4 Loko Ban

Today will go down in history as one of the worst days ever in the eyes of college students in Ohio. Yes, today is the day that 4 Loko, an alcoholic energy drink, was banned from being sold in Ohio. A little background info on 4 Loko for those who haven't heard of it. The drink comes in a 23.5-ounce can in a bunch of fruity flavors. It contains 12% alcohol, making it equivalent to about six beers, and the caffeine is equivalent to about five cups of coffee. Oh, and the cost of these drinks? About $2.75. In the minds of college students, it's a really cheap way to get really drunk. In the last couple of months there have been numerous cases of alcohol poisoning and even a death in college students across the country who had been consuming this drink.

Rumors of a ban have been circulating and have even gone through in many states. The day came for Ohioans today. I have already heard arguments on the ban and people stating that people just need to pay more attention to how much they are drinking, or that the combination of caffeine and alcohol has no effect on them. I have a few points to make on that:

1. Yes, people need to pay more attention to what they are drinking, BUT we are also talking about college students. Many just want to get drunk and want to do it as fast as possible. That's where 4 Loko comes in. If they don't realize that they are really drinking the equivalent of SIX drinks instead of one, it could definitely mean trouble.
2. Just because a mix of caffeine and alcohol does not effect YOU, that does not mean that it does not effect other people. Let's think about it. Alcohol is a depressant, causing processes in your body to slow. Caffeine is a stimulant, which causes body processes to speed up. Our bodies are not made to process large amount of stimulants and depressants at the same time. Now let's consider someone with a heart problem. Think about two different substances telling your heart to speed up and slow down at the same time. Sound like a good idea?

I personally have never tried 4 Loko and never would because I don't know how it would effect me. I realize that some people can drink it and have no problems. My point however, is that there have been so many problems with this drink and other drinks like it that there is obviously something about it that is unsafe, hence the ban. A point was also made that there are plenty of other alcoholic drinks out there that produce the same buzz/level of drunkenness or what-have-you as 4 Loko. Fine. Drink those. Instead of being concerned about having one less option of things to drink to get wasted, why don't we think about the deaths and serious illnesses that have been caused by drinking it?

I'm not judging anyone who drinks 4 Loko or who disagrees with the ban. All I am saying is that working on a college campus has opened my eyes to how much this drink can impact an individual and if people really took the time to research the issue, they might be surprised.

That is all. Have a great day! =)

The Simple Things

Lately I think God has been challenging me and reminding me to appreciate the simpler things in life. I can be goofy and be entertained by the silliest things, so appreciating simple things is not news to me. However, I think that the stress of work and school makes it easy to be more uptight and overlook the little things that used to make me happy. Recently, though, more situations have been occurring that make me stop, smile, and just enjoy the moment. Here are a few examples from this weekend alone:

1. All week I was looking forward to a date night on Friday with Chris. We were going to get dressed up and go to dinner at Brio, followed by a movie which is one of our favorite things to do but we haven't done in awhile. After a long week for both of us I thought it sounded like the perfect date. Life, however, had other plans. On Thursday evening, Chris informed me that someone had scheduled him an appointment at 7:30 Friday night and that he had to work at 8:00 on Saturday morning, meaning he couldn't be out late. By the time he got home from work, showered, and we got to the restaurant it would have been close to 9:00 and a movie would've made the night super late. I was pretty disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I am so proud of Chris and how successful he has been in his new position at work and know that he has been working really hard to get there, but I was really looking forward to this night out.

So Friday came around and I was meeting a friend at Starbucks to do homework and study on the West-side before Chris got off work. I stopped at the gym to pick up his apartment keys so I wasn't stuck at Starbucks for five hours, and sat by the front desk while I waited for the manager to page Chris, who was working out, to come get me. Chris comes walking to the front from the free weight room with a huge smile on his face, greets me with a "hello gorgeous" and a big hug. Okay, seriously, how could I even be disappointed after that? I left the gym with a huge smile on my face and excited to see Chris when he got off work. We ended up going to dinner at Harry Buffalo where we watched the Cavs beat the 76ers (YAY!) and laughed at everything. Following dinner we went to Blockbuster where we took forever to pick out a movie and finally made it home. Now, I could've been really annoyed by the fact that my boyfriend, who is never cold, didn't even have the heat on, but instead I just looked at it as yet another perfect reason to cuddle up during the movie =)

2. On Saturday I drove to Beachwood to meet my mom, aunt, and cousin for lunch and some shoe shopping. (Side note: I ended up with three pairs of shoes for only $75. Now that is a simple thing to appreciate!) The closer I got to Beachwood, the more snow there was on the ground! I was talking to Chris on the phone and I was literally in shock over how much snow there was--it was like I was seeing snow for the first time! I am not a fan of cold weather or driving in the snow, but it reminded me of Christmas and everything I love about the Christmas season and, despite the fact that the roads are bad and it meant I couldn't drive to have a date with Biz =( I still smiled just thinking about the upcoming holiday season.

3. In the middle of the night Saturday night I was woken up by Bella getting sick. I'm talking like loud puking. Gross, right? Considering it was the middle of the night and the fact that I love sleep, I didn't get out of bed to clean it up because I figured it would still be there in the morning. Well, the idea of cleaning up cat vomit probably doesn't sound like a very motivating reason to get out of bed in the morning, but I will tell you that it wasn't so bad for me this morning. You see, I woke up to find that Bella had neatly covered her puddle of vomit with tissues, one of my new slippers (the rubber sole, thank goodness!), and one of her cat toys. I wish I had thought to take a picture, because the whole thing was so funny to me that I couldn't even be upset about getting out of bed to clean. Sometimes my cat's intelligence is frustrating, but last night it was just highly entertaining and ridiculously cute. I'm not sure if she was trying to clean up her mess or cover it up because she didn't want to be in trouble, but either way, it made me smile.


So yes, those are some random things that happened this weekend that made me smile or just helped me appreciate life a little bit more. They may not be things that other people find entertaining or appreciate at all, but when I spent all day doing homework today, it wasn't so bad because of the other things that happened this weekend that made me smile. On top of that, three out of my four papers/projects I have due next weekend are DONE which means that I can have another wonderful weekend next weekend. Yet another reason to smile =)