OK, first sober business trip. Progress so far - made it to the airport, through security and I’m about 2 hours early. Happy to be early and not hungover.
This is the first time in I don’t know how long that I haven’t been hungover on the airplane. Usually it was a hangover, at the airport straight to the bar, and maybe a drink or two on the airplane.
I’ll admit, walking past the others at the bar at 9am and watching them sip beer was hard for me. Just the thought of, “That will never ever be me again.” Of course I’m happy to be sober, but alcohol has been in my life so long it’s like losing a part of myself. Albeit, a terrible part of myself. But a comfortable one. Instead, I stood in the ridiculously long Starbucks line and got my favorite drink and treated myself to a trashy celebrity magazine and two new books. WOOT!
I’m pretty sure I can get through the nights (7 total) without drinking if I’m by myself. It’ll be the “hey, after our workshop you wanna go grab a drink with me?” that will be the toughest. I was really optimistic about this trip in the beginning, but now that I’m here I’m realizing it’ll be harder than ever. There’s a rooftop bar facing the Pacific ocean. Waahhhh, me. But I have to keep reminding myself, WHY do you need a drink in your hand to enjoy the view? Why can’t you have a hot tea or a shirley temple instead?
So I’ve decided to come up with a list of reasons why I’m staying sober - some of them are completely silly, but just might work. Here they are to keep myself accountable. I’m saving the list on my computer as well so I can look at it any time I need to throughout the conference.
-when I drink, I can’t focus in my workshops and I’m very excited about them this year. I want to soak up as much information as I can, and I can’t do that hungover
-San Diego is a beautiful city and day drinking makes me tired, why miss out on some great tourist options?
-breakfast. Usually it was a V8, gatorade, tea and a banana to lessen the hangover. Now I’ll be able to scout out omelettes and bacon and scrambled eggs without worrying about losing it later
-no rushing to the bathroom during workshops
-no making a fool of myself in front of other conference attendees because, unlike them, I can’t have “just one”
-saving money. This is a big one. Although work pays for food, they don’t pay for booze. Therefore, it’s out of my own pocket and 4-5 drinks a night in San Diego is expensive.
-no needing a huge bottle of water next to my bed in the morning to guzzle because I’m so dehydrated
-feeling good in general. I’m 16 days in and I’m feeling great - why go back to day one and reverse all this?
-no sleeping in! getting up and running outside along the beautiful Pacific Ocean!
And lastly, not really related to the conference, but I’m planning on getting pregnant sometime this year. Why not keep up my sobriety up to (and obviously during) that point? Why slip backwards when I’m going to have to be sober for 9 months soon?
I’ll keep updating as I have time.
This is the first time in I don’t know how long that I haven’t been hungover on the airplane. Usually it was a hangover, at the airport straight to the bar, and maybe a drink or two on the airplane.
I’ll admit, walking past the others at the bar at 9am and watching them sip beer was hard for me. Just the thought of, “That will never ever be me again.” Of course I’m happy to be sober, but alcohol has been in my life so long it’s like losing a part of myself. Albeit, a terrible part of myself. But a comfortable one. Instead, I stood in the ridiculously long Starbucks line and got my favorite drink and treated myself to a trashy celebrity magazine and two new books. WOOT!
I’m pretty sure I can get through the nights (7 total) without drinking if I’m by myself. It’ll be the “hey, after our workshop you wanna go grab a drink with me?” that will be the toughest. I was really optimistic about this trip in the beginning, but now that I’m here I’m realizing it’ll be harder than ever. There’s a rooftop bar facing the Pacific ocean. Waahhhh, me. But I have to keep reminding myself, WHY do you need a drink in your hand to enjoy the view? Why can’t you have a hot tea or a shirley temple instead?
So I’ve decided to come up with a list of reasons why I’m staying sober - some of them are completely silly, but just might work. Here they are to keep myself accountable. I’m saving the list on my computer as well so I can look at it any time I need to throughout the conference.
-when I drink, I can’t focus in my workshops and I’m very excited about them this year. I want to soak up as much information as I can, and I can’t do that hungover
-San Diego is a beautiful city and day drinking makes me tired, why miss out on some great tourist options?
-breakfast. Usually it was a V8, gatorade, tea and a banana to lessen the hangover. Now I’ll be able to scout out omelettes and bacon and scrambled eggs without worrying about losing it later
-no rushing to the bathroom during workshops
-no making a fool of myself in front of other conference attendees because, unlike them, I can’t have “just one”
-saving money. This is a big one. Although work pays for food, they don’t pay for booze. Therefore, it’s out of my own pocket and 4-5 drinks a night in San Diego is expensive.
-no needing a huge bottle of water next to my bed in the morning to guzzle because I’m so dehydrated
-feeling good in general. I’m 16 days in and I’m feeling great - why go back to day one and reverse all this?
-no sleeping in! getting up and running outside along the beautiful Pacific Ocean!
And lastly, not really related to the conference, but I’m planning on getting pregnant sometime this year. Why not keep up my sobriety up to (and obviously during) that point? Why slip backwards when I’m going to have to be sober for 9 months soon?
I’ll keep updating as I have time.
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