New post: Over? http://30daysofdrinking.com
The 30 days ended on my birthday, September 23rd.
I celebrated my birthday with a party at my house. A lot of my friends showed up but I didn’t drink anything because I was too busy running around playing host and making sure everyone else was having a good time. It was a great party and I’m definitely lucky to have so many amazing friends.
I spent the next day wondering what to do now. I didn’t update the blog from day 20 on because nothing especially interesting happened. I had a few drinks here and there, had some interesting conversation, but nothing else worth mentioning. I found myself feeling like the experiment, while not necessarily a failure, wasn’t exactly a success.
I went into this hoping to have some sort of revelation or at least be more informed about alcohol and the reasons people drink. And while I can walk up to a bar and order a drink with confidence now I don’t feel like I got any further on the why.
So the short, uncomplicated answer is that this isn’t over. The last few weeks I’ve been thinking about how to proceed and whether or not I should drink. Instead of registering “90daysofdrinking.com” or something like that, I’m going to explore things on my own time. I don’t know exactly how long it will take, but my goal is to be proactive in getting an answer to some of the questions I have.
A lot of people showed support for me and helped me out during the 30 days and I really appreciate all of you - strangers and friends alike.
To answer a question I’ve received via email a few times: No, I did not throw up.
To be honest, I did very little that was in the realm of “letting go”, which I think is part of my problem. My sense of “control” over things is hard to toss away. I have too many responsibilities to my friends, my job, etc. I was unable to just drink myself mindless and deal with the next day when it came. Maybe I need to take some vacation time and try it then.
I promise I’ll keep you all informed and direct you to another venue where I’ll post my thoughts and keep you all updated on what’s happening. I don’t know if this is the proper place for it yet, but when there is one I’ll direct you to it.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who know not to push the elevator Door Close button, and those who know but do it anyway.
Playing catch up: Days 17, 18, 19, and 20. http://30daysofdrinking.com
Day 18.
I can’t believe it’s Friday already.
My roommate Jimmy is in a fantastic band called Milquetoast & Co. - (http://www.myspace.com/milquetoastco) and they were playing a show at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain.
I was driving and therefore not drinking - especially after the sobering checkpoint experience the night before.
Jess met up with me at my house and we went to pick up Regan (who shall be affectionately referred to from here on as “fluffy” for reasons I won’t go into).
The show was excellent as always, and the plan was for me to go back to Alex’s house for a small shindig he was having where he promised me some of his sangria. His words were “I’d like to see you on the floor crying and telling us that you love us.”
It sounded like a terrible idea, but sometimes you just do what you’re told and so I planned to head there but the traffic, rain, and late show start conspired against me and so I was unable to make the party before they wrapped up. I went home with mixed feelings. Stoked to have seen Milquetoast & Co. play again but sad I missed Alex and friends.
Day 19
Saturday.
I slept in from the late night on Friday and milled around the house a bit. I had a feeling that Saturday was going to be a bit crazy. Tristram had agreed to host a party that night and he always delivers a good party. The bonus was that he had crash space so I knew I could camp out on a couch for a few hours if I drank too much.
Masha and Jess met me at my place and we tried to formulate a plan. We were due in Harvard Square at 10:00 to meet Gary for food before the Rocky Horror Picture Show (http://www.fullbodycast.org).
We decided to do what any adult would do at 7:30PM on a Saturday when they haven’t had dinner - we went for Ice cream sundaes. We picked Friendly’s because, to quote my dad:
“They’re friendly, but they’re not speedy.”
After killing time there Jess announced that she wanted to go to the liquor store to stock up for the party. Masha was excited because she recently turned 21 and had yet to actually set foot inside a liquor store.
I roamed the aisles for a few minutes trying to think of a good gift for our hosts Tristram and Bethany. Hendricks Gin seemed like a good choice - partially for selfish reasons. I actually enjoyed the Gin and Tonic I tasted the week before, so I grabbed some tonic to go with.
We scored excellent parking in Harvard Square which anyone will tell you is a miracle at 10PM on a Saturday night, and we met up with Gary to get food.
Charlie’s Kitchen was beyond packed. College kids were definitely back in town. It was standing room only both upstairs and downstairs. We quickly decided to bail on Charlie’s and instead went to one of my favorite places in the world - Pinocchio’s Pizza.
If you live in Boston or plan to visit Boston you’re doing yourself and your stomach a major disservice by not grabbing a slice of pizza at Pinocchio’s. I’ll leave it at that.
With a stomach full of pizza I headed off to the show with Gary, Masha, Jess, and Tim, who met us there.
Fast forward a few hours and I find myself in Tristram’s kitchen. Bethany was excited over the gift of Hendricks because it’s apparently her favorite. Alex walks into the kitchen and ceremoniously pops the top on the two containers of Alex’s Special Sangria and promptly pours me a glass.
No one thought to go to the store to get cups for alcohol, so there was a cup shortage. Masha found the last few cups and snuck off with them to write mine and her name on two.
Bethany mixed me a gin and tonic using a nice glass she procured and I found myself with a glass of Alex’s sangria and a gin and tonic.
I was there ten minutes and I was already double fisting.
I drank about an eight of an inch of Alex’s sangria and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
“What the hell is in this?”
Alex rattled off a list of ingredients that I don’t remember and everyone in the room cringed. Not a good sign.
I was determined to finish the sangria - which should be called “Alex Hates Christian” instead of “sangria” - so I was sipping it slowly and chasing it with the much smoother Hendricks gin and tonic.
About halfway through both drinks Tristram appeared and, seeing that I was drinking, announced that he was going to make me a martini. Olives and all.
So now in a party where cups are a rare commodity, the guy who was previously straightedge has three drinks.
My notes from the night, after “holy shit the sangria hit me fast” say simply:
“wooooooooooooooo”
I was planted in the corner of the kitchen where the two counters met at a 90 degree angle, so I just leaned there without danger of falling over or anything.
By this time it’s about 4:30AM and I’ve finished the gin and tonic, the “sangria”, and the martini. I ate the olives. They weren’t bad.
I poured myself another gin and tonic because Alex re-appeared to pour me the last of the “sangria”.
About halfway through both of these drinks I realized that I suddenly couldn’t feel my face.
My head felt very odd. When I looked left, it took a moment for the world to catch up.
I was pretty drunk.
Alex’s “sangria” was about three million percent alcohol by volume, and I finished two of those, two gin and tonics, and a martini.
What the hell was I thinking?
I didn’t feel sick, thank god, but I definitely had equilibrium problems. Everything was fuzzy. I managed to make it to the bathroom and I came downstairs to see my lesbian friend standing there laughing at me. A little voice in my head told me to make out with her. Luckily another little voice politely asked what the fuck the first voice was talking about.
I told her all of this and she just chuckled at me. I guess I understand why people get drunk and have sex now.
After another few minutes I found myself in the downstairs bathroom. I was staring at myself in the wall of mirrors and slowly swaying back and forth. I kept asking myself if I was having fun. Was I having fun? What’s the appeal of this? It’s weird, sure, but it seems like the novelty would wear off after the first time.
I took a photo of myself in on of the bathroom mirrors. I look terrible:
I have no idea why I’m making that face.
My friend Adam was knocking on the door to make sure I was okay. I was apparently staring at myself in the bathroom mirror for 15 minutes. I announced that I was okay and turn to walk towards the door. The bathroom was humid and the floor slightly damp making me stumble on the tiles and fall into the door. Nothing too major - just a basic stumble - but from the other side of the door they probably thought I passed out. I opened the door to Adam and Kristen looking at me asking if I was okay. I waved them off and said I was fine. I just tripped and could walk.
Sure, I didn’t feel great, but I was okay enough to walk. Well weave, more than walk, but I wasn’t going to pass out or throw up. At least that what I figured. I haven’t passed out yet so I probably don’t know the signs.
Kristen fussed over me for a bit and I kept waving her off. I sat down in the kitchen and realized that I was pickled. I needed to start drinking water. My forehead was sweating, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the bathroom being so hot or from drinking.
After a few glasses of water and sitting on the chair, I could actually feel myself getting better. Sort of like when you drive down a highway in the fog and as the fog thins out you start to see better bit by bit. Before you know it, the fog is dissipating and you’re back to normal.
I could “feel” my brain doing that. It was a very bizarre feeling.
I spent a few more hours at the house drinking water and resting. The weirdness went away and then it was just a matter of time before my body had processed the alcohol enough so that I could feel comfortable driving home.
Eventually I was sober enough to drive and the three of us - Masha, Jess and myself - piled into my car and started heading back to my house.
Driving down Memorial Drive on Sunday morning I watched as the joggers got a start to their day. Here I was newly sobered up from drinking and partying all night and just driving home to go to sleep and they had woken up early on a Sunday morning to get their morning jog in. The juxtaposition was interesting. I took a moment to ask myself if I’d rather be the one out partying or the one waking up early to exercise.
I’m not sure I have an answer to that yet.
Day 20
I went to bed at 9AM on Sunday morning and woke up at 1:30PM Sunday afternoon.
I’m lucky enough not to have a hangover, but I do feel very tired from lack of sleep. No headache. I don’t think I drank enough water last night except at the end when I was trying to sober up. I’ll have to keep an eye on that moving forward. I’ve avoided hangovers so far, but it’s probably only a matter of time if I keep doing things like last night.
There were a few people egging me on last night - trying to make me pass out of puke, but I was fortunate enough to have a large number of friends keeping an eye on me and looking out for me. They want my experience to be enjoyable, not completely regrettable.
I know I keep mentioning how much I appreciate my friends but I really can’t stress that enough. Without them this entire thing would probably be a fiasco. While “Local man starts drinking for the first time and dies in four days” might be an interesting headline for the Boston Globe, it’s not quite what I had in mind for my obituary.
I spent Sunday lounging around the house and recovering from the night before. I was in the interesting position of being extremely tired and wanting to sleep, but knowing that doing so would screw up my sleep schedule for the next few days. Monday morning I have to hop on a train and go back to New York so I can’t go to bed now and screw that all up. The solution is to keep things low key and ride out the day until I can crash at an acceptable hour. It might not make for the most productive or interesting day, but I have to try to be responsible sometimes.
Sunday night is our weekly poker game, so I dragged myself to Trent’s and scowled at Alex for trying to kill me with “sangria” the night before.
No drinking, but I feel worn down and tired. I did okay in poker, taking fifth place but not placing high enough to win any money, and I made it home by around 11PM.
I caught a second wind somewhere along the line and I couldn’t sleep when I got home so I threw in a movie and zoned out for a bit.
Monday morning I get on a train and head back to New York for a week. We’ll see how this goes.
Thursday was back to work. I woke up and felt normal for the most part - no hangover yet.
After work I met up with Alex, Gary, and Tony at Alex’s house for movie night. We watched the 1970s classics The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers.
Alex, Gary, and Tony try to meet up once a week to watch a movie that one of them recommends that they feel the others should see. It’s a pretty cool idea and I was happy to take part. I hadn’t seen either movie yet and they were both very entertaining. Sort of a look at what a mindless action flick would look like 30 years ago, with a little bit of culture added. The fight scenes were hilarious and surprisingly realistic.
When the movies were done someone announced that we should go to Sonic for cheeseburgers and tater tots at 11:30PM. There was some waffling within the group but it eventually became a game of “I’ll go if you go” and so off we went.
Sitting on the metal bench eating tater tots and sipping my vanilla milkshake at midnight and watching the long line of cars wait for burgers and fries and waitresses zipping by on rollerskates was a little surreal. It was an entertaining end to an already great night.
I ended up not drinking anything, which was good because I hit a sobriety checkpoint a few miles from my house.
I rolled up to the checkpoint with slight unease. Normally I would roll my window down and greet the officer and calmly explain that I haven’t been drinking because I don’t drink and they would wave me through and I wouldn’t give it a second thought. A minor inconvenience.
Tonight, I got a little nervous, which was very odd since I hadn’t had anything to drink in over 24 hours. Sort of like seeing a speed trap on the side of the road and you cringe even though you aren’t speeding. Was I relegated to the “People sometimes doing things they weren’t supposed to” portion in my mind from now on?
I managed to keep my cool and greeted the officer who quickly realized I wasn’t drunk and big me goodnight. Before going I asked him because I was curious:
“Have you had a lot of drunk drivers so far?”
“It’s still pretty early”, he replied. “But by the end of the night we’ll have that bus filled up.”
I let me eyes follow where he was pointing and expected a much, much smaller “bus”. This was a Greyhound style cross-country bus that clearly held a very large number of people. For a Thursday night this seemed like a lot.
I wanted to go back and talk to the checkpoint officers more but it seemed like a bad idea and it was late.
As I closed my eyes to go to sleep I had a brief vision of getting pulled over and spending time in that bus with the other drunkards before being whisked off to spend a night in jail.
Driving drunk seems reckless and stupid. Why not just take a nap in your car for a few hours? I don’t get it.
I may have had tee many martoonis.
Day 15
Tuesday when I woke up I felt even worse than Monday. The “30 days of drinking” experiment has rapidly turned into “30 days of not sleeping enough, eating junk food, and drinking more soda than I should” which roughly translates to “30 days of feeling like shit”.
Tuesday was low key. I went to a bar trivia night with some friends and it turned out that the trivia questions were about 70% the same as the trivia questions from a few weeks ago when I did another bar trivia night at a completely different place.
I felt like I was cheating, but I gave them the answers anyway. I guess my conscience is dwindling also.
It turns out that trivia isn’t quite as fun when you know all the answers.
We were at a TGI Friday’s, though, so I looked at the menu to compare the prices with the craziness Shane and I paid while in Time Square. The drink was about 60% cheaper and the dessert was about 40% cheaper. Fuckers.
Feeling like crap and needing to drive, I didn’t drink anything. Called it a relatively early night and was in bed by midnight. I’m getting too old for this.
Day 16
On Wednesday I met up with Gary, Alex, and Adam at the Sunset Grill in Allston. Sunset’s claim to fame is that they have something like 130 beers on tap. Over the course of the last week I’d been telling Alex and Gary about how I wasn’t a fan of beer at all. They decided that I should try a bunch to see if I could find one I liked. Fair enough.
As best as I can tell from my notes, we ordered the following:
Newcastle
Guiness
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Youngs Double Chocolate Stout
Sam Adams Brick Red
Harpoon IPA
Flying Dog Doggy Style Pale Ale
Cisco Whale’s Tale Pale Ale
Dogfish Head Pale Ale
Three Philosphers Belgian Style Quadruple
Newcastle 120
I know. It’s a lot of beer. Sunset does a 2oz beer sample option, so a bunch of those were in 2oz samplers. Here’s a poorly lit photo of some of the beer:
I ordered a burger and some of Sunset’s root beer on tap which is fantastic. I’d say that if there’s a drink out there that I enjoy and sample often, it’s root beer.
The nice thing about root beer is that it seems to completely cancel out any lingering beer or alcohol taste in my mouth. It’s a nice reset for when you’re sampling a bunch of different types of beer. I was able to give each beer a fair shake without letting the previous one spoil or dilute the flavor.
My notes are kind of jumbled from the night, but from what I can tell I didn’t care for the Brick Red very much (sorry Sam Adams) or the Doggy Style, but the Sierra Nevada and the Harpoon IPA weren’t bad.
This could be because the Sierra Nevada and the Harpoon were a little lighter - easier on my delicate beer-virgin sensibilities.
I expected the Guiness to be a lot thicker, like beer in a glass, but it the consistency was just like any other beer. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t know that I’d seek it out.
The Newcastle 120 was the most flavorful of all the beers I tried. It was very “sharp” - for lack of a better term - and it didn’t go down easy, but I could taste a lot going on with it. Some of the others kind of blended together in my head and I had trouble keeping them apart, even after sipping them to compare. The Newcastle 120 was immediately recognizable.
The Youngs Double Chocolate actually tasted like chocolate! It was very surprising. A lot of beer mentioned fruit and other flavors but I can’t really taste it. The chocolate was very obvious. It’s like a dessert beer.
Alex, Gary, and Adam gave me a crash course on beer. I learned about how different types of beer are made and the origin of IPA - they put a lot of hops and high alcohol content to preserve the beer over the long voyage from England to India back in the 1700s.
It was only about 15 minutes after I planted myself in the seat before I was back in the now familiar tipsy territory. The beer came before the food and I hadn’t eaten much earlier. We had a few hours so I just kept sampling the beers and trusted that time and the food would sort me out before I needed to drive home.
Conversation was plentiful and the company was good. It was a pretty great evening. I didn’t really find a beer I was happy with enough to actually want to drink in the future but I was definitely starting to get a better hang of the different types of beers and what I liked more than other types.
We talked about Slush Puppies, which made me want one, and reminisced about being kids and growing up. It was the kind of night I had been looking forward to since I started the experiment. Just hanging out with some friends drinking beer.
We dropped Adam off at North Station and I came for the ride because I wasn’t quite ready to drive yet and we hit a fair amount of crazy Boston city traffic. I said goodbye to Alex and Gary and started up my car.
The night was still pretty early so I called my friend Jon and had him meet me at Flat Top Johnny’s in Cambridge for some pinball. We’d been starting to meet there often and my pinball skills were improving. Jon claims that he gets better as he drinks but I think it was just a scam to get me to drink more. I knew I wouldn’t be there long so I stuck to water.
At around 11:30 I got a call from Jimmy to see if I was still in the area. I bid Jon farewell and headed over to Inman Square to pick him up and we decided on meeting at the 7-11 off Prospect St.
Knowing I’d get there before Jimmy, I went into the 7-11 to buy some water and a snack. I just got into the line when I realized that the group of five or so kids who walked in just before me were arguing with the cashier. I didn’t even catch the gist of the argument but when the cashier declared that they had to leave the most vocal of the kids decided that it was an invitation to fight.
His girlfriend got between him and the cashier - who had come around the counter to fight the kid - and the kid was moving her forcefully out of the way as the kid’s friends were rushing to grab him and get him out of the store.
Amused, I looked outside to see if the cop that I parked next to was still in the parking lot. Yup.
I call this kid a “kid” despite him being probably 25 because who else but a kid wants to fight a 7-11 cashier over what was probably some bubble gum with a cop sitting outside in the parking lot? Bad decision makers. I wondered if they were sober.
I read an article a few months ago from an old Seattle Police Officer who was discussing marijuana and his position to legalize it. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something along the lines of:
“I ask police officers to tell me when the last time they had a violent confrontation with someone who was high on pot, and after a long pause they can’t come up with anything. Then I ask them when was the last time you had a violent confrontation from someone who was drinking, and they look at their watch.”
I worked security for clubs and concert venues for a few years and I can tell you - drunk people love to fight. High people just want to eat.
Way too much time had passed since I entered the 7-11, but the kid ended up outside through forceful intervention from his friends and started his talk with the cop. I didn’t see if he got arrested but I paid for my stuff and got out of there to find Jimmy outside waiting for me by the car.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
“I don’t want to bore you with the story”, I told him.
“Then don’t make it boring.”
Hard to argue with that. I recapped the story with as much grandeur as I could muster as we drove home.
It was late by the time we got home. Jimmy had something that didn’t sit well with him and we spent a few minutes in the living room talking about drunk people and the crazy stuff they do.
I went to bed thinking about all of the times I was a pain in the ass for my friends to deal with and how it paled in comparison to having to drag me around or hold my hair back while I puked on the sidewalk - or on someone. Do these events make people closer, or further apart? At some point I’d have to think that I’d get sick of my drunk and violent friend and stop hanging out with them.
I’m lucky in that none of my friends get drunk and want to fight or start things with random people or 7-11 cashiers. I don’t know if they’re just inherently considerate so the alcohol has no effect or what, but I’ve never had to drag someone out of a convenience store because they were starting a fight. And you can be damn sure that none of my friends have never shoved aside their girlfriends who tried to just get them to leave the store.
I’m fortunate that the kid at 7-11 didn’t do anything beyond shove his girlfriend out of the way. I’ve seen my share of guys hitting girls and I just can’t stand by and watch that sort of thing happen. I’m not sure that getting my head kicked in by 5 kids at a 7-11 on a Wednesday night would be a good end to this particular story.
At Midway Cafe in JP to see Milquetoast & Co. If you aren’t here, you’re missing out.
The Atomica Project just did an awesome cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “We’re in this Together”.