Alcohol-Free August, Weekend 1

well, weekend 1 of Alcohol-Free August is now behind me, and I think that was the toughest – hopefully it will only get easier from here. As I mentioned last week, I was getting pretty psyched to begin, and thought I had a great list of potential activities (especially thanks to all your suggestions). But I’m not going to lie, when Friday night rolled around, it was hard to come up with something fun to do! It seems like the summer movies this year haven’t really been all that great (although I’m considering giving Celeste and Jesse Forever a shot this weekend – has anyone else seen it?), and while I cooked up a pretty yummy (and healthy!) dinner, it didn’t take all that long to do so. What to do with the rest of the night?

Apparently go to bed early. While friends who forgot that we were alcohol-free kept waking us with texts and calls to come out to this bar or that bar. Did I mention how cool I am? On the plus side, I woke up feeling incredibly well-rested on Saturday morning – hooray for getting 10.5 hours of sleep! Greatist recently published an article about how people who sleep less drink more, but I would also like to throw out there that the converse is probably true too: people who drink less also sleep more. Sample size of one, right here!

Along the same kind of lame lines, I was glad I got some rest, because we spent Saturday morning rearranging my apartment. To quote Old School, “Actually a pretty nice little Saturday; we’re going to go to Home Depot.” (Or the NYC version, my local hardware store.) “Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that.” (Replace wallpaper and flooring with lightbulbs, coaxial cable, and butterfly bolts.) “Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond… I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.” (I did not have time for a trip to BBAB, but that’s now on the docket for next weekend. EXCITING STUFF.)

The result? I was sorry we missed getting out more in the gorgeous (albeit sticky hot) summer sun, but I love how much nicer my bedroom is – we basically flipped it around so now when I’m lying in bed, I can watch the boats go by on the Hudson (Pleasant! Relaxing!) instead of watching my neighbors watch TV (Creepy!). Because, you know, I spent a ton of time lying in bed just looking out the window. (But I just may start now.)

The other positive of spending all day acting like suburban homebodies was that by nighttime we were stir crazy – so we actually mustered up the energy to check out an improv show at The Pit. The show we picked was two teams competing in musical improv, and the topics shouted out by the audience were “bacon” for the first musical (I particularly enjoyed the opening number, which featured a chorus of pigs lamenting about how “we’re gonna wallow”) and “Pokemon” for the second. While I know nothing about Pokemon, it turned out that only one of the performers knew anything about it too, so pretty much the entire show was him throwing out some Pokemon term and then the other actors desperately jumping on that and trying to make it work. Wasn’t Pokemon a relic of 10 year olds in the last 90s? Apparently Saturday night comedy shows with no drink minimums do not attract the same people I normally hang out with, but I had a really good time nonetheless.

Sunday, though, was the highlight of my weekend – and I established a few rituals that I hope continue long after my Saturday night drinks go back to being intoxicating. We got up at 5:30am and headed to a nearby 24 hour diner, where we met Theodora, Leticia, and Abby to watch the women’s Olympic marathon. No spoilers in case you still have it queued up in your on demand list, but it was such an exciting race, and such perfect motivation to get us ready for our 11.5 mile long run! Theodora, Boyfriend, and I headed down the East River, around “just the tip” (ha) of Manhattan, and then back up the Hudson River to my apartment. The scene there was pretty swanky, let me tell you, as we promptly collapsed on my floor while I tried to be hospitable without having to do anything more strenuous than provide iced green tea and Nuun. (Sorry, Theodora – I promise better refreshments next time.) But in good news, marathon training season has begun!

Getting back into that running ritual felt so good, and since Laura and Boyfriend are both using the training plan I put together, I’m starting to feel compelled to follow it as well. Yes, that means running more than once a week! Perhaps this inspiration also comes from the fact that this week I started reading Scott Jurek’s Eat and Run, which has been incredibly inspiring from both a diet and exercise perspective. Maybe it’s time to make running more a part of my ritual and try for a fast time at Wineglass Marathon in September?? With a dry month leading up to it and running taking over, all signs point to go!