Holiday Excess

People tend to go overboard during the holidays and, unfortunately, I am not immune to this deadly habit. Stressful as it is, I find myself testing (yet again!) the limits of my body—from downing 10 different types of liquors in one night, eating fatty food till I get dizzy, to staying up till 9AM after coming home from a party because I forget I have a deadline to meet. So here I am, during the first week of the new year, with my sinuses clogged, nursing a headache, and running a slight fever. Nothing is impossible, but it is true that you can’t (or it’s really hard to) teach an old dog new tricks.

Balance was never really my thing. I’ve always been driven to excess. I like contrasts. I’ve been known to hibernate after a period of constant socializing. I’m am a workaholic, but I also like to sleep and do nothing when I do not have a project. I used to practice yoga daily for an hour and a half for fourteen solid months, then did nothing the following year. Psychologists and behaviorists can offer their theories about this comportment but I personally like blaming it on the stars. I am a Leo, with an ascendant in Aquarius, and moon in Sagittarius. These aspects mixed together make up an interesting and volatile brew.

Allow me to explain: Your sun sign determines your method of self-expression and basic approach to life. Your ascendant (or rising sign) describes the surface of your personality and the impression you give people. Your moon dictates the way you react to people and events. Leos are spirited and strong willed. They live for drama. They are also social creatures, seen as warm and friendly. Aquarians, ruled by the opposing sign of Leo, are cool and detached. Although they are also determined and quite stubborn when it comes to their ideas, they go about their business in solitude (unlike Leos). Think of the snooty intellectuals hiding away in their ivory towers. They are often unconventional, independent, rebellious, and eccentric. Sagittarians are divided—one part longs to party into the night and the other wants to expand his mind and explore his spirituality. They are free-spirits, philosophers, and wanderers. Leo and Sagittarius are fire signs, while Aquarius is air.

Like I said, a combination of these three creates a curious and mercurial personality. Schizophrenia, anyone?

Okay, okay, I am not washing my hands altogether here and pointing the entire blame on my astrological chart. I know enough to see that real life cannot be filed and boxed neatly. And that no one else is responsible for your life but you. I am the way I am because of an unlimited combination and permutations of events, experiences, people, emotions, and chemicals (ingested and naturally produced). I do, however, get a kick out of reading my chart, confirming and seeing the source of my freakishness on paper. It’s like going to the doctor for a check-up when you already know you just have a headache from eating an entire two pound turtle cake in one sitting and not have a brain tumor. The prescription for Advil in your hand quiets you because sometimes it’s easier to accept things for the way they are when it is handed to you in a concise and precise note. It’s silly but astrology calms my stomach and keeps the lid on the lunatic, nervous, paranoid, homicidal maniac running around the basement in my brain.

I write this under the influence of Maximum Strength Tylenol Sinus (Night). My heart is palpitating like Sara Baras’s feet during a flamenco performance and I think (no, I swear) that I don’t want a repetition of last month’s frenzy in the coming months. So, in honor of the new year (and in accordance with the spirit of resolution-making prevalent this time of year), I am officially adding "cultivating balance and becoming a master of maintaining my equilibrium" to my list of goals for 2006. Very ambitious, I know, but what do you expect from a Leo-Aquarian-Sagittarian?