Dry ideas

...

Sex

Surprise anal.

Pretty much anything except hanging out in a bar.

Make them your designated driver so you can still get bombed.

Seriously, I am in the exact same situation. My friend is currently hospitalized for an alcohol-related disorder and he can never drink again. I plan to do the exact same things except not go to bars or drink around him. The most helpful thing is to make sure you are not enabling him in any way by having alcohol around when you're with him, and let him decide what he wants to do. He might say he's fine with people drinking but wait until he has many months of sobriety before you take him at his word. People trying to stay sober need to know you still enjoy their company without booze (even though you might miss the booze a little yourself).

r5 I'm in the same club as you. Now that I'm middle-aged there are a few people in my social circle who've given up booze for various reasons. Having get-togethers in each others' homes (with no alcohol) and good food is always a good idea.

Movies, art galleries, concerts, restaurants, plays, museums - I mean, outside of a bar, pretty much EVERYTHING?

Have you tried edibles OP?

r7 restaurants can be tricky with people who are trying to stay sober. You get a table and everybody around you is drinking, and the bar is in plain view just a few steps away.

R7 add to the equation: "Hell is other people"... then do you like going out to movies, art galleries, concerts, restaurants, plays, museums?

I like the hanging out at others' houses idea. Restaurants and movies, concerts are almost always ruined by the others around. Maybe art galleries or plays are not ruined, because mostly you have to shut up in them. You'd think that would be true at concerts - it's not.

Book club for two? Husband and I do it inadvertently sometimes. But we still drink a bit.

Do volunteer work.

Pulling nose and ear hairs as a combat game.

Actually... golf? tennis? pickle ball? dancing?

Movies, bowling, home cooked meal, bubble tea.

Meth bender.

Clam-Shucking! 🤗

Macrame

Nothing beats a good old-fashioned nut-loaf bake followed by some cape twirling.

420?

Going to the theatre.

“Treasure Hunting” involves antique stores, thrifts, flea markets, jumble, and estate sales. Consuming second-hand goods together is fun.

Gardening - although this one goes with weed - you can visit gardens, host a garden work party, volunteer to help someone with their garden, just pay for gardening magazines and sit around reading them without having to do shit.

Jesus, do people really find this THAT difficult.

show tunes

You can braid each other's ass hairs.

As long as he’s not a former heroin shooter, crochet and knitting are excellent group activities. You could have cream sherry in a decanter and point to it at various times while say, “there’s booze, but not for Gary!” You are a cunt.

Waterskiing

Cribbage

Fifteen two, fifteen four, plus three...

r5 and r6, thank you for your posts. Until about 7 months ago, I was a "high functioning" alcoholic until I found myself in the hospital for >5 weeks with nearly complete liver and kidney failure. With hepatic encephalopathy, I was basically paralyzed from the waist down and had to re-learn how to sit up and walk. due to additional medical complications, I am/was not qualified for a liver transplant. The medical team referred me to Palliative care when I was finally discharged. In the last five months, I've made an excruciatingly slow, but completely unexpected partial recovery thanks to total abstinence from alcohol and as many other toxins as possible. For the kidneys, am on a strict low sodium, low sugar, diet.

My palliative care and hepatology docs along with my partner are my biggest cheerleaders. Have quit drinking at many times over the decades, but this is it. Being at death's door has made it easy to stay sober this time. 7 months and counting. Have only recently begun to socialize again. Everything used to involve drinking with friends or family. I'm OK being around light drinkers, but I just can't tolerate being around drunks anymore, even though that was my partner and I only recently. There are many friends of ours who actually only drank when they were around us, as it turns out! They're happy to do something else.

Having friends like you can rally make a difference. r5, I hope your friend fully recovers. For them, it's really a choice between choosing to drink and dying horribly or not.

Good for you, r30! A close friend had a liver transplant and it has been a tough road. I'm glad you're recovering without one.

Are you the OP looking for things to do? Basically anything you like to do and used to do can be done without drinking. If you're uncomfortable around people who drink excessively and they know how it makes you feel and they continue to do it, avoid socializing with them.

Go-karts!

Throwing stale bread at pigeons

Crank calling MAGA businesses

Sending turds by mail to the Federalist Society

Attending college wrestling meets. Dressing like you’re a college wrestler - with the cool high tops and dressing your friend as the pregnant teen girlfriend of a college wrestler - he should have the Karan wig that makes him look like a guinea pig. Basketball for baby bulge.

Have you considered chaperoning him to open recovery meetings? Non-alcoholics are allowed to attend those without too much hassle.

Bicycling. Coffee Shops. Volunteering to sort donations to a non-profit thrift shop. Walking dogs for elderly people.

Warhammer miniatures game

Dream boarding, scrap-booking, making homemade Christmas ornaments from pine cones, making bread jewelry - it makes my life so FULL.

r31, no, I'm not the OP. I have plenty of things to as I'm still physically recovering from multi-organ failure, so I move slowly and everything takes forever, having lost about 75 lbs - almost all of my fat and muscle are gone. Plus, I'm just old, lol. Am starting to socialize again since it's getting easier to leave the house and appreciated r5 and r6's comments. I've missed seeing my friends but do not miss drinking with them. For me, alcohol is absolute poison and getting a liver transplant is not an option.