IT’S Friday. The young ones will go bar-hopping tonight. While the young once will stay home and read a book—hmmm, that sounds familiar. Is that me?
The young once prefer to gather for lunch and coffee since dinner may mean arriving home late and, therefore, sleeping late. Besides, the 2020 pandemic lockdowns have made them appreciate simple pleasures, so they now long for a minimalist lifestyle which has somehow also influenced their nightlife.
The young and the restless, on the other hand, felt imprisoned during the lockdowns, so they’re now making up for lost time.
How nice that each day of the week has a name so that Mondays are approached with a brave face, and Fridays are welcomed with a Thank God It’s Friday.
“Absolut Book: The Absolut Vodka Advertising Story” by Richard W. Lewis is a coffee table book that features Absolut’s unique print ads. It was published in 1996, and since Absolut has continued producing ads, perhaps it’s time for a new book for the 21st century.
Aside from that book, I’ve also kept empty bottles of Absolut Vodka, Cuervo 1800, and my favorite coffee in the ‘90s, Baileys.
And there’s a filled bottle of San Mig Pale Pilsen with this printed on it: “50 Years of Packaging Leadership 1938-1988.” Yes, 1988—35 years ago. Since I’ll continue to keep this as a souvenir, I’ll never know what a 35-year-old beer tastes like.
To complete the alcohol collection, I buy shot glasses as travel souvenirs.
All these are merely reminders of my bar-hopping days since I don’t drink anymore, thanks—or no thanks?—to the low-carb diet. I gotta feel you’ll ask, Not because of old age? Oh, let’s not go there. Haha.
For me, “drinks” now mean diet soda and my homemade electrolyte drink. Ho-hum. No alcohol, no fruit juices, no iced tea, no herbal teas, no hot choco, no coffee, not even decaf. And the diet soda is a treat on special occasions, not daily.
The young ones will eventually reach this point of no return, too, when they get tired of late nights and hangovers. They will choose to have an alcohol-free nightlife after realizing it’s possible to have fun without alcohol propping up their mood. I hope that will happen before health problems can set in because it will be more difficult to stop drinking once they become alcoholics.
Moderate intake of alcohol means a maximum of two drinks for men and one drink for women, and that’s for one day, and not one hour or one minute, or one second. To give the liver enough time to process it. The best option, though, is to avoid drinking alcohol, to save your liver from processing it.
But once you’re drunk, can you still count how many shots and bottles you’ve had? Hmmm.
You can always order water, diet soda, or coffee, by the way, even while bar-hopping. You stay sober, and the bar stays in business. Yeah, define good clean fun.
Thursday night should have been the start of the weekend—you know, Thirstday, to give more emphasis on the thirst for drinks. That will then be a TGIT and not TGIF.
