Is This Progress?

I'm tired of walking on glass, afraid to step to firmly for fear that there will be an argument or my daughter will get mad and the glass cracks then she decides to drink.  We have been in kind of a holding pattern, here.  Two, almost three weeks sober, and then like clock work, something happens and she starts drinking. So, for a while now, I've been afraid to introduce subjects I think she should talk about to start healing; afraid that it will set her over the edge, and she'll start, again.  Though, when I think about it, my actions  have rarely been the excuse for her.  Her excuses seem to revolve around 1. her dad, 2. her ex-boyfriend of 3 years I might at, 3. thinking of all of the things that she is (has) missed out on because of the drinking (which is the craziest to me) and 4.  She feels she's shy and drinking helps her to be more social, even though most of the time she's passed out upstairs (the insane thinking of addiction). 

However, over the past few months, there have been pockets of 'confessions' from her that haven't really surfaced, before.  We'll be working outside and she'll mention something that happened because of her drinking and she'll apologize.  Or she'll mention something that bothers her and we talk about it without fighting.  She doesn't seem as agitated with certain memories. When before, if you even asked or mentioned something concerning drinking, she would yell and spit out some pretty hurtful comments.  Not so much, anymore.  Oh, yeah, and there was that time that she didn't lie about drinking when I suspected it. 

That just happened on Monday.  She picked me up after work and we went to Home Depot (the U-shaped pipe under the sink rusted through and I needed to replace it--my first plumbing job). Anyway, on the way there she mentioned something that had happened when she had been drinking, asking me if I remembered (Remember, me?  Was she kidding?  I'm the one sober through all of this, I remember EVERYTHING).  Anyway, I said that I did and she said, "That was completely wrong of me.  I'm so sorry I did that."  My first thought was to launch into a conversation.  But then that little voice inside calmed me and all I said was, "Thank you for saying that."  And the conversation moved back to trying to figure out this plumbing issue. 

Jump to Wednesday.  I came home and noticed the signs, though I did try to brush them off (She couldn't be drinking, again.  But, we are back to the two week mark).  But, yes, she had.  I came home Thursday and she told me that she had been on Facebook and her ex-boyfriend's new ex-girlfriend sent her a message about the boyfriend, wanting to talk about him.  My daughter said her response was that she wasn't going to get involved-that she didn't want to be in the middle.  "Good response. You're right to not get involved.  But why would you start drinking over that?  It was a positive."
She didn't answer me.  So, I left the room. 

So, again, I ask, is she making progress?  Or is this addiction the invited vampire that will keep returning until my daughter is fully drained?