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2007-03-07 - 2:23 p.m.

Well, I've managed to complete another month without alcohol. This time it wasn't a calendar month- I had my cousin's wedding on Feb 3rd, and so my plan was to not drink again until March 4th, and then I decided to throw an extra 3 days on top of that so I could equal the 31 days I did last time, what with the last alcohol free month having 31 days in it.

I don't necessarily feel any healthier, and I can't for the life of me work out why I'm having so much trouble getting up before 11am (at best) on my afternoon shifts and days off, but coupled with cooking at home (or in the case of night shifts having leftovers in the freezer) for almost the whole month I have saved a lot of money. And I've been running, so even if I don't feel any healthier, I'm sure I have become a lot fitter in the last month.

And I don't plan on throwing it all away with a month of bingeing. I do want to drink less- not so much less often but in more moderate amounts when I do have a night out at the Townie or equivalent. Sure, there will still be messy nights, but they don't have to be every week. This afternoon I'm going to have my drought-breaking beer down the road, and then I might go up to the Townie for trivia, or else I'll break out a nice bottle of red to have with a home cooked pasta.

The last couple of days I've been flicking back through old pen-and-paper diaries (as well as old emails that served as my diary for a couple of years) and have found them quite interesting. In particular the first half of 2000, before I got the job I've been doing ever since, and spent my days filling shelves and thinking I'd end up doing a Dip. Ed. and being a High School Science Teacher. It was also before my peak period of obsession with a certain band which has shaped pretty much everything since. Everything since then I remember pretty clearly (for better or for worse), but when it comes to the frame of mind I was in between finishing Uni and starting this job, I am really grateful to myself for keeping a diary because I virtually don't remember what it was like having no idea what my future held, not being sure if I would find an avenue to meet new people now that Uni was over, and at least for most of the first half of the year I didn't have any particular girl on my mind. There's probably only been a few isolated instances of that happening since I was thirteen.

I also quite like the person I was back then. I'm not saying I don't like who I am now, but there have been times in between where I've been a self-righteous egomaniac hypocrite, and it's almost unbearable reading my thoughts from the first couple of years of Uni (1996/97), when I was dabbling in the grey art of Christianity and casting ludicrous judgements (only in the pages of my diary, but that was bad enough) on some of my friends.

So yeah, I've been going on a trip down memory lane, but back to the present day...

I worked mornings Wed-Thu-Fri last week. I know on Wednesday I had plans to go to trivia but no-one else did, so I ended up staying home and watching TV. Thursday and Friday I was very impressed with how far I ran (Thursday by myself and Friday with Steve)- I've pretty much found my pace and I'm sticking to it, aiming at increasing the distance I run each time and if I can get to 10km and be comfortable with that (I'm not quite half way there yet) then I'll start working on picking up the pace. Friday I was also impressed that I had a fun night that didn't end until 5am (it was my changeover day) without any alcohol involvement. Had a poker night at my place with Steve, Nathan, Kellee, Mark and Phoebe. We played for change, most of which was mine to begin with and pretty much all of which stayed here at the end of the night to use next time we have a similar night. We also played some 6 player 500, and then at about 1am I gave Phoebe and Kellee a lift home, before continuing with 4 player 500 (the highlight of which was my 2 consecutive open Miseres that took Mark and I from about -100 to winning the game) for another 3-4 hours after which time I gave Nathan and Mark a lift home. As long as there is cards or trivia involved I don't really need to drink, but it sure leads to a huge amount of soft drink consumption.

Needless to say I slept as long as I could on Saturday before going to work. Had a good night's sleep after work on Saturday night, and as a result Sunday morning was about the only time in the last 3 weeks (bar my morning shifts) that I got up before 11am. Kellee had been at the Mardi Gras after party until 10am, unassisted by any chemicals and not even that drunk, but on a natural high she was keen to drop around and have Yum Cha with me. Two more very quiet afternoon shifts on Sunday and Monday, and then yesterday I slept in, watched the midday movie ("The Good Girl" with Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gylenhaal), went for the standard walk/run (by myself, and I've got the run leg up to close to 5km, or 25 minutes of running), and later drove out to Blacktown to have dinner with Jo's Mum and brothers for her Mum's birthday.

And now it's a little over half an hour until Beer O'Clock. I've earnt it dammit.

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