Last year, possibly the year before, I heard about this thing. You don't drink for the entire month of January, for a variety of reasons: symbolizing the clean start; resetting your system after the holidays and all the sins and vices indulged; to be a part of an Internet thing; or just for the challenge. (I'm a challenge seeker. See graduating high school early, completing undergrad in three years, law school.)
A month of not drinking on its face sounds like a bad idea, especially when that month doesn't really have very much going for it and is pretty cold, thus calling for warm, boozey cider or spiked coffee drinks or hot toddies for sore throats. On the other hand, not having a lot going on in January is pretty much perfect for deciding not to drink. There are no celebrations requiring I quietly decline a cocktail (why does this choosing not to drink draw so much record-screeching attention, no matter how low you whisper it?). And football season is almost over, which means I am already over it, and won't feel like going to watch games anywhere in a bar setting, which prompts my tastebuds to crave a pork burger and a pear cider. Plus, I closed out 2012 with launching into BarBri for the Oregon bar exam, so I really shouldn't be killing off brain cells right now with a glug of Jack Daniels in my apple cider every night (we call those "Annies" in this house, since I "invented" is as much as you can "invent" pouring one kind of alcohol into a commonly spiked drink you can buy in a gallon or in Keurig cups).
And so, properly motivated, I am not drinking in January. True confession time: I had an Annie on New Year's, after spending an hour in the garage painting the drawers for our new nightstands, and my hands were frozen in a paint-brush holding claw. But I didn't decide to do Drynuary until the next day, when I remembered it's a thing, so I'm going to remedy this by extending Dryuary through February 1. It's fair.
That means I have had three successful days of no drinking. This is already an accomplishment because the boy in my house has a beer, scotch, or an Annie (drink) on the regular, and is still skeptical of my Drynuary 2013 challenge. It hasn't really bothered me very much yet. We go to bed pretty early, so there isn't a lot of time where I would be up watching a movie and wishing I had a Pinot Gris in my hand. And it means I don't feel like I have to finish a glass before going to bed, so I can just leave the room and go upstairs and fall onto my pillow (I love going to bed more than anything.)
But my brain already knows something's going on. Last night I dreamed I ordered a gin and tonic and took a sip and immediately hit a wall of remorse. I made Brady take it, but I quartered up a muffin I was eating and soaked it in the gin, and then declared I was allowed to EAT alcohol, just not drink it. So that sounds terrible. Also in this dream, I got mad at Brady because he refused to sing the sheet music we has stolen, which could also be a reflection of boozelessness. Not the strangeness of my dreams, but my very strong emotions in them.
Have I noticed any other changes? I don't know... it's only been four days. But I feel like I am more awake in the morning, as opposed to wandering around in a haze for the first few hours, and I stay more active in the afternoons when I get home from work. I don't know if it's all attributable to not drinking, since my overall schedule is vastly different than it was a month and a half. It might just be finally getting used to my new hours of operation.
Four days down. 27 left. We'll see how it goes... Cheers (with slightly flavored water!)
