Not everyone drinks alcohol. So if you don't drink, it's often a good idea to bring your own drinks to a party. How do you make sure others don't take these drinks, especially since these are the only drinks you can consume?
Hi Lizzie and Dan,
I moved to New Orleans about a year ago and have made many, many wonderful friends. The one thing that sets me apart from my friends is I do not drink alcohol. When my friends have social gatherings almost none of them provide anything to drink besides alcohol and tap water. For this reason, I started bringing a few bottles of Pellegrino to drink and share at these events. The problem is I have found my Pellegrino can sometimes be too big of a hit and I don't get to consume more than a glass of what I've brought. I don't want to label one bottle for myself or stash one to side. I feel like that would make things uncomfortable, but the Pellegrino does provide a sometimes important buffer between myself and new people who are less comfortable with my not drinking. Any advice for what to do when the host doesn't provide nonalcoholic beverages but the ones you bring are consumed before you can get any?
Mia
The answer:
You said that you don't feel comfortable setting want to side or labeling your drinks with your name on it, but you should you to be confident in doing that. Talk to your host and say ‘hey I'm happy for these to be for everyone in my contribution to the party but I just want to make sure I save one for myself in the fridge because I find otherwise is it disappears and then I have nothing to drink.’ It's fine to explain this to people.
Something else to remember about this is that if you're at the party and you're someone who does drink and you notice somebody not drinking, asking about their drinking could a safe conversation to a really personal conversation. They could be pregnant not sharing the news yet or in recovery or it could be health-related, moral religious or anything in-between. Ultimately, it's not your business and you should be careful about starting this sort of conversation.
We hope that you have a blast down in New Orleans I truly hope that this situation gets a little bit easier for you.
