I'm cold, lonely, and have nowhere else to go.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, I decided to spend my detestable Friday night on the SDMB.
I WOULD be chatting, but it doesn’t work, and I’m too lazy to fix it.

I WOULD be sleeping, but I’m not tired. I WOULD be hanging out with friends, but the closest I’ve gotten to doing that is when my friend and his girlfriend showed up at my house and we went to dinner. Since I was the odd man out, it only left me feeling empty and neglected. <sniff>

I WOULD be drinking, but currently I seem to be one of the FEW high schoolers who is actually, definitely, “straight edged.” Anybody else out there made that choice? At least in my school, it’s quite difficult, what with everybody asking “You’re straight edge? WHY?” With a sneer. So, sorry that I don’t have an amusing drunk post, just imagine that I’m stumbling around and shlurring my shpeech.

Anyway, that’s my bitch, moan, and rant for the night. Yinz all keep on trucking, I’ll just sit here in the corner shivering.

(Note: I AM kind of curious about the straight-edged question, but a bit too lazy to start another thread at the moment.)

2

Jester, you’re not alone. I’m also straightedge. I should be doing my laundry, but I’d rather be doing this. Besides, I don’t have class tomorrow. It’s been a lazy day…

Anyway. <hugs and a blanket>

I’ll leave you with a quote from an assembly I was at last week. “As many as five percent of Dartmouth students choose not to drink at all.”

Geez, and I thought that being gay made me a minority.

3

Would straightedge by any chance mean “alcohol- free?”

4

I was out with some friends this evening and the subject of alcohol came up. I just never understood people who get drunk as a way to have fun. I guess it’s just me.

I like to enjoy a glass of wine with me meal once in a while but I never thought getting drunk was having fun. If I drink a bit too much I’ll feel sleepy or nauseous. Not fun.

Anyway, I seemed to be the only one. The others thought getting drunk is a good way to end the work week.

I am very repulsed by drunk people. I have never been attracted to a woman who would get drunk. I just find it repulsive.

I guess when you are younger there is the pressure to fit in with the group but I am way past that so I headed for home and here I am killing time.

5

Yes, “straightedge” is the new, hip way to say completely drug and alcohol free. In many of my friend’s opinions, however, it’s also “fun” free. But I still have a good time at parties, I just sit in the corner and take notes while everybody else makes a drunken fool of themselves.

6

In that case so am I. Just had to make sure so that i don’t say anything stupid. oh well… why don’t you go to bored.com? It’s entertaining. or amused.com whatever.

7

Wow! I feel so decadent, sitting here sipping a Sharps (<0.5% alcohol)!

8

I’m 100% straightedge, and I’m damn proud of it.

I don’t need drugs or alcohol to have a good time.

9

Hey, hey, we aren’t saying nothing about people who drink. Most of my best friends do, and usually stuff stronger than 0.5. Sorry if it came across as a bit judgemental, I was just in a bitchy mood and felt like distracting my own attention from my life. I feel much better now that I’ve started a thread, and got to (legitimately) say

“Jiminy fucking cricket on a griddle with mayo and a side of bullshit”

in a thread. I think I’m goin to bed, though. Later, all.

10

Amen, Lord Davidson, amen. Can I call you Sir Davy?

11

Well, I am definitely not in highschool. I am in my early 20’s and I dont think that drinking is a fun time either and never have. I would enjoy myself alot more at parties when I am the sober one. If you are sober you remember all the stupid things that everyone does and it makes you less likely to ever want to act like that. I have cut loose a couple times but it is not something I would do for “fun”
Maybe that is why I am sitting home tonight reading the message boards hehe.

12

Ah, Jester. This’ll sound pissy, pompous and frankly boring, but “cold and alone” is pretty much the standard sometimes. Handling it gets tricky…but drinking as a solution doesn’t work.

Shit, that didn’t come out right. Everybody feels like a stranded alien sometimes. Drink doesn’t solve anything. The “vino veritas” thing is true; alcohol just accentuates what’s already there.

We don’t drink well in this country. Alcohol isn’t evil in itself. Sorta like money, the love of, etc. etc. It all depends on what you bring to it.

(FWIW, my Ex was an alcoholic; a fine mind that now stumbles words; a body that reqires Depends and a life in ruins. All hopes gone, in slavery to the chemical buzz.)

Shy people can be more at risk. But don’t confuse the risk with the messy human condition. In other words, don’t let sensible (if lonely) prudence turn you into a prune-lipped puritan.

We’re schizo about drinking in this country. It’s binge, puke and crash, so you’re wariness is damned good sense. But don’t reject the comfort, taste, joy and conviviality that blessed alchemy of grape, grain, yeast and human care can produce.

Shit, would somebody deck me with a 2X4 already? This is godawful pompous even by my wordy standards…

Jester, your choices are fine. Don’t let anybody or your own human loneliness stampede you. Alcohol isn’t the problem, or the solution. (Neither are drugs, religion, computers, obsessive hobbies, etc.) You’re growing into your own mind and skin–a process that never ends, btw.

Just don’t confuse get-drunk-and-get-laid excess with the grace of good company; wine, spirits and beer shared later in celebration.

Tough folks are the merriest, kindest company,
Veb

13

It sounds like you’ve walked a difficult path, Veb, must be why, you’re among the merrier and kindest of SDMB company.

PS. You didn’t sound pompous, you sounded like a wounded soul, which is where the richest lodes are usually found.

14

Why would anybody want to drink that crap if it tastes so bad??? I tasted some once and I never want to try it again. Yeah I’m also very happy to say I’m “straightedge” all the way. I’ve found (thankfully not from experience) that the trouble it brings is NOT worth it.

15

Objectively speaking, that was the most meaningful, kind response I’ve ever received.

That’s why this place rocks. No matter how mundane or “out there”, no honest answer is disdained by the folk assembled here.

Don’t mean to hijack the thread. Just experiencing a grateful heart-quake for the collective experience here. It’s rarely PC, often contentious but genuinely humane: honest, funky, pissant, no-holds-barred but granting enormous slack kind.

Veb

16

I don’t usually drink, due to the fact that it makes me ungodly depressed. I usually only get drunk at parties, and since the last party I went to and made a fool out of myself, I doubt I’ll be drinking to that extent again.

17

I never understood the allure of getting to the point where you have to be careful not to puke or you’ll die. Where driving home will get you arrested for DUI or for vehicular Homicide. Where people don’t actually think you are funny, they are laughing at you, cause you look so stupid drunk.

I’m sure there are people out there who can stop before they are drunk. Somewhere. But I haven’t met them.

I have never had alcohol, and will never. So what if some “popular” people think I’m odd. Chances are, I won’t have liver damage, won’t have wrecked cars, and will be alive.

I prefer alive. Alive and sober I’m in control. Drunk you aren’t. Dead… well… if you’re dead, you don’t care.

18

Well, let’s see.

I am posting her on the first Friday night after I seperated from my wife. Am I “cold, lonely and have nowhere else to go”? Sorta. I found a new place to live and have spent all day packing my stuff. If you don’t think that’s a cold place, then you have a stone soul, my friend. Am I drinking? yes. Am I drunk? not by a long shot, although that chemical oblivion has an alluring…attraction. It usualy solves nothing, but I also think it has it’s place. Going to either extreme is foolish. Veb, obviously your Ex embraced the nothingness of total intoxication. That is not a good place to be. On the other hand, prissily stating that “that has no value”, is ignoring the therapuedic aspects of alcohol. There have been times in my life where a blind stinking drunk purged much from my soul and there have been times where it made the situation worse. Alcohol is a neutral, like guns, drugs and many other things. It’s what you do with it that makes the difference. Don’t knock it cuz of observed abuses, and at the same time don’t embrace it as a panacia for all that’s wrong. Once again life proves to be shades of grey, and not black and white. Damnit! this living stuff is so hard!. And so rewarding. That’s what keeps me going.
[/end maudlin rant]

19

I don’t drink either, for two reasons: 1) I hate the taste, and 2) it’s so much more fun to hang out with drunk people when you’re sober.

At any rate, to the lonely people: I’ve been lonely, too. Under such pressure are diamonds formed.

20

Excuse me, matt_mcl, dear friend, noble Doper, please do not be offended, but can I use that next time I need to induce vomiting? :wink:

IRL, versus a Hallmark fantasyland, under such pressure alcoholics are formed. I am very happy you “young folk” have taken The Pledge. Maybe it will help you through the rough times ahead of you, but most of you have not really been tested yet. Hold strong to your beliefs. Do not be fooled into thinking it won’t be tough and that beliefs are enough to win. It will take work, too.