This month I’m not drinking any alcohol. At all… None!
I decided to stay sober for one whole month, because recently I’ve been having a lot of sundays in bed - sick. I’ve been having a lot of nights that just went up in smoke - at least in my memory. And what good does a night out do, if all you get is a black hole in your brain, a sunday filled with sick - and a black hole in your bank account.
On top of that, most friday and saturday nights, I’ve been doing the same thing, with the same friends. Granted, sometimes the girl next to me the morning after is a new one, but otherwise it’s all just the same stuff all over again. By the way - casual sex is great, except if you can’t really remember it…
So - one whole month without alcohol.
As I knew I would - I’ve been very creative the past one and a half week, that I’ve been sober so far. I have cleaned out and built up the wood-workshop in my building. I have stripped a brick wall in my apartment - and cleaned up after that. I have written a new melody and a couple of good ideas for lyrics. I have washed ALL of my clothes. I have organized all of my paperwork (almost). I have given birth to a brilliant business concept together with my friend Core.
But most important of all - I have felt good, fysically and mentally, for a week and a half.
I was just talking to a friend half an hour ago - he’s trying the sober-thing too - about norms and culture. We discussed how weird it is to be sober at a party, watching everybody else get drunk out of their mind. Also, we covered the phenomenon “anti-social”. If five guys sit around a coffetable, drinking beer - and one of them drinks coffee instead - then he’s considered “anti-social”. If he does not want to slow his mind and senses and end up not at all remembering what they talked about - then he’s “anti-social”.
I guess it’s a collectiveness thing, because it can be the same with coffee. If five guys are gonna have a nice time drinking hot coffee - after a cold day on the mountain - and one does not want coffee - then he’s “anti-social”.
But you could turn it around and look at the four other guys peer pressuring the first guy - and call them “anti-social” - because they are setting up a requirement for having a nice time. They demand that the first guy also drinks beer - because otherwise they are not having a good time - as a group. Is this right?
This - I should point out - was just a phenomenon we discussed briefly, and is not something that we experience often.
Having said all that - I’m still looking forward to my first cold beer, when this month is over - I just think I will regard it differently than I did before.
So - this is how it looks when I post a picture on my blog.