6th Street

You sound much like my brother-in-law. From your post you dont seem ready to consider the option you should probably choose. In my experience your first two options will eventually lead to the third. Any girl worth having a long term relationship (brains) with will cut and run when she sees the drinking being a bad habit, be itjustweekends or not. So ultimately you'll choose between her and your friends. If you quit drinking and are around the other guys more than a few times when they are wasted you will eventually get tired of it even if it takes a few years.

If you aren't willing to cut the friends completely maybe you should look into a combination of all three. Drink only on certain occasions, find a good girl to occupy your time, and and a different group of friends to split your time with. And if you are going to hangout with the old friends make other firm plans that get you away from them after a couple of hours.

Good luck because a lot of us have been in your shoes.

Uhm, you're in your 20's, in college and don't have a steady girl. My advice? Enjoy it while you can. All that fun will come to a screaching halt soon enough. And I am absolutely serious.

You pose a question that only you can answer. Perhaps, a discussion with your friends about it might lead to a mutually agreed upon solution. Trust me when I tell you, that those of us who love to drink find it darn hard to be around our drinking friends without drinking. I have several ways to slow it down, however. Make a production of drinking cold beer. Frosty glasses and all. Eat protein and other foods to fill you up. Drink water along the way and always drink a large glass of water before you go to bed. It helps to cut down on the hangover. If you are up to it, by where you are start drinking scotch and soda or some other drink you like less than beer. I can handle only two scotch and sodas a night so it slows me well down ( i just do not like the taste).
One thing most people slow their drinking down as they get older because they just do not feel like drinking as much.

I've stayed away from lite beers which can be pounded & get you in trouble easier (& taste like crap imho). The other thing that helps is mixing in a few glasses of water here & there. This serves 3 purposes :
1. It slows your drinking
2. It fills your stomach with something other than alcohol.
3. It helps eliminate a possible hangover by keeping you from getting dehydrated

You've listed some good solutions, and I appreciate that everyone needs to blow off steam evey now and again, but there's so much more to life than waiting for the weekends and then getting blasted. There aren't many mature women who are into that scene so finding a good girl would be a start. Have you considered finding a hobby? Seriously. Find something that you love doing on the weekend that doesn't involve destroying brain cells and the new friends and girl will probably follow shortly thereafter.

Sooner or later real life shows up and the party ends, and I haven't seen too many middle aged bar flies and thought " Now there's a winner".

Just my two cents.

1.Move to Las Vegas, play cheap slots wait for waitress to come around for drinks.
2.Move to Germany, drink good strong beer that makes wasted faster. Trust me on this one.

I'm 23, just graduated from college in June, and am currently looking for a job. I like to party too, and the fact that I don't have a job keeps my drinking in check solely because of a lack of income to pay for it. It sucks.