I don't know if anyone can relate to this but it is on my mind a lot. Now it is just confusing me so I want to ask the forum for their thoughts.
I was thinking to post a general alcohol topic. But then, I don't care as much what my male friends are doing with alcohol. But if the mods feel appropriate, can rename and move this to a general thread.
I am personally a low drinker, but not a non-drinker. I usually drink liquor twice a week or so. Don't have an addictive personality but have chosen in recent times (in my forties) to not keep spirits in the house anymore, not necessary. Can have the odd cocktail or tequila when out at a bar if I really feel like it. Don't have beer around either as it makes you fat and I don't like it much either. The only thing I keep here at the moment is a small amount of red wine. Well, there is one small beer which has been in the fridge for weeks which I have not yet felt the temptation to drink. Maybe if the weather were hotter.. I do have the occasional big night out up to perhaps 5 drinks or so, maybe 7 once a year.
Among my male friends, I have one who 'graduated' more than a decade ago from alcoholics anonymous and is now 'dry' and must stay that way. I actually went along to one of his AA meetings, it was interesting, but I felt like I was intruding as I didn't really share the problem that they were all struggling with. Could say a bit more about that, I have learned a bit about them and how some people die of it. I have or had at least two other male friends who had to give up alcohol as they overdid it and were scared of what might happen so dropped it entirely, or developed an intolerance through overdoing it and were forced to drop it.
But with my ex-girlfriends and the one's I've been on dates with there is a strange pattern. Have had two exes with at least one alcoholic parent. The first one liked to shoot vodka occasionally, the other more recent increasingly during our time together became very anti-alcohol, drinks once every six months. I will skip one of my twice a week drinks when I am around her just to avoid upsetting her.
In recent times I went on a few dates with a very young and beautiful European woman who had become a teetotaler. She explained the reason why was that she had abused it for several months or years in an earlier phase of life, consuming it like food during the day Russian style. But this bothered me - just people swinging from one extreme to the other, especially at that young age.
Now I see girls on dating sites constantly putting 'wine' in their profiles as one of their 'interests' or even posing with a glass of wine or champagne. That bothers me as well. Actually the champagne is okay as it implies celebration, but with the wine, all I can think of is wannabe bourgeois or sitting alone in the evenings in front of the television with their smartphones and smoothing things over several times a week with a glass. It just doesn't seem fitting of all the things one can be interested in to tell the world that they like wine. Just have trouble seeing anything positive in mentioning it like that. Yes, mention discretely somewhere if you are a low, moderate or high drinker, or smoker, but is it something to advertise as a virtue? Is it not just something to do or not do in the moment but not fitting to broadcast the world. I am wondering if this is a manifestation of clown world. How would a woman in the decades up to and including the 80s communicate about alcohol?
Can anyone relate? Maybe I've now simply diverged very far from the mainstream and popular culture.
I was thinking to post a general alcohol topic. But then, I don't care as much what my male friends are doing with alcohol. But if the mods feel appropriate, can rename and move this to a general thread.
I am personally a low drinker, but not a non-drinker. I usually drink liquor twice a week or so. Don't have an addictive personality but have chosen in recent times (in my forties) to not keep spirits in the house anymore, not necessary. Can have the odd cocktail or tequila when out at a bar if I really feel like it. Don't have beer around either as it makes you fat and I don't like it much either. The only thing I keep here at the moment is a small amount of red wine. Well, there is one small beer which has been in the fridge for weeks which I have not yet felt the temptation to drink. Maybe if the weather were hotter.. I do have the occasional big night out up to perhaps 5 drinks or so, maybe 7 once a year.
Among my male friends, I have one who 'graduated' more than a decade ago from alcoholics anonymous and is now 'dry' and must stay that way. I actually went along to one of his AA meetings, it was interesting, but I felt like I was intruding as I didn't really share the problem that they were all struggling with. Could say a bit more about that, I have learned a bit about them and how some people die of it. I have or had at least two other male friends who had to give up alcohol as they overdid it and were scared of what might happen so dropped it entirely, or developed an intolerance through overdoing it and were forced to drop it.
But with my ex-girlfriends and the one's I've been on dates with there is a strange pattern. Have had two exes with at least one alcoholic parent. The first one liked to shoot vodka occasionally, the other more recent increasingly during our time together became very anti-alcohol, drinks once every six months. I will skip one of my twice a week drinks when I am around her just to avoid upsetting her.
In recent times I went on a few dates with a very young and beautiful European woman who had become a teetotaler. She explained the reason why was that she had abused it for several months or years in an earlier phase of life, consuming it like food during the day Russian style. But this bothered me - just people swinging from one extreme to the other, especially at that young age.
Now I see girls on dating sites constantly putting 'wine' in their profiles as one of their 'interests' or even posing with a glass of wine or champagne. That bothers me as well. Actually the champagne is okay as it implies celebration, but with the wine, all I can think of is wannabe bourgeois or sitting alone in the evenings in front of the television with their smartphones and smoothing things over several times a week with a glass. It just doesn't seem fitting of all the things one can be interested in to tell the world that they like wine. Just have trouble seeing anything positive in mentioning it like that. Yes, mention discretely somewhere if you are a low, moderate or high drinker, or smoker, but is it something to advertise as a virtue? Is it not just something to do or not do in the moment but not fitting to broadcast the world. I am wondering if this is a manifestation of clown world. How would a woman in the decades up to and including the 80s communicate about alcohol?
Can anyone relate? Maybe I've now simply diverged very far from the mainstream and popular culture.