I cooked a roast lunch for a girlfriend yesterday whose 40th party I completely missed some weeks ago. When she and her husband arrived at 12.30 I pulled out a bottle of bubbles and said "this is your birthday party so do you want to drink bubbles?!" I have no idea if they were taken aback at me doing this because they know I'm sober.. but they both said "Sure!" and seemed happy that I was making it a celebration.
Mr D was quick to get the flutes out and open the bubbles.. also quickly filling my flute with bubbly water from the Soda Stream before I had to sort myself out with something non-alcoholic. I appreciated that. Then we all raised our glasses and toasted 'Happy Belated Birthday!' and got on with catching up on each others news…
It was a lovely chatty lunch, this chick is awesome - both interesting and interested - the best combination. And her husband is one of my oldest school friends. We always love spending time with them.
We moved into the study after lunch and Mr D offered them beers which was kind of funny because he'd shoved them into the freezer to chill them down and they'd semi-frozen.. so they were all drinking frosty beer.. oh how we laughed.
The champagne and beer didn't make this lunch special. The champagne and beer didn't have all the power. The power was in the raised glasses and smiling faces that were pleased to see each other. The power was in the delicious food and the kids excitement when the Easter Eggs came out. The power was in great chats about new jobs and exciting ventures. The power lay in all those things.. not the liquid in the glasses.
I've finally got hold of a copy of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol by Ann Dowsett Johnston. I'm only a few chapters in but can see that it's deserved all the praise it's been getting. A great mix of her personal story and some rock-sold journalistic investigation. I'm going to read it slowly, relish it, and be very happy having it in my growing collection of recovery literature. Already quotes are jumping out at me.
"The alcohol industry is selling young women on the notion that only really, really good things happen when there's alcohol. And to have really, really good things happen, you have to drink."
What a crock of shit that is.
Love, Mrs D xxx
