I got a great email today from a friend of mine. In his email, he asked me why I don’t drink alcohol.

The real reason why I don’t drink alcohol is because the sugar content in it makes my stomach feel funky the next day. I really don’t like to feel funky because one of my favorite things to do is eat.

Also, the temporary buzz I get from alcohol (which is very temporary) isn’t worth how it makes me feel the next day. If I have a glass of wine, I might feel a little more relaxed for about 12 to 14 minutes. That’s about it. The buzz doesn’t really last that long for me.

The taste of wine is good, but not worth the after effects that I experience. That’s the only reason I don’t drink.

It’s interesting though. There are a lot of people who do drink alcohol, and a lot of people whose personality totally change when they do. Last night we witnessed the annoying change of personality due to booze.

We live on the beach near the fireworks show and all night all we heard was loud drunk obnoxious people who could not handle there booze. They screamed and yelled like a pack of wild 5 year olds on a sugar high.

They lost all concept of manners and this drunken stupor not only sounded awful but you know really is not much fun.

You know how there is the Surgeon General’s warning on packs of cigarettes advising you that smoking is dangerous to your health? Well I’ve always thought there should be a warning label on bottles of booze that says this: “Warning: Consumption of this substance may turn you into an annoying, loud, obnoxious asshole.”

So here’s a tip for all of you who drink . . .

If the day after you drink people tell you that you were really rude, loud or obnoxious the night before, then I think you should stop drinking booze. Remember, you only have one chance to make a first impression.

You may think that you need alcohol to loosen you up when you go to a party. If drinking alcohol turns you into a loud, annoying and obnoxious drunkard, though, then everyone at that party who sees you act that way will think that is what you are like all the time. Even if you are the sweetest and most amazing person otherwise, people will label you loud and obnoxious if that is how they first see you acting.

So how do you get when you drink? I know some people who have a drink, and you’d never know it. My best friend can have ten drinks and talk to everyone in the room, and no one would suspect he’s had a lot to drink.

I’ve met other people who have only one or two drinks, though, and that turns them into a totally different person. Another friend of mine used to have three or four drinks, and Mongo would come out. He’d start drooling a little bit. His words would slur. He became a totally different person.

So start asking your friends how you act when you’re drinking alcohol. Alcohol unfortunately tends to give a lot of people temporary Alzheimer’s where they forget if they were loud, obnoxious and being an asshole.

So it’s time you started looking into your drinking, and finding out what type of person you become when you drink. If you become that annoying person when you drink, you may be turning off a lot of people without realizing it.