I Did it!

I wasn't sure if I could, but I made it through last night's holiday party without taking a single drink!

The accomplishment feels huge, even though today makes only one week since my last drink. I mentally prepared for the party, walked through it in my head and knew I didn't want to drink but I still wasn't sure if I could do it.

Saying no was only hard for about the first 30 minutes when the bar was the only open area. The food wasn't ready; just a handful of people had arrived, and the bartender seemed quite bored. For a moment, I almost ordered a drink just to see what would happen. But then I realized that neither of the feature cocktails appealed to me, and the wine scared me. Seriously, there was a enough wine there to fill a bathtub and it was being served in plastic punch cups. Better to not even begin.

During the party, I observed others and found it interesting. I wasn't the only one not drinking. There were women who were pregnant and a handful of LDS women. Ten women boasted that they were dropped off by a sober driver and would be picked up later. Each had two drinks in her hand the entire night. One asked for her phone to be confiscated. Apparently, she got so drunk at last year's party that she shared some embarassing photos on Facebook and did a lot of drunk-dialing. Everyone else was just normal. They had a drink or two, ate some food and mingled. No big deal.

I drank water -- lots of it. And I returned home sober and able to do the things I had postponed earlier in the day.