I have allergies, and as such, a cough. I drink some cough syrup, which contains, alcohol. Go to the store, get cough drops without sugar or menthol, they contain, sugar alcohols. ;P

So, of course, guess that means I'll never get my one year poker chip, if I was worried about things like that. :D

As for killing a fifth of booze in one night, and chasing it with a couple of 40oz bottles of beer, nah, not gonna be doing that again. Or working my way through most of a 30 pack, or helping drain a keg all day, and chasing it with cheap champaign. Many many stories like that.

The ideal thing is, to keep most of those in the past, and get away from the trend of drinking just about every night, or in spare time, or when bored, because you have a bad mood, etc.

Some people, one drink, and it's like humpty dumpty fell off the wall, and into a pool of vodka. Well, that's not the booze, it's the clockwork of the brain that says, booze will make it feel better, solve the problems of the moment. And then it'll solving every little problem. Til you wake up with no money, everyone is pissed at you, and you've become a social outcast. Whoops!

Job problems? Yeah, booze will solve that. Numb yourself out, and 5 years down the road, you get laid off because the company has crapped out. You look back, and it's all groundhog day, wake up, get on the bus, go to work, come back, eat, drink a few beers, get home, drink, watch tv, pass out, wake up, over and over and over.

Of course, a few moments of relative sobriety when you have to revert back to cheap 24oz cans of beer, sift through your change pile for $2-$3 a night, and wake the mind up enough to BS your way through interviews, and non-routine crap.

Then you think, well, that's kind of been the way of things since around college, not just the last 5 years. Whoops!

Get another job, and soon enough, back into the pattern. A few 18 hour days, need something to kill the aches of the day, and get to sleep. Not exactly a relapse, but re-establishing a pattern. Habitual use, then a few binges, etc, etc.