The 30 days ended on my birthday, September 23rd.

I celebrated my birthday with a party at my house. A lot of my friends showed up but I didn’t drink anything because I was too busy running around playing host and making sure everyone else was having a good time. It was a great party and I’m definitely lucky to have so many amazing friends.

I spent the next day wondering what to do now. I didn’t update the blog from day 20 on because nothing especially interesting happened. I had a few drinks here and there, had some interesting conversation, but nothing else worth mentioning. I found myself feeling like the experiment, while not necessarily a failure, wasn’t exactly a success.

I went into this hoping to have some sort of revelation or at least be more informed about alcohol and the reasons people drink. And while I can walk up to a bar and order a drink with confidence now I don’t feel like I got any further on the why.

So the short, uncomplicated answer is that this isn’t over. The last few weeks I’ve been thinking about how to proceed and whether or not I should drink. Instead of registering “90daysofdrinking.com” or something like that, I’m going to explore things on my own time. I don’t know exactly how long it will take, but my goal is to be proactive in getting an answer to some of the questions I have.

A lot of people showed support for me and helped me out during the 30 days and I really appreciate all of you - strangers and friends alike.

To answer a question I’ve received via email a few times: No, I did not throw up.

To be honest, I did very little that was in the realm of “letting go”, which I think is part of my problem. My sense of “control” over things is hard to toss away. I have too many responsibilities to my friends, my job, etc. I was unable to just drink myself mindless and deal with the next day when it came. Maybe I need to take some vacation time and try it then.

I promise I’ll keep you all informed and direct you to another venue where I’ll post my thoughts and keep you all updated on what’s happening. I don’t know if this is the proper place for it yet, but when there is one I’ll direct you to it.