The Whole Sobriety "Thing"

I received my first ever AA apology the other day. I didn't really expect to be on the list for this friend of mine, who's been in AA for a year and a half, but when he Facebooked me, I figured out what was up pretty quickly. I was kind of nervous about it, actually, since sobriety freaks me out, and the fact that sobriety freaks me out also freaks me out. It's weird to me that alky-hol is such a huge part of our 20-something culture, but what would I do without booze??

When he announced to me a while back that he'd quit drinking, it was in an almost giddy way. And it was in a bar. So maybe I didn't take it very seriously. I wonder if I ever take anyone's major life decisions very seriously, since I can't wrap my head around actually making such decisions in my own life.

We went out for coffee, had a normal conversation, until...

"So...I feel like I owe you an apology..."

"Ha! I knew it!"

"What? How did you know?"

"You're in AA. It's one of the steps."

In fact, I just looked it up, it's Step 9.

Talking to him made me feel a lot less weird about his whole sobriety thing. I've always been wary of dries, especially those who are part of an organization whose website has to have a little disclaimer about God:

Is A.A. a religious organization?
No. Nor is it allied with any religious organization.

There’s a lot of talk about God, though, isn’t there?
The majority of A.A. members believe that we have found the solution to our drinking problem not through individual willpower, but through a power greater than ourselves. However, everyone defines this power as he or she wishes. Many people call it God, others think it is the A.A. group, still others don’t believe in it at all. There is room in A.A. for people of all shades of belief and nonbelief.

It was refreshing to hear no disdain from him about the drunken state I was in the last time I saw him, drinking in general, or even past drinking he's done. He, like the infamous Cavin, has made a life choice that he recognizes to be extreme, and manages to take it seriously while also having a sense of humor about it. An admirable attitude, I think. And all I could do was act like a smartass.

It also made me think that I'd have a much more bangin' tankini bod' if I combined the working out with some booze cutback. But that seems unrealistic. I remember reading a quote from Billy Bob (who I find strangely attractive, yes) where he talked about how he worked out and ate well so that he could smoke and drink. I was like, "Boo yah, I eat well, I exercise, I can poison my liver as much as I damn well please." Isn't that how it works?