My wife decided she would do “Dry January” as part of her fitness/wellness goals, and I figured I would at least not enable her, but I suddenly find that we are almost 2/3 of the way there and I have not had much to drink aside from:
–The final sips of a good bottle of champagne from NYE,
–A hot toddy because it works as good as any medicine (and definitely better tasting than Robitussin DM)
There are other reasons why I haven’t imbibed, and why I have realized it’s not big deal.
Because work was stressful? Well if I am work from home, who’ll know about a lunch beer (it’s 5pm somewhere, right?). It may loosen my tongue, but it won’t make my jokes better.
But what about weekends, or a day off? Related to the reasons above, a couple of beers during an afternoon weekend, or a day off (like I took today to write this!) the buzz would put me out of commission and have me miss out on longer activities, like going to the park, arts and crafts, playing in the backyard. Or like right now, shoveling and/or walking on icy sidewalks!
Ain’t nobody got time for that. I only get a little time to hang out with the little guy in the mornings when I am commuting, I value that quality time; less so if I am hungover. Commuting home, I am using the last of my energy for him as well – playing games, practicing writing, watching TV and reading before bed, and I would rather be at my sharpest.
I’m already tired. Commuting sucks – from walking to the train, switching to another halfway through, then walking from the station to work, then reversing that at the end of the day – well that takes a lot out of me. Aside from the walking, I do morning stretches and weighted workouts. When I am work from home, I walk the little guy to school, then back and have an extended workout afterwards. So yeah I tap my reserves as much as I can.
Because I am chillin in the man cave with TV/video games/lounge pants/eating a cheeseburger (blue cheese and fried onions on a toasted english muffin, since you asked), and that pairs perfectly? Well yes but any of those things combined (and they were last Sunday!), was good enough for me – so it was not needed.
So 13 days to go, and the only challenge will be the event next week where there will be an open bar (the last one they held had mocktails….), but I should be fine, and not waiting with corkscrew in hand to decant a bottle of red to celebrate the groundhog seeing his shadow or not (in which case that would be white).