Day 11
Cooking is a thing I enjoy and yet it has lately been reduced to a marathon session to get food prepared and on to the stove to simmer while I went back to the patio for my 2nd glass of wine.
Today I started the meal in the same hurried fashion, stressing out when I realized “I still have to simmer the peppers!! I’m not going to wrap this up in 10 minutes! “.
Then I remembered that THERE WILL BE NO WINE ON THE PATIO. And I took a breath and relaxed and simmered the goddam peppers.
And I enjoyed my cooking, snipped parsley from the garden, sautéed my aromatics and gently stuffed my little pepper babies.
It was a liberating feeling to know that I was allowed to slow down and just be in the culinary moment.
I think it’s worth it to stop and simmer our metaphorical peppers.
Here are some things I’m going to try to do:
• Spend time chatting with people at work even if I don’t like them. If you are a coworker and you are reading this I CLEARLY don’t mean you- you’re awesome!
• Pet cats more. My cats. Ok, all cats.
• Discontinue hermit like behavior and reach out to friends for fun sober activities (bingo??)
• Put more thought into daily wardrobe rather than slithering into 1 of 11 identical back t-shirts without bothering to turn light on
• Get up earlier and wash and style ridiculously long hair rather than tossing it up into vaguely Edwardian bun.
suburban betty- clean & serene 
I started doing my hair when I stopped drinking too. No more desperate pony tails!
It's amazing how quickly your skin and eyes take on a healthy glow, so having nice hair feels so good.
Some people find cooking in early sobriety triggers them. You may find adding a special non alcoholic drink helps with the empty hand feeling.
Beautiful dinner!
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Thanks Anne! Right now my biggest trigger is “4pm”, when I'm thinking about the wine/patio combo on my drive home from work.
I agree about finding a satisfying substitute that I can start to look forward to so I'll start thinking about what that might be. Unfortunately, when I'm trying not to drink my goto is something sugary with caffeine in it, so I'll need to be creative. Any ideas?
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Hi Betty and welcome to the blogosphere! I'm loving simmering those peppers ;-). You're doing great, and I love your writing. SM x
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Thank you very much, sobermummy. I deal with problems like I deal with my enemies: by making fun of them. I'm loving that you wonderful gals are out there typing your hearts out and sharing your journeys. Yay us!
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Oh, vaguely Edwardian Bun. I just can’t quit you.
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Yah and it’s still a thing. I’m thinking about getting it all chopped off next week so I can move into the Roaring 20’s.
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DON’T DO IT! Anachronistic hair forevah!
Actually…I have been contemplating sexy 40-something hair for a while. I think I’m going to do a long Balayage style, ombre. I’m not calling you ombre. That’s the style.
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No way!! I, too, have the ombre, Hombre!
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