I wish I had more substantial things to say here, but I don’t. I think/feel like I’ve lost some weight as well, but I’m not gonna jump the gun.

My big test is coming this weekend though! First week of NFL action and he’ll even the first REAL round of college games. If Georgia loses (and there is a real chance of that against both Carolina AND Arkansas I may NEED to drink!

I got hit with the triple whammy today. I grilled today out at Baby J’s place at the pool..surrounded by her drunk redneck neighbors and I really wanted to ask them to toss me a cold one. And when the guy walked by with margaritas I wanted to ask him to pour me up one. But I didn’t. Not only that, it’s Heather and Geoff’s birthday and EACH and EVERY year I do a shot for them, this year I’m putting it off til October 6th. Then hearing about my classmate REALLY made me want to drink something. There isn’t a drop in this new place though. And you know what, I’ll be alright.

Tell someone you love them…..

Tomorrow…should be the hardest day for awhile….Labor Day…and I’m gonna help with grilling….pray for me….

I went to Olive Garden last night with my godson, his mom, and my friend Jeralyn.  Honestly I didn’t want anything there.

Today I went to the bowling alley and watched some college football and THAT was when I coulda used a pitcher of beer! By the time I got to red robin though I was good.  Of course I’m meeting J again and she wants “beer and wings” specifically.

Now I know how non-drinkers feel around me.

I met my boy Jeff out at Buffalo Wild Wings, still kinda struggling with my nagging stomach ailment (it just won’t go away, if I weren’t a doctor I’d probably go see one at this point). He ordered a beer and suggested one for me because of the special that was going on and then I hit him with the bombshell of this challenge.

Now I gotta tell you, pretty much 2-3 times a week lately I’ve been going to Jeff’s house with at least a six pack of beer for some video games/True Blood/general kicking it, so my little project here is going to surely have an impact there, and probably be my most significant (or at least consistant) challenge throughout the thirty days, but at least I know it’s going to be tough. What’s the old saying about the Devil you know versus the devil you don’t know?

I have another challenge I’ll be dealing with this weekend, the drinking as a coping mechanism challenge…..I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

Each 30 day period I will give up one of my guilty pleasures/vices. The first few I have planned are alcohol, the n-word, and red meat.

I will be blogging here (as well as my facebook) on a daily basis as I struggle (or not) with giving up one of my vices for (at least) 30 days. At the end of the thirty day period I’ll evaluate whether I’m guilty (if I’ll resume the habit) or not guilty (if I’ll make an effort to give it up for good).

So alcohol….I mean if you know me, you know I am a drinker. I recently bought a keg to celebrate the end of my 9 years in the Meharry Towers. All of my closest friends drink, this is going to be tough, but I’m not one to shy away from a challenge. My last drink was actually Tuesday night out of said keg, so now I have you hypothetical readers to hold me accountable.

I have some tough moments coming up, Labor Day weekend, quite a few friend’s birthdays, hell just the weekend in general….but this is something I really want to do.

Follow along on the journey!

Pretty much says it all right now….I mean I’m prepared at this point to go on with life….I don’t necessarily need someone right now….but at the same time….

Yeah who knows….but I guess I’m no longer feeding myself the delusion that there is a future there….anything more than what it is right now anyway….whatever that is….

I pride myself on being a renaissance man, a man for all seasons, and I give him a large amount of credit for that! He was the first REAL example of that I ever knew. He could talk about the Beatles and flow right into UGK, he could talk about a Woody Allen film and seemlessly weave the conversation into a discussion on Friday. You name it, Joe could talk about it and with out pretense.

He’s a man of the people, he has more people who love him than anyone I know about. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he IS Morehouse. He is who Benny Mays and Howard Thurman and the countless other architects of my alma mater had in mind when they envisioned what a Morehouse man should be.

When you talk about movies, you mention Kevin Bacon as the common linker, at Morehouse it’s Joe. People who would not likely otherwise be friends will likely have him in common (much to my chagrin lately). And still like the cool diplomat, Joe can maintain friendly relations with both. I wish I had the diplomacy, I bet Barack would too if he knew Joe.

I know this might be a bit much to some people if they were to read it….like, “Get off that man’s D”…but then again they probably don’t Joe, so they wouldn’t understand!

I’m doing a better job of not saying every little thing that comes to mind also….see how long that lasts….