Everyday Drinking

Oh, sweet November, can you not come quicker?

The last month I've been nothing but a ball of nerves. With our first big deadline approaching at work, helping out with Traci's wedding, and trying to deal with my own (and the nation's) sudden and painful financial problems, I've been under a great deal of strain, both mental and physical.

Work, thankfully, has evened out, and it looks like smooth sailing for us for at least the near future. The stress of work actually manifested itself physically: painful, itchy hives in weird patches on my arms, legs and back. I''m not positive, but they coincided with both my work stress level skyrocketing AND my wearing some terribly itchy, dry-clean only pants AND a trip to the Atlanta Humane Society. A combination, perhaps?

I know that something like a wedding shouldn't stress me out, but it did. Because I had the fabulous Javier as a house guest on Thursday night, I got to take a day off of work. I had hoped to show him some of Atlanta on Friday, but I slept very late, due to both Benadryl and an early morning fight between my upstairs neighbors that interrupted my normal pattern. They love to fight! In fact, on Sunday evening, they had a big fight about how stupid their fights are. How meta!

Yes, I can actually HEAR the words that they scream at each other. It's terrible. They started this morning at about 6:50, when I was trying to squeeze in a few more winks before I absolutely had to get up. I only know their names from them yelling them out. Awful. Just awful.

So I slept late and Javier and I were reduced to bagels and errands before we hit the road to Statham. It's an easy trip and I love being around Traci's family. Especially her parents and her Aunt LaRue. We had rehearsal and dinner and I learned that by accepting the position of "wedding coordinator" I was in charge of the processional, the schedule for the reception and just generally helping out. It sounds easy and it looked easy, but I still felt harried during the wedding and reception.

Before the ceremony we hung out at Traci's parents house, just helping with cooking, a playlist for the reception, putting out programs, etc. The wedding was at the Community Center, two blocks "uptown" from Traci's folks. Traci and her bridesmaids used a room at the Police Department next door for their preparations. In my opinion, everything went really well. I had a good time, despite the fact that I kept saying "This is my last responsibility" and then realizing I had another duty. Maybe I'm not as organized as I thought.

We all stayed in Athens Saturday night. It's a fun town and there's one bar that serves $2 Lone Star. Bless them. Unfortunately the Roadhouse, not to be confused with Logan's Roadhouse, is like other Athens bars in that at a certain point, a lot of frat boys are going to wander in and a lot of shitty music will get played.

After a few hours of drinking we all headed over to the 40 Watt Club, an establishment that I was happy to visit based solely on the number of live albums that I own that were recorded there. There was some horrible DJ, horrible in the sense that he did not understand transitions or mixing, was using a PRERECORDED mix, and was really full of himself. I've never seen a DJ spend 15% of his time running to the front of the stage to interact with the crowd. Tres douchey.

After a few hours of dancing and more drinking, everyone left but me and Javier. And we were rewarded for our fidelity! Yeah, that's right, the DJ who I will always malign did throw us a bone and play the "Tootsee Roll". Since Javier and I both graduated in the 1990s (1998 and 1997, respectively), it was a fond reminder of our high school years. It was also fun to watch the young folk dance to a song with instructions and not be able to follow them. How hard is "To the left, to the right..."? And when the man says "There's a dip coming on", there's a goddamn dip coming on!

That night did render a good "I knew I was drunk when.." story, which is, I knew I was drunk when Javier and I walked home and spontaneously started telling each other how much we love one another, miss one another, were so happy to have spent time together, etc. And then sudden hugging, while still walking. That and when I got in the shower and realized I had no motor skills. Suddenly soaping up my own ass was a mystery to me.

What will never be a mystery to me is the appeal of The Grit. We went for lunch on Sunday and Sweet Zombie Jesus, the food is fantastic! My cheese grits looked like a creme brulee, so browned and crusty was the cheese on top. And the use of cheese! To call it "liberal" would be an insult! Instead I will call it a flag-burning, abortion-loving, gay-friend-having, Communist use of cheese! Bless those hippies.

I came home from dropping Jav off at the airport and crawled into bed exhausted and still full of cheese. It was nice to come home and find my Sunday Times stolen and my neighbors fighting. It felt very welcoming.

And then back to work, where I could finally relax. This week has been busy, but good, as the bulk of the pain is already past. And then last night Tom and I managed third place at trivia (we've placed four weeks in a row now) and another team bought is a shot and now I am hungover and in pain in the office. It doesn't mean I can't work, it just means I have to cocoon myself a little more than usual. Headphones help, and that the person I talked to most is stuck in a four hour line to vote.

Another thing that has got me all riled up: the election. Whenever I think about McCain/Palin winning, I find myself on the verge of tears. My country can't betray me again, can it?

If it does, and I think it might, please help me with my drinking. It's already wildly out of hand, and after nearly six months of not smoking, I'm back at it again. Be a good friend and help me curb my addictions, okay? It's just that I love to drink; it takes me to a happy place that I can't find otherwise. Sigh. This post went from fun to depressing pretty quickly. To cheer you up, imagine me and Javier obeying the "Now slide!" command to this: