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Friday, December 29, 2017

BTW [by the way] + the good + the difficulties

Since we’re no longer drinking we want to make one thing very clear - we still want to hang out with our friends! Yes, even when there’s drinking! Invite us to your parties, invite us to go out, invite me to your ladies wine night! We can handle being around alcohol and we even think we’re still capable of being fun people without alcohol! Plus, you’ll always have a sober cab when you hang with us! Ha. 

I know that everyone who stops drinking has differences in what they’re comfortable with so we wanted to set the record straight with us. 

On another note, the last 12 days have been smoother than I thought they would be and I know it all has to do with us being committed to this together and staying supportive. 

When reflecting on the good that’s happened since we quit drinking what first comes to mind is how good it felt getting home at night on Christmas Eve sober and excitedly putting the presents under the tree and into the kids’ stockings after they fell asleep. Christmas Eve was always my night to drink because that’s when we get together with my side of the family. That’s typically been our “guideline”.. his family gathering, he drinks. My family gathering, I drink. Neither of us have to drive? We both got to drink! 

The hardest parts of all of this have been breaking the routine of drinking, finding other ways to de-stress/relax, and (I just have to come out and say it) missing everything about ice cold tequila shots. The taste, the feeling, everything. Tequila was my jam. I would much rather take a shot of tequila straight from the freezer than make a cocktail, crack a beer or open a bottle of wine. 

When it comes to stress, we both feel like we’re under a hell of a lot of it. Andy’s job pulls him in a million different directions and his job consists of constantly fixing broken dish machines in restaurants. He’s in and out of the elements all day, doing a shit load of driving on these awful Minnesota winter roads and laying on dirty restaurant kitchen floors. He does a really good job about leaving his stress at the door when he comes home but I’ve noticed that’s been more difficult for him now that he doesn’t have a beer to look forward to. 

And then there’s our kids.. 

God, we love them, but they are brothers with a shit load of energy, it’s winter break, we live in a small house and it has been nearly too cold to play outside. They’ve had far too much screen time this last week but hell.. if it keeps us all happy, it’s what I’m gonna allow to get us through these days. 

We haven’t quite found a new routine for de-stressing but I’ve been writing a lot and that helps. Maybe our new routine will be working out together after the kids go to bed at night. How cool would that be to trade alcohol for abs?! We have a lot of healthy options that can take the place for drinking so hopefully we’ll find a good fit soon and put it into action.


It really is a day at a time though and I am so glad Andy and I are in this together. 

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