Thanks for posting. I realized I do need to vent to folks who maybe could relate or at least understand.

We went to the house of some acquaintances for NYE last night. Got offered bourbon, sounded great, but no water is fine. He poured himself a refill of his wine and offered me some. Nah, I'm good with water. He had one more glass for what I assume was the rest of the bottle, then switched to Pepsi until they popped champagne for the ball drop. They were nice enough to pour me a glass of sparkling grape juice alongside their 4 year old. Cool. I'm "participating." Same feeling I had growing up, sorta like being at the kids table again.

All-in-all, they were respectful of my choices, not pushy just hospitable. But it was frustrating for me knowing how I used to celebrate what is clearly a drinking holiday, right? How can someone have just a bottle of wine? How do you switch to soda after happy hour already started, the drinking holiday is over when you stop drinking, right? I was upset cause I was projecting how I would have handled the situation, but clearly they were fine. Which meant that I was the one with the problem. Got it, already knew that, moving on.

Overall though, we had a nice night socializing with some nice friends. We drove home without concerns of DUIs or putting anyone at risk. We woke up without hangovers. I'm ready to tackle my New Year clear headed. I played the tape forward successfully and for that I'm grateful. I did want to recognize the stages of grief I experienced though. I'm starting 2024 with 489 days of sobriety, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. IWNDWYT.