One of the things that I’ve enjoyed getting involved in over the last year is trivia night. For a person who doesn’t watch television at all, I know an inordinate amount of information about reality TV! When I made the choice to quit drinking, I decided that I could still handle going to trivia night. These outings were never about alcohol for me (I wasn’t a “bar” kind of alcoholic), and it was always free because we won every week.

The last few weeks have me rethinking that this is a good idea.

Last week, the guy who used to host trivia came up to our table after being gone for a few weeks. He said that he was happy to still see some regulars, and told us that he stopped hosting trivia because he was “off the hooch”.

Now, my friends know that I gave up drinking, but this particular group of friends are friends that I’m not comfortable enough with to tell them why I’m not drinking anymore. They aren’t pushing for an answer, and I’m not jonesing to talk about it with them, so it’s a good medium at the moment.

One of my trivia friends commented when the ex-host walked away, “a bar is QUITE the place for an alcoholic to be…” Part of me wanted to reply something about “not all alcoholics drink in bars” or “life can’t stop because you’ve stopped drinking”, but I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.

Last night the same guy who made this comment the week before showed up after going to happy hour with co-workers and was three margaritas in when I arrived, a beer in hand. When the rest of the group showed up, a pitcher was immediately ordered and demolished. I sat drinking my soda water with lime and watched as my friends got wasted. I left shortly after the second pitcher was ordered.

Man, I like trivia. It’s a fun thing to do. And up until a few weeks ago I felt very comfortable being the only person not drinking, because it was a non issue for them and they never drank to a point where I was uncomfortable. But after the comment of last week and the behavior of last night, I don’t think this particular trivia arrangement is going to work for me.