A Booze-Free Birthday and Bonus Bootcamp

Last weekend my husband and I managed to flee to NYC for 21 kid-free hours (but who was counting) to celebrate his birthday. We wandered, shopped, ate, talked, and reconnected in a way that is only possible when you are not being bombarded by tiny humans all day long. It was absolutely lovely.It was also the first milestone of my one year alcohol-free: a sober birthday celebration. At dinner, my husband had a glass of white wine with his salad and a glass of red with his steak. Besides a fleeting pang when he ordered that Sancerre, I felt confident not drinking and grateful to be experiencing an AF birthday dinner for the first time... since I was pregnant? Probably. With my own birthday coming up in a few months, this was a successful test round.And of course it was way more than that. It was everything the books and blogs and Instas say AF life can be. It was clear, authentic connection and contentment. It was romantic. It was reassuring. "Not only is this person still my best friend, but I love him now more than ever and our relationship is better than ever," were the cheesy but damn true thoughts going through my head.We talked about my choice to live a year without alcohol. Though my husband has always had an easy breezy relationship with booze, I can tell that he is really trying to understand where I'm coming from. He also accepts, without judgment, the fact that I view ditching alcohol as critical to the self-exploration I am feeling called to do right now. At one point, he used the word "rebirth" to describe my entrance into this new phase of my life - his word, not mine! It's a loaded term, but I think I'll try it on for size.So: wonderful, romantic dinner followed by a wonderful, romantic walk around downtown Manhattan. A perfect night, and I remember it all, blah blah blah. I'll pull the plug on the broken record of giddiness here. But it really was that real and good and lovely.Because this birthday celebration would not be a boozefest, I'd booked a bootcamp class at the new Peloton Tread studio on Sunday morning. My husband exemplifies the saying "boys and their toys" and has already put down a deposit on a Tread, so we had been meaning to get to a class and try it out. And even though we got our asses handed to us, we patted ourselves on the back (interesting visual, that) for actually being those people who included a bootcamp class in a romantic birthday weekend celebration. Good for us!I cannot remind myself enough of how far I have come. Not to toot my own horn, but to keep me motivated and focused and present and grateful. If I were still drinking, I probably would not have even booked that Peloton Tread class because of the expected hangover.I used to believe that alcohol was a necessary and integral part of a fun evening out. I believed this wholeheartedly. Because I didn't know any better. Because my subconscious had been wired that way. And that's the basis on which I operated personally, socially, romantically.When I first started this work, committing to Dry January and reading A Happier Hour and then This Naked Mind, I didn't believe Rebecca and Annie when they told me how much fun an alcohol-free social life can be. I wanted to believe them, but "sober" and "fun" just did not coexist in my book.Now, I'm a believer. I've drunk the un-spiked Kool-Aid and it tastes better than I ever thought possible. It's not only improving my body and mind; it's improving my marriage, too. Life is good AF.