The Best Kept Secret Blog - Wine Not
New research indicating a link between alcohol consumption and cancer in middle-aged women is sobering. While not quite ready to jump on the alarmists band wagon and stop drinking entirely, I for one will definitely be cutting back. My plan is straightforward and simple and I’ll only be drinking under the following circumstances:
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Statutory Holidays - One drink per statutory holiday with the following exceptions: Christmas, which is fraught with so much family tension that a minimum of three glasses of wine are needed to achieve a festive level of celebratory revalry; and New Years Eve, since giving up drinking is part of my extensive resolution list, set to kick in the next day. Oh, and Ukranian New Years (one week or something like that later) when I will be consoling myself with the knowledge that statistics show no one keeps resolutions anyway and life is tool short to live it like some virgin, sainted martyr.
Minor Holidays - These include Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and especially Halloween when all the parents in our neighbourhood escort the little ones on the trick-or-treat circuit with environmentally friendly, reusable cups filled with Merlot.
Fridays - As a reward for reaching the end of a long and trying week.
Saturdays - Just to be social.
Sunday - Enjoyed in an artsy, reflective , mildly sexy, Diana Krall kind of way while contemplating the week ahead.
Wednesday - To celebrate sticking to the plan and not drinking Monday or Tuesday.
Girls Night(s) Out - True, we’re no longer girls but this moniker is so much better than Middle-Aged Women’s Night Out. Though at 40- and 50-something, we’re able to afford much better wine than the plonk we drank when we were girls. While my plan at these events is to limit consumption to two drinks, extra glasses may be consumed under the following circumstances: 1) Someone in the group announces a major mid-life reinvention; 2) Someone in the group has failed at a major midlife reinvention; 3) Someone in the group is having an affair; and 4) Someone in the group is having an affair with the husband of someone else in the group.
Like I said, I’m not jumping on the abstinence band-wagon but I do encourage all of you to follow my example and rethink your alcohol consumption. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to pour myself a glass of wine. It's the 46th anniversary of the invention of the pipe cleaner.
