Happy Hallowe'en!

Not something any of us will be doing tonight!

Today is an important day for me for several reasons. Hallowe'en has traditionally been a very busy time for me as I'm usually organising parties for various kids of all ages up to 55, or at the very least hiding behind my front door dressed as something unspeakably scary, ready to jump out on the trick or treaters.

This year, however, 31 October is not only Hallowe'en, but also my 31st day with no alcohol. I'm going out for a drink tonight - DIET COKE!!! - and I know I'm not going to blow it, or be swayed in any way. Right now, I have no desire to drink alcohol. I'm going out to meet some people I've never met before, so they won't know me as 'someone who likes a drink' and will accept me, without question, as someone who doesn't drink.

Tonight also marks the last night of freedom for a while because, as you will see from the link on the right, tomorrow is the first day of National Novel Writing Month, so I shall have my head down over my keyboard at every available opportunity. It's going to be a good month to (continue to) stay sober because I don't drink when I'm writing - I write rubbish if I do! And I'm going to meet fellow NaNo writers tonight to generally talk about how we're going to manage to juggle family, jobs and 50,000 words before 30 November. Usually the idea of meeting brand new people would have me heading for a stiff drink beforehand, but not today, not when I've been doing so well.

I thought, a month ago when I embarked on this 'trial run', that by the end of it I'd really be 'dying for a drink' and that I'd have lined up a nice quiet evening for myself where I could finish off the bottle of rum I pushed to the back of the cupboard 31 days ago. In fact, the rum will stay where it is and I shall carry on.

And it will be very nice not to feel the way I usually feel after a Hallowe'en party with my friends: (and here was going to be a great, seasonal picture, but for some reason Blogger doesn't want me to be greedy and have 2 pictures on my post ...)