ABSTRACT
I gave up smoking in 2005. I gave up meat in 2008. But I held on to drinking, from expensive cocktails in Downtown Minneapolis to solid micro brews from Wisconsin to my own heavy-handed mixed drinks. I loved a glass of red wine after a day of grading, mojitos with homegrown mint in the summer, and the cloying sweet cherries mixed with bitters of a Manhattan. ere was one other thing I did not give up: birth control. en in 2010, Bill and I finally gave up condoms. I began to say goodbye to my alcohol drop by drop, as the rules about pregnancy and drinking were clear; new bottles of gin and whiskey sat on top of my fridge gathering dust. Summer 2011 came, and I did not make a mojito. Fall began and the jar of maraschino cherries sat untouched in the back of the fridge. e only upside to not being pregnant is you can keep drinking, but I lost my taste for it.
