I’m looking forward to a few drinks tonight.
“You going out?”
“Nope, I’m staying in.”
“Oh, got company?”
“No, it’s just me.”
“Ohhh…”
I do like a drink. I do like a drink when it’s just me. I’ll happily sink a bottle and a half of wine, or toss down a few vodkas when I’m home alone, and just chill.
“If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses. And what can this tell you about American culture? Well, look at the drugs we use. Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.”
― Bill Hicks
Some people think it odd when I tell them that I enjoy a drink by myself. Some people think that alcohol should only be consumed when in company. I absolutely disagree. There is something quite basic about drinking alone. I can sit, watch what I want, play games if I choose, tweet, write, sing along to music. I can do whatever I choose.
Drinking with company doesn’t afford you such freedoms. Drinking out in bars with company affords you even less. Drink what’s socially acceptable or what everyone else is drinking, pace yourself, match the consumption of the peer group, leave the bar you are enjoying and the music you are enjoying, engage in banal conversation about girls, jobs, money, fitba.
I do enjoy a bit of a booze. I enjoy coming home from work and being able to open a bottle of wine or have a small / medium / large vodka. I like getting drunk. I enjoy the feeling. I don’t fight with people, destroy or damage property. I don’t go out and cause trouble. I don’t drive. I know my limits.
So when people raise an eyebrow over my personal and (until now) private drinking habits; when they pity me for drinking alone; I just smile and get on with it. Pour myself another drink, write down some words, and sing along to my favourite songs. Because I’d much rather be relaxing with my own company, with a nice bottle of wine, than pouring pints down my neck in a pub where I cannot hear myself think, where teenage boys are vying for the attention of a tangerine coloured platinum creature, and inebriates want to fight each other.
I’ll stick to my harmless personal drinking time.
