Girls dinner out...

Went out for a friends birthday dinner last night.  Five of us, all mums, with 18 kids between us! (Left at home with the Dads I hasten to add).  I had volunteered to be the taxi driver as we all live within a few blocks of each other.  I started the pick-ups at 7.30pm so we all had time to settle our kids down and get ourselves a little bit glammed up.

In the past this would be quite a problematic time for me, going out at 7.30, because I used to begin my drinking at 5pm.  My drinking habit in the final few years was an at-home solo endeavour.  Quite a private, steady, heavy drinking habit.  Not fall-over wasted most of the time, but easily a bottle and a bit every second night.  No-one but Mr D was aware of how regular this steady, heavy drinking was (and even he took a long time to come round to understanding when I was trying to tell him how dysfunctional it was becoming).

So yeah .. on a night like this one I would have had to try very hard to slow myself down beforehand and limit my pre-outing drinks to just 2 or so.  And then while out I would have had to try very hard to not drink as quickly as I usually would and 'out' myself as a boozer (unless it was a boozy group in which case I'd go for it).

We got to the restaurant last night and they took a while choosing what wine to order during which I did feel a bit self-conscious which was annoying.  Still getting used to being the non-drinker I suppose.  None of them seemed fazed however, they know all about my new sober life (I talk about it very openly to take any heat out of gossip or guess-work about how bad I was), and the birthday girl ordered me a Lemon, Lime and Bitters after ordering their Sauvignon Blanc. 

Once the drinks arrived it was fine and I didn't care at all that I wasn't drinking the wine.  I could smell it though!  And more interesting was that they all sipped away SO SLOWLY!!!!!!!  Man, they were like snails getting through that one bottle.  Bloody hell.  I thought 'don't they want to drink and get all excited that they're out child free celebrating a birthday??!!'  Clearly not.  Then I thought 'oh no, that just used to be my attitude'. 

They did order a second bottle, so two bottles in total between 4 of them.  It noticably loosened them up a tiny bit, probably because they wouldn't normally drink half a bottle of wine (!) but really it was a very moderate session.

After we left the restaurant (Japanese, tasty) we went up the road to a busy, trendy bar and ordered coffees and hot chocolates and laughed while watching the hip, young crowd drinking, chatting, flirting and dancing.  Then then I drove us all home.

Then - to top off my unusually mature behaviour - I washed my face and put on night cream!!!!!!!!!!!  Who am I?????????

Sober Mrs D, that's who.

Bye xxxx