Dispatches From 15 Days Sober

Almost universally good.

Decided to do “dry January” this year and am also going to extend it beyond that, because over time I realized drinking does almost nothing for my life. I think it would be cool if, way down the road, I could go to a dinner or a wedding and have one IPA, one glass of wine, whatever. I don’t really feel like I’d do that at present.

I think I kinda broke on 2022, largely because my wife and I did IVF and it failed. About a month later, I spent most of a Friday post-11am (when I finished with contract work) drinking. Pretty pointless:

2022 Has Largely Beaten Me To A Pulp

I’ve had a few days like that in general, largely because of trying to fill some void in my life:

Why would someone drink 10 beers on a random Thursday?

15 days doesn’t seem like a lot, and maybe it isn’t a lot, but the whole thing is “one day at a time,” right? In my past I’ve done six months (probably around 2011) and I’ve done 40 days (Easter 2020, i.e. COVID Easter). On the six months I got into running, which could be considered a form of cross-addiction, and I did a half-marathon in Arizona. I’m very tall and I don’t know if running 13 miles at a below-average pace is good for me or my knees, but it was something. On the Easter COVID detox, I got into podcasts a lot. Right now I’m kinda into YouTube and writing for Medium, and I have some ideas for pieces where I define what core words (accountability, responsibility, etc.) mean. Could be fun.

The Ballad Of Mr. Irrelevant: Dick Don’t Work | Ain’t Got No Job | Living Life, In A Fog

There was a day near the end of ’22 where I went to Target to buy dog food, and I bought a 12-pack too. Mixed IPAs. Nice…