I am a recovering alcoholic, 15 months sober. I got sober by going to rehab and I've stayed sober so far by attending AA, getting a sponsor, working the steps. Life is really, really good just now, but I'm aware it's still early days.
So anyway, the point of this story. I am going away for a week at the end of the month, and I'll be staying in a TINY cottage. The cottage theoretically sleeps 2 but I've stayed in it before and I can't emphasise just how tiny it is - the double bed pretty much takes up the whole of the only bedroom, in the bathroom you squash your knees against the shower cubicle when you sit on the loo. That said, it's in one of my favourite places ever and I love it.
My mother has got wind of my plan and is angling to come with me, to stay in the tiny (did I mention it's tiny?) cottage since it sleeps 2. There are 2 problems with this - 1, we don't get on that well, we want to like each other and can usually manage about 48 hours together before things get tense, and 2, she's an alcoholic. She doesn't believe she's an alcoholic, insists she could give up drinking any time she likes, but she drinks very heavily most nights.
I've told her I will drive her to where I'm staying, and she can make alternative arrangements for accommodation. We can see each other every day and go out and about, I'll do all the driving, then return to our respective accommodation in the evening (where she can drink herself silly if she likes). As the break is getting closer, however, it is clear she hasn't made any alternative arrangements and she is going to lay it on thick at the last minute how much she'd love to go, blah, blah ...
Alcohol has historically played a massive part in any time we've spent together, and she can get tetchy with what may well be withdrawal if she hasn't had a drink for a day or so. So she's going to want to drink - I don't want to drink and I currently have no desire to drink if someone I'm with has a drink, but if things get fraught between us, I don't know how I'd respond.
Actually, no one needs to reply - writing it out like this has confirmed I'm sticking to staying in the tiny cottage by myself.