Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Living Sober

I had a really sucky weekend. Blah. I have decided that I am a traffic vacuum. If there happens to be any traffic anywhere near it will be sucked right to my location! Thursday there was a police involved shooting that shut down my main thoroughfare- allowing me to travel a whopping 1.5 miles in 2 hours. Friday it took me 5 hours to make the drive south home (no traffic it takes 2.5 hours). Not to be outdone by Friday- my dear friend Monday decided it should take me 5 hours and 20 minutes to get back up here. Sigh.
My weekend wasn’t great either. My doctor determined I had an upper respiratory infection and prescribed some medicine for it. The cough medicine he gave me is probably the closest thing I have had to being intoxicated in almost 5 months. It is alcohol free but contains codeine. Definitely had me emotional and a tiff my husband and I got into didn’t help matters at all. Sigh again.
I am looking forward to a long weekend. I will drive south again tomorrow to enjoy a 4 day weekend. I really feel like crawling under the covers and not peeking out until Monday morning. Maybe I can convince my husband to stay there with me!
In the midst of all these inconveniences I never once thought about drinking. I did think to myself that I used to have that as my outlet and that I really need to get busy finding a new outlet. Normally that would be the gym, but not being able to breathe well definitely put that on the “can’t do” list for now.  On my way home I thought about how inconvenient drinking really was for me. Life seems so much simpler that I don’t have to worry about it. Being sober has become a way of life- just like drinking once was. Sometimes, just to play devil’s advocate with myself, I think about whether or not I could have just one drink. The answer is no. I might tell myself it was one drink- but it would always end up being another, and another- just like it used to be. I am so grateful that I am sitting here writing, sober.  

4 comments:

  1. It is so good to hear that didn't think of turning to drink despite your challenges this week. I live in Bangkok and the traffic here is just crazy; ten million people and no rules of the road. It can be stressful trying to maneuver my car past motorbikes with whole families on board along with their weekly shopping – none of them wearing a crash helmet. I learnt to drive in Thailand so I’m fortunate to not be fully aware about how bad it is here – I would struggle with a road where people followed rules.

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  2. Love that visual! Motorbikes with whole families on board with their weekly shopping! I lived in Italy for 3 years- I think they had some rules, though I never managed to learn them and often wondered how they managed to make 5 lanes on a 3 lane highway!

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  3. I have seen people move house using their motorbikes here - no kidding.

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  4. And I thought that the couple driving in a convertible holding onto a sofa was bad. lol... Thailand wins!

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