Congratulations on your DS's graduation @mumzof4x !
And @CuddlesKovinsky congrats on your one week! The first week is definitely the hardest.
@REP22 and @ShyMaryEllen hope you both have lovely holidays.
Ooh la la @WendyWagon on your rendezvous with the Frenchman.
@LillyPJ I'm glad you're getting your plants sorted. The ones I bought the other day were looking so good, I got a lift every time I looked out the back door, but they're wilting now - I'm going to have to water them more conscientiously.
@Blueskies3 Seven months is very impressive. Even though I'm still very new to sobriety this time round, I stopped drinking socially many years ago (after relapsing I did all my drinking in secret, which was not good for all sorts of reasons, but I digress). Anyway it felt weird at the beginning, but now feels completely normal, and in fact I've noticed that more and more of my friends go for AF options as well when we're out. At pubs, I usually have an AF beer or a pint of something like lime and soda. If I'm out on a (rare) girly night and others are having cocktails, I have a mocktail. No one really seems to notice. As long as you have a glass in your hand that doesn't look like tap water, people are pretty oblivious.
One thing though is that if I'm not enjoying myself at a social event, I tend to go home earlier, because I don't have the alcohol-fuelled buzz enabling me to stay. That's OK with me though.
Long dinners at other people's houses where everyone else is drinking CAN sometimes be triggering for me. I make sure to come prepared with my own AF drinks (which I obviously offer to the hosts, but sometimes no one else is drinking them apart from me). That way I know I'll have drinks I like. I often bring a bottle of wine to give the hosts, plus an AF bottle.
I have one friend who cooks amazing three-course meals with wine carefully chosen for each course. With dinner I like to drink sparkling water (Badoit is my favourite), and once when I brought a bottle of Badoit, he poured everyone a glass with dinner, and then I had nothing nice to drink as a refill. I know this is a first-world problem, and I was after all being treated to a gourmet dinner, but since then I've always brought LOADS of sparkling water when I go to his house, to make sure it doesn't run out. Strategies!
Had a busy day yesterday. Watched DS perform in a play, went the pub with the rest of the cast and parents afterward (drank a Lucky Saint), went on to my book group and drank homemade elderflower cordial (most other book groupies were drinking prosecco, but the cordial was lovely and at least a couple of others were drinking it as well).
Predictably though I am all peopled out again now and looking forward to a day of solitude albeit with various family members underfoot.
My biggest conundrum at the moment is what to make for dinner as DS2 is super fussy, and I'm bored of all our usual options.
I'm feeling very positive still about being AF. Am still slightly bothered by the fact that I haven't ticked off more domestic and work tasks this week, but honestly, fuck it. Not everything has to be done at once.