It’s quite odd. For as long as I can remember, being with my Dad meant beer (usually Coors Lite)… by the case. One after another after another, all night long.

And yet when I was with my Mom, there was always a bottle of some type of whine (usually a White Zin) in the fridge, but it would sit there for years on end, unopened.

Then I turned 21, and started drinking at home. It started off with just me, feeling a tad out of place drinking my beer with dinner on a pretty regular basis¹. One night I get home and decide to mix it up. There were several bottles of wine accumulating in the fridge², and I decided to crack one open. My mom comes home just as I’m cleaning up the mess I made from my first attempt at the use of a cork-screw, and asks whether I’m stealing her muscadine wine. I tell her I’m not sure, I didn’t pay attention, so she takes a sip of mine and tells me nope, that’s not it. She proceeds to open another bottle and pours me a glass of it to taste, along with one for herself. Not bad, I thought… While I finish the rather unpleasant glass I’d poured from the first bottle, she finishes her glass of the Muscadine and pours another. On with dinner and a typical night…

The next night, we repeat almost the same process. I had enjoyed the Muscadine wine from the previous night, and decided that after a rough day, I deserved another glass. She comes home while I’m sitting in the recliner in the living room listening to some soft jazz³ and sipping my wine and accuses me of drinking up all her Muscadine wine, and proceeds to finish off the bottle herself.

Since then, it’s been an odd progression. Now several nights a week, we’ll each have a glass of wine. Sometimes I’ll substitute mine for something else⁴, but it’s become a bit of a ritual. Whether anyone else is home or not, we’ll get home after a hard day⁵ and have a glass or two of wine. We’ve also started buying a variety of wine whenever we’re out. If she happens to run to the grocery store one night, she’ll pick up something that looks appealing. Similarly, if I’m at Greens picking up something⁶, I’ll check out whatever they have in one of their mid-aisle displays and see what I see that might be good and grab a bottle.

Now, I know a lot of friends whose families are just drinking families. Some are more sophisticated and enjoy a glass or two of wine with dinner after a day at the office. Others are quite a bit more liberal, cracking open a beer as soon as they enter the door and not stopping until bed. Then there are those more conservative⁷ families (like ours usually was) where alcohol is rarely used⁸. It’s just been a bit of an adjustment for me, getting used to having someone else in the house drinking.

I suppose I’m just a tad worried. Is this how it starts? Am I slowly on my way to becoming an alcoholic? If it becomes a daily ritual to have a glass (or two, or three) of wine a night, is that the first step? When do you start to worry about your alcohol consumption? When you hit a 6-pack a night or a bottle a night? Two? Three? Or is it more focused on whether or not you could go without it or not? Don’t most alcoholics belive that they could stop drinking on a regular basis if they wanted to?

So tell me… Do you drink on a regular basis? If so, how much? Have you ever felt that you drink too much? Do you think I should be at all worried about my current level of drinking, or do you think it’s a normal level thus-far? Are there indications that I’m crossing the line into alcoholism? I honestly don’t think I am, and don’t think I ever will. Still, being the type of introspective, analytical type of person I am, I constantly wonder about these things. Is it really so bad to need two or three glasses of wine (or beer, etc.) a night to relax after work? I mean, if that’s what it takes to keep from flipping out and making a mistake⁹, is it really such a bad thing? Sounds more like a bargain to me…

But that’s why I’m here, pouring out my slightly-inebriated thoughts on my blog… I know there are far greater sources of wisdom out there than I can offer, so I ask you… What do you think?

1. Probably three or four nights a week on average. [↩]
2. Several people had gone on vacation and brought back bottles of wine as a gift. [↩]
3. The first one to call me a sissy gets a swirly in my bubble bath. [↩]
4. Generally beer. Tonight I stopped and picked up a 6-pack of Woochuck Cider for a slight combination of the two concepts. [↩]
5. And which days aren’t hard? It seems like it just keeps getting worse. I can’t help but think this company is going to start losing people over it, and that spells real trouble. [↩]
6. Like my ever-faithful Budweiser – by the case. [↩]
7. I call them prudes [↩]
8. Typically only at company parties and the like. [↩]
9. Like quitting your job in a fit of rage, or decking that asshole in Marketing. [↩]