31 Days of Sobriety: Week 3

As Samuel L. Jackson once said: "Hold on to your butts."

Last week was where things really started picking up. I mean that in both good and bad ways.

The difficulty of abstaining from alcohol was pretty easy Week 1 because I'd had over a month to psych myself up. Avoiding getting drunk on the weekends after that hasn't been as much of a challenge as I anticipated. I forgot how easy it is to get sucked into playing hours of video games. I made entire weekends breeze by playing game after game of "Civilization", or a "Starcraft II" campaign, or breezing through my old favorite Nintendo 64 games (which I recently re-acquired). I also spent several evenings painting a bunch of Warhammer 40,000 stuff while watching clips from "Fury" and listening to D&D podcasts. I think last night, I did that from 6 PM straight through 12:30 AM.

Netflix and Youtube have also been a huge boon. I can blow through literally dozens of Youtube videos a night without missing booze. I've also gotten really into "Death Note", "Peaky Blinders", and "Parks and Recreation". After I'm done with "Death Note" (it's only 40 20-minute episodes or so), I plan on catching up on "Vikings." At some point, I really want to check out "Bright".

It's amazing how much time there is in the day when you don't drink frequently. I used to pass on checking out certain shows because I was worried I'd be too tipsy to appreciate them. So instead, I'd default to watching my favorite Youtube videos over and over, which was enjoyable, but gave me a stagnant, empty feeling after awhile.

So the challenge isn't abstaining from binge drinking, in my case at least. The challenge is when I suddenly get hit with a craving for a beer. A beer.

Or, sometimes it's when I'm watching something like "Peaky Blinders", in which literally every other scene includes someone swigging a bottle of scotch or sipping fancy glasses of cognac. It's like when I quit smoking, and the smell of cigarette smoke even in passing had me feeling like a cartoon character smelling a steak or something so engrossing, it makes them defy gravity.

I have to admit, I miss bars. I miss ordering new craft beers and experiencing new tastes while getting a nice buzz. I miss the way a nice glass of bourbon makes me feel. I miss the taste of wine and how much fun it is to experiment with new tastes by pairing it with different food. I find myself counting the days until I can drink again.

Yet, what this tells me is that my mission isn't yet done. Luckily, I have another 15 days to figure it out.