So, I've stopped drinking

[*Awful Llama*]

I didn't really start drinking until after my divorce.  It wasn't celebratory drinking, but the sad, drinking alone variety that they warn you about.  As the years went by it got progressively worse.  After-work drinking became before-and-after-work drinking. 

Ten years ago this past May I was at a conference for my job.  It was a large conference, thousands in attendance, and they had a social event the last night we were attending.  The booze flowed like a river, and I was lapping it up.  I awoke the next morning feeling like death and not looking too far removed from it.  I stood in my hotel room bathroom, gazing at myself in the mirror and asked myself what I was trying to accomplish if not drink myself into an early grave.  I managed to survive a morning session and made my way to the airport.  Flying hung over was an experience.  I was clutching the seat and clenching my jaws shut the entire way.

I knew that I had a problem, and though it hadn't yet cost me my job or my family, I worried that was the path I was on.  I never went to any meetings in church basements or collected any chips, but I understand why some do.  In 10 years I haven't had a drop, and I resolved never to again.  No message here, just my story.