I haven't been on MIP for all that long, so I don't know how often this syndrome gets addressed?! Sober here 5 years, 4 months.......well, my relationship to sporting events has changed since I opened myself up the MIP!! Use to be a great excuse to get loaded...if my team won, lost or tied, heck a rain-out would also be an opportunity to get loaded!! Don't know if this happened to any of you folks here......hehehe?! Couple times, blacking out and wandering around a sports venue until I came to walking somewhere?! My dream walking was sooooooooooooo dangerous. Having my binoculars disappear once.......getting picked up for public intoxication a couple times.......geeting a ride home from some officers who rooted for the same team----sooooooo, they gave me a break that time!! Win, lose, draw, or anything was an excuse for me to get tanked!! Now, my relationship with sports is healthier----win, lose, draw or any outcome I can be satisfied-----because I'm sober. Booze and fans is a bad mixture. Fights, violence---fanatic behavior basically!! Booze, fans and alcoholics is even worse in my opinion!! And from my experience. Now, the wins are sweater, the loses are chances to hope for a better result next time----or to learn from them!! Alcoholism, cunning, powerful and baffling-----some people actually feel like they feel so much more when tanked?! Feel the emotions, creativity......right---in my opinion it just numbs it all-----but, that's just my opinion. The crying drunk, the angry drunk, the lover drunk, and the ever enthusiastic fan drunk.......the acting drunk, the musician drunk, the artistic drunk........ Guess there are as many drunks as there are things to do......... Nice to do things much better today because of MIP!!
My very first recreational drink of alcohol was sports related.
Up until that time, I had tasted beer and had sips of the communion wine at church, that was it. I was in college, living in a dorm, just turned 18. I was one of the few guys on the floor with a TV. So I became popular quickly - certainly for no other reason. Some guys wanted to watch a basketball game - not even ours. They said we'll bring the beer. I said ok. Took me about an hour to drink the one nasty tasting beer.
Several more times I struggled through a nasty tasting beer, never getting even so much as a slight buzz from it. I really was thinking this alcohol stuff is overrated. Then one night I did get a buzz, and I was off and running.
Used to drink at the basketball games on campus - back then students got in for free. We used to also show movies... 16mm films of various popular titles including some porno films LOL. You weren't allowed to bring alcohol in to the movies, but a lot of guys were wearing thick winter coats when it was 75 degrees outside. After the movie was over, the hall would be littered with empties. I remember watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and wanting to see the stargate light show while drunk. I succeeded except I don't remember any of it... LOL. That time we put cafeteria chairs up on a table and sat on them so we could be up high next to the projectionist. Bad idea for a bunch of drunks up on folding chairs up on a folding table.
For me it's live music concerts, big or small. I've tried, and so far the distraction of the craving was too much and I had to get out. Too bad. I work in radio and get lots of free tickets to stuff and end up giving them away to clients or friends. Not so bad I suppose, but man, I miss that special groove of feeling the music live. Fortunately, I can still enjoy chamber music live. I love string quartets. But reggae, jazz, blues, bluegrass, funk, R&B, punk and the rest are too much for me right now. Too bad. There's a LOT of great punk & bluegrass acts around right now.
Maybe next year. Until then...I look forward to the local college's orchestral season at their performing arts center.
Live Sports? Never much cared for them. View from the TV was always better than any seats I could afford.
