Imbibing the Vino

A few weeks ago, I ended up realizing that drinking wine works for me - it does not ruin sleep or get hung over. One of the biggest barriers for me drinking alcohol as I'm getting older is that I sleep like absolute dog shit when I drink most alcohols like bourbon, whiskey and other spirits that I really do like, but I hate how they make me feel afterwards. I get a similar experience with beer, though not as much.

The unfortunate part is that I ended up drinking for a few weeks almost every night. Oops LOL

I don't drink to get drunk, shitfaced or black-out. I drink to get a minor buzz going, but not enough where if the need arose I couldn't rush out and drive my son or wife to the hospital. There is no sense in getting obliterated at my age - I have far too many responsibilities to completely lose control like that and end up failing my family when they need me most. It's just not worth it!

At the same time though, I do enjoy to have a drink to relax a little bit, but not get to the point where it's over-done. It's a little bit of a fine dance but the important thing for me as well is that it can't fuck up my sleep. If it messes with my sleep I definitely won't be doing it very often because for me, there is not a lot of things worse than an awful night sleep with my son who has endless wells of energy LOL. I don't mind that he's got a lot of energy - we've raised him well to harness that fact intentionally but it's a lot to deal with when you've got a tough headache or you're just tired as shit from not sleeping very well. No bueno!

I had been experimenting with different things to still be able to enjoy a drink here and there, but not suffer the negative consequences during the night. I didn't find many good examples of how it would go but for some reason, I don't know if it's my southeastern European heritage, wine does really well for me LOL I can have a glass, get to the point where it's enjoyable and also go to sleep just fine.

I won't disillusion myself in thinking that it's perfectly healthy or anything like that - alcohol has it's place but it's also a toxin in the real sense. I do however enjoy it to the small limit that I am partaking in of late which is good. What helps is that we've collected quite a number of bottles of wine over the years through various means, some of it buying it when it was on sale and it was a local vendor that we like, and other times we get it as gifts from people. At the end of the day though, there are some bottles that I have been saving for a while now, and I won't be touching those as they are more for special occasions. Once my supply of wine runs out, I'm cheap as fuck and won't be buying anymore until it goes on sale LOL no thanks!

I am looking forward to volunteering at that favorite local vendor I mentioned. When we help him and his company pick grapes from the vines, he gives us a bottle of wine as a thank you for participating and him not having to add you to the payroll. It really helps because we've collected quite a few bottles of his wine over time and it's come in handy when I feel like a drink! Thankfully though, I can make a bottle of wine last for 4 days before it's gone, so it's not like I'm slugging the whole thing in one night. That would be crazy hahaha.

I do plan on going back to a dry diet for a while once this is over. I prefer not to be drinking as it has a number of other benefits but at the same time, we do have to enjoy ourselves every now and then so I am enjoying it while it lasts.