I got my boogie!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to the Hens party last night buoyed along by all the wonderful advice and encouragement that came in comments to my last post, and the awesome support from my loved ones around me.

So I had an attitude of badassery and an air of chutzpah about me - I wore bright red tights! - and honestly just decided that it didn't matter that I wasn't going to drink and I didn't give a toss what anyone thought.  After all my angst prior to this week, admitting that I was changing and feeling different about how I moved in the world, the nerves actually just dropped away and I found myself in the final days just excited to be going out.

And I knew that the bride-to-be, who is a newish neighbourhood mummy friend, was super lovely and kind so I suspected that all her old friends from a small community further up north would be too.  And I was right!

I spent my night ordering mocktails and lime and sodas and had great, real conversations with just awesome women who like me were kind of excited to be out and just so happy for our friend who is getting married.

My non-drinking came up at one point when we were sitting at this really trendy bar watching all the gorgeous young things, and the two women I was sitting with at the time were curious and asked questions then shared stories about their own drinking and family habits and it became a really interesting wider discussion about drugs and alcohol, not just about me!

And another woman who I have actually met before and really like cornered me at one point and said that she'd heard about my giving up and really wanted to know how I'd done it and how bad I'd been etc because she was worried about her own drinking.  So as always I was just quite matter of fact and honest and I could see she was very interested, it was cool.

She and I were the ones who took to the dancefloor first for a great remix of Michael Jackson's 'ABC easy as 123' it was awesome!  We had a great boogie for about 4 songs and then retired for a sit down and someone was bringing some shots over and it was midnight and I thought, 'I've had my boogie, my night is done!'  So I said goodbye to everyone, gave the bride a big hug and departed.

Walked back to my car through the pumping party district where our bar was, past a woman who could hardly walk being helped by her friends, some bloke dressed in a frock stumbling along and a young girl looking like she was about to vomit.

I decided at that point that my sobriety was like a cosy sweater, that favourite cardigan that you pull out when you want to feel comfortable and warm and don't give a toss what you look like.  I felt wrapped in a cloak of contentment, not necessarily hip and cool, but happy. 

Love, Mrs D xxx