When I knew I had to quit drinking, and before I did, I used to have excellent reasons to put off the inevitable. I’d start thinking about getting sober after January 1st, because you can’t possibly quit drinking during the holidays: what about red wine at Thanksgiving and mimosas Christmas morning? It’s a tradition. But then it was Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day and Fiona’s birthday and then it was summer, and there was no good time to stop the madness.

I am a pleasure seeker, and although my drinking made my life pretty miserable in the end, I still associate parties with “fun” and “fun” with drinking, even though that is nonsense (you explain it to my brain…). And what is more fun and full of hoopla than the summer? It seems to be the time people make the most excuses to not get sober.

Graduations, pool parties, weddings, boating, exotic vacations: summer is the time for those of us who do not drink to beware. And for those of you who are thinking of quitting drinking, to put it on the back burner until after your cousin’s baby shower (who can say no to a chardonnay fountain, right?).

Here’s the deal: there is no “good” time to quit drinking. There will always be the booze cruise or the bachelor party for your best friend. As inconvenient as early sobriety can be, think of it this way: you may have to leave early from the buzzed barbeque or say “no” to the pontoon-boat beer-fest, but everyone will understand.

God knows, your kids would rather have you safe in a treatment center or at a meeting or drinking boring, old gassy water, then making a huge fool of yourself by falling down on the dock wearing a stolen, gold braided captain’s hat or insisting loudly that the DJ at your daughter’s high school graduation party, play “The Electric Slide” (I have not done either of those things).

I still love this song (and I am seriously good at it…)

http://https://youtu.be/-mOY2eWO2qw