No alcohol, day 1

It got away from me. I don't know how it happened. Okay, I know how it happened, but I can't believe that I allowed it to happen. And now, here I am.

Sad.

Alone.

Coherent.

Sober.

I have done the unthinkable--I gave-up alcohol for Lent.

Here's the thing, BigRed guilted me. She guilted me like a Catholic mother raised by Jewish parents during the great depression.

So, here we are on Friday night, enjoying a lovely potluck-style Shakespeare night. I am among Catholics, so I strike-up the oh-so-common-for-this-time-of-year "Guys! What should I give-up for Lent? And don't say alcohol." I chuckle innocently, "Someone always says 'You should give-up alcohol.'"

BigRed: You should give-up alcohol.

Aussie: Haha! So funny. {fills glass with more sangria}

BR: No, really. You should give-up alcohol.

Aussie: ... {looking around the table} Other ideas?

BR: You're supposed to give-up something that you truly love. I'm giving-up Diet Coke. We can be miserable together.

Aussie: But--St. Patrick's Day is on a Saturday this year. And I am going to a wedding that day. Open bar! Everybody loves open bar!

BR: You know what else everybody loves? Going to Heaven.

Aussie: {Not liking where this is headed} True. You know, every year someone suggests that I give-up alcohol. I just don't think that it would accomplish anything for me. It is how I socialize with so many different groups of friends.

BR: Well, if it's inconvenient, then I suppose that it's not worth it. Although, I'm not entirely certain that it was convenient for Jesus to die on the cross for your sins.

Aussie: ...

BR: {shrugging} It's your choice.

Damn her trickery! Also, Diet Coke--not the same thing. Not even close.

So, after choir last night a group of us went out and we toasted to my last night of drinking for the next stretch of foreseeable future. And then I got into a rather heated debate about abortion and evolution and crime rates and taking "nigger" out of Mark Twain's corpus. Good times.

And fear not, faithful friends! I stopped drinking before the clock struck midnight! Huzzah!

Of course, I can't be a normal person in any situation involving alcohol when it really matters, so shenanigans jovially ensued. Navigating through today was shockingly tricky. I woke-up still drunk and then I quickly realized that it is Ash Wednesday, which means, among other things, virtually no food. So, rocky start to the Lent thing.

Don't worry MMMonoca, I was responsible and took the bus to work this morning.

I am going to blog every day this Lent. I considered a hokey Jesus twist circa 1999 by being sure to include a "today I am thankful for..." bit, but that is just not me. I know that sometimes I am a Debbie-Downer/Negative Nancy and I--with your help--hope to change this into being more of a bright ray of positive sunshine and joy and good stuff. To that end, at the end of every post, I will include a "candle," as per the title of my blog: "All of the darkness in the world cannot put out the light of a single candle." This gives me a bit more wiggle room and, I hope, will be less annoying.

Candle: I resisted the urge to employ the standard college cure and drank water to sober-up instead of filling my RHA nalgene with Burnett's and juice.