Aselin

I started drinking when I was four. My parents held a hip office party in our home, and I was allowed to be a cute, pajama clad attendee - who was unattended.

With the libations flowing freely, I was able to gather a collection of corks. Corks can bring hours of entertainment to the right people. I know a guy who does a cool magic/party trick with a couple of corks. As an inventive four year old I built structures and fortresses with my cork collection. The best discoveries are often the result of accidents, and as one of my taller towers fell, one of the corks landed in someone’s drink.

Unseen, I extracted the soggy floater with my less than clean hand, licked the cork off and resumed building. The next building toppled, some of the corks fell on the floor - so I decided they must be cleaned off and dipped them in the unwatched drink of a nearby guest. Again, I fished the bobbers out with hands I had crawled on the floor with, licked the corks and my hands and went back to work.

Soon my attention span had been spent and I began wandering around the party, cork in hand. Entertaining myself I dipped the cork in any unattended drink I could find, fished it out and licked it off. My little ritual was very entertaining, and because I was so short, it went unnoticed for quite a while.

Long enough that I started to not feel so good. Long enough that when I was finally discovered partygoers thought it had just begun. Long enough that after being forced to ‘say goodnight’ I toddled out of bed and threw up in the bathroom sink. I still remember how yucky it felt.

Having hit rock bottom, I vowed then and there I would get sober. And while I admit, there have been a number of times when I’ve been tempted to go off the wagon... usually motivated by my family, to date, I’ve been 13,145 days sober, give or take a day or two.