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A Good Thing

Last night, as I posted in the previous post, I decided not to go to Science After Hours.  This broke my streak of going to every one since I discovered it.

Okay, so, instead I was just at home, well I decided to go to the gym a little later and then the store.  Well, as I was leaving my house to go to the gym, which would have been the exact same time I would have arrived home...

There were two cop cars by the neighbor's house.  Well, on the last Science After Hours event... I actually kind of was a little bit on the tipsy side and basically was possibly still slightly tipsy when I finally arrived home.

SO what's the good thing? Normally with Science After Hours I was just going and staying for 3 hours and having 3 beers.  Then by the time I'm ready to leave I would get a soft pretzel for the drive home.  I had it down to a science (pun intended).  At the very end of the night I would drink water and have my pretzel in the car and then drive home.

By the time I left the parking garage after waiting for everyone to leave, I'd be stone sober...

HOWEVER last science after hours something different happened.  I went with a friend.... And she had a membership.  SO WHAT you ask?

I'll tell you what... The problem was your first drink is on the house.  That means, you can get whatever you like... This means instead of the usual lower alcohol content beer, I went for the mixed drink, because, if a beer is the cheapest, and wine is the middle priced, and a mixed drink gin and tonic drink is super duper expensive... And it's on the house?

What drink do you think I'm going to choose?  The most expensive one right?  Get my best bang for the buck.  No matter which drink you choose, it's free as a member, and as the member guest.  I was a member guest.

Well, I don't really know how to gauge mixed drinks.  I'm terrible at it.  And especially when they have a straw.  I started slurping it down as we walked around.  At first I didn't really feel it too much, so I was like... Well this drink stinks.  It was gone in like 15 minutes.  No lie.

SO, then... I got a second drink, thinking, eh, that drink must have been super weak.

My second drink was then some red wine.  See, now I'm mixing, which is also no good.

I broke my format.  Plus I was with a friend... SO we were talking and walking.

I drank the wine super fast too.  Then there was a tasting station for burbon... See that night was "Speakeasy night"

It was ALL alcohol themed.  Beer tasting too.

Then, my friend left early and left me there with a good hour left of the night.  As we were sitting down before she left, I kind of started to feel it coming on.  I thought, uh oh... I better get a water.

All of a sudden as SOON as she left, the alcohol hit me like REALLY hit me.... But I kind of got caught up in the moment and then reverted back to my old plan... I thought well I've had 2 drinks, so I still have a third to go.

I didn't calculate in the tasting.

I got a beer for my third drink.

But it was still not a good calculation because I was mixing, and I had forgotten that we actually arrived a half hour late too.  I'd only been there like an hour and a half now.

That's when the bourbon tastings finally hit me full on...

Now, I've had beer, and before that bourbon tastings with no way to really gauge HOW much was in those little taking cups... A glass of wine, AND that G and T...

ALL within like 2 hours now?

I was half way through the beer and really kind of woo... But I didn't realize it because I was distracted by some of the events going on and I was talking with a girl I thought was single... She later turned out not to be single... SO I then just drank the rest of the beer as I was talking with her.

I completely spaced on the pretzel, talking to this girl I thought was single and realized on the way home that I was definitely more tipsy than my usual plan.

Distracted by everything... LOTS of drinks in too short of a time period and no soft pretzel at the end of the night...

It was no good.

So, that was back in January.

Well, last night was Mardi Gras night.  My guess?  They would have had more alcohol tastings from craft distilleries around the city... And more beer tastings...

And more fancy drinks.  If I'd have gone with my friend... I would have probably gotten the fancy cocktail drink on the house, then done all the tastings, and then also decided I could still drink three drinks...

Probably would have forgotten to buy my soft pretzel at the end of the night and then ended up getting out of my car at home a bit stumbly.... Okay maybe not.... And hopefully the Speakeasy night was just a one time miscalculation...

But, who knows!  I mean... who knows what could have happened if a cop saw me getting out of my car and maybe stumble a little... I mean, yes I wasn't like wasted.

Usually I'm meticulous about counting the exact amount of alcohol I have and then timing it to the T with the metabolism time frames...

But usually I only drink beer.  And I find the ones with lower ABV so I can know how long it takes me and how long I have to wait and eat food...

I don't normally drink Gin and Tonics or fancy Mardi Gras drinks.

It's entirely possible had I actually gone that I could have just drank some kind of mixed drink all night and been SUPER in a pickle.

But I didn't go.  I stayed home.  Made dinner, drank tea.  Then I went to the gym, then the store.  I didn't drink any alcohol at all last night.

And now that I've had time to consider it, if I DO go again, my free drink, even though it's not the best value... Will just be a beer.  Or, if I DO get the fancy mixed drink, I'll only have the one and that's it.  Then I'll go straight to ordering a pretzel and then just walk around the rest of the night.

I think it all happened last time because I had no idea that the Gin and Tonic would be so potent and as well at first I didn't even feel it.  Then I got the wine, and drank that fast too because I was distracted by all the stuff going on and didn't even notice is start to kick in until we sat down for 5 minutes to people watch...

And then I was just like whoa now... I'm feeling this like crazy.

Anyways, so I actually was feeling a little bummed out about not going... But now I think it was actually a good thing that I didn't go.

I never found out why the police were parked down the street.  It was almost like they were on some kind of stakeout... I guess I'll never know.  But if something bad was avoided, maybe it's best not to know and just keep going about my business... You know?

But now I know, stick to the beer and stay away from those mixed drinks at Science After Hours!

Anyways, I plan to be going out less because I want to gear my energy and resources and time and money more towards being productive with music and writing instead of just going out to events.

It was fun for a while, but it's nothing more than a wild goose chase...  I'll find love when I find it... For now, I'll just be single and focus more of my energy on staying at home and woking on creative outlets.