The sobriety experiment

Saturday night the 29th of October 2011 was a momentous, historical and substantial night in the life of yours truly. Since the age of 16, I have moved back and forth along the scale of moderate drinker to raging alcoholic and something of a complete and utter trash bag. Anyone who has had the pleasure (if you could call it that) of meeting me whilst completely drunk or even on any other occasion will know that I am somewhat of an idiot with a fondness (okay... all out love) for the drink. So to even consider that I could take a break from drinking (that wasn't ordered by the doctor) would be almost inconceivable. However, one morning during a particularly deep and moving session of yoga my stomach began to rumble. I realised as I felt the acid rising from my stomach that the culprit was the alcohol consumed the previous night (alcohol, unlike tacos, e-coli and candy has a distinct taste as any drunken vomitter will attest) and I felt TERRIBLE!! Functioning the day after a big drinking session is hard, let alone pulling off some insane acrobatic acts of flexibility. Finally, when my body was shaken up to the max, when I was pale as a ghost (more so than usual) and when the shavasana pose FINALLY came around, the idea struck... Why not go for a fixed amount of time sans drink to see how it feels, be able to do a headstand without tasting last night's sin and purely for shits and giggles.

At the time, a complete and permanent moratorium on drinking was out of the question, but to give it a good shot I figured I should dedicate at least a month to sobriety, and since my favourite drinking buddy in Cholula was going to be away for 5 weeks I figured what better time to resume my alcoholic tendencies. So for 5 weeks I partied like a rock star, stayed out until the morning, danced like a maniac, met (and remembered) many many cool people and had a great time. And just because I wasn't downing the devil's drink like it were going out of fashion as I normally would, I didn't deprive myself of anything: music festivals, clubbing, a soft drink in a bar or even a raucous casa roja party. Far short of sitting in the corner being antisocial, not drinking made me overcompensate in outgoingness and cheerfulness, so as I result I had probably even more fun than I would have stumbling around like a clown, sexually harassing anyone and everyone and just plain being a pest. My non drinking campaign, however, was anything but a health kick, in fact I found that I replaced one bad vice with 2 others and I still found myself swimming in greasy tacos several times a day and smoking weed like it was a cigarette.

And so came that fateful night, it was a Saturday, my drinking companions were out and roaring and a bottle of tequila sat next to the blender just WAITING to be consumed. And so we did! There were poi, beyonce dance offs, sing alongs, good company and the like. It was a great night, fantastic pre drinking and a lovely party, however after not drinking for a few hours, dragging our feet and trying to find a bar to go that wasn't shit, the alcohol and good energy wore off and I felt drunk, tired, bored and irritable. Nothing like the fun of a sober night of dancing like crazy at all! So we trudged home early and slept like babies, a pleasant sleep, but more of a heavy pass out than a gentle float into the land of nod. Although it was far from a hangover, the feeling the next morning was akin to a night without sleep and a boring as hell class, not cringe worthily painful, but unpleasant and definitely not as nice as waking up like a spring daisy after a sober night.

So the past 5 weeks have been somewhat of a learning curve and the night of all nights that was to be my first drunkening was somewhat of a flop (not bad... just not remarkable). My attitude to drinking has drastically changed and I find myself at a substantial point in my life. Gone are the days of hangovers, Gabby the drunken idiot (it's just Gabby the idiot now) and always drinking because everyone else is or because the social situation calls for it. I don't intend to be as restrictive as I was during my experiment, but I will be drinking substantially less, wondering if I REALLY do want a drink and waking up feeling great. Drinking is slightly overrated as I have realised over the past month and a half, but it is still a lot of fun! So if dinner and drinks turns into several bottles of wine/caguamas of beer, table top dancing and stumbling home barefoot at 8am then so be it! Life is to enjoy and alcohol is just there for the ride.