Cheers!

The act of drinking alcoholic beverages was born in ancient times and it has evolved into a very different practice in the present. Although largely a social practice, the intake of alcoholic beverages might also lead to alcoholism. Alcoholism is now considered a disease that results from the constant consumption of alcohol despite health problems and negative social consequences of said act. As a social practice, however, there are not any specific guidelines people follow when drinking. Yet, there seem to be a series of unwritten rules people do follow as far as determining who is allowed to drink and on what situations. There is even a legal age for drinking, which varies around the world.
Everyone’s philosophy of drinking is different but there is a general idea of how one starts in such practice. One’s first exposure to drinking is through observing people doing it –usually family members at family events. One wonders what that liquid adults drink is and why it provokes them to act in a certain way and especially why one is not allowed to drink it if they seem to have so much fun with it. Some times one of those family members decides to let one taste said beverages and one comes to find out how ridiculously bad it tastes. One tends to decide at that time that one will never drink it again, but as time passes by one reencounters it, usually in a different setting and after another trial a sort of habit is created. It becomes a form of social interaction in which one participates because one does not want to be left out. But one grows to enjoy its effects if not the taste. That is not to say that said effects are particularly good. On the contrary, other than the health hazards it represents, alcohol also leads to memory lost among other things. In cases when people actually like the taste of it, alcoholism begins to develop.
The second exposure usually comes when one is a teenager. At that time, one learns the thrill of drinking. The strange yet enjoyable effect it produces, which tends to decrease inhibitions. Teenagers drink as a way of rebellion but also as a way to demonstrate that they are mature enough to do so. It is a game of appearances. If adults are doing it, then they will do so as well in order to prove they can control it though they are unable to do so. As teenagers grow older, they find a different meaning to drinking. It is not longer a symbol of maturity rather it becomes a symbol of simple adulthood. But it never stops being a way to fit in.
People have different reasons for drinking, which include celebrating important events, whether with friends or family, people toast to those who are celebrated or the event that is remembered. There are others, who drink, usually alone, to forget past mistakes or sorrows, which is a mistake itself since alcohol will only make them forget for the time being. Not only that, but there are also different types of drinks which also have different symbolisms. Wine has always been a symbol of sophistication for whoever drinks it. Hard liquor is usually a way to demonstrate strength although it is also considered somewhat vulgar whereas mixed drinks are usually taken as a sign of weakness. Historically, the former have been linked to men and the latter to women, yet that does not mean the correlation is correct or that only men or only women drink in said categories.
Drinking also has many effects some of which are recognized while others are not. Aside from the previously mentioned health hazards, some of those effects include but are not limited to making people violent, melancholic, sad, sleepy, increasing their sexual appetite, and sometimes happy. There is also the hangover, which seems to be a certain punishment for the abuse of alcohol. Not everyone experiences them because not everyone abuses alcoholic substances, yet most people fear the hangover due to its devastating feeling.
Due to the different levels of tolerance, it is difficult to generally define when one drink becomes too many. Alcohol as a form of diversion is acceptable. But when it becomes a habit used to drown sorrows, one finds out often too late that sorrows know how to swim and one’s life cannot withstand the extended exposure to alcohol –and drowning it has been.

xoxo,
Poison Drops


©Copyrighted 2009

Citizen of the World

The world is more abundant in diversity than one could ever imagine. Every distant place has a history and a future that makes it appealing or appalling to those who inhabit a different place. As a child, one dreams with visiting remote locations for which one develops a certain fascination. Many of those places are so magical that they exist only on one’s dreams or in the pages of a fiction book or science fiction novel, but many others form part of the planet one inhabits. After one grows older, one tends to devise a plan to visit the places that are real from the extended catalog one created as a child. One begins to accept that many of those places will only be visited in dreams as well as decided that certain others are not as attractive anymore. At the same time, the reasons one might want to visit a certain place might very well differ for the reasons one had as a child. One might travel due to a work related issue as opposed to having pleasure trip. One might travel with the family, friends or alone but always hoping to learn and enjoy. Yet, many people travel because they do not have any other choice, such as immigrants who want to improve their living conditions not because they wish to leave their motherland. Traveling is, thus, a subjective activity that nonetheless holds a passion for many; and whatever the motive, a lifetime is not enough to tour the world.
For most people, the first trip is with the family and does not necessarily involve long distance. Any trip out of town will classify for this category. However, in order for it to amount to an actual traveling experience it would require an overnight stay at the destination. More often than not, these trips mean a visit to a relative who for a reason or another lives in a different town than does one. But there are others who experience family trips of the kind that count as vacationing with the family and are the type of trip one tells people at school for years to come. Further, there are those family trips that mean a complete relocation of the family, as do immigrants.
As one grows older, one learns about places one previously only had vaguely heard of and a new desire to travel to those places, which attract one, begins to grow. Thus, when the resources are available, one travels more prominently usually with friends to those new places. One travels with friends because there is more freedom to enjoy the newly discovered grounds. At this time, one designs new ways in which one can enjoy the world. A list is constructed that contains the places one must absolutely visit and those others one would rather not go to. Also in the list are places one wished to return to. The world is constantly changing which provides another motive to travel around it.
Then, one hopes and attempts to be prosperous in order to continue indulging in the pleasure one acquires through traveling. Sometimes, such prosperity brings with itself the necessity to travel due to work related business. That kind of travel is rather draining because one must be in and out of places while doing work and does not have time to enjoy the trips, especially when the destination is a place one had never before been to. Nevertheless, one must appreciate such opportunities since they open the door to new destinations; and, of course, pay for the other delightful trips.
The first place one must absolutely admire through the art of travel is the motherland. Whatever this might be, it requires special attention. Yet, traveling must not be limited to such destinations within the international border of one’s country. One must travel to become acquainted with planet one inhabits. Every continent must be paid a visit. Every type of environment must also be visited. One must not only travel to be amused and pleased with what one experiences, but one must also learn from each trip. Details must be carefully observed in order to completely absorb what the encounter with a new place has to offer because the fact that one is foreign does not mean one is intellectually challenged.
One must be a traveler that takes pleasure in the journey as well as the stay while unwinding tensions, not a tourist who enjoys only the glamour in retrospect.

xoxo,
Poison Drops


©Copyrighted 2009

Personal Holiday

There are too many holidays in any given country or religion though they are not celebrated or observed by everyone who is eligible to do so. There is one day, however, that holds a special connotation and is celebrated by everyone: a birthday. The reasons people have to commemorate such day seem to be somewhat misguided. People tend to mark such day as a special day that represents life. That is to say, the life that has passed. On such day, one celebrates that one is becoming older and presumably more mature without noticing that there is not any real reason to celebrate such event. One is unknowingly merely rejoicing in the ignored truth that death is nearer. At the same time, one is celebrating one more year of life, one also celebrates one has one less year to live. There is a need to celebrate that one is still alive, which is wrongfully celebrated as having lived one more year by adding one more candle to the cake; and, delighting in the knowledge that has been acquired. But it should be celebrated with an emphasis on the year that begins and lays ahead full of opportunities and lessons to be learned.
Birthdays become the biggest holiday in each individual’s lives. As such, they doubtlessly create great expectations at any given year. There is always something to be desired that day. The first one, the day one is actually born, has the obvious expectation that the new addition to the family will be a healthy and to become a remarkable person. Then, people anticipate the first birthday to be celebrated with fanfare. Later, the second is expected to exceed the first. But as time goes by, the expectations switch from the people around to the child. As children grow older, they begin to aspire to better birthday parties to which they can invite their friends. They look forward to a cake, gifts, games, etc. if such expectations are not met, there is disappointment. Eventually, however, the disappointment is surpassed because one reaches an age when the expectations change from birthday parties to attain other purposes. First, one yearns to be sixteen in order to acquire a driver’s license. Later, one wants to be seventeen in order to be able to view r-rated movies at the theater without needing parents present. The magic eighteen is next: finally one is able to have access to nightclubs, and achieve a certain freedom. Then, leave to college. Finally, one awaits turning twenty-one in order to be able to legally drink. But these are all trivial aspirations. When they reach an end, one begins to have other types of expectations that become goals to accomplish.
One reaches an understanding that when one was so young, one was prevented from realizing the true meaning of the celebrations one had as a child. The details escaped the young mind. As an adult, one comprehends slightly more of what those parties represented. They were simply a way to show one’s social status; first for one’s parents, then unconsciously for oneself. The gifts received were only a way to fulfill one’s caprices. Finally, a cake with the candles as a reminder of how old one is becoming. All of which are superficial details. However, through those details one completely misses the fact that a birthday does not only mean one more year of life is starting and there is so much to be lived and experience. A birthday also symbolizes the end of a year one has already lived. It means one has less time to live. The focus of a birthday is the celebration of life, but there also needs to be a certain awareness of the time that has passed and one will not be able to recuperate. That is not to say one should dwell on the past and what one did and did not do, but on what one can do with the now accumulated knowledge.
At the sunset of one’s life, every birthday festivity will only revive memories of satisfying days full of enjoyment. But the true fulfillment will only come from having achieved every goal and having materialized every wish one had when blowing out the candles on every cake one had in the past. A birthday does not simply mark the end of a year one would hope left great memories but most importantly it is also the first day of the rest of one’s life; treat it as such.Personal Holiday
There are too many holidays in any given country or religion though they are not celebrated or observed by everyone who is eligible to do so. There is one day, however, that holds a special connotation and is celebrated by everyone: a birthday. The reasons people have to commemorate such day seem to be somewhat misguided. People tend to mark such day as a special day that represents life. That is to say, the life that has passed. On such day, one celebrates that one is becoming older and presumably more mature without noticing that there is not any real reason to celebrate such event. One is unknowingly merely rejoicing in the ignored truth that death is nearer. At the same time, one is celebrating one more year of life, one also celebrates one has one less year to live. There is a need to celebrate that one is still alive, which is wrongfully celebrated as having lived one more year by adding one more candle to the cake; and, delighting in the knowledge that has been acquired. But it should be celebrated with an emphasis on the year that begins and lays ahead full of opportunities and lessons to be learned.
Birthdays become the biggest holiday in each individual’s lives. As such, they doubtlessly create great expectations at any given year. There is always something to be desired that day. The first one, the day one is actually born, has the obvious expectation that the new addition to the family will be a healthy and to become a remarkable person. Then, people anticipate the first birthday to be celebrated with fanfare. Later, the second is expected to exceed the first. But as time goes by, the expectations switch from the people around to the child. As children grow older, they begin to aspire to better birthday parties to which they can invite their friends. They look forward to a cake, gifts, games, etc. if such expectations are not met, there is disappointment. Eventually, however, the disappointment is surpassed because one reaches an age when the expectations change from birthday parties to attain other purposes. First, one yearns to be sixteen in order to acquire a driver’s license. Later, one wants to be seventeen in order to be able to view r-rated movies at the theater without needing parents present. The magic eighteen is next: finally one is able to have access to nightclubs, and achieve a certain freedom. Then, leave to college. Finally, one awaits turning twenty-one in order to be able to legally drink. But these are all trivial aspirations. When they reach an end, one begins to have other types of expectations that become goals to accomplish.
One reaches an understanding that when one was so young, one was prevented from realizing the true meaning of the celebrations one had as a child. The details escaped the young mind. As an adult, one comprehends slightly more of what those parties represented. They were simply a way to show one’s social status; first for one’s parents, then unconsciously for oneself. The gifts received were only a way to fulfill one’s caprices. Finally, a cake with the candles as a reminder of how old one is becoming. All of which are superficial details. However, through those details one completely misses the fact that a birthday does not only mean one more year of life is starting and there is so much to be lived and experience. A birthday also symbolizes the end of a year one has already lived. It means one has less time to live. The focus of a birthday is the celebration of life, but there also needs to be a certain awareness of the time that has passed and one will not be able to recuperate. That is not to say one should dwell on the past and what one did and did not do, but on what one can do with the now accumulated knowledge.
At the sunset of one’s life, every birthday festivity will only revive memories of satisfying days full of enjoyment. But the true fulfillment will only come from having achieved every goal and having materialized every wish one had when blowing out the candles on every cake one had in the past. A birthday does not simply mark the end of a year one would hope left great memories but most importantly it is also the first day of the rest of one’s life; treat it as such.

xoxo,
Poison Drops


©Copyrighted 2009

How to Wear Mexican

There seems to be an intrinsic need to classify every aspect of one’s life as well as everything and everyone that one is surrounded by. In such a way, one finds that nations are classified based on the many features in which they are similar or differ from others. Every country arranges others in an unofficial way to have a record of what the country doing the organizing believes the country in the catalog should be like. Every country is guilty of such practice. The definition of culture emanates from this procedure. Culture is not something one thinks about while living in one’s country of origin; one simply lives the life one has without classifying certain details as part of the culture. Culture is a simply a lifestyle that takes another name once one departs the motherland to inhabit a foreign country. It is only after said relocation that one begins to grasp the importance of the everyday details one never before deemed as customs and traditions, but which have now acquired different dimensions.
As a young child growing up in a very small town in Mexico, it never occurred that life there was culturally rich. However, upon arriving to a foreign country one finds a new truth: everything one previously considered as a simple lifestyle becomes what constitutes the culture of one’s country. The new idea starts to gain ground when one’s thinks about the past. One necessarily begins to appreciate every detail of the precious past and regards the present as rather monotonously dull. One realizes that, indeed, the past from which one came from and to which one could return if so one wished is full of customs and traditions. Yet, such only takes the name of culture because one is now observing it from the outside. When one was still active in it, that culture was simply a way of life. Being Mexican is precisely that: a way of living. Such living must be experienced in order to be understood, appreciated, and loved. It is not a culture that one can express through a theory or learn about at school.
Certainly, there are traditions and customs, which uphold Mexican living. For example, speaking Spanish (or rather Mexican since it is a variation of the original Spanish). Then, there is the unofficial national religion: Catholicism, and passion for soccer. The culinary practices as well as the world famous tequila. The music, the education system, the importance of the family along with its complicated hierarchical system, the freedom children can enjoy, the celebration of national holidays in very specific ways, wedding ceremonies, and even poverty to name a few. These are, however, not labeled as customs and traditions when one lives in Mexico, they are simply part of the way life is. They do not completely encompass Mexican living, but provide an insight into a far from perfect, yet enjoyable and happy life.
It is worth the tautology to say that one learns to be Mexican only by being Mexican, which necessarily includes spending a great deal of time living in Mexico. It is only by living there that one learns to love the motherland and understand its flaws. One cannot miss what one never had. Nonetheless, there are many who depart at such early age that prevents them from absorb what being Mexican is. There are others who choose to portray themselves in a certain way, which they believe best in order to benefit from hiding their identity. Others do not realize they are incorrectly representing what being Mexican means in an effort to be accepted. Finally, there are those who attempt to be immersed in said ‘culture’ while in a foreign country without having spent any time in Mexico. The results are often an outrage to the idea, which they wished to represent. It is a complete failure because they only receive filtered theory without any practice. They only take what is appealing whereas those living in Mexico take the pleasant and the appalling. It does not matter how great, modest and passionate their attempt is, they will never be able to wear Mexican properly. One only learns to do so by having the suit carefully tailored to fit one’s body using the direct experiences that one accumulates through life in Mexico.
Suits are tailored to fit the customer not customized to order.
Dear beautiful Mexico, if I should die away from you, let people say I am only sleeping and take me to you!


xoxo,
Poison Drops

©Copyrighted 2009

Scarce Perfection

Women are sadly psychologically engineered to seek approval from everybody around them in different ways and at different times. Although many learn to control such flaw, others simply never discover its existence or choose to ignore it. As a result, most women are afraid of rejection and loneliness, which tends to impact their romantic life in negative manner. Women seem to be able to conform to the man they wind up with. Yet, the conformism is due to their constant quest of approval that hinders their pursuit of the perfect man they have imagined themselves with. The perfection women seek is, of course, subjective since every woman appreciates different qualities in a man. However, there are several qualities in which women usually agree when it comes to creating a template for the perfect man.
After careful research through numerous interviews, the model of a perfect man would be as follows. Women first and foremost want a man that will be not only faithful, but also loyal to them. It is important to recognize the difference. Being faithful means that there will only be one woman (at a time) in the romantic side of the relationship whereas being loyal means that there will not be any lies or secrets in the different aspects of the relationship.
To continue the perfect man should also be intelligent, which does not mean he should have only academic knowledge, but also he should be worldly knowledgeable. This is very important because he should be able to carry a conversation other than monotonous details of life, business, sports and cars. Women can hold such conversations, but they tend to become obstacles to real communication and insightful conversations. Said communication should also include a carefully crafted vocabulary that displays trust, yet respect and intelligence; without forgetting the vital importance of a pleasant sense of humor. However, the previously mentioned form of intelligence is not the only kind of intelligence a woman looks for in a man. The perfect man should also be streetwise. He should be able to survive in the city and possess a sense of direction. Such form of wisdom is not acquirable in a classroom, but it should complement academic scholarship.
If this man should have goals and ambitions, then he is a step closer to perfection. A woman does not want a man that does not aspire to be more than who he already is. Lack of which would mean he does not have space for growth; which might very well translate in not having space for a woman or a family. The now almost perfect man must also live on his own. As a result of such life, he would be able to appreciate those tasks performed at home that he would otherwise take for granted. Living alone also means that he should have a life of his own. He must be independent. He cannot expect to form an “us” if there was not previously a separate “I” and “you.”
He should also be physically fit. Every woman has her own definition of what this means, but the general idea is the same for most women. The general consensus of the interviewees included a minimum height of 5’10”. Women know that models are exceptions rather than norm, yet the commonly observed specimens are mostly unfit. It is also very significant that the perfect man possesses a sense of style. He cannot simply be the reflection of a piñata in every aspect of his life. A fashion sense is not the only necessity. He must also have manners and have a proper public and private demeanor. He must be masculine, yet mindful of his appearance and scent.
The perfect man must also know how to dance and how to cook. Women like to dance whether they admit it or not. The same way they enjoy a home cooked meal not prepared by them. Lastly, but not least critical, the perfect man should be skilled. Women do not fancy faking though many conform because most men are unable to perform.
There are also a series of qualities that depending on their presence or absence on a man automatically destroy any chance of a relationship. These, however, vary greatly with every woman the same way the perfect woman is contingent to every man. The perfect man is rare and not displayed on sideboards. Research should be done. But remember that even an overly expensive car is taken out for a drive before it is bought.

xoxo,
Poison Drops

©Copyrighted 2009