to what extent does your life revolve around alcohol?

no alcohol for .. 2 years now? i don't even really remember, that's how you know you're over it imo, if you never even really think about it much. i envy you naturally moderate people a little bit. but then it's working extremely well for me to not drink at all, and i don't think i'm ever going to go back.

One cocktail or aperitif before dinner and then two glasses of wine with dinner was basically my routine for the first year of pandemic. I was proud of myself for sticking to that. But then when restaurants reopened it was hard to avoid a drink or two at lunch. And then when the bars reopened, forget it. NYC is a handicap in this way. I never ever had a problem with alcohol when I lived in suburban Florida.

Maybe it's the wrong question to ask, but how many of you can still drink a beer/glass of wine/cocktail before/during dinner and call it a night?

I mostly don't drink at all any more, so when I do have a beer or a glass of wine with dinner it feels deliciously sinful and it's pretty easy to stick with one. (Red wine is especially good for that.) On special occasions I'll have another. Three is a bad idea for me these days.

So, it looks like the consensus here is: abstention vs verging on excess?

I drink 2 beers with dinner (1 with lunch if I'm at a restaurant) or 2 glasses of wine, but I have found that the wine at dinner frequently ends up with me drinking the whole bottle.

At parties I drink more, but do try to space it out to 1 beer/hour.

Never saw the point of one drink tbh

Because it’s not fun enough?

I never have just one drink unless it's lunch.

I wish I could be a one glass of wine with dinner person, but I just can't. Once I start drinking, I don't stop until it's time for bed. I've tried everything under the sun to try and moderate the drinking, but basically the only thing that works is to just not drink. So I have several days a week where I don't drink, but it's not easy. Those nights drag and I get to thinking what's the point of life if I can't reward myself with a drink in the evening. I know that somewhere on my horizon I'm going to have to bite the bullet and give up altogether.

man, y'all :(

hugs

i can do one. and feel it a bit. just a cheap drunk.

I love to have a single beer. It's the perfect amount of beer. Alcoholics hate me.

Sometimes I'll go nuts and have two on the weekend. But I've never thought "I sure am glad I had that third beer."

Having my quarterly, post-Lenten beer right now. Will let you know how it goes.

But I do love the daily happy hour with my partner, and compared with most of our friends, we're the alcoholics.

Body knows I can’t quite metabolize it properly so will barely let me drink it. I am enjoying to talking to the bartender(s) and listening to the Bossa Nova as per brimstead.

Not much.

xp Are you downtown rn?

I've never thought "I sure am glad I had that third beer."

I think the drinker's frame of mind at this point is, I'm feeling good, do I have another drink to keep feeling this way or do I stop cold and deal with the unpleasant coming down period

xp Are you downtown rn?

Ah, was picturing you trapped inside a Petula Clark song

During the worst of the pandemic it got a little intense at home, to be fair. Generally now I’ve made a rule to just not drink at home; I’m the only one here.

When I’m at dinner (with friends who drink) or at a friend’s house, usually one drink will do. Increasingly though at restaurants everyone’s just like, getting a water or an ice tea.

The thrill is kinda gone.

Obviously, whenever I finally meet Alfred, I’ll have whatever drink he demands I try.

Ah, was picturing you trapped inside a Petula Clark song

^ right, I should have explained that. Sounds like a good time tbh.

For me it was, a good, low-key time. Just as I was leaving a couple walked in after been at a sushi bar serving All You Can Drink sake so things might go in a different directoin.

that would have been material for "At the Bar 2022"

I recently went through a bad health sitch where I couldn’t drink alcohol, or eat hardly anything aside from meat and vegetables and fruit, and at first it was unclear if my new required diet was permanent or not. The only thing I cared about was no beer. It was disturbing how much my life revolved around alcohol. “What’s my life gonna be like if I can never drink again?!”

Flash forward four months and I drink on occasion now, a few times a month, and not sure it’ll ever ramp back up to what it was. It was a good sort of calculated drinking-a-good-amount-but-never-drunk, only in social situations. Not sure what my body will allow now though, and haven’t really pushed it. Still don’t really care about the food limitations/uncertainty. I feel silly.

Obviously, whenever I finally meet Alfred, I’ll have whatever drink he demands I try.

― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings),

*bangs index finger on table*

I did a cleanse some years ago with the help of a nutritionist where I gave up flour, meat, sugar, caffeine, fruit, alcohol... basically everything except things like kale/collard greens and buckwheat. I found that of all that I gave up, wine was the thing I craved most when I couldn't have it. Although the cleanse did clear up a troublesome rash that was my reason for going to the nutritionist to begin with.

I do think the best option is to completely give up alcohol if you possibly can, that is if it doesn't clearly and obviously lower your quality of life.

completely

I've had maybe a hundred or so drinks over the last few decades, and exactly one of those drinks felt as euphoric as drinkers describe. I've been more likely to wind up sitting with my head in my hands, or lose my temper, and I don't like those odds.

It may be harder for me to fall asleep now.

I can drink a beer with a nice appetizer and starting a restaurant meal, then have a beer with my meal and be happy

During the last two years it’s been a two bottles of whiskey per week average :/

Yup my at home drinking has really grown since covid, probably too much

Good thing I have something to read thanks to Josefa.

I homebrew and in the past year have ticked up from 1.5 beers a night average to 2.5 beers a night average. I know as soon as I hit the three I will be worried. It’s not so much the amount, but the consistency. But then I don’t know if I am being too strict a moralist and I should just calm down a little? It’s confusing. All I know is that damn it feels good to pour your own beer out from the tap and play videogames for a few hours after work. Alcohol is not social for me, it’s just a relaxant. Coffee when I wake, Beer when I wind down.

i mean instacart brings me all my accoutrements, i actually wish i had to make an effort to get fucked up, although to be honest my bartender friends would add to my bad habits exponentially

don't start drinking kids! (i'm actually worried about my teenagers and how they'll take to the evil spirits - some very bad genes in the fam)

i mean instacart brings me all my accoutrements, i actually wish i had to make an effort to get fucked up, although to be honest my bartender friends would add to my bad habits exponentially

don't start drinking kids! (i'm actually worried about my teenagers and how they'll take to the evil spirits - some very bad genes in the fam)

My big middle-age ritual is to walk to the microbrewery here in town, get a beer, get a late lunch from whatever food truck is parked in front, and read a book. Usually I can make that beer last for a hour. It's been months since I had more than one.

Haven't had a drink at home since the beginning of the pandemic.

I started seriously learning how to make cocktails during the pandemic and beer or wine is consumed with dinner, so usually it's 2-3 drinks per night for me.

^^^ I mix your recipe for a Jasmine weekly.

1-3 a night if I feel like it. I often don't.

The pandemic made me realize I'm just not interested in drinking unless I'm at a bar or restaurant with people. I don't think I had a beer from March to November 2020.

most days i'll do a cocktail or 2 in the hours after work. I'm actually kind of astonished that my drinking didnt vastly increase during the pandemic, but i guess i'm saved by the fact that being drunk at home without friends around just doesnt hold any appeal. going back out to concerts while also negotiating a mask has made me realize that i find it almost impossible to enjoy live music without access to a drink, which is a discovery i'm not crazy about but whatever.

I'm actually kind of astonished that my drinking didnt vastly increase during the pandemic, but i guess i'm saved by the fact that being drunk at home without friends around just doesnt hold any appeal.

This a hundred times. When Florida's flaccid version of a lockdown began, I determined not to drink before 5 p.m. now that I was stuck at home.

Yes, same here. I'll want a drink every once in while at home, but I can take it or leave it. However, the couple times I went to shows during my no-alcohol-diet were awful. I became so anti-social with people I knew a little bit but hadn't seen in forever due to the pan. I thought I could muster the strength to be myself without the alcohol and I crumbled. Disturbing. Hard to tell how much of that was due to the pan making everyone really socially awkward, but still, it was a bummer to find out how much alcohol contributes to my enjoyment of things I love doing.

Last year, I took a break from drinking due to a health scare. During lockdown times I probably did resort too much to joyless, robotic, habitual boozing.

Now that I'm starting to go out more, I am reintroducing very moderate drinking that focuses on camaraderie and connoisseurship and enjoyment. So far it's going okay.

Because of my musical habits, I spend a lot of time in bars and breweries and wineries. As the weather improves and outdoor gigs multiply, I want to be able to enjoy beverages responsibly, as the ads say. The idea of spending four hours in a bar with my closest friends... nursing an iced tea... is just not very appealing.

My experience at shows has drastically improved with sobriety. I once got tossed out of a Dropkick Murphys show (really) for being drunk and disorderly. Saw them again a few years later with one of my kids after stopping drinking, it was a hugely better time. That's the most extreme example, but I personally have a much more direct and connected experience with the show without the haze of alcohol.