Made it to the weekend

I'm exhausted, as if I've been wrung out. Yesterday (Friday) I felt distracted, a bit fuzzy, not unlike the feeling you get when withdrawing from caffeine. I also had a few bitches at colleagues (sorry, guys). I've also got some spectacular spots. Is it the (lack of) drink?

I wonder. Mitigating a direct correlation between these symptoms and my booze fast, I'm also premenstrual (sorry squeamish chaps) and it was likely to be a stressful week in the office, which panned out as I'd expected - it was stressful! One of those weeks where, short of staff, you have to fill in, which gets you even more behind schedule. You can't blame anyone except perhaps your bosses at head office, but that is another blog. My husband told me I've been grumpy, but then he often does.

Thursday I also went to my first dinner event sans vin. It was ok, pleasant event and I walked confidently home. It was a relatively sober event at any rate - lots of discussion about an upcoming charitable event to raise money for breast cancer. Mainly posh and/or well to do women there, which is inevitably a type which doesn't, in my experience, drink alcohol in vast quantities - at least not in public.

As my job often calls upon me to 'work the room', I find I use alcohol as method of lubricating my way from social interaction to interaction. One of my husband's favourite jokes about the difference between us - I'm North American and he's British - is that to him a room full of strangers is something to be avoided at all costs, while for me a room full of strangers is a room full of potential friends.

But I do fear sometimes that I might find the chatter dull, vacuous, pointless unless I've got a glass of something in my hand and a good idea how to fill it when it is empty. There is something about it to my mind like a nervous reflex - empty glass bad. My first email about this blog (sent to its dedicated email address 40daysinthewilderness@gmail.com) was from S, a fellow connoisseur of a nice bottle of red, who said she gave up drinking for a time and found herself bored. Thanks for the suggestion, S, I probably will need a hobby. For now, it's this blog! I won't be out all hours drinking - I was home by 10pm on Thursday for example.

Out to meet a girlfriend for lunch, and rather than stay at the pub (it's happened to us a few times) we might even hit a gallery or museum. One point for culture.