My metamour is doing a dry January.
I have decided to not drink until after Groundhog Day, and I may stop for 60 or 90-days.
My colleague who almost died is probably 80-pounds again. We got her out of the house moving her walker so she wouldn’t fall on her face on Christmas Eve. It took us 3-4 minutes to get her into my colleague’s house. Everyone had to tend to her.
Her neuropathy is so bad that she can’t bare weight on her feet really. I didn’t know that neuropathy is related to having liver disease.
She smelled like Listerine after my son got her into my car on Christmas Eve.
Then she was drinking a glass of white wine. She fell asleep right after gifts and she bitched about her gift.
I can’t do a dysfunctional relationship.
I can abstain from alcohol at bowling, karaoke, after I’ve had a hideous day and I am cracking 1-2 beers while I cook.
I am doing some of it because I promised my colleague that I’d do 30, 60 or 90-days dry with her. When I said that she said that she didn’t know which she wanted, because that was “a big question.”
I also am engaging in this activity because no one can ever make me do something. I have enormous willpower. My son said, “Mom, you’re going to want one beer,” and I said that while that was true I don’t need one.
I’m toying with the idea of becoming a social-only and special occasion-only consumer of alcohol. I’ll write about this journey here.
How much do you drink? Have you lost family or friends to alcohol abuse?

Drinking is a big thing with my extended family. Christmas was many drinks with both my brother and sister in law. Both my spouse and I quit after a couple of beers and a glass of wine but bro and sister would drink on through the night – I don’t know how they do it. There was about two bottles of fine whiskey consumed as well as too many bottles of wine to count. I felt like I was in college again only with better booze. Both my spouse and I are going to try to really cut back this year. I think we’d both would like a goal to drink only on the weekends. I think that would be a healthy start.
Yes, now that I’m 50, I can barely tolerate any sugar. Cutting back seems healthy.
I have one drink a week on the normal. I know roo many friend with alcohol issues as well as my ex. It’s not something I think people should be messing with more than occasionally, but that’s me
I agree with you completely… Even on the ex thing. I have two who share the same birthdate who always drank to excess. I think that one still does, but one can’t because of liver replacement. That, of course, gave me pause.
What gave me much more was having a friend meet me at the tail end of my trip for my 50th and watch her drink the entirety of a day–each day.
Now, with my colleague seemingly choosing to die; although, my girlfriend explains that it’s like any disease, I don’t want to do so. It will be fine when I do it during holiday dinners or vacation. That’s it.
And no harm, no foul on anyone else’s choices.
👍👍
Alcohol has been an adjunct to my life since the early 1970s. Did my heavy drinking (partying) in my 20s and early 30s, but it’s always been an addition, not a necessity. Something I enjoy but long ago decided could never amount to a need. These days, other than social occasions, it’s mostly only a few beers on Friday and Saturday nights.
I had my first pitcher of Coors Light the night I turned 21. I started daily 1-2 beers when I was in my last marriage
I was in high school when I learned to like beer, but it wasn’t until I was in my 40s that I decided it was okay to have some beers at home alone.
I have a relative who’d never been a drinker until he retired and started having a brandy in his finished basement library each night. That led to him having to get sober (his son had gone a similar route as a young man). It does run in families and does apparently have a genetic component. One I fortunately lack!