Bet you never knew I was a problem drinker, huh? Well, it's true. No, I'm not an alcoholic but I have been drinking too much and too frequently. It all started at the Green Mill when I turned 21...
...a few of us young and hip brothers and sisters went to hear some jazz and get some cocktails at the Green Mill on Chicago's north side. It's a swanky place that used to be one of Al Capone's old haunts. I remember my first drink ever, a whisky-stoned-sour. I hated it. As a matter of fact, I haven't had one of those since. But then my friend Roger -- a ministerial servant who looks and acts like Han Solo -- bought me a Cosmopolitian. I'm not sure if Sex and the City, which famous-ized the drink, was on t.v. then (1997) but this Cosmo was a hit...with me! Served in one of those big-ass martini glasses, sexy pink fluid filled to the brim so that you practically had to sip it on the table a little lest you pick it up and spill it's heavenly content. I've had a fondness ever since.
My young and hip group of pioneers and ministerial servants from around Chicagoland -- at one point our click included a young, single Circuit Overseer who is the "worldliest" C.O. I've ever met -- continued it's mixology for the next few years. Those were good times. We were cool and so were the drinks.
Fast forward to 2000. I start to have serious doubts about the dubs. A depression loomed. I move away from this group (many of whom were getting married and "settling down" anyways) and continue to drink, now alone with books about evolution and biblical criticism in the daytime. I remember sipping a margarita on a hot summers day in my backyard reading Will Durant's "The Lessons of History" and reading a line that has forever burned itself into my memory: "Christ killed Jehovah." Yes! The Old-Testament God is a noxious, foreskin-loving son-of-a-bitch! Too primitive! It's all bullshit! Then I'd feel regret. "What if it is the truth?" I'd drink some more.
I remember sitting on my leather sofa with a cosmopolitan in hand pondering The Unthinkable Reality That This Isn't The Truth and the consequences it would have for my life. What the hell was I going to do? I drank two very, very lightly colored cosmo's (you know what that means...not much cranberry juice/lot's of Stolichnaya!) within ten minutes of each other and the room was spinning out of control (like my life, of course). I lied down and closed my eyes. The room was still spinning! Holy shit! Alas, after about an hour, it passed.
This continued for some time. Then I left the dubs. My drinking continued, but never, ever in the daytime anymore. I would say I've only been drunk about three or four times in my life. I've never thrown up after drinkinging and I've only had a couple serious hangovers. I've never, ever felt the need to "sweeten my coffee" as some call it. I've never had the shakes. I've never had any interpersonal / academic / career problems due to drinking.
But, it's still not good! So, in all of this, I have decided to stop for a while. Thirty days, minimum. My record is a week, which I have done a number of times. Which I have done for this week. No real problems. Just need to keep busy in the evening when my mind invariably thinks about Dr. Jack Daniels or Mrs. Sapphire -- Mrs. Bombay Sapphire.
So yes, my goal is a month without a drop. After that, we'll see. Perhaps I can drink occassionaly. In the meantime, this thread will be one in which I chart some of my progress (hope you don't mind!) and reflect on my dry month (which will include a dry New Years!).
Sipping my coffee,
Bradley