In Pursuit of Less Drinking

What did I do before I started drinking? I've been asking myself that a lot lately because I've got lots of friends that I want to hang out with, but it seems these days everything revolves around alcohol. My ONE token girlfriend is in town and I haven't made time to hangout with her, because I can't think of anything that doesn't revolve sitting in some bar or another. Again, I love a good beer, I have absolutely nothing against drinking, but I just don't want to keep blowing all my money on booze. Hell, even if it is free, I don't want to waste my time dealing with hangovers or having the exact same conversation five hundred times.

I've got two invites to parties that both involve heavy drinking tonight. The first that I'm passing up is a (booze fest) boating party. Sounds like it would be fun...driving around in a boat, swimming here and there, drinking, then parking at a beach to have a barbeque.
Then there's my best friend's (booze fest) birthday today. Oh and he also has a show tonight over at Hell's Kitchen in smelly armpit Tacoma...I can hear my liver screaming and squealing.

How do people deal with this? When you move from drinking all the time to not so much...what do you do with your friends?

I've had people tell me I could just go and have a couple drinks... Is there even a real bar that will serve you a "couple drinks"? I'm pretty sure any bar worth their salt would beat the crap out of you, steal your money, throw you out, and call your mom a dirty whore if you order less than five drinks. I can't tell you for sure, since I love my mom and didn't want to put that to the test.