I still find myself expecting a drink at certain occasions during the day. For instance, I thought about going to get a pizza for dinner tonight and pictured myself driving to the pizza parlor, giving my order to the server and then - AHH! - sipping a beer while it was prepared. I must admit that I in the past I have ordered pizza this way instead of calling ahead and simply picking it up so that I would have time for a beer and a few minutes of sports reporting on the restaurant tv. In other words, it was no accident that I took advantage of the time to have a beer. The whole outing was structured to give myself that opportunity. Consuming one beer away from the house gave me a headstart, by the way, so I could come home, drink my usual one or two, and be ahead of the game.
So, instead of saying that certain situations are cues for having a drink, I should say that the need to have a drink was shaping parts of my day. Oh, that's heavy. I've never looked at it that way before. So now I'm free to do things that aren't related to getting a drink. Well, what should I do with myself? I think drinking moderately and regularly as I did kept me from considering that question as seriously as I might have done. Or as I might do now.
That is one of the many insidious ways in which drinking can affect our lives. It is fun to drink a beer while one waits for take out food. But it is also a solitary drinking opportunity. One of the things I am thinking about doing once off the wagon is to cut out all solitary drinking. In other words, only drink if someone else does, too.
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