I had a wonderful Christmas this year! It was my third sober Christmas, so it wasn’t a new thing, and I really feel that I’ve hit a sober stride. I’m not newly on the wagon (last year), or pregnant (2014), I’m just sober and enjoying it. I have been swamped at work for a while, so my post is just going to be a quick check in where I highlight some alcohol-laced comments from the past week.
- “Omg, you’re pregnant, aren’t you??!! That’s why you aren’t drinking!!??” My mother-in-law, Christmas Day
- “Have you started drinking again yet?” my friend Kristin, yesterday. Not meant to be spiteful or rude, but still made me want to say “I’m not drinking again, EVER”
- “You can have one, right?” My light-drinker sister, the day before Christmas Eve. Repeated twice, in case I hadn’t heard her. I haven’t come out and said that I stopped drinking to her yet, I just demurred that I was driving.
- “Can you send me a quick snapshot of the recipe? I want to ensure that you, me and the babies don’t eat wine for dinner” – my sober (and funny) sister, on the Beef Burgundy recipe I followed for Christmas Dinner.
- “More wine?” Me, on Christmas Eve, serving to guests the awful $2.99/bottle of wine I’d bought for the next day. I have a history with this wine. . . Crane Lake, aka Cranium Break*. It used to be my ‘desperate and broke’ go-to wine, and it’s horrible. I laughed when I bought it, and laughed harder when I served it. It gave me such a headache every time I drank it in the past, yet that never stopped me from buying it.My head seriously hurts when I look at it, and I get that pasty, awful hungover taste in my mouth. I don’t miss drinking all that often these days, but I will never ever ever miss the hangovers.
*Aren’t I clever? I had a nickname for wine that I’d willingly drink even though I knew it packed a nasty hangover. Idiot!!
One Bottle One Glass 
Heck, at least you’re getting noticed. I had not had one person notice I haven’t been drinking…
…but then again, I always thought I hid it well.
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I always carefully planned my approach to drinking around people. I’d get buzzed but not drunk, carefully metering out my glasses of wine to not appear more than tipsy. Everyone knew I enjoyed my wine, but I kept the “and then I went home and drank a bottle” under wraps. So now when I’m not drinking, it’s a ‘thing’ which always surprises me because I’m SO much more involved and bouncier sober! I felt like saying “why do you even WANT me to drink? When I used to drink, that’s all I thought about! Believe me, I’m better this way!”
Maybe they miss me cajoling them to drink more. I missed that when my sister stopped drinking. “shit, now I no excuse! No more ‘Lorie and I accidentally drank everything in the house by 2pm! Oops!'”
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Well, I’m hoping to be at the point where everything feels better. I’m just doing a day by day thing for now. Congratulations on 118 days.
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I know those cheap and awful bottles of wine well. They were my go to drink when I was broke or desperate. Awful! I would get a litre of coconut water for that these days and appreciate it a whole lot more.
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God, my head just aches thinking about the cheap wine hangie!! So awful, along with a hunger you could feel in your bones. The kind of hunger that makes you eat greasy food all day, and you just feel ‘off’.
Why did we do this to ourselves?? It sounds so awful I just cringe to imagine willingly doing that for so long. :shudder:
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Some funny snapshots. Especially for a fellow sober person to read. Congrats on your sobriety. It’s nice (I relate) to be on the other side of those questions than we used to be.
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OBOG your are cruel to serve that to your guest!! Kind of like payback for them drinking when you don’t lol! I made a mistake once buying a cheap wine at Wal-Mart..Oak Leaf Merlot. Worst headache ever! I never did that again. So I know exactly what you are talking about…Horrible
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Oh believe me. . . my guest was not one to shake his head at a little hangover. He knew the wine and told me what a great value it was.
I’ve had the Oak Leaf too! Not Merlot, but the Chardonnay and Sauv Blanc. Headache in a bottle.
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Lol!😂😂
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