Moving on and having fun

Believe it or not, a group of colleagues (the usual Happy Hour crowd) decided to expand our horizons this week. And I'm thrilled about it because it's no longer about getting together to stand around, drink and stare at each other, we have actual planned activities.

Yesterday was our first try...and we went rollerskating! It was pretty fun, actually, they played "oldies", by which they mean, the cool stuff you used to listen to in jr. high and high school. Yes, it made us all feel a little old but, it was worth it to get in some good old fashioned fun at Ron-a-Roll's "turn back time Tuesday" roller skating event.

And my buddy Jason fell flat on his ass in front of us. I've never seen anyone turn so RED! Fortunately, only his ego was bruised.

Next Thursday is Karaoke...a true passion of mine. People are shocked that i'm actually going to sing...which is a little dumb...cuz it's karaoke (hello people!), and someone else is DEFINITELY getting dragged up there with me, ha! They have NO idea what they're in for. Such a good, silly time.

But as silly as it is, it's more mature than drinking for the sake of drinking, which to me is the most important thing right now.

Why am I okay with the silly stuff? Well, for me it took an extremely frightening event to scare the crap out of me, and to scare me away from getting drunk. I never thought I'd have pushed the drinking thing as far as I did this winter. There was always someone going out, always something happening on the weekends, and i was always one of the fun, single, partiers that everyone knew they could count on to attend. Well...that's all well and good until you completely forget a night, and wake up in another town, with someone you don't remember meeting, talking to, dancing with, going home with....etc. It's scary, and a slippery slope, and I was naive to think I could keep pushing the drinking to the edge. I had compelte control and then...nothing...for hours.

I didn't drink at all for 2 weeks after that, then only with my sister cuz she was "safe", and now, only if something is going on, and only a few. No reason to ever, ever, EVER experience anything like that again. But it's incredible how many other perspectives of mine were influenced by that night. I want to do things for me, no one else. If I don't want to go out, I'm not going to go. If I go out and want to drink cranberry and seltzers all night...I don't need to tell people why I'm not drinking. I want to relax, enjoy my job, my friends, and my family. And it's tough to do that if I'm too drunk, or too hungover, to remember.