The Eighty Dollar Headache

I was out the other day having a few beers at a local watering hole. I actually don’t really drink all that much nowadays, something I’m pretty thankful for. The thing is, when you work in high technology, there are always a lot of opportunities after work to go schmooze at a pub with your bosses or whoever is in town negotiating a deal.

Strangely enough, I’ve never liked drinking all that much. The irony of that is that me and my friends were pretty well known for our drinking prowess in university. In fact, I’m still sort of known as the guy who can pound back an insane about of liquor, at least amongst some of my friends at my last company. I went head to head with a 19 year old a few years ago, and he basically called it quits when he could no longer sit straight in his chair. I on the other hand felt only slightly buzzed.

I have no real technique. If anything, I think it’s because I have a nervous twitch that makes me drink whatever is put in front of me at roughly the same pace. It doesn’t really matter if it’s a beer, or a glass of wine, I somehow drink everything at pretty much the same rate, which can lead to not-so-pretty consequences sometimes. I also tend to have a slow metabolism, so I sort of think my body just processes liquor slower than other people, allowing me to go longer into the evening without noticing any affects.

Where I’m going with this is that I’m slowly realizing that I really don’t like drinking all that much these days. Because I’m not really a huge fan of the taste of most beers (don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a beer on a hot day or whatever), it’s pretty unlikely for me to crave a beer while at home, or any liquor to be honest. That explains why I have a wine rack with about 25 bottles in it — I simply never have the urge to drink any.

Anyways, the other day I was at the pub, working on my laptop, and drinking a few beers. I actually spent quite a bit of time there, mostly because I was trying to get a lot done and didn’t really feel interrupting what I was working on to move to a new location. I actually ate two meals there as well, which added to the cost of the day. But when the final bill came, it was about $80, and I remember looking at it thinking what a waste of money it was.

While I didn’t drink enough to get myself tipsy or anything, I’m at the point where even having two beers during the day is enough to cause my sleep to be less restful. Any more than that and I’m playing russian roulette with a hangover the next day.

The last time I went to the mall and spent $80, I came home with two new shirts and a pair of socks. Indirectly, I also came home with a modest boost in self-esteem, since let’s face it, it’s nice to have new clothes. So in one hand, you can have some new clothes and a feel-good feeling for $80. And in the other hand, you can have an $80 headache. Seems kind of stupid when you look at it like that.

Anyways, I’m not really going anywhere with this. It’s not like I’ve suddenly realized alcohol is a total waste of money — it’s pretty obvious when you drink in pubs, which explains some of the retarded bar bills I’ve seen in my day. But I think it’s pretty obvious that the whole period of my life where people used to meet in pubs and drink all day is pretty much over. And I’m not going to miss it at all to be honest.