Recap of 13th Living Out Loud project: Drinkin' buddies

I am overwhelmed at the number of folks who responded to this month's theme. Apparently everyone has some sort of relationship with booze, good or bad. We have 15 entries and five of those are from new participants! It's also neat to see the range of everyone's interpretation of this theme. You all surprise and impress me every month. So without further ado, let's check out the entries: Jeb's My Old but Rarely-Seen Friend, John Barleycorn I admire his dedication to the finer qualities of scotch. Personally I think it tastes like dirt. But I also like the image of Jeb throwing back tequila shots. :)

Gina's Drinkin' Buddies - NOT I can imagine that working as a volunteer EMT, you only see the bad side of alcohol. Moderation sounds like the way to go. It also goes to show you that while drunk dwarfs sound like they would be funny, they're not so much in real life.

Kim R's Drinkin's Buddies Indeed, it ain't easy being green.

Rachel's Without you Isn't it funny how the booze can seem like a character all its own in our lives and not always a passive one.

Jen's Closing Time Here's to being a cheap date! I love it too! And I can totally understand using alcohol to slow down my brain without necessarily turning it off.

Candice's To all the cocktails I've loved before I'm glad your best friend and your husband, who seem on opposite ends of the drinking spectrum, both support you so well. And I'm gonna have to try one of these mythical pear mojitos at PF Changs.

Peg's Hi, My Name is Peg, and ... You bring up an interesting point of how your kids would react to your drinking. I've never experienced my parents even a little tipsy and I could see how it would be hard to explain.

SuziCate's Jose Cuervo Is Not My Friend I'm no fan of tequila myself. It just stinks to me! Rich loves it, though. I like the idea of healthy relationships with liquids.

Deb's I'd Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me I can't agree more with the biggest problem with excessive drinking being missing out on stuff.

Karal's To retch or not to wretch I laughed out loud at the confusion over retch and wretch (and Googled the spelling for both).

Rich's Cause I'm Clever When I'm Drunk My husband is a late bloomer to the drinking scene but quite clever. We seem to make a good team taking turns having a few too many.

Kim S's But the Bush is Comfortable! I hear ya about the baby birthday parties being more our style these days than swinging at the club. But yeah, social lubrication makes a big difference in some situations as to how much fun happens. Just look at the dance floor at any dry wedding reception.

Megan's Straight Edge Girl The first thing I thought after reading this was "Oh my God, I forgot about mojitos! I love mojitos!" Ahem. Then I realized how it is a big advantage to have time to figure out your relationship with alcohol on your own terms.

Amy's A Complicated Relationship You know I've never had a tab at a bar. Probably because I feared when it was time to pay up the total would floor me. I'm trying to appreciate food more myself these days so I can see how alcohol helps that. Here's to putting alcohol in its place!

And my own It's so good!

As always I had a hard time picking a winner. Everyone did a great job of sharing something personal, and that really means a lot to me. Some were funny, some were touching, some were a little sad. The best one for me, though, was Karal's since it was a bit of all of them. I laughed out loud over the play on words and I got all verklempt when she talked about disappointing her friend. So Karal is our winner this month and earns a $20 Amazon gift card. (Since I'm way behind on delivering prizes, I've decided to keep them simple going forward. I'm sure no one is writing their entries simply for the chance at a prize.)

Thank you all for playing along. Thank you for having as much fun with this as I am. Thank you for reading. Thank you for stepping a bit out of your comfort zones. And thank you for living out loud!

It's so good!

When I was about six months pregnant, my co-worker turned to me very gravely and asked, "do you miss the alcohol?" It was the first time I'd really thought about it. Alcohol hadn't really registered as a high priority. The hormones in me made food and water take on magical properties. Even a simple glass of water would be the best thing ever! It's just so wet! And cold! And clear! And refreshing! Vodka could hardly compete with that. Drinking for me in the beginning was all about the results versus the process. I wasn't drinking tequila because it was tasty; I was drinking tequila because it leads to table dancing.

I've chased a man around his apartment naked. I've played a few Truth or Dare games. I've smooched quite a few ladies. I walked home once and don't remember how I got there. I might have even been accused of making a woman gay with my devilish ways. Who knew tequila that looks (and tastes) like window cleaner could be so powerful? Eventually, after some embarrassing incidents with Captain Morgan's, Zima and Tarantula I learned to seek out alcohol for the taste rather than the consequences.

Wine helped with that. I've found myself drinking a glass of cabernet sauvignon for the taste and not the fuzzy-headedness I might get later. I've even thought it would be nice to have another glass because it was so tasty but quit because I didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of being drunk.

Kahlua is so tasty with some warm milk. A mimosa can make Sunday brunch go down much easier and is one of the few times I indulge in orange juice. Once in a blue moon some Captain Morgan's and Diet Coke makes a party more fun. Dos Equis beer really hits the spot after a hot afternoon mowing the lawn.

I feel like Will Ferrell in Old School declaring "once it hits your lips, it's so good!" These days, though, I'm more likely to rave about the amazing qualities of water.

Stretching my fingers

Ok, let's do this. It's been so long since I've written, I feel like I've forgotten how to use this blog. I'm determined to put something into this electronic space before I forget how to write all together. I'm feeling rusty, like my fingers are creaking as I type.

The boy has been advancing in babyhood by leaps and bounds. He laughs, smiles, coos, grabs for everything in reach, plays with little toys, loves his reflection and is rolling over! He's still sleeping right next to me in bed and I have to say that is one of the best feelings ever to have him that close. I really am going to miss that when he leaves for college.

I'm kidding! I'm sure he'll be ready for his own bed before his voice changes.

I've been steadily recovering these last few weeks. Everyone says that parenthood changes everything, but I was not prepared for the emotional ravaging that would happen after making a person. In addition to adding someone to our household, I also had to reintegrate myself back into the office after being gone for two months. Since previous to this I had never been out of the office longer than a week, we were all adapting to the change.

I don't get very much done these days. My Google reader is pegged at 1000+ unread items, with little hope in sight for marking all as read. I get up, go to work, come home, do laundry, prep baby bottles, watch NCIS and go to bed. Obviously, I'm not doing much writing and it's pained me a bit. So I'm going to try making it a priority for myself.

It's taken me about four hours to write this, but my fingers are feeling a lot more limber than when I started. I'll get a little more practice this weekend as our lucky #13 Living Out Loud project is due Sunday. And let's hope I can rally.