the bright side of alcohol
It started with Anjali. She IM'd me at 7:30pm to say she'd just woken up; she'd gone to Mad Mex after class, had a huge margarita, and happy houred right back to bed. Two and a half hours later she woke up wondering why the hell she did pulled that stunt... but she wasn't unhappy.
"Delicious," she said contentedly. "I am very worthless at life."
Then a friend of mine from elementary school called me to invite me to the bar. Both of us had homework and other distractions, so we said that we'd go some time around 10pm. Right around 10, however, Anjali and Barwick informed me that we were going to Giant Eagle, and I went along with them to help Ashley Barwick pick out a suitable bottle of wine. Why wine? Why not. She bought bread, wine, and cheese to help her 'brainstorm' a topic for her final exam paper. Did I mention that it's the week before finals?
I went to the bar after this with Sir Anand Patel and a couple of his friends and house-mates. One of his house-mates was cute, but his house-mates cousin kept me engaged in conversation most of the night. It didn't really matter. It was very pleasant to take a break and relax at a low-key bar with some enjoyable people. I almost didn't mind that my damn Heineken cost $4.75.
Afterwards I went to their house (they live on Patterson) and they coaxed me into trying a shot of exotic but terrible Serbian liquor. It tasted like plums, fire, and something vaguely and lingeringly unpleasant... we chased it with Kool-Aid. We compared houses for a while. Then I came home (Anand walked me so I showed him our baffling set-up)and found Barwick sitting on the couch, her bottle of wine nearly completely empty.
Barwick was very happy, and I too was in a fairly good mood. Our happiness magnified each other's. We laughed about not doing our homework and being truly ridiculous. I tried the Chianti and I actually liked it... which is very unusual. Barwick was proud of me.
I returned to my room to find an IM from Fred and responded even though it was very late. It turned out he too was at his computer, and I told him I'd just come back from the bar. He said he'd just done the exact same thing -- because it was the last day of class, his portfolio management professor bought them drinks! I thought this was pretty sweet and ridiculous. College is an invaluable time.
We had one of our infrequent but high quality IM conversations about mischief and each other, and amiably decided to meet for coffee and possible drinking sometime over break. I told Weifei that I'd be happy to say him again. He's such an old, old man, but he's young somehow too. Weifei says he will probably be Three Hair... but that's okay. Tonight I feel very warmly toward all my irresponsible fellow slackers.
Sometimes alcohol is a good thing. Tonight it helped the tightly wound unwind and started a domino of smiles and teasing. I think that wee (Fred and I especially) have a tendency to take ourselves much too seriously, or at the other extreme seriously ENOUGH (as in Anjali and Barwick at times.) Sometimes a bit of liquor helps to equalize that, which is something tonight I am thankful for.
Now to bed... I will have to make up for this with a bit of extra studying before tomorrow's advertising final.
"Delicious," she said contentedly. "I am very worthless at life."
Then a friend of mine from elementary school called me to invite me to the bar. Both of us had homework and other distractions, so we said that we'd go some time around 10pm. Right around 10, however, Anjali and Barwick informed me that we were going to Giant Eagle, and I went along with them to help Ashley Barwick pick out a suitable bottle of wine. Why wine? Why not. She bought bread, wine, and cheese to help her 'brainstorm' a topic for her final exam paper. Did I mention that it's the week before finals?
I went to the bar after this with Sir Anand Patel and a couple of his friends and house-mates. One of his house-mates was cute, but his house-mates cousin kept me engaged in conversation most of the night. It didn't really matter. It was very pleasant to take a break and relax at a low-key bar with some enjoyable people. I almost didn't mind that my damn Heineken cost $4.75.
Afterwards I went to their house (they live on Patterson) and they coaxed me into trying a shot of exotic but terrible Serbian liquor. It tasted like plums, fire, and something vaguely and lingeringly unpleasant... we chased it with Kool-Aid. We compared houses for a while. Then I came home (Anand walked me so I showed him our baffling set-up)and found Barwick sitting on the couch, her bottle of wine nearly completely empty.
Barwick was very happy, and I too was in a fairly good mood. Our happiness magnified each other's. We laughed about not doing our homework and being truly ridiculous. I tried the Chianti and I actually liked it... which is very unusual. Barwick was proud of me.
I returned to my room to find an IM from Fred and responded even though it was very late. It turned out he too was at his computer, and I told him I'd just come back from the bar. He said he'd just done the exact same thing -- because it was the last day of class, his portfolio management professor bought them drinks! I thought this was pretty sweet and ridiculous. College is an invaluable time.
We had one of our infrequent but high quality IM conversations about mischief and each other, and amiably decided to meet for coffee and possible drinking sometime over break. I told Weifei that I'd be happy to say him again. He's such an old, old man, but he's young somehow too. Weifei says he will probably be Three Hair... but that's okay. Tonight I feel very warmly toward all my irresponsible fellow slackers.
Sometimes alcohol is a good thing. Tonight it helped the tightly wound unwind and started a domino of smiles and teasing. I think that wee (Fred and I especially) have a tendency to take ourselves much too seriously, or at the other extreme seriously ENOUGH (as in Anjali and Barwick at times.) Sometimes a bit of liquor helps to equalize that, which is something tonight I am thankful for.
Now to bed... I will have to make up for this with a bit of extra studying before tomorrow's advertising final.