Not toward the liquor store, evidently.
😀
Imagining that I craved a glass of wine, along about 4:00 p.m. this afternoon I blasted out of the house and sailed toward the little booze store in the shopping center on the northern edge of the ‘Hood.
Got about two blocks along the way to the place and found myself thinking Why the f*** am I doing this????
Seriously: What on earth did I need a bottle of wine for? Or a fifth of whiskey? Or whatever I imagined I was gonna buy…
And, to my infinite surprise and delight, I found myself headed back to the house, empty-handed.
Yes. Turned around and came straight back to the Funny Farm: sans booze purchase.
For reasons I don’t clearly understand, my brain has decided it does not want its human to consume any more booze!
How weird is that, I ask you?
Truth to tell, I don’t think I drink to excess…at least, not by the standards of the crowd I run with.
My parents always had a cocktail or two before dinner: usually Canadian Club. Yes: every afternoon. After I came of age and was home from college, I would join them.
All my boyfriends guzzled merrily.
Dear Ex-Husband and I had a daily bourbon and water before dinner and wine with dinner. And that was for years.
After he and I parted, the subsequent gentleman friends continued that tradition with me.
Understand: we weren’t getting sh!t-faced. We were just having a tipple or two.
After I found myself living in singletude, I continued that tradition: would break out the whiskey or the wine before dinner and pour a swiggle. Sometimes more than one swiggle….
Then one day it struck me that any more than one of those swiggles was making me…well…not high as a kite, but for sure, mildly inebriated. Maybe even more than mildly. And that was not good when one was loafing around the house all by one’s self.
So I decided to knock it off with the afternoon cocktails. Which I did.
But I continued to have a glass of wine (maybe a glass and a half) with dinner.
Time passed. Eventually it struck me that ANY swiggling was probably NOT a good thing. Dinnertime or no dinnertime.
So I quit.
Yeah: cold turkey.
Have not had an alcoholic drink in some weeks.
And y’know… I don’t miss it!
That, I consider to be weird.
Or maybe not. Maybe it was just time to knock off the swiggling and climb aboard the wagon.
Weird or not, it strikes me as a good thing. An exceptionally good thing, come to think of it. Because enjoyment or not, I do think consumption of alcohol — in any incarnation and in any amount — is not a good thing.
The Mormons and the Christian Scientists have got it right: booze in ANY amount just ain’t healthy! And the best thing you can do for yourself, if you’re a drinker to any degree, is to knock it off.
So…that’s what I’ve done. And the weird thing is…I don’t miss it!
Earlier efforts along these lines have indeed left me feeling deprived. But now? Not so much. For reasons I do not fully understand, I really, truly do not have any craving for a swiggle before dinner. Or a glass of wine with dinner.
So…yeah. This is a bit of a new direction for me. We shall see how far I can travel in it.