Today was interesting. Waking up without a hangover and having a productive friday was a great feeling. Although this morning felt unusual, almost like a 'phantom hangover'. I woke up and it took me a few minutes to realise that I didnt have a hangover as I hadnt been drinking. My body is so conditioned to that feeling on a Friday that i was fully expecting it. It shames me to say it, but I cant remember the last time i didnt have at least a slight hangover on a Friday. I was finishing up work at 6ish and was really feeling an urge for a post work pint, and I had dinner plans at 8. Normally that would be over the road to the bar, sink as many Stellas as I could and then probably be late for dinner. However to get round this urge I told my colleague that I'd cover his late shift, so I sat at work until 7 and then had a look around Bloombingdales for a little while as the restaurant was just across the road. One thing I've been surprised by is how little anyone seems to care that I'm not drinking. I remember when I went 4 weeks without back in 09, some people almost seemed to take offense when I said I didnt want a beer, but so far it has passed without question. I arrived at the restaurant, my mate said 'alright Paul, let me get you a beer' to which I replied 'actually I'll just have a diet coke, am off the beers for a while'...and that was it! Nothing else was mentioned about it the whole night. However that got me worried, I hope people aren't thinking 'thank god he finally decided to pack in the drinking'!! haha
At dinner I sat next to a girl that I quite like. I don't know her that well, but have met her several times before and think she's pretty cool. Tonight went well. I have been pleasantly surprised by how not drinking hasn't affected my conversational or social skills. On the contrary, I actually felt a lot funnier and in control of the situation than normal. Although she was drinking wine, so maybe as she was getting more drunk it was easier to make her laugh!
The only difficulty was towards the end of the night. By midnight I was really noticing the effects of alcohol on others, and it was making it...
a) boring for me
b) making me jealous!
Also, as they were going out afterwards I really wanted to stick around so I could hang out with this girl a bit more. However I reminded myself that this whole thing is about sacrifice and that it it were easy I wouldnt be keeping a f**king blog of it, and reluctantly left. Even the subway ride home was difficult, I was definitely jealous of all the people out on the town whose night still had another 4 hours to go while I'm heading to bed completely sober. On the whole, the 'toughest' night so far, but another pleasant surprise at how cool everyone is about it.
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