Turning 106 Together

[canyonwalker]

Hawk and I celebrated our joint 106th birthday on Saturday. No, neither of us is 106... but together we are! We had a party at our house. About 20 of our friends came.



This pic is from before the party, when Hawk and I finished setting up the table in the dining room. As friends arrived many brough food to fill up the table. As I look at how bare this photo looks I wish I'd taken a pic when the table was full of food... though it was hard to get anywhere close to it for a good picture with 20 people spread out between the the dining room, living room, and kitchen!

Hawk and I have been doing these joint birthday parties for over 10 years now (our first was in 2014). Looking back at my journal from that 2014 party one difference I see right away is how much booze we drank. In 2014 we knocked off five bottles of wine. Last night we drank only 2. And it would've been more like 1½ except I figured, "What a shame to let this go to waste," and tried finishing off the last half bottle after everyone had left. I gave up one glass from the end.

It's not like we went light on the wine because we were all drinking beer. I opened one bottle of beer last night. I'd thought about going beer shopping ahead of the party to have more on hand. I'm glad I didn't; it would've been a wasted effort! And it's not like we were all hitting the hard stuff, either. I poured maybe 4 shots worth of hard liquor.

What's changed? Partly it's age, partly it's people moving away. A number of people I enjoyed drinking with in years past weren't here last night.

Comments

[crazy_yet_fun]

Cheers! What a great idea!

I can definitely agree that the drinking seems to be going down. I wish I had less of an affinity for it. I’m sitting here on the computer for my snow day, and if I didn’t think it would look bad to my kids, I’d have a nice bottle of wine open, enjoying it as I read entries from such funny and interesting people. But I’m not, because Kevin is on dry January and I’d be the only one partaking. And to this generation, I’d look like a lush. Maybe I am. But I don’t need the side eye. I am making progress too though- I did the same thing you did. I had a friend over and when she left, there was about a glass remaining in the bottle. And I didn’t want to pour it out. I also knew it would piss me off the next day, pulling out a nearly empty bottle. So I poured it in my glass, thinking I’d just polish it off. But after I had the first sip, I thought ‘ “this is stupid. I don’t even want, much less need this.” And I poured it out. So there’s that.

[canyonwalker]

Among my friends I don't think it's side eye from our younger peers and adult kids that's shifting our habits. It's that as we're getting older, more and more people are citing health problems as the reason why they don't drink.

[crazy_yet_fun]

I agree. I take it more personally out of being defensive. I went through a really hard time when we moved to Texas and I dealt with it by overdrinking. My two boys never said anything about it, but I strongly feel judged my daughter, who doesn't drink at all, and who probably saw the worst of me. My husband thinks he is going to go mostly dry for health reasons after he finishes Dry January except for special occasions/events and a little when we are having friends over, what not. I am not in that place yet, and it is certainly possible that my own guilt at not doing that factors in.

[canyonwalker]

Because of what I studied in school and the industry I worked in I've always been surrounded by lots of people who don't drink. I don't feel defensive about it because I've always been in the minority. I do feel disappointment over the loss of camaraderie. Every year there are fewer and fewer takers when I say "Let's enjoy a drink together."

[crazy_yet_fun]

I still have a pretty good neighborhood wives network where drinking is the norm, and my best friend and I are quite compatible in quantity/how often we consume. I think that since my adult children have moved back in, I am hyper conscious of it, because I can just imagine a group text amongst my children discussing what a lush their mom is. But it hsn't caused me to stop, so I guess I'm not THAT worried! It is nice to have a drink with friends or co-orkers. It just is.