Happy New Year!

Mood: Slightly Tired
Song: West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
Units of Caffeine: 2

So, okay, I'm just a touch late on my cue - I think I need a few days to recover and regroup. New Year's Eve was... well, it was a bit of an upset for me.

I'm not too sure why I did this, (perhaps to just re-live my totally carefree days as an undergrad student), but the Nutcase and I came up with this idea of having a "Beer Day." About a month or two ago, K, the Nutcase and I were sitting around watching episodes of Undeclared and one of the plots revolved around the undergrads drinking beer all day, for a couple of days. (Actually, it's a bit more detailed and funnier than that - but I don't want to derail too much. Go to imdb if you want more information. So, anyway, like I said, the Nutcase and I had this idea of doing the same thing one day. I think the general idea was to be in a light alcoholic haze for the entire day. Well, obviously we couldn't do this anytime during the fall semester. I was stage managing a show and dealing with my thesis project and the Nutcase was also stage managing. The idea came about during a recent trip in which we visited a brewery to have this day be New Year's Eve. Great idea! It will just be a small, quiet gathering; and we can just sit around and be mellow for the day!

After we set the date, I started thinking about the details. As I said, the goal was to keep a light alcoholic haze going throughout the day. Well, a problem with me is that I have an extremely high tolerance, and cannot really get buzzed on beer alone. I am also reminded of the New Year's Eve of 2000 in which I made a wonderful, hearty meal of prime rib with several sides for all of my friends - Unfortunately, the meal was SO good and SO hearty that, as much as we tried, we could not get drunk. Hell, none of us could even get that warm alcoholic feeling! So, I made sure that there was beer around, but I also made sure that there were some harder things around to get me where I wanted to be. Also, knowing that we also wanted to serve food on New Year's Eve; I researched food that wouldn't absorb all that much alcohol.

So, New Year's Eve comes - K and I decorate the house with candles and set out plates of food with the anticipation of the arrival of a handful of people. At about 3:00, we were finished setting things up, so I cracked open a beer and remembered that a year ago it was 9:00 in Dublin, and I was just finishing dinner and headed to Yellow. Good times! By 7:00, when people started coming, I was feeling okay, but not even close to the haze that I wanted, so I began playing the role of the bartender and started mixing drinks. The last thing I remember was the arrival of some friends of the Nutcase around 8:30 or 9 - The next thing I remember was waking up in my clothes with a HUGE headache at 4 in the morning. I walked out to the kitchen, where K was cleaning up a little bit. Apparently a TON of people showed up for the party and it was great! I cannot tell you how angry, disappointed and embarrassed I am of myself. Up until that night, I had never blacked out due to alcohol. I may have been intoxicated before, but I was very aware of what was going on. It pisses me off that I totally missed New Year's this year due to my own stupidity. I am so disgusted with myself and so freaked out by the experience that I have decided to go dry for a couple of months. Besides, it segues nicely into...

Diet 2006!

Between the stress of last semester and the holidays, I haven't been too kind on my body, and the scale showed that on Monday morning. So, I'm on day three of Weight Watchers. The good thing is that I never really feel hungry on this diet. The bad news is that, until my body adjusts to these new eating habits, I feel very fatigued. I am trying to combat this with a little bit of caffeine (of course!) and a little exercise. So far, it seems to be working since I am not nearly as tired as I was on Monday.

So, the new year has begun.......