if quitting drinking is cool, consider me Miles Davis

this just looks wrong on so many levels...

I have a drinking problem. There, I said it.

Admitting it is the first step, and in a year of first steps - this is a big one.  My problem is not one that requires any help, because my drinking problem is this: I have quit drinking for 2011.

That's right, 365 days of nothing alcoholic touching my mouth (besides Listerine)

What will I do for fun? Good question.  Whether I want to admit it or not, drinking has become something of a social staple in my life.  It was a way for me to relax and unwind after a crazy week, day, or intense reality tv show.  It brought groups of friends together for many incredible nights of dancing and laughing.  Alcohol was something that went hand in hand with "having fun" but also with "having something to do".  Why go see a movie, when you can drink wine and then see a movie? Why go to the cottage and sit around the campfire, when you can drink beer and go to the cottage and sit around the camp fire?  It's as if everyday activities were somehow magically enhanced by the sweet, sweet nectar that is booze.

The downside to the magic, was that booze had become one of the only ways I knew to relax and unwind.  Many of the nights of dancing and laughing were only truly remembered when they were captured on my digital camera (that is now broken because drinking and cameras do not go well together).  All the "fun" I had when drinking, was later accompanied by me waking up with a dry tongue, an unquenchable thirst and regretting trying to remove that last wine bottle cork with a steak knife. Ouch.   Why can't I watch a movie without wine? Maybe I'd actually remember one line from the film.  And who says you have to drink beer in order to sit around the campfire at the cottage? Coors Light and Molson Canadian commericals can't be the be all and end all for what is considered acceptable cottage behavior.  For the amount of money I will save, the amount of saturday mornings I will actually wake up in time to see, and finally for the sake of my expanding wasit line - it all ended on Jan. 1, 2011.

Gone are the nights of me singing Justin Biebers "You Smile, I Smile" for anyone in ear shot. Farewell Jagerbombs,  no longer will I spend $8 a piece on your heart attack inducing combination.  Buh-Bye Beer, I know we got close, but like most celebrity marriages, the end has come.  And Red Wine, my 'scarecrow' - I think I will miss you most of all.  No amount of clinking your ruby reds will bring me home to you this time.

3 days down. 362 to go. I think Homer Simpson said it best:

"All right, brain, I don't like you and you don't like me - so let's just do this and  I'll get back to killing you with beer" UPDATE: Mission Failed. Sorry to disappoint. Me likey drinkey. Maybe next year......riiight....