Tag: Mostly Not Drinking

Autumnal Ramblings

My primary goal was to mostly not drink all summer and see how it goes.

A pause in my bar working life made this pretty easy to pull off.

My clever self-deceiving strategy for distracting myself, making Root & Ginger Beers all summer has more or paid off. I’ve been too distracted with making them to drink much. Though, I have to say, both are fantabulous mixers with Rye Whiskey.

On the whole, I have been “Mostly Not Drinking” all summer.

The thing which has been the most successful at reducing my alcohol intake has been, “No Drinking Alone.” Instead of popping a beer when I make dinner, or making myself an amaro spritz, while I’m waiting for Michele to get home from work, I’ve skipped, and maybe watched an episode or two of some Anime series on Netflix or Hulu. On the whole, it is not great tragedy, and not getting a start on the drinking helps a great deal with the dynamics of the relationship. Just taking this extra drink or two out of the mix, helps a great deal.

For the most part, I’m OK with not drinking to excess, I feel better and don’t really miss it.

I also started running a couple times a week and riding my bike to the job once a week. The bike ride is a bit intense, 6 miles both ways, but I feel way better after riding the bike than after riding the bus. The problem, of course, is the impending rainy season.

The thing I really miss is having beer or wine with dinner to celebrate the end of the week.

Heading into the fall, I think the goal will just to have more alcohol-free days a week than drinking days.

I’ve also been meaning to transcribe some of Charles McCabe’s ramblings re: drinking to the blog. I’m going to be doing that for the next bit, I hope you enjoy.

Props

Even once you get past the physical and psychic reasons to drink, there are the pathetic psychological reasons, like having a prop to hold in your hand.

I’m not really a go out to a bar for drinking and fellowship sort of guy, but I am a music club kind of guy. The idea of going to a rock show and not drinking a beer? Crazy.

My whole idea of “what is cool?” is tied up with drinking, or at least holding a beer.

Reading an interview with the members of X, John Doe drinking a long neck beer and leaning against the wall at the back of an LA club.

Not drinking, what do you do with your hands?

What do I do to cover up my normal fidgeting tendencies?

Water bottle? Nalgene? Smoke?

Systemic Analgesic

One of alcohol’s strongest selling points, per yer average Western movie dentist or surgeon, is as an analgesic.

I always think of the body as struggling towards equilibrium.

If you add another element to the balance, it adjusts the other way.

The body has a bunch of strategies for dealing with pain, mostly psychological.

However, if you pour in an analgesic pain reliever into your gullet every day for decades, your body probably discards a bunch of those strategies for dealing with pain, or they fall to disuse.

You stop drinking and everything just sort of hurts.

Even worse, habitual use of a painkiller allows you to damage yourself physically without noticing it so much.

Routine

250ml Sicilian Nero d’Avola.

Like I mentioned, I had a drinking routine.

I would come home from work, make and photograph a Savoy Cocktail.

Attempt to get it blogged.

My wife would then get home from her work, and we would have a beer together.

After which, we would go out for dinner.

One of our favorite local pizza places is always busy and we’ve been going since it opened. As there is always a wait, the establishment let’s you hang out in a nearby bar and then they come and fetch you when your table is ready. We’d usually have another beer and play some pinball.

Well, they take the excuse to leave work and get a shot of Fernet, Jaeger, or Tequila at the bar, then tell you your table is ready. It’s a cozy arrangement.

So, by the time we’re finally in the restaurant and our salad arrives, we’re feeling pretty toasty. Of course, we then order a bottle of wine to split while we enjoy our dinner.

In January, I was trying not to drink, and so my wife just got wine by the glass. “Oh that is very healthy of you,” was the comment from the waiter.

Lately, we’ve taken to not drinking before dinner and then just ordering a carafe of wine to split with dinner, instead of a bottle. The waitress was downright Sarcastic with her comment about Carafes vs Bottles the last time we were in.

And it’s not even that they are grumpy that we are spending less, as often they would just charge us for two glasses, and serve us a whole bottle.

It’s like we’re letting them down. And, of course, they are now charging us full price for a carafe of wine.

No Drinking Alone

Seems like a no-brainer, eh?

However, my method for the entire Savoy Project was to get home from work and get a drink made, photographed, and blogged before my wife got home from work.

Early on, especially when I would attempt more than one drink in a night, (hey, I don’t like to waste,) this was a disaster.

As relationship mistakes go, unbalanced levels of inebriating substances being consumed has to be right up there in the top 10.

Being mostly in the bag before your significant other gets home from work is kind of a disaster.

Heck, the opposite is even challenging, one partner trying to stay sober, while the other doesn’t quite feel as urgent a need for sobriety.

Well, anyway, the new rule is, no drinking alone, and it is a good one.