Oh, the Libations

In the year 1987, a lot happened. I turned 5, my dad turned 30, my granny passed away, and my dad stopped drinking. I've never gotten a straight answer from the man as to why he chose to stop drinking. When I was in high school, he led me to believe he got drunk once as a teen and never drank again. Yes, I am gullible and believed my dad. As the years passed I found out the year he stopped drinking (which was obviously not while he was a teen) but was the year my granny died. So since then I've always thought it at least partially has something to do with that. In the past year or so the stories of drunken debauchery (well, maybe fiascos is a better word) have begun to be revealed to me. Now it is clearer to me why my brother and I act the way we do when we get trashed. It also explains to me the blacking out I've been experiencing-apparently its a family tradition. At least I've never woken up in a room full of Koreans I don't know (but in his defense he WAS in Korea at the time) or with my head dried in the mud of the flowerbed in my yard while my landlord was hosting a formal tea party mere yards away...

I guess we Cherokees just can't handle our firewater.

The part that scares me is how quickly my drunken debauchery (now is the time for that word to be appropriate) is progressing from bad to downright terrible. I've lost all sense of limitations and control, and the bad part is I can black out while I'm still on my feet drinking, talking, kissing, puking, etc. I don't like having to ask people what I did the night before. I don't like finding huge bruises/knots on my knee and not remembering getting them. I don't like hurting friends' feelings with my contradictory behavior. Plus, now that I am in grad school, its probably not the best time to be killing off droves of brain cells...

So I'm gonna scale it down a few notches. Even though I hear I'm a riot during these periods, I no longer want to be "that guy". I think I'll be doing myself a huge favor by taking this step. The first thing is to stop taking shots. They are the devil. Mixed drinks are all right, as long as they are being enjoyed, not chugged. I'm also going to attempt the 1 drink per hour rule. I think this should get me back on a reasonable path.

And maybe once I'm 30 I'll just give it up for good...