Atlas Hugged« my happy ending | Main | Jennifer Beals Should Be Pleased »
April 2, 2006
reasons to quit
i am currently undergoing the painstaking process of purging from my body all things coca-cola related. a decision that was not easily arrived at but an idea whose time had certainly come. and that time came at midnite in knoxville tennessee, on my hands and knees looking under furniture and rifling through the drawers in my hotel room for enough loose change to feed the golden glowing vending machine at the end of the hall for the only thing that would quench my impossible thirst - a 20 oz bottle of coca cola.
while i feel comfortable with this decision i'm in the process of making - i'm a little bit worried that the steely resolve i feel may only have the consistency of aluminum. foil. for you see, i have had coca-cola coursing through my veins since 1985 when the family moved from our apartment in hollywood florida to the house in north miami beach - you know, the one with the banana trees in the front yard that only grew those creepy little midget bananas and the greyhounds that chased each other into oblivion. yeah, that was our house.
it didn't take my brother and i long to notice the 7-11 on the dade/broward county line a mere three blocks from our house. of course these were in the dark days when 7-11 still sold dirty magazines and i think my parents decided to participate in the boycott that was all the rage back in those days. well, that was fine for my parents but my brother and i at the ages of 14 and 12 respectively, felt that the common grace that had given the slurpee to all mankind far outweighed the nefarious dangers of naked people.
fortunately for everyone involved, 7-11 caved to the pressure and removed their questionable printed materials and we were free to revel in the abandon of slurpees, and big gulps, and nachos - and we did so. often. if only our parents had known that these slurpees would prove to be a gateway drug to super big gulps and then eventually the double gulp - and it was so cheap! you could easily suck down the equivalent of two liters of coca cola for a fraction of the cost you would pay at your local green grocers.
of course it wasn't long before it took more than just one to satisfy the craving. and i'm not proud to admit this but there was a time - at the height of my addiction - where i could easily drink two double gulps in a day. it eventually got the point that i drank nothing but coke. i'd go to parties in high school and there would be the token beer and the whatnot, but i wasn't interested in any of that. as long as i had i coke in hand i was ready to party.
i've tried several times over the years to kick the habit. but it's been difficult. because i don't feel like myself when i'm not on the sauce. and it's true, i've had friends offer to buy me coke products because they didn't like the person i'd become without it. not only that, it calms my nerves, it helps me sleep (seriously) and improves my singing voice like nothing else on this earth.
but there i was at midnite in knoxville tennessee, on my hands and knees. i eventually found a dollar in change at the bottom of my shaving bag and got my fix but even as i enjoyed the sweet release i realized the absurdity of it all and came to the conclusion that maybe it was time to quit this thing for good.
| By young_christopher | 2:40 PM