There is something about partaking nearly an entire 1.75 liter bottle of vodka that is not conducive to blogging. I've been wanting to write something, but my brain is not firing on all cylinders at the moment.
Cousin dropped by for a visit yesterday afternoon. We started out by sharing a maté as we always do. Then I suggested that perhaps a drink would take the edge off the pain that was making his handsome face wince. You see, he'd just had a colonoscopy in the morning, which thank God, showed no scary stuff, just some internal hemorrhoids which were the cause of the intermittent bleeding and the reason for the doctor's visit. The doctor assured him it was no big deal and he could either have surgery to remove them or live with it. He did snip one off right then and there, which I suspect was the cause of his serious discomfort.
Cousin took me up on the offer so I made him a vodka tonic. Being the hostess with the mostest, I couldn't let him drink alone so I joined him. Things were going merrily along. The remedy was working as Cousin was feeling no pain. I was feeling just dandy myself. This is why what happened next was so strange. I'm talking on the phone, when out of the blue, without the slightest warning, everything comes up. I fling down the cell phone and run to the bathroom. I didn't quite make it. This is a first for me. I have never, ever not known ahead of time when my body is about to return everything to back where it came from. Always ready for the inevitable, I will be kneeling there, waiting...
Now, I'm finally in position, kneeling, one hand holding my hair back, hurling into the toilet. Cousin is standing by, helpless to do anything for me. He's got the phone now and I hear him say to my friend who's still on the line, "What did you say to make Taylor throw up?" That struck me as funny. It is not easy to laugh and throw up at the same time.
This put an end to our night. I cleaned up everything, showered and put myself to bed. There was no way Cousin was going to drive so he stayed in the guest room.
I never once did feel bad. Very strange. Woke up this morning ravenous and a little dull-headed. When I saw that there were only two inches of vodka remaining in what had been a brand new huge bottle, I couldn't believe that I wasn't in severe hangover distress. Expensive alcohol is worth every extra dollar. Those two inches will remain in the bottle for a long time.
Cousin dropped by for a visit yesterday afternoon. We started out by sharing a maté as we always do. Then I suggested that perhaps a drink would take the edge off the pain that was making his handsome face wince. You see, he'd just had a colonoscopy in the morning, which thank God, showed no scary stuff, just some internal hemorrhoids which were the cause of the intermittent bleeding and the reason for the doctor's visit. The doctor assured him it was no big deal and he could either have surgery to remove them or live with it. He did snip one off right then and there, which I suspect was the cause of his serious discomfort.
Cousin took me up on the offer so I made him a vodka tonic. Being the hostess with the mostest, I couldn't let him drink alone so I joined him. Things were going merrily along. The remedy was working as Cousin was feeling no pain. I was feeling just dandy myself. This is why what happened next was so strange. I'm talking on the phone, when out of the blue, without the slightest warning, everything comes up. I fling down the cell phone and run to the bathroom. I didn't quite make it. This is a first for me. I have never, ever not known ahead of time when my body is about to return everything to back where it came from. Always ready for the inevitable, I will be kneeling there, waiting...
Now, I'm finally in position, kneeling, one hand holding my hair back, hurling into the toilet. Cousin is standing by, helpless to do anything for me. He's got the phone now and I hear him say to my friend who's still on the line, "What did you say to make Taylor throw up?" That struck me as funny. It is not easy to laugh and throw up at the same time.
This put an end to our night. I cleaned up everything, showered and put myself to bed. There was no way Cousin was going to drive so he stayed in the guest room.
I never once did feel bad. Very strange. Woke up this morning ravenous and a little dull-headed. When I saw that there were only two inches of vodka remaining in what had been a brand new huge bottle, I couldn't believe that I wasn't in severe hangover distress. Expensive alcohol is worth every extra dollar. Those two inches will remain in the bottle for a long time.
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Colts 30
Bears 24
Mate (pronounced /'ma.te/) is a highly caffeinated infusion prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) in hot water. It is the national drink in Uruguay and Argentina and a common social practice in Paraguay and parts of Chile and Brazil.
As with other brewed herbs, yerba mate leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a powdery mixture called yerba. The bombilla acts as both a straw and a sieve. The submerged end is flared, with small holes or slots that allow the brewed liquid in, but block the chunky matter that makes up much of the mixture. A modern bombilla design uses a straight tube with holes, or spring sleeve to act as a sieve. Bombilla (IPA: /bom'biʎa/ — [bom'biʃa] or [bom'biʒa] in Argentine and Uruguayan pronunciation) usually means "light bulb" in Spanish, but locally it is "little pump" or "straw".
Yerba mate (Spanish) or erva mate (Portuguese) (Ilex paraguariensis) is a species of holly (family Aquifoliaceae) native to subtropical South America in Argentina, southern Paraguay, western Uruguay and southern Brazil. The infusion called mate is prepared by steeping the dry leaves (and twigs) in hot water rather than boiling water like black tea or coffee. It is slightly less potent than coffee and much gentler on the stomach. Drinking mate with friends from a shared hollow gourd (also called a mate in Spanish, or cabaça or cuia in Portuguese) with a metal straw (a bombilla in Spanish, bomba or canudo in Portuguese) is an extremely common social practice in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, eastern Chile and southern Bolivia and Brazil. Its use has also been introduced into Lebanon and Syria, particularly among the Alawi, Druze and Ismaili minorities. It's a very popular social drink in Salamiyah, Syria.
An article that I ran across explains my inability to adjust to morning hours. According to this article, the level of adrenaline in our body rises and falls in a cycle like the sine and cosine waves shown here. And as the cosine is shifted from the sine, my adrenaline cycle is shifted, but even more so.