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Why I Gave Up Alcohol
I love a nice glass of red wine just as much as the next person.
An occasional beer with a certain meal on a hot summer day. Now even the thought of hard liquor makes my stomach turn. I can’t even imagine ever drinking it.
It must have had something to do with becoming a certain age, and after all those brainwashing studies on the benefits of alcohol use when I decided I was done.
Last year I think I had two drinks all year. One was around Christmas when my family insisted I share a glass of red at the Christmas table. I said I only wanted about two ounces. The other was a traditional Greek family drink called Ouzo which I shared with some pretty determined Greeks who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
I feel in certain cases like these, it is disrespectful to say no. I definitely had a hard time with that.
I used to tell myself that red wine was good for me and use that as my excuse to drink it with a pasta dish. Before I started to imbibe alone, I used to tell myself I would never drink alone. In my mind, that is the apex of a true alcoholic.
The truth is, there were many nights like these when I was alone with my bottle. Since I live alone, I justified it. It’s just the perfect complement to my meal. You can pair this with that. It…
