As I’ve written previously, the urge to smoke weed, eat it, or otherwise consume it vanished suddenly around a month into daily meditation. I didn’t quit weed. Weed quit me and I’ve been marijuana free ever since. As I’ve mentioned, it’s a different experience with alcohol and beer.
When we hung up, I was parked in front of the supermarket. I needed to run in and pick up a few things for my wife. Before long, I found myself at the end of the cavernous beer aisle itching to pick up a six pack of IPA.
I realized this morning that over the past 34 days I’ve only drank on two occasions. And on only one of those did I come close to what’s considered binge drinking. The second time was the beer, cheese, and chocolate tasting night. And on that night, I was able to reject the urge to continue drinking despite the onset of a mild buzz. I guess I’m alcohol fasting in a way.
I have to admit, quite embarrassingly, that during the hundreds of nights we spent in the mountains playing for hours on end, I was binge drinking myself stupid. So much of the creativity and character development came as a result of me drinking beer the entire time. And it worked, because once I was a few beers deep, I completely let go and became a child again myself.
Our V.P. of Sales Operations joked, “It’s five o’clock somewhere!” (It was 11am for Tim and me). Another V.P. joked that he’d hold our boss responsible if he couldn’t make it through the rest of his afternoon meetings as he sipped on what appeared to be a neat whiskey.