Sports and Booze

When you give up drinking, one of the first things you notice is how much beer and alcohol are advertised.  It's a shocking amount.  On most sporting events, at least half of the ads are for beer, liquor or restaurants who serve copious amounts of both.

Sports and booze are long time allies.  Ever since the beginnings of baseball, the oldest of the popular commoner viewing draws, owners of teams realized if you sold beer at games, you could make a mint.  When the first sports were broadcast on the fledgling radio networks of yore, alcohol and smokes were amongst the earliest of sponsors, and with player, coach, and announcer endorsement deals, it's really hard today to see where the sports line ends and the encouraged drinking line begins.

Beer particularly has an extremely cozy relationship with sports in all of it's viewed/listened to forms.   If you watch many of today's ads, you will see an association; beer equates with being "a good fan," "helping your team get the win," or "the only way to celebrate a victory."  It's very blatant.  "If you want to support your team, or if you want your team to win, you need to drink!"  And the imagery of how much you should drink is distorted by the insistence, "every time I buy a round, my team starts to win."

Even when the sport is left out of the message of the liquor ad (still played during the game, mind you), beer, wine and liquor are portrayed as the only way "real men" celebrate.  "Are you a lonely loser, out of shape with no chance of getting a girlfriend anytime soon?  Well, knock back a shot of this tequila, grab a party cooler of a specific type of beer, or chill this kind of wine and men will look up to you and women will be putty in your hands."  Watch the ads yourself.  Many of them have that exact theme.

What is scary is the way the sports leagues and the liquor advertisers clearly don't care about being a safe and responsible drinker anymore.  Their message is the same; drink, drink, drink!  They know if people think they can enjoy a sport without being drunk as a skunk, they might not get that 9th beer, or 5th shot.  They might decide to not get that 3rd pitcher, or crack open that 4th bottle of wine.  The liquor industry can't have that, so "keep drinking!"

Even the lame excuse of corporate morality, the "remember: don't drink and drive" message at the end of beer and liquor ads was deemed too much of a drinking buzzkill.  Now, you get such pithy statements as, "great beer, great responsibility." What the F- does that mean?  Why don't they say, "for God's sake, do not drink too much and get behind the wheel of a car."  The reason is they don't care.  The liquor industry doesn't care about stopping drinking and driving, as long as they get their money.  They'll feign intolerance and being pro upstanding individual, all while hiding behind the argument, "we're just the liquor industry.  We can't be held accountable when someone, after we tell them to drink, drink, drink, after we tell them it's the only way to be a 'real' man, after we tell them they will no longer be wanting for companionship if you drink our product, and after we tell them you really don't support your favorite team unless you drink more of our product, over and over and over again, plows into a minivan, drunk, and kills three kids.  That was them, not us!  We just want everyone to be shnockered all of the time without acknowledging the consequences of encouraging such reckless behavior."

Two final thoughts.  1) The liquor industry is so powerful, they no longer allow for any public criticism of their product, outside of a church.  2) No other addictive product in the world could ever get away with marketing themselves to the masses, especially kids, like beer/liquor does.

Sex and My Life

As I was putting away the Christmas Cards (I keep them, every year.  I think it's fun to go back and look at them every once in a while.), it crossed my mind I've slept with some of the people I've received them from.  A few of my friends have slept with me, and yet we've remained friends.

I have know these women in a very intimate way, as they've known me.  We've seen each other naked, and I know what sounds they make when they orgasm.  Now I get Christmas cards from them.  I love them for the help they gave me, to become the man I am today.  I wouldn't be the person I am without each and every one of them.  They mean a lot to me and I don't want to ever let them go.  I'll never revisit those passions, but they were the fire which kept my train going down the track at certain points.

This brings up something which is helping me get through January.  Every one to two years, I go through a stretch of time where I garner a lot of interest from the opposite sex.  It's not like the world has become a porno, or even there's anything more than intense flirting, but it is something.  It's not intentional, although I am a flirt, a horrible one at times too.  It's more unusual, a pointed interest.  It'd be easy to say I'm wearing a popular cologne or my hair looks good (it never does, what's left of it).  It's a sharp contrast from most days where I just go through life and lead a very normal, ignored existence.

I really don't want to play this up like I'm some Don Juan, but I know when someone is flirting with me, and to have it come at me in a wave is...smile inducing.  A friend of mine, after giving me a ton of crap about it, felt as if it's a confidence thing people can sense.  I'm not sure.  He shut up after watching it happen himself.

This is the first time it has happened since I gave up the drinking, and I can say unequivocally I'm not intentionally flirting.  Really I'm not.  I'm in no mood to wander foreign fields, or fulfill a role in an unfulfilled life.  It's not that I don't appreciate it, (it makes me blush), but it's not what I need in my life right now.

Trust me, when I make the decision to move forward with someone, my intentions are clear.  Now, if I could only do something about the cold feet...

The Toughness

I've been having a real hard time lately.  I'm getting closer to my year anniversary of quitting drinking and as I can see that finish line coming closer, the slings and arrows of addiction are just being the biggest pricks ever.

I didn't really relax during the holidays.  I did have fun, but I was super tired when everything went back to normal the first full week of January.  Jury Duty didn't help.

I live in a place that usually gets a lot of winter.  I don't mind it, heck I actually like it.  I like the change of seasons, the fresh clean of a snowfall, the briskness of cold against my face.  I really do.  What I don't like is the dark.  On the shortest day of the year, the sun doesn't even come up until around 8 and it goes down right around 4.  The darkness weighs on me, pushing down on the back of my head and on my shoulders.  It makes my mood bleak and it makes me tired.  There are a few times where I have slept like I was drunk.  I'm anti social and a bit of a jerk.  I don't like the dark.

I have been having a lot of thoughts about drinking.  Real sick and twisted thoughts about how much fun liquor is, and how one drink won't kill me.  I can almost taste the hopiness of a good beer, crush a martini soaked olive, mashing it between my teeth, feeling my flirtatious side bubble on up, encouraging it, which I play like a maestro when I'm loosened up with a drink.  It's like the addiction is throwing out all of the stops to get me to drink again before I reach my anniversary.  An evil bitch of mistress indeed.

And I'm thinking about her again.  I had actually gotten her out of my mind completely for a few months, but all of the sudden she danced back into my dreams, my subconscious welcoming her back into my mind, to waltz around my thoughts.  I keep remembering what I liked about her friendship.  I miss the smile in her voice.  I still feel the burns from her fire.

I feel like I'm going to make it to the finish line but I'm scared of getting derailed.  I feel very close to losing control of the train.  I hope the rest of the next week isn't too bumpy.

Friday Music - Five Knives

Music to come crashing down to earth with...

Yearning...

Two Thoughts

Two thoughts about drinking.

Part of the reason I was drinking more and more was my venue for drinking.  I wasn't going out to the bar/club anymore.  It wasn't me going out with my friends.  Due to my kids, I was home most of the time and hence my drinking was concealed within the walls of my house.  You have to plan a night out.  Am I driving or not?  How long am I going to be at a certain place before going to another place?  When I was going out to drink, you always had "drinks too much" guy to be your warning system on when to pull back.  The guy who was drunk by 9 every time you went out.  That guy kept you based in reality, not drinking too much.  Also, drinks in the bar are pricey.  You didn't drink as much because it cost a lot more than getting a bottle at a local liquor store.  I'm not saying going out and drinking is the way to go.  I have had too many friend's marriages end up destroyed after a regular girl's night or guy's night out, and I'm also not trying to convince myself I'll be fine to start drinking again by going to the bar instead of at home.  No, I am done, but it's just an observation.

I wonder how many people are overweight because of liquor/beer.  When I gave up alcohol last year, I lost a lot of weight.  Even though today I have a few more pounds on me, and even though I still eat some "bad for me" food, it's amazing how much easier it is to lose weight without drinking.  Just getting back into the gym after Christmas, I've gotten thinner faster, even cut on certain muscle groups, something which took me months before.  With football games on and people chugging beer, wine and cocktails across the country, my feeling is the biggest culprit in regards to individual weight issues is alcohol.

Friday Music - Nina Yasmineh

When it rains for me, it pours, but I love the rain. She's very nice...