The Morning After
Oh, cider, how much you giveth and how much you taketh away. You give laughter, levity, and new friends. You taketh away shame, willpower, and the knowledge of when it is time to leave the bar.
Yes, friends, today was the first day of work hungover. Thankfully, I work relatively independently, and I don't think anyone noticed, except Aussie Jess, who marched right into my office at 9:30AM and said, "So, you look like you had a good night!" As she would say, "Bless."
But it was so worth it. Last night was so much fun. Barras and I made our way to the Irish pub where we knew they'd be showing the inauguration, and the whole way he was just taking the piss out of me: "Are you going to cry? I can't wait for you to start bawling! Are you gonna get misty-eyed at the national anthem?" So what if I did? Nobody saw.
We missed the swearing in, but caught Obama's speech. The bar was packed to standing room only and dead silent. I felt bad even ordering a drink. The crowd cheered and clapped and it was amazing. People from all over the world packed into one tiny pub to share an historic event. This was definitely one of those, "I will always remember where I was when..." moments. All the pictures I managed to take of the crowd at the bar are posted here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v432/troublecity/Geneva/O-BA-MA/?albumview=slideshow
After the inauguration, we moved onto a slightly less crowded pub, where we watched some more of the ridiculous CNN coverage, and laughed at the sense of humor of whomever sat Rahm Emanuel and his wife at the same table as John and Cindy McCain. Brilliant! At this point I had had my standard "3 pints and I'm having a good time," and I was thinking about going home. This was at 10:30PM, mind you, and Barras was in no state to head home so early. In a cunning application of peer pressure, he pointed out that the next pub he wanted to go to was halfway between the current pub and home. This was where I made my first stupid statement of the night: "Oh, fine, I'll go, I just won't drink anymore."
We arrived at our final destination to meet 6 of his friends, who were well into piles of empty glasses on the table. We sat down, got introduced all around, and the only other American at the table asked what I wanted for a shot. Stupid statement #2: "I'll just take what you're having." Of course this was followed by another bottle of cider (which I swear to god I did not request) that miracled itself in front of me. And you can see how the rest of the night went. Around 12:30, Barras and I decided to leave, which of course meant that we didn't leave for another 15-20 minutes because Swiss greetings and farewells are not to be abbreviated. We stumbled home, literally, because actually stupid decision #1 of the night occurred when I put on 3 inch heels before leaving the house. I finally made it to bed at 2AM after several poorly executed attempts at drunk emails and blogging about how proud I am of us (despite myself not exhibiting any behavior worth being proud of for the majority of the evening). The end.
Yes, friends, today was the first day of work hungover. Thankfully, I work relatively independently, and I don't think anyone noticed, except Aussie Jess, who marched right into my office at 9:30AM and said, "So, you look like you had a good night!" As she would say, "Bless."
But it was so worth it. Last night was so much fun. Barras and I made our way to the Irish pub where we knew they'd be showing the inauguration, and the whole way he was just taking the piss out of me: "Are you going to cry? I can't wait for you to start bawling! Are you gonna get misty-eyed at the national anthem?" So what if I did? Nobody saw.
We missed the swearing in, but caught Obama's speech. The bar was packed to standing room only and dead silent. I felt bad even ordering a drink. The crowd cheered and clapped and it was amazing. People from all over the world packed into one tiny pub to share an historic event. This was definitely one of those, "I will always remember where I was when..." moments. All the pictures I managed to take of the crowd at the bar are posted here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v432/troublecity/Geneva/O-BA-MA/?albumview=slideshow
After the inauguration, we moved onto a slightly less crowded pub, where we watched some more of the ridiculous CNN coverage, and laughed at the sense of humor of whomever sat Rahm Emanuel and his wife at the same table as John and Cindy McCain. Brilliant! At this point I had had my standard "3 pints and I'm having a good time," and I was thinking about going home. This was at 10:30PM, mind you, and Barras was in no state to head home so early. In a cunning application of peer pressure, he pointed out that the next pub he wanted to go to was halfway between the current pub and home. This was where I made my first stupid statement of the night: "Oh, fine, I'll go, I just won't drink anymore."
We arrived at our final destination to meet 6 of his friends, who were well into piles of empty glasses on the table. We sat down, got introduced all around, and the only other American at the table asked what I wanted for a shot. Stupid statement #2: "I'll just take what you're having." Of course this was followed by another bottle of cider (which I swear to god I did not request) that miracled itself in front of me. And you can see how the rest of the night went. Around 12:30, Barras and I decided to leave, which of course meant that we didn't leave for another 15-20 minutes because Swiss greetings and farewells are not to be abbreviated. We stumbled home, literally, because actually stupid decision #1 of the night occurred when I put on 3 inch heels before leaving the house. I finally made it to bed at 2AM after several poorly executed attempts at drunk emails and blogging about how proud I am of us (despite myself not exhibiting any behavior worth being proud of for the majority of the evening). The end.