Last night in Boston (long, lots of details, mostly for me)
Our friend Katie lives in Boston. Well, in Brookline, but it's close enough. She was in Dan's class in podiatry school and is doing her residency at Beth Israel. We go into the city to hang out with her every few months--it's never often enough and we always say we need to do it again sooner, but then schedules get in the way. Alas.
Anyway, yesterday Katie invited us to come hang out with her. She was going to be out of town visiting her mom, but would be back around 7-8pm. Dan, in the meantime, wanted to go to the UGA bar in town and watch the Georgia game with his fellow UGA fans. The game was early--I want to say it started before noon. So his plan was to get up around 8am and walk around the reservoir (right by our house) to the other side, from where he can walk to the road that leads to the commuter rail that goes into Boston--and quite conveniently, stops quite near the bar that shows the Georgia game to all the Georgia fans. Since the train ride is about an hour, and the walk is probably 45 minutes or maybe even an hour and fifteen minutes--a decent walk, anyway--he had to leave the house quite early.
His plan was to watch the game, then hang out doing something in Boston until Katie got home, then he'd go to her apartment and I'd drive into town (that takes about 40 minutes from our house) and meet up with them and we'd go out dancing or bar hopping or something. Dominic would get one of his treasured evenings at home alone, which we all know means he plays computer games the whole time and goes to bed late. We told him that there was a possibility of us spending the night on Katie's pull-out sofa if we had been drinking, rather than attempting to drive home in that state. Dominic is 16--he's old enough to spend the occasional overnight alone.
So Dan went into town and watched the game. And had some drinks and had a burrito for "brunch" as he called it. After the game he called me to tell me he was going with some of the other Georgia fans on some brewery tour. I gather this is one of those attractions which involves free or cheap tasting of the beer while you're there, and I wasn't wrong.
Finally I got the call that Katie was back and that I should head over. I got to her apartment about 50 minutes later after having to stop for some epic red lights and then having to park kind of far away, but I got there. It was about 8:30. Katie answered the door and said to me as an aside: "he's kind of drunk."
Which was pretty much what I expected after a whole day drinking at bars around Boston, starting before lunchtime and extending until 8pm. Sure enough he smiled at me and I could see his eyes were red and at half-mast. He was happy enough but seemed dazed. I know Dan. He wakes up early no matter what time he goes to sleep, so he tends to get tired early as well, often going to bed anywhere from 9:30-11pm. He will frequently start falling asleep in the middle of a TV show we're watching and I'll have to cajole him into going to his bed and finishing the show later--for some reason he has a habit of insisting he can finish the show, but then 5 seconds later I look over and he is totally asleep.
He had that look. We decided to have a couple of drinks at Katie's apartment to start with, since it's cheaper to drink at home. I had two bloody marys. I think Dan had another beer. Katie was drinking beer. Then it was time to decide where to head out. Did we want to go chill at a bar? Go out to a club and go dancing? We couldn't totally decide so we resolved to take the subway to Faneuil Hall and check out the scene and make our decisions based on how we felt and what things were like.
I looked at Dan. He was sitting on the couch, eyes closed, head tilted to one side. He was done. I could tell he was done. I've been with the guy since 2004 and know him pretty well. I also know that he would not want to spoil our fun by bailing out of our night out. So I handed him the option. "Dan, you're out of it. You're falling asleep. You're done, aren't you? Do you want to stay here and sleep, and Katie and I will go out on our own?" His eyes brightened and he asked "you wouldn't mind?" I assured him that we wouldn't mind and he heaved a grateful sigh and agreed to stay behind. We pulled out the sofa bed and tucked him in and got ready to go.
I was wearing an ugly sweatshirt over my regular shirt and had not put enough thought into my footwear because I was wearing white socks and black sandals. As it turns out, Katie and I both wear 8.5 shoes. She lent me a pair of low boots with heels and a pretty sweater-ish overshirt thing and I looked much better. We went out and walked to the subway.
We ended up talking a lot about her family and also about the recent and upcoming holidays as we rode the subway. After we got off the subway we walked around for quite a while just talking before finally deciding that we were getting cold and we wanted a drink. So we went into Ned Devine's and paid the $10 cover and fought our way to the front of the bar and ordered our drinks. I got a Captain and Coke and she got a bottle of beer. We'd made an arrangement that she was going to pay for the drinks and I was going to pay for the cab ride home, so she paid and we got lucky and found a two person table that was just being vacated. Much of the bar (two stories) was standing room only, so we were very fortunate. We sat there and talked about all kinds of things, occasionally getting more drinks. I had more than she did. I think I had four Captain and Cokes over the...2? hours we stayed there. She only had one or two beers, but said that she hadn't been drinking since the beginning of October so she had no tolerance and was feeling a buzz.
One of the topics of conversation was my dentures and how the way they currently are, they rub against the back of my tongue every time I swallow, and I've developed a painful sore on the back of my tongue as a result. It gets worse as the day progresses, the longer the plate is in. At one point I said to her "honestly, if I had my purse with me, I'd take them out and put them in my purse and go without them the rest of the night." I can do this because you can't see the missing teeth from the front with any normal motion of my mouth. I'm very lucky that way. She looked at her purse and said "well, if you had something to put them in..." and I looked down at the small pile of cocktail napkins in front of me. "I could wrap it in napkins? Would you really mind?" She said it was no problem so very discreetly (I seriously don't think anyone could have seen the way I did it) slipped the plate out of my mouth and onto the pile of napkins, where I quickly wrapped it up in several layers and handed it to Katie, who put it in her purse. I felt SO MUCH BETTER. The pain went from an 8 to a 2.
Eventually we decided to head back to her apartment. We took a cab which cost me exactly the $20 in cash that I had on me when we accounted for the tip (I had taken only my driver's license, a Visa card, and a $20 bill with me so I wouldn't have to keep track of a purse.) Upstairs in Katie's apartment, Dan was sound asleep. I retrieved my denture plate from Katie's purse and put it in my own. Now I had a problem. I needed to sleep. It was about 1:30 or 2am, I think, but I wasn't tired. I'm never tired--more accurately I'm never sleepy--without my cocktail of night time medication. I asked Katie if she has anything sedative-like at all, like anything OTC. She had some melatonin and some Tylenol PM, so I took that along with some of my Xanax and got in bed with Dan. Katie went to her room and went to sleep.
I had my phone. My wonderful Motorola Droid 3. I opened my phone and turned the screen brightness to the dimmest setting to preserve battery life and then opened Tapatalk, a message forum reader app. I logged onto the SDMB and started reading threads. Time ticked by. I didn't feel sleepy. I was wide awake. I tried not to move much in bed so I wouldn't wake Dan up, and kept reading message board threads. I watched the hours roll by in the upper corner of the phone. 4am. 5am. 6am. My battery was lasting amazingly long. However finally at about 7:15am the phone started to beep at me that it needed to be plugged into the charger at once. My distraction/entertainment was at an end.
I put the phone away and lay in bed and honestly tried to feel tired or sleepy or close my eyes and hope somehow, magically, that I'd fall asleep. It didn't happen. I got up and drank some water and went to the bathroom, then got back in bed. It was getting light outside. I knew Katie was getting up early in the morning and going somewhere, since she'd told us we'd probably have to let ourselves out when we finally woke up. Turns out she came out of her room dressed and ready to go while I was standing in the middle of the living room in a shirt and underwear, drinking a bottle of water and trying to figure out what to do. Dan had roused when I got out of bed and I had asked him if I could play on his Droid 3, just to read stuff on the internet or play solitaire or anything besides staring at the ceiling. We were having that conversation when Katie came out, and Dan suggested "we could just go home now."
It made sense. I was certainly totally sober (I'd never actually gotten drunk--the drinks were fairly weak and I drank them over a several hour period, and that had been hours ago. It was morning now. Dan was still half asleep so I didn't want him to drive, but he agreed to get dressed and head home, so we did. I drove us home and suggested that Dan go lie down and try to get some more sleep. He waffled, then agreed. It's 12:36 right now and he's still back in his room, asleep. I'm still wide awake. Dominic woke up a little while ago and he's usually a late sleeper, so Dominic waking up before Dan is pretty unheard of.
So that brings me to now. I've eaten some cottage cheese for breakfast, and I've taken my morning medication, having briefly considered taking last night's medication and trying to sleep some during the day, but rejecting it because it would throw my whole schedule off and probably seriously affect my ability to sleep tonight, which would impact work tomorrow, which would be bad. So I've decided to just stay awake through the day and sleep extra well tonight.
This was very long, I know, but I write these primarily for me, so that I can look back and see what I've been doing after I've long forgotten about it. I am glad that there are other people who read (at least some of) this journal, but it's primarily written by me for me, and so I tend to include a lot of detail, since when I go back and read old posts, the detail is what really triggers my memories and gets me involved.
Anyway, a gold star to anyone who made it through that whole thing. I know it wasn't action-packed, but it describes a pleasant weekend night that had a few odd things happen (like Dan drinking all day and being unable to then follow that up by drinking all night!) By the way, Georgia won their game. That may have increased how much he drank at the UGA bar--I don't know. I'm glad he gets to go out and have these "man days" with his fellow Georgia alumni and other fans, since I don't really get football nor enjoy watching it it can't be very much fun to watch it at home. And everyone needs to get a little shitfaced from time to time, I think. Well, maybe not everyone. Couldn't picture my mom doing it, for example. But you get what I mean. And he was on foot, so he was drinking responsibly, just like Katie and I were by taking the subway and a cab.
Later today, at 3pm, I'm meeting up with some other friends of mine at Randi's house. She lives about 45 minutes from my house so I'll be leaving around 2:15. We're going to a sex toy shop and then out to Not Your Average Joe's (a restaurant) for dinner. I have no idea how late I'll be out. This is to celebrate our friend Christine's 50th birthday, partially. I say partially because we're having a real party for her on December 3, but she wanted to do something on her actual birthday as well. I have already forewarned the girls that I may act a little loopy since I haven't slept. I tend to get a little silly when I'm sleep deprived. Hopefully all will go well. After that all I have to do is take my nightly bath, wash my hair for work tomorrow, and get to sleep at a reasonable hour now that I am back with my medication. I really need to take into account the possibility of sleeping over at Katie's when we go into town to see her, and bring my meds "just in case"... this isn't the first time we've decided to sleep there instead off driving in a questionable state after drinking.
Anyway, yesterday Katie invited us to come hang out with her. She was going to be out of town visiting her mom, but would be back around 7-8pm. Dan, in the meantime, wanted to go to the UGA bar in town and watch the Georgia game with his fellow UGA fans. The game was early--I want to say it started before noon. So his plan was to get up around 8am and walk around the reservoir (right by our house) to the other side, from where he can walk to the road that leads to the commuter rail that goes into Boston--and quite conveniently, stops quite near the bar that shows the Georgia game to all the Georgia fans. Since the train ride is about an hour, and the walk is probably 45 minutes or maybe even an hour and fifteen minutes--a decent walk, anyway--he had to leave the house quite early.
His plan was to watch the game, then hang out doing something in Boston until Katie got home, then he'd go to her apartment and I'd drive into town (that takes about 40 minutes from our house) and meet up with them and we'd go out dancing or bar hopping or something. Dominic would get one of his treasured evenings at home alone, which we all know means he plays computer games the whole time and goes to bed late. We told him that there was a possibility of us spending the night on Katie's pull-out sofa if we had been drinking, rather than attempting to drive home in that state. Dominic is 16--he's old enough to spend the occasional overnight alone.
So Dan went into town and watched the game. And had some drinks and had a burrito for "brunch" as he called it. After the game he called me to tell me he was going with some of the other Georgia fans on some brewery tour. I gather this is one of those attractions which involves free or cheap tasting of the beer while you're there, and I wasn't wrong.
Finally I got the call that Katie was back and that I should head over. I got to her apartment about 50 minutes later after having to stop for some epic red lights and then having to park kind of far away, but I got there. It was about 8:30. Katie answered the door and said to me as an aside: "he's kind of drunk."
Which was pretty much what I expected after a whole day drinking at bars around Boston, starting before lunchtime and extending until 8pm. Sure enough he smiled at me and I could see his eyes were red and at half-mast. He was happy enough but seemed dazed. I know Dan. He wakes up early no matter what time he goes to sleep, so he tends to get tired early as well, often going to bed anywhere from 9:30-11pm. He will frequently start falling asleep in the middle of a TV show we're watching and I'll have to cajole him into going to his bed and finishing the show later--for some reason he has a habit of insisting he can finish the show, but then 5 seconds later I look over and he is totally asleep.
He had that look. We decided to have a couple of drinks at Katie's apartment to start with, since it's cheaper to drink at home. I had two bloody marys. I think Dan had another beer. Katie was drinking beer. Then it was time to decide where to head out. Did we want to go chill at a bar? Go out to a club and go dancing? We couldn't totally decide so we resolved to take the subway to Faneuil Hall and check out the scene and make our decisions based on how we felt and what things were like.
I looked at Dan. He was sitting on the couch, eyes closed, head tilted to one side. He was done. I could tell he was done. I've been with the guy since 2004 and know him pretty well. I also know that he would not want to spoil our fun by bailing out of our night out. So I handed him the option. "Dan, you're out of it. You're falling asleep. You're done, aren't you? Do you want to stay here and sleep, and Katie and I will go out on our own?" His eyes brightened and he asked "you wouldn't mind?" I assured him that we wouldn't mind and he heaved a grateful sigh and agreed to stay behind. We pulled out the sofa bed and tucked him in and got ready to go.
I was wearing an ugly sweatshirt over my regular shirt and had not put enough thought into my footwear because I was wearing white socks and black sandals. As it turns out, Katie and I both wear 8.5 shoes. She lent me a pair of low boots with heels and a pretty sweater-ish overshirt thing and I looked much better. We went out and walked to the subway.
We ended up talking a lot about her family and also about the recent and upcoming holidays as we rode the subway. After we got off the subway we walked around for quite a while just talking before finally deciding that we were getting cold and we wanted a drink. So we went into Ned Devine's and paid the $10 cover and fought our way to the front of the bar and ordered our drinks. I got a Captain and Coke and she got a bottle of beer. We'd made an arrangement that she was going to pay for the drinks and I was going to pay for the cab ride home, so she paid and we got lucky and found a two person table that was just being vacated. Much of the bar (two stories) was standing room only, so we were very fortunate. We sat there and talked about all kinds of things, occasionally getting more drinks. I had more than she did. I think I had four Captain and Cokes over the...2? hours we stayed there. She only had one or two beers, but said that she hadn't been drinking since the beginning of October so she had no tolerance and was feeling a buzz.
One of the topics of conversation was my dentures and how the way they currently are, they rub against the back of my tongue every time I swallow, and I've developed a painful sore on the back of my tongue as a result. It gets worse as the day progresses, the longer the plate is in. At one point I said to her "honestly, if I had my purse with me, I'd take them out and put them in my purse and go without them the rest of the night." I can do this because you can't see the missing teeth from the front with any normal motion of my mouth. I'm very lucky that way. She looked at her purse and said "well, if you had something to put them in..." and I looked down at the small pile of cocktail napkins in front of me. "I could wrap it in napkins? Would you really mind?" She said it was no problem so very discreetly (I seriously don't think anyone could have seen the way I did it) slipped the plate out of my mouth and onto the pile of napkins, where I quickly wrapped it up in several layers and handed it to Katie, who put it in her purse. I felt SO MUCH BETTER. The pain went from an 8 to a 2.
Eventually we decided to head back to her apartment. We took a cab which cost me exactly the $20 in cash that I had on me when we accounted for the tip (I had taken only my driver's license, a Visa card, and a $20 bill with me so I wouldn't have to keep track of a purse.) Upstairs in Katie's apartment, Dan was sound asleep. I retrieved my denture plate from Katie's purse and put it in my own. Now I had a problem. I needed to sleep. It was about 1:30 or 2am, I think, but I wasn't tired. I'm never tired--more accurately I'm never sleepy--without my cocktail of night time medication. I asked Katie if she has anything sedative-like at all, like anything OTC. She had some melatonin and some Tylenol PM, so I took that along with some of my Xanax and got in bed with Dan. Katie went to her room and went to sleep.
I had my phone. My wonderful Motorola Droid 3. I opened my phone and turned the screen brightness to the dimmest setting to preserve battery life and then opened Tapatalk, a message forum reader app. I logged onto the SDMB and started reading threads. Time ticked by. I didn't feel sleepy. I was wide awake. I tried not to move much in bed so I wouldn't wake Dan up, and kept reading message board threads. I watched the hours roll by in the upper corner of the phone. 4am. 5am. 6am. My battery was lasting amazingly long. However finally at about 7:15am the phone started to beep at me that it needed to be plugged into the charger at once. My distraction/entertainment was at an end.
I put the phone away and lay in bed and honestly tried to feel tired or sleepy or close my eyes and hope somehow, magically, that I'd fall asleep. It didn't happen. I got up and drank some water and went to the bathroom, then got back in bed. It was getting light outside. I knew Katie was getting up early in the morning and going somewhere, since she'd told us we'd probably have to let ourselves out when we finally woke up. Turns out she came out of her room dressed and ready to go while I was standing in the middle of the living room in a shirt and underwear, drinking a bottle of water and trying to figure out what to do. Dan had roused when I got out of bed and I had asked him if I could play on his Droid 3, just to read stuff on the internet or play solitaire or anything besides staring at the ceiling. We were having that conversation when Katie came out, and Dan suggested "we could just go home now."
It made sense. I was certainly totally sober (I'd never actually gotten drunk--the drinks were fairly weak and I drank them over a several hour period, and that had been hours ago. It was morning now. Dan was still half asleep so I didn't want him to drive, but he agreed to get dressed and head home, so we did. I drove us home and suggested that Dan go lie down and try to get some more sleep. He waffled, then agreed. It's 12:36 right now and he's still back in his room, asleep. I'm still wide awake. Dominic woke up a little while ago and he's usually a late sleeper, so Dominic waking up before Dan is pretty unheard of.
So that brings me to now. I've eaten some cottage cheese for breakfast, and I've taken my morning medication, having briefly considered taking last night's medication and trying to sleep some during the day, but rejecting it because it would throw my whole schedule off and probably seriously affect my ability to sleep tonight, which would impact work tomorrow, which would be bad. So I've decided to just stay awake through the day and sleep extra well tonight.
This was very long, I know, but I write these primarily for me, so that I can look back and see what I've been doing after I've long forgotten about it. I am glad that there are other people who read (at least some of) this journal, but it's primarily written by me for me, and so I tend to include a lot of detail, since when I go back and read old posts, the detail is what really triggers my memories and gets me involved.
Anyway, a gold star to anyone who made it through that whole thing. I know it wasn't action-packed, but it describes a pleasant weekend night that had a few odd things happen (like Dan drinking all day and being unable to then follow that up by drinking all night!) By the way, Georgia won their game. That may have increased how much he drank at the UGA bar--I don't know. I'm glad he gets to go out and have these "man days" with his fellow Georgia alumni and other fans, since I don't really get football nor enjoy watching it it can't be very much fun to watch it at home. And everyone needs to get a little shitfaced from time to time, I think. Well, maybe not everyone. Couldn't picture my mom doing it, for example. But you get what I mean. And he was on foot, so he was drinking responsibly, just like Katie and I were by taking the subway and a cab.
Later today, at 3pm, I'm meeting up with some other friends of mine at Randi's house. She lives about 45 minutes from my house so I'll be leaving around 2:15. We're going to a sex toy shop and then out to Not Your Average Joe's (a restaurant) for dinner. I have no idea how late I'll be out. This is to celebrate our friend Christine's 50th birthday, partially. I say partially because we're having a real party for her on December 3, but she wanted to do something on her actual birthday as well. I have already forewarned the girls that I may act a little loopy since I haven't slept. I tend to get a little silly when I'm sleep deprived. Hopefully all will go well. After that all I have to do is take my nightly bath, wash my hair for work tomorrow, and get to sleep at a reasonable hour now that I am back with my medication. I really need to take into account the possibility of sleeping over at Katie's when we go into town to see her, and bring my meds "just in case"... this isn't the first time we've decided to sleep there instead off driving in a questionable state after drinking.