Humanity

We're such interesting, pesky creatures.

We have cultures that we call our own, fight over, and die for, mostly because it's just something to make ourselves feel better. We wish to define ourselves and sometimes put ourselves into corners just so we can say we have some sense of individuality (even though these corners might completely usurp that individuality).

We create foods and cook them, and then create entirely new things out of foods that have gone bad just to extend their consumability while not killing ourselves or making ourselves or others gravely or intensely ill. We have cheese, savory pies, alcohol... We've even made an art of the controlled spoiling of things to use for our own purposes: wine, certain cheeses, anti-microbials...

We have music of all sorts, and instruments of every possible type that make use of pretty much any part of the human body that can make music. Then the types of music might relate to our construction of culture, some cultures embracing certain types of music or being fiercely protective of the fact the specific culture "created" that type of music.

We carve up this planet and use it however we wish, with some of us giving a care how we use it while others say we'll make new things to take care of the problems we create (because business). We fight wars and blow up bits of the planet just to show one side the other has dominance. We create weapons to one-up each other, and sometimes hold onto these weapons fiercely in "what-if" mindsets.

We're... interesting.

Water Consumption

I tried drinking water as a regular part of my day for the first half of this week.

And it sucked...

First, I should note that I don't really subscribe to fads or trends. I tend to avoid them, so popular things, things "everyone is going to see", and the like, I tend to not do. This isn't necessarily out of spite or being contrarian (though I sometimes, briefly, play mock-contrarian for fun), but because I want to do things because I'd discovered a worthwhile of doing it beyond needing to have a commonality with my fellow humans.

Yes, it is a little lonely. I often think about the things I watch, read, and do, that the only place I can find that there are others who wish to share it with me is online on reddit, Twitter, or Facebook. And occasionally Google+. I suppose there are advantages to doing that, most notably tailoring the timetable of comment and response to one's own schedule (within reason).

I say all this to go on to that the "Water Fad" thing that one should drink eight glasses of water a day has never been one that I'd taken to heart. Simultaneously, I'd somehow always felt I needed to drink more water than I have done.

Generally, my water consumption happens between my odd few daily cups of tea, my less-often, when-I-feel-like-it cup of coffee or a coffee drink, the infrequent adult beverage (often at home and often wine or sake), and the food I eat. This has suited me fine, for the most part. I do have chapped lips some of the time, and I have very, very, very infrequent constipation (though I do have regular, daily bowel movements 99% of the time). Taking this in, there shouldn't be a problem with my water consumption as it has been.

Still, I'd felt I needed to drink more. More I'd started. I've had this 60-ounce bottle I'd bought in a dollar store Target [* I'd just remembered the true origins] a long time ago that I'd occasionally rotated in using since I have a few water bottles I'd inherited or bought over the years. The other bottles I have are:

• a 32-ounce bottle I'd bought because the one I usually used when I travel started leaking when on its side
• the aforementioned 26-ounce bottle one of my employers had given me and all the other employees in an effort to cut back on the budget for throw-away cups
• a 16-ounce bottle my brother had given me that he'd gotten as a give-away

So, I have four. I believe in rotating everything so they have an equal chance of use (and prolonging the life, theoretically, of the entire set). In this week's rotation, I happened to be using the most capacious bottles I have, and I'd upped my water intake. Usually with the larger bottles, I drink from them occasionally and often end up carrying the majority of the water with me on the car ride home. It then sits at home sometimes until the next day when I take it with me to work, or sometimes I'll occasionally drink from it in the evening or throw the rest into my kettle. With the 26-ounce one, I'll generally get through about three-quarters, and the 16-ounce sometimes I'll finish.

This week, I had two servings of the 32-ounce on Monday and Tuesday, and almost two servings of the 60-ounce on Wednesday. And it killed me. I was going to the restroom pretty much hourly, and it was really annoying. I suppose I shouldn't have gone whole hog, and it's not something I'd premeditated. I didn't purpose to drink that much water, but I just started drinking and drinking and drinking. Thinking about how much water mathematically I'd imbibed already those three days, it amazes me.

No wonder on Wednesday on the drive home (and where I had to hustle up the stairs and run to my bathroom with "urgency"), I'd decided I would have no more of that. I would drink as I do normally.

Today, I didn't bring any water bottle. I just had my pretty standard-sized, vintage Busch Gardens  plastic mug, from which I had a mocha, a cup of green tea, and two servings of three-quarters hot and one-quarter cold (net reasonably warm) water.

And I wasn't rushing to the bathroom like a person who'd overdosed on laxatives.

So, only as much water as I feel like and no more. I suppose, like most things human, I had to experiment with it to know.