i quit drinking because i wasn't getting enough things done. also because i was wasting money. i had the good fortune to talk to one david yow about this notion, and he called it 'alconomics' -- if you don't spend your money drinking, you'll be very pleased at how much extra cash you have to waste on things like... records, dvds, effects pedals and going out to eat (in my case). i usually just drink sprite or coke, good naturedly take a little shit from my friends about being on the wagon and that's that. so, i've only been this way for about 4 months, but it feels right and i'm never going to say never... but for right now, i don't see any reason to start drinking again. nice to wake up on saturday or sunday morning feeling bright and ready to get shit done. i wish i could just keep it to one or two a night, but i can't: 2 means 3 and 3 means 4... so there you go, as mark lansing said, it's easier to just cut it out all together. by the way mark, nice to see you again at tim's wedding!

I have a couple of reasons for avoiding strong drink:

1) I don't like the taste of alcohol.
2) I don't like being drunk.
3) Before I get drunk, when I am what Mencken called "lightly stewed," I am a real asshole. Finger-tapping-on-the-sternum, talking-in-your-face asshole.

When I realized the above, it was easier to stop drinking than it was to choke down another drink so I could once again make another batch of enemies.

I like the fact that my friends drink, and I like to go out drinking with them. I just don't drink myself. I don't miss anything about drinking, and I haven't done it in so long (almost 20 years, apart from a couple of token drunks) that I should probably be romanticizing it at least a little. But I'm not. I just don't like it.

I wish I could drink, for the following reasons:

1) It is good for the heart, and for lessening the occurrance and impact of blood clots. Even up to the point of alcoholism, it is good for your heart.
2) I would make an excellent booze snob, and I could develop an incredible vocabulary of tasting subtleties that would make Pynchon seem like ee cummings.
3) I would like to be able to enjoy adult pleasures like my friends do -- fine whiskey, cigars, cornholery, jass music, etc. But I don't, and I feel left out.
4) My friends are funnier and more sociable when they drink a little, and I would like to be funnier and more sociable.

Oh well. I will make do with billiards, playing poker on the internet and cooking.

Thanks people; some interesting points for me to consider. It's so boring trying to decide if I'd be better off not drinking that it's almost worth stopping to not have to consider the question any longer.

For some strange reason I feel as if I need to make a long-term decision rather than merely trying it out.

Quite why anybody would give a monkeys about this I'm not sure, but nobody has died as a direct result of me typing it...so...

This is funny timing. Both the singer in my band and I have been considering "going on the wagon". I wasn't really drinking at all during law school, but since the band has started working a lot, I guess I've kind of gotten back into it more than I like. You know, a couple of beers at practice, maybe a mixed drink or four after a show, a six-pack while the guitar player is doing overdubs in the studio. Come to think of it, it's been a few months since the last night that I didn't have a drink. Jeebus! I think I'm gonna do it. I have several reasons:
1. Like Rotten Tanx, I get headaches. Bad headaches, where I can feel the veins in my temples pulsing, even if I only have two or three beers.
2. I really want to quit smoking, especially because it contributes so much to the headaches, but drinking and smoking, for me at least, go together like a horse and carriage.
3. It costs more money than I'm willing to admit, and that's money that I'd rather spend on records and gear.
4. I mostly just drink to stop thinking about how uncomfortable I am in social situations, or, if I am at home, to stop thinking in general. I recognize that this is silly, and kind of sad.
Yes, I see that this is a good Idea. Ok, then, I'm gonna do it. "Cold turkey". And this is excellent timing, because the band don't has a show next until a week from now. Ok, then.

Josh.

I will not allow you to sabotage my well-intentioned thread like this; I too will stop.

Ok then.

As you say; Ok then.



On your marks.

Get set.

Stop.

sometimes my intentions end up lying in the guitar

!

i quit a long time ago

why....

1. i never had 'a drink or two' unless i ran out of time/money/alcohol and had no means at my disposal to get more. the default was to drink until i was out of time/money/alcohol/my mind, and if i was gonna drink in the first place, i had no interest in making the default something else.

2. being drunk or hungover inhibits one's ability to do other things. i could not have gotten a degree, held down jobs, kept a band together, and stayed with the same woman for all this time if i had kept drinkin'. i am sure of this, given my predilection for booze.

3. due to family circumstances, i learned more about alcoholism than most people ever do by the time i was thirteen. i didn't start drinking until i was sixteen. it was this in-depth knowledge that ended by my drinking career a month before i turned twenty (a little over a year before i could do it legally).

loved drinking pretty much 100%. loved being drunk. i never had a genuinely bad time whilst drinking--if i got drunk enough to get sick, i was too out of it to care.

i remember being pretty happy when drunk, and i like being around drunk people if they are having a good time

it's the fringe deficits that get you. it's not a habit that ages well.

if your hunch is that you can't do it a little, you are likely right. and hanging it up early is better than hanging it up late.

of course, the harder it is to hang it up, the more you probably need to do so. just one diabolical aspect of the drinking life.

My post is pretty similar to Steve's, except I don't get "lightly stewed", I just get dull. Dull in the head and dull to be around. My brain slows down and I can't really have a normal conversation. Pretty boring.

I never really drank all that much anyway - I never got used to the taste and never had much money to spend on it. Nowadays, I'm the dependable designated driver and the one who makes sure people don't do incredibly dumb things (unless they're entertaining at the same time). I have money to spend on a great meal, I can remember great shows and I am in control of my faculties and excretionary systems.

spoot wrote:convinced that fun can be had without drinking, even (and maybe especially) when those around you are falling over.

Yes indeed.

My choices are very similar to most listed above. Watching family members, friends, etc not able to control themselves is a good deterrant.

A major point was a fellow band member said to me: "I don't like it when you're drunk, because you seem normal."

That was enough for me.

Awright, it's on then. I'm now in the process of subtly telling coworkers/friends/bandmates: "I gonna be pretty much an asshole for the next few days, so you might wanna steer clear of me."

I quit all the way around about a year ago. Liver condition and whatnot that is NOT the result of drinking too much for too long. My liver just decided not to process fat---so no liquor for me!

I can have a bit of red wine, but I haven't done this in months and months. As tim said, growing up around drunk people (not my folks, but others close to the family) gives you pretty unique insight to the one-way trip it can become. I don't want my own new-family to experience ANY of this at all. Along with bulimia and anorexia, it's probably the most frustrating thing to witness.

LIVER SPOT!

Ike