~Sunday~ I met Joe and Todd at 8:30 at The Borough. Todd was pulling in at the same time and parked right behind me on Morgan street.
We took a table, and Arthur—who hadn’t heard about Dry January—asked us, “The usual, gents?”
We filled him in, and he brought us each a cup of coffee—and a glass of water for Todd. I thought Todd was going to start his Dry January tomorrow, but he’d said “Sunday or Monday,” and had decided to start tonight.
When Joe arrived, Arthur said to him, “You drying out, too?” We laughed, and Joe ordered coffee and a glass of water.
The three of us were actually able to keep a conversation going for an hour or so without any alcohol to fuel us on. Todd had to cut himself off after two cups, as it was 9:00 at night and we weren’t drinking decaf.
At one point, Liz (the owner of The Borough) came up to our table with an empty bottle of Wild Turkey 101 and tilting it toward me, she asked, “Wanna smell it?” We all fell out about that.
I said, “Can I stick my tongue in it and lick it?” (#TWSS)
We paid our bills, which were a grand total of about $2.81 each, and then headed over to Flex.
Todd and I walked over and at one point, I started to cross the street and then saw a car coming. Todd said, “Don’t get hit!” and I commented on how tragic it would be to get hit by a car and killed while sober.
They’d be saying, “The poor thing. He was doing so well crossing streets until he stopped drinking.”
Karaoke was in full swing, and I made a beeline to the cooler sitting on the bar:
and helped myself to some nice, free, cold water, while Joe and Todd opted for Diet Cokes. Upon their first sips, Joe said, “This is weak,” and Todd said, “This is delicious.” I really appreciate the good attitude they’re both having about this.
My thoughts and observations about the evening:
- It tickles me that I have at least one friend (who lives in California) who is doing this after reading about it on my Facebook feed, and Todd has mentioned it to two or three people that he knows who are also going to do it.
- Karaoke was extra excruciating tonight, but I don’t think it had anything to do with the lack of alcohol. There were just a lot of terrible singers of the worst kind—which is to say, those who think they can sing but can’t, and those who think they are way better than they actually are. Bless their hearts.
- I had the idea tonight of putting a Sharpie in my pocket to start putting little tally marks on my drink cup to keep track of how many times I refill it. Then I could create a spreadsheet and analyze the “tipping point,” at which one more cup will make me have to get up a second time during the night to pee, and cut myself off just before that. I didn’t actually do this, I just imagined my way through the scenario.
- Joe went up to get himself and Todd another Diet Coke and found out that there was no charge for it. Todd knew this, but neither Joe nor I did. Not that we would have taken advantage of it when we were drinking, but it made me think back. I’m pretty sure I’ve paid for a second club soda for Bob before. But then, I wondered if I had told the person it was a refill. I will definitely pay attention to this in the future.
- There was no cover tonight, so I didn’t spend any money at Flex.
- We did go back to The Borough later, though, and we had late-night snacks. I still had about 725 calories to eat today without blowing my diet, and I had two shrimp tacos that I’m pretty sure were under that, since the shrimp was boiled. I enjoyed a nice glass of water with it.
- I saw a total of eleven cop cars on the way home tonight—8 of them flying down Dawson Street, all with their lights on and sirens blowing, and then 3 more doing the same thing heading south on Capital Boulevard when I got over there. It was a little ironic, because we had joked about wanting to get stopped on the way home tonight, so we could be all cocky about our rights and shit.
- I only got up once during the night tonight.
3 days down, 28 to go.