This past July I celebrated 20 years of continuous sobriety. I came through the back doors of a program that is designed for friends and family members who have a problem with somebody else’s drinking and then about two or three years into it realized that I was one too. My denial was really, really high for a number of reasons. First of all, I was what you might call a high-bottom drunk. That meant that I could get pretty tipsy on not very much liquor, beer or wine and usually, I’d drink past my capacity trying to keep up with my drinking friends and end up making donations to the porcelain god throughout the night, always waking up with a horrendous hangover in the morning.

It is so nice to be at the beach and to be sober if for no other reason than to not feel sick. But the allure of alcohol is everywhere seducing us from billboards to outdoor cafes to radio ads with the come hither viewpoint of a cold one that will hit our spot just right. I gotta confess that even after these many years of so many miracles and gifts in my life from not drinking, every once in a while I can find that addict part of my brain pining for what never was. Like tonight in a little Italian restaurant we went to off of a side street in the older section of Galveston, the glasses of red wine were calling me name and then the bread drizzled with butter and garlic added in its melody and there was a veritable symphony happening right in my own head. And then spirit decided to send one of those red wine drinkers to the bathroom just as I was finishing up washing my hands and I got to hear her talking a little bit too loudly as she jostled the door handle a couple of times. On my way out, she acknowledges me with that false intimacy that sometimes comes along (at least it always did with me) after two or more glasses of vino. No thank you.

And not that there is anything the matter with drinking for those people who can drink and be normal like I have never been able to do. In fact some of my best friends are scuba diving party people in the most fun way and I’m right along with them getting silly on my sparkling water. I just recognize myself in those people like the woman outside the Ladies Room tonight and it makes me glad that I don’t have to live like that anymore.

So, yeah, it is possible to actually enjoy the beach without a beer or margarita to help smooth out the time. I’m not even doing caffeine right now so there is pretty much nothing between my experiences and me. I have noticed that by gum those negative ions pouring off of the waves from the ocean have mellowed me out considerably and the chatter in my brain has smoothed out to the sound of the surf flowing in and out. Maybe some of the time I’m not the party animal that I was in the past but I was able to stay out in the ocean for a heck of a long time with my niece as we patiently tried to catch a wave on our boogie boards.

For those of you who do drink, enjoy a cold one for me and for those of you who don’t, yes, it is very possible to have a really enjoyable time at the beach and be as sober as the day you were born.