d, for the most part, smoke at bit at the end of the day like many people with their glass of wine. Around twenty years ago, I quickly tapered off and there really wasn’t a reason for it. I still smoke sometimes when I’m at a concert or if I am at a gathering where others are smoking but only about half of the time when those occasions happen. It’s maybe once or twice a month now and I can go three months without.

5

Old joke: “Force yourself!”