I was planning on working on Yvonne’s belated xmas gift tonight, but instead she called me up practically begging me to come and play Settlers of Catan with her and Ursula. I said I would play Catan if we could also play my game, Conquest Beyond, and there was agreement. I also played a game called Abalone which was pretty good. I barely won that. This also seemed (impromptu-ly) to be the night where I broke my tea-totalling ways. I got a little drunk, just enough to feel it, and just enough to blurt out what I was making Y for xmas. I learned one thing: Pepsi & rum is disgusting. For anyone who doesn’t know, I haven’t been drunk since about 1991. I had a couple tiny tiny sips of a mixed drink in December of 2002 and I have been known to eat chocolates with liquour in them, but otherwise I have not touched a drop of alcohol in about 13 years. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but I probably won’t do it again for a while. I think it would probably only “feel right” in the company of close friends, and in a small group, at that. I would want to be already comfortable before I started drinking. I guess that’s normal, isn’t it? To have a drinking buddy or buddies? I would want to keep pace with who I was with – and I found myself trying to drink (or be drunk) no more or less than Yvonne. Ursula was also drunk to some extent but I wouldn’t had known had she not said so (having met her only 2 nights ago). Anyway, it was fun, and I hope I haven’t disappointed the world by breaking my passive vow of sobriety.

On the other hand, I don’t have to go through the rigamarole of explaining to people why I don’t drink anymore. Because I do! Can I say that? Can I say that I drink now? Or do I say that I am a non-drinker who recently had a few drinks? (Well, I didn’t finish my third one, but I digress.) How often and how much do I have to drink to be able to say that I am not a drinker? How long do I have to go without meat to be a vegetarian? How long do I have to go without smoking to say I’m a non-smoker?