January 02, Chatting About Pregnancy, Kids, and Menopause: HealthyPlace.com Dieting, Weight Loss Community

January 2, 2000 --- 12:51 AM EST

Nobody was home at my parents so we went on to BIL's to help him move furniture. They converted their garage into a utility room and a den kind of room. The old bedroom they used for a den has to be fixed up for baby niece as a toddler's room while her old nursery has to be spiffed up for the new baby sister coming this summer.

Donna and I were chatting about pregnancy and kids and menopause and how weird it all is. She asked about me and Paul and kids and I told her we talk about it but we are going to wait a bit more. I didn't mention that when I go see my dietitian, Paul and I decided it might be good to ask her about prenatal nutrition besides my vegan stuff. (Baby negotiations, argh.)

I helped move stuff and she directed but Paul and Greg did the heavy stuff and I entertained the baby. She's gotten this big blow up ball pit thing for Xmas and it's got all these balls.

When did they start making those!? What coolness! We came home wanting to bike some more but the sun got away from us. Can't bike in the dark. I am excited because later today we are going hiking. Yay!!! Good weather to be outside!

Booze?

When I got home tonight I remembered I had a pitcherful of flat, watery pina colada. I threw it in the freezer to sort of revive it and we'll drink it anyway despite the flat rum and it being all wrong.

We didn't drink a whole lot last night because we weren't in the right mood. I had a glass out of the pina colada and he had a glass of wine as our token toast to the clock. Tonight I feel like drinking that pitcher of pina colada. So here we go again, only this time I remembered how I like to make pina colada too late to fix the pitcher I made last night. That shows you how often I make drinks. I can't remember how I like them!

Normally I prefer to make it from real pineapple and real coconut cream. So I blender the pineapple and coconut ahead of time and freeze it into ice cube trays. Then instead of making a whole pitcher I can pop a few cubes, and a little rum and run it through the blender with a slosh of pineapple juice til it has a nice "smoothie" consistency and I can make it as strong or weak as I like one drink at a time.

Making it by the pitcher from mixes is lame. I don't drink fast enough to work through a whole pitcher like that, the ice melts, gets the pina colada all watery, the rum goes flat, blah. One glass at a time is better. Nothing is wasted and I get the texture right without my drink going watery. Mixes are too smooth and perfect. I like my pina colada pulpier. Which is funny because pina colada literally is "strained pineapple." I don't want to strain it. I like it all pulpy, pulpy, pulpy!

Pina Colada I do know I'm never going to buy a mix again. I'd rather go through the trouble of chopping pineapple to get the fresher, pulpier texture I like so much. A mix isn't totally awful. It does make it easier and there is less mess. But the texture just isn't the same!

I don't think there is anything I rather drink for New Year's than pulpy, thick, strong pina coladas out of Mary Tyler Moore glasses. All white and frothy and foamy-creamy-smoothie-icy in your mouth. Out of those lumpy, gobletty, ornate, acid green glasses because the more buzzed you get the more appealing having a knobbly glass is. Too bad I don't have any paper umbrellas or little plastic cocktail sword toothpicks. Or cherries. Anyhow:

Pulpy Pina Coladas Pitcher

1 large ripe pineapple, peeled, cored, cubed

12-16 oz cream of coconut

pineapple juice

Bacardi Rum
1) Blender pineapple with coconut adding enough pineapple juice to blender smooth if needed. Freeze into ice cube trays.

2) Blender colada cubes with rum and pineapple juice to taste.

Paul's not a fan of juice type drinks like I am. Juice drinks or coffee drinks. He prefers wine and if he's going to go with spirits he'd rather go straight or mix with soda or ginger ale or something. I think last year he just drank Scotch straight.

I think New Year's is the only time we drink apart from the occasional glass of wine. Like drinking to be well, drinking! But my idea of a good time drinking is not about getting drunk.

Drunk?

My thoughts on drunkenness?

Drunk means having so much to drink you are no longer in control of yourself. You know, swimming in it. I don't think the question is why anyone would want to drink and drive. The real question is why would anyone want to drink to the point of drunkenness?

You become an easy target. You lose things. You get sick. You are not in control. I've been to that warm-belly feeling and that's where I like to leave it. Past that I get headachy and dehydrated and cranky. The warm-belly feeling, maybe a little buzz in my head and then I just want Paul to mess with me. Bring on the noopies and the toe pulling and the tickling and the zerberting my belly and wet willies in my ear and then kiss me and put me to bed with lots of pillows and blankets after I've worn myself out playing with stuff. We put together this big puzzle of travel label sticker things. Yay. That's fun drinking.

I've never been drunk in my life. It doesn't feel good to me to get too slushy so getting full on drunk would be lame. I don't find it attractive in others, I don't find it an effective way to cope with problems, I don't find it fun, I don't find it exciting, and I find "drinking responsibly" when out a big fat DRAG. So much of a drag that I rather just not bother drinking when I am out!

Why would I want to get stone drunk?!

I like to be in control. I am often the designated driver but to tell you the truth, I rather not be and so I rather stay home. I don't feel like being the baby-sitter. I'm not that nice! Just because I have the sense to want to stay in control for myself does not mean I want to be saddled with taking care of everyone else! If I am with them I'd feel obligated to watch out for my friends. But I don't think that's a fun job or a fun night out, being the designated driver and baby-sitting. So I don't go drinking with friends. Why?!

Wahoo. Thrills galore, trying to get people to go home and go to bed. Ever tried to put a drunk male friend to bed when he wants you to go to bed with him? Talk about and exercise is lameness. Or getting a girlfriend to put her clothes back ON when you don't even know why she decided to get naked to begin with. Or keeping the keys AWAY from a drunk person who wants to leave and is growing threatening to you because you won't give him the keys when a few hours earlier he was more than happy to surrender his keys to get to the booze table? Ugh, lameness. Who needs it?

And cheap booze is gross and good booze costs money. How much money do you want to drink away?

So when friends would call up and say "Hey! Let's go to the bar!" and I say "Hey! Let's not and say we did!" My friends don't call me up to go drinking anymore. They know I think it is BORING. I can't relax enough to enjoy having a drink myself and then I am surrounded by blathering idiots.

Where's the fun? If I am wanting to have drinks, I just go buy it and drink it at home, alone or with Paul. I don't have to be out wondering if anyone has put anything in my drink, dealing with people trying to get into my pants or hitting on me, I don't have to deal with pressure to drink more than I want, I don't have to deal with getting people home safely, I don't have to deal with getting myself home, I just flat out don't have to deal with anything! Far more pleasant for me!

We can play games, watch movies, read books, write, paint, draw, chat, make out, sing, play video games, whatever.

There is no trying to find a parking spot or trying to find the car later. There is no cover or tipping. There is no stinky bathrooms where I have to wonder if I should find a better bathroom, hold it, or just straddle the toilet and pee without sitting down. Ugh, hover peeing. I hate hover peeing! No walking around in the semi-gloom or inhaling too much cigarette smoke or loud thunking music or live bands who can never get their mixing done decently playing at volumes for an arena when it's just a tiny little hole in the wall joint. I don't have to smell beer breath on anyone. I don't have to watch people acting stupid or yelling. I don't have to worry about being mugged or assaulted. I don't have to try to find a table in a crowd. I don't have to flirt. I don't have anyone asking to borrow money from me and I don't have to listen to lame jokes or stories. I don't have to wonder about my purse or my wallet. I don't come home smelling like skunky bar smell. I don't have to do anything at all just to have some booze in peace!

But I don't think we are going to make it to watching the Cartoon Network so he can tape RoboTech. I've spent all this time writing and remembering and nursing my drink while listening to Paul in the next room play.

Us singing. I went in there to split the last of the pitcher with him and he made me sing for him. He's laying David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World.

I didn't do too hot. I've been sustaining a slight buzz now for a while. I've got my warm belly felling and I have got that sleepy, mellow mood. So while I may still be thinking pretty straight I can't sing to save my life. I kept losing my place in the music. I'd sing the words right, but not in time to the music how he was playing it. He'd prompt me and it was fun but then he started changing the music around on me and playing fast songs.

He laughed at me and told me to be careful and not get sick. I'm in no danger of getting sick. I am in danger of falling asleep into my keyboard! But it struck me as funny those bits of the words....