cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 days without drinking and I look my best in years Nine days of no alcohol as of today. Holy shit, I look about 4 or 5 years younger today than I did 10 days ago. And way healthier. I've lost four pounds. My face and neck have sort of deflated a bit in a good way. My face didn't necessarily look bloated before, but there must have been some booze-related bloat happening that disappeared and my face looks way better. My skin also looks better. Today I went to a bar for the first time since I went on alcohol hiatus. My friend Janine was in town for the afternoon and wanted to meet up for a beer. We met at a restaurant and brewery downtown. I ordered a cup of coffee and we split some nachos and she drank beer and I didn't. And it was totally fine. During the two hours we were there I had no more than a brief passing urge to drink a beer. Last night I met Kerri for dinner and then went out to Goth Night for its one year anniversary. I was personally thanked from the stage for my support (I wrote a big cover feature about it for the local paper early on and the place was packed from then on), hung out with loads of friends, and then decamped with Kerri and a very close musician friend and his girlfriend to a nearby bar after the band was done. Usually I drink beer all night at Goth Night. Last night I did not. And most heartening is the fact that my friends were all totally cool about it. Including the bartender. Nobody gave me shit or pressured me to have a drink. I've heard alcoholics talk about discovering that their friends are all 'enablers' rather than real friends. Maybe part of this is the fact that I'm not an alcoholic, but it turns out that I have real friends who are just as happy to hang with me sober as when I am tipsy. Then I got an epic blowjob in Kerri's car before going home. Apparently I can go out and have a really fun night without drinking any alcohol I am considering maybe just not drinking again. I feel good, I look good, I have been productive. My blood pressure is way down, from 130 over 90 to 123 over 86. I rarely miss drinking. This has been great. Today I heard back from the director of The M1ller Center at UVA, which is the organization that handles the papers and recordings of a great many twentieth century American presidents. The Woodrow Wilson papers, the Nixon tapes, etc. He wants to host a screening of my film, which would be a really big deal. First, he wants me to come in for a small private screening for him and some other important people from the Center on December 13th. Then we'll talk about what the format of the big screening will be. This will do a few things at the same time. First, it is a way of setting up a big screening at UVA. Doing something through the normal activities budget and schedule would be tough to make happen in the next few months, because they already have that budget and schedule lined up for the spring semester. But the M1ller Center has their own separate budget and autonomy. Second, they can make this thing a big deal in terms of stature. They routinely bring in former secretaries of state and people of that kind of stature. They can have heavy hitters from government and politics come to this thing. And they can bring in press from major newspapers and magazines from all over the US, and internationally. It is the kind of thing that can lead to a lot of other events and speaking engagements. I had this thought last week while watching my kids play Monopoly that it would be cool to write an article about how to ch3at at M0nopoly. The kind of thing that would be fun to write and would probably have a viral week or so. And then I realized that I can't write that kind of thing anymore. I'm a serious investigative journalist now. When was the last time I went this long without alcohol? Probably when I was 17. Maybe 18? I didn't drink every day in college, but I definitely drank every week. Of course, I was also smoking pot at the time, which became an every-day thing for a while. Pot got so boring. I guess I seem to have some maybe once or twice a year now and 15 minutes later it's like, 'ok, I'm ready to not be stoned anymore.' I just have no interest whatsoever in being high on weed, even if someone was literally going to pay me to smoke it. I wonder if I might end up feeling the same way about alcohol. For the last 9 days I have been unabashedly sleeping in and resting a lot. If I don't have a morning appointment, I don't set an alarm. This is the ideal time of year for this. Ain't shit happening because everyone in the media world has mentally or physically checked out until early January. I figure that my job right now is resting and recovering from my mini-stroke and I don't feel bad about being a bit lazy. Of course, nobody in my family knows about it so they probably just think I'm super slack. 10:08 p.m. - 2017-12-06 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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