1) Are there any good, cached buzzword phrases I can use that'll make it socially acceptable to not drink?
I suggest something along the lines of "Alcohol interferes with my medication" or "I'm allergic to alcohol". There are also many people that would accept the answer "It's against my religion", but it might invite annoying follow-up questions. "I'm a recovering alcoholic" also might get people to back off as well.
Actually, now that I think about it some more, something along the lines of "I'm the designated driver" or "I need to drive home" would probably work pretty well, too.
I probably would have used "I'm the designated driver" more often, except that I don't own a car, and am absolutely terrible at driving, and anyone who I'm going to meet more than the one time is eventually going to pick up on that. Also, the social functions I'm going to tend to happen in NYC, where driving just isn't an issue much at all.
Not sure what I think about "I'm allergic to alcohol," or any similar lie. Part of the issue is that I'm specifically missing out on business networking opportunities as well as friendship/dating opportunities, and people who I'm going to see over and over again will eventually notice the lie.
It's been over a year since I graduated from college, but only recently have I felt like I'm officially entering the "adult world." Navigating the social arenas of the adult world requires the same basic skillsets as the college world, but a lot of the rules are different and I'm struggling to learn them. Among them is how to drink socially.
As a general rule, I don't drink. I don't like the taste of alcohol. I don't like paying the exorbinant prices that alcohol costs. I don't like the feeling of my brain slowing down and making it harder to string sentences together. I don't mind the physical disorientation - that part's pretty fun. But that part also seems to be slightly frowned upon in an "adult" setting. I'm not opposed to it for any particular moral reasons.
When I do drink, I prefer to get it over with as fast as possible, whether I'm officially drinking a "shot" or not. In college that at least had a sort of "daring" quality that was respected. But it's pretty obviously taboo at classy cocktail parties and even somewhat taboo at "casual adult" parties.
So there's a few separate questions I have:
1) Are there any good, cached buzzword phrases I can use that'll make it socially acceptable to not drink? "I just don't like it" seems to draw disdainful stares, and while I haven't tried it I get the sense that saying I'm morally opposed to it would make me look even more like a stick in the mud. Saying "it's ridiculously expensive" makes me look like a cheapskate.
2) If I must drink socially, is there a breakdown of the general social conventions I should be aware of so I don't need to have them pointed out to me over the course of the next few years?
3) Is there any particularly interesting analysis of *why* drinking is so important to social interaction? Knowing the underlying causes might at least give me some better appreciation for why I have to learn this other than "because!"