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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Being Drunk

Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!
Some people live for the weekend just to get drunk. When quitting time hits or class ends on Friday, they leave the office/school, stop by the liquor store and head home to start the buzz. Is there anything wrong or illegal about this? No. But, what about the people who take being drunk to another level? A level that leads them vulnerable to whoever comes in contact with them?

I've never been drunk. I've had enough to throw off my balance a bit when getting out of a chair once, but never drunk. I have a healthy fear of not being in control of myself. It extends beyond alcohol, too. I wasn't comfortable when I had my knee surgery recently and had to deal with anesthesia. I was really grumpy coming off of that anesthetic high (from what I was told) because I couldn't do/function the way I wanted. Being out of control is just something that I do not crave to do which is why I rarely drink.

So, what about the people who don't mind? I don't think any less of (some of) them because I know so many people who have done it. A lot of my friends/associates have gotten drunk around me before. Me getting married was a sad day for a lot of them because they lost their reliable designated driver. "Q can drive because he's not going to drink anything!"

I just wonder who's cleaning this up tomorrow.
Look, I don't mind drunk people as long as I don't have to babysit them, they don't pee/puke in my presence and if they're around responsible people. I do have a problem with blackout drunks who run the risk of having things happening to them. The ladies who pass out in a room full of strangers. The guy who thinks he can make it home despite the fact that he could barely make it to his car. Those are the people who concern me because they pose a danger to themselves and others.

As a guy who made the roadie down to Mardi Gras seven times in his life, I've seen evidence of them all.  I've called a cab for guys needing a safe way back to their hotel.  I've actually played protector of drunk women in the club who are constantly being pawed by guys. Not how I wanted to spend my evening, but like Judge Joe Brown always says, "You have to protect womanhood."  But, I've also seen my share of men (and women) molesting unconscious ladies. I've seen guys passed out, face-first, in the gutters of Bourbon Street around tons of foot traffic (and sometimes vehicle traffic).

"Dude, undress her.  She'll never know."
All I'm asking is if you're drinking to get drunk, then please have a plan before your first drink. Being drunk isn't all what it's cracked up to be when you awake upside down in your vehicle with blood on the windshield or waking up in a strange place with the soreness from sex that you don't even recall.




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16 comments:

  1. In my previous life, I drank and in fact, was a bartender in a exotic dancing bar. I saw more than my share of drunks. It is not pretty! Then later on working in health care, going out with some of my younger coworkers, they were really into the going out and getting drunk. Some of them, I am friends with on FB and they still enjoy getting drunk regularly. Some people grow out of it, some never do. That is sad. I know my ex-husband was constantly in that state and I did not drink. So needless to say, I divorced him and not ten years later he died at 52 years old. It will get you in the end.

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    1. Wow. Yeah, it will eventually catch up with you. Sorry to hear that it will with him.

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  2. Moral of the story: KNOW YOUR LIMITS.

    I know how to get tipsy. I know how to get drunk. I know how to get blasted. I stay away from #3, and avoid #2 when I can.

    I'm like you. I end up being the protector or the DD. My gf's friends call me 'sheep herder' because I make sure everyone gets out of the clubs safe.

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    1. "Sheep herder?" LOL! Nice! I bet the guys at the bar hated you. They always hate the guardians.

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  3. Here is where I hang my head in shame...I was the chick holding two pitchers of beer on the dancefloor in college - and then ralphing my head off before I went to bed that night so that I didn't have a hangover the next day (quite often I would MAKE myself barf up all of the beer). Good times...stupid times. I was never one to "black out" but I sure did have my episodes of the technicolor yawn. Luckily, 20 years later, I'm MUCH wiser. I don't mind having drinks and getting a little tipsy once every blue moon, but nowadays three or four beers can do that - two whole pitchers might kill me now!!

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    1. Two pitchers? You were a Reckmonster for real, weren't you? Hey, we all did crazy things when we were young, but hopefully, you had someone responsible looking out for you.

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  4. There was definitely a learning curve in my youth to learn those limits but I agree. There is nothing worse to me now than a drunk I have to babysit. I may get drunk but I never drive drunk (or tipsy) and I am usually am a house that I stay at. I enjoy drinking but long gone are days where I do it to the extreme and wake with hangovers or puking. That isn't fun at all. I have a blast, get flirty, dance like a fool and sing too loud but I'm not hurting myself or others and that is the key.Well said, Q.

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    1. Jewels, I'd pay for your drinks to hear you sing. :)

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  5. I agree with you, I mean - I drink and yes I get drunk, but there's a line between being drunk and having a dance and a laugh with your friends, and being someone who has to be babysat! It's always so much more annoying when you're sober though! x

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    1. Well said. I wonder why some people cross the line on their drunkeness. They'll go out alone, get blasted without having a clue on how they're getting home.

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  6. I've been drunk, but never to the point where I pass out or can't function and never outside of my house. I just won't take the risk to get drunk somewhere unfamiliar, especially around strangers.

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    1. I guess some people are just too trusting of strangers. I'm not.

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  7. I can't be around drunk people unless I myself am at least partially tanked.

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  8. Yeah....

    the worst night I ever had I woke up with sand in my underwear and permanent marker all over my forehead. Sigh.

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