Drinking And a 9–5 Job
A tired face, loud machines and heavy weights. That is how my Monday mornings started at 6:30 AM. I worked in a very physical demanding Job. Frustration, broken souls and bodies were very common among the coworkers. All the fun and exciting stories they would talk about involved alcohol. Can you see a pattern?
After the long and stressy days, all I wanted to do was to take a beer shower. That is what I did, especially on Fridays. After the work was finished and I jumped in my car, red-faced and bushed. I headed in the direction of a store to get my beer. I went to an extra beer store, where they had all sorts of different drinks. I was running around from shelf to shelf like a child in the candy-shop. All the diverse brands of beer, of course I knew which were the best and had the best taste. I thought of myself as some sort of connoisseur. Although at the end of the day, it was all the same dressed up differently. The amounts of beer I was getting were at least one crate with 24 bottles, sometimes two of them.
When I packed the crates in my trunk, I had a feeling of security and happyness. After greeting somebody I knew on the parking lot, it was time to leave. It was Friday. It was time to forget!
All I wanted to do now, was finding a drinking buddy, or driving home. Actually it didn’t matter, all that mattered was to open a bottle. Finally some freedom, finally some relaxation. Just don’t think about work or tomorrow. In retrospect this is not freedom at all, this is a vicious cycle.
At least I had a plan. The plan was to get drunk. At that time I did not realize, how far alcohol was keeping me down. Emotionally and in my career. I thought this was the right thing to do. Everybody was doing it. After all that hard work, I deserved it.
Alcohol is a very tricky beast, it never shows up the way it is. It told me all the stories. Not a single one of them contained the keywords “Addicted” and “Shit-Job”. Add the standards of society and the marketing for alcohol, and you have a perfect recipe for deception.
I am glad I could escape this cycle for now. Let us see for how long. I hope I can make some better decisions about my working environment and my consumption in the future.
More of my stories:
- How I Quit Alcohol / The Point I Decided To Quit (My first story)
- 6 Month Of Sobriety
- Beer Got Me Again
- I Will Never Drink Again
- Replacing Alcohol
