On Thursday night, after an intense two-hour soccer practice, I went out to have a tame, adult drink and conversation with a friend. Honestly, the whole “let’s get drunk and lose our minds and common sense” deal isn’t really my thing, but on the weekends I do enjoy hanging out with people outside of the school atmosphere, so, since the “let’s get wasted” theme is all that’s going on, that’s typically the people I end up around. This past Thursday was different. I couldn’t bring myself to tolerate the liquored-up and drugged-up conversations that I knew were just a couple of blocks away, so I called a friend to see if she, too, would forgo what I, at that point, viewed as a wasteland. Thankfully she did, and we went to have a beer outside of a bar that’s unpopular or unknown to the people I was steering away from. After chatting for an hour or two about life, senior year, and modern culture, we strolled down to Newport and back.
On Friday, Chetverikova (also known as Ellina 
hosted a “tea party”. They are really enjoyable, because, like Thursday night’s intentions, the concern of the “tea parties” is: relaxing evening with friends and tame chit-chat, no rowdy drunken-ness, and snacks to boot! I did almost lose my temper, however. I brought Disaronno (I think that’s how you spell it), which is an Amaretto liquer, so that we could add a bit to our coffee or just taste it, if we wished, but one of our party saw “alcohol!” and decided that meant it was time to imbibe all but a swallow of the bottle.
Since this is my blog, I suppose it’s not ill-done for me to talk about myself: I’ve been drunk only a handful of times in my life, but it was that handful that taught me. I don’t enjoy being “wasted” and losing my faculties, but some people stop before that point and ride the “jovial” phase, which I appreciate from them. While I know that some people enjoy getting to the “puking my guts out in a toilet” phase, I don’t understand why they do. I do like to have a glass of wine with dinner, though, or a beer with lunch, or a mimosa in the morning on the weekends, and I enjoy tasting the variety of liquers, wines, etc. because to me, it is something of an art and a science. So, I appreciate the work that goes into it, and I like to savor the new experience of something I’ve just tried.
So when people have a gathering, or come to my house, or are just sitting around for a chat, I like to offer a drink, expecting that they know not to get messed up by guzzling my brandy or honey-whiskey. I expect for people to know that you don’t drink wine by pouring your plastic, Wal-Mart, pint-and-a-half-measured cup up to the brim and downing the wine like it’s water or juice, and then thrust your cup in my direction for more. Really?
So this past Friday, I had to calm myself by remembering that “moderation” is not a word in everybody’s vocabulary when it comes to alcohol. Later that night, a friend and I walked to Newport and back. Again.
Saturday morning began with a trip to the free food bank (college life), where I got some stock for my pantry. Thankfully my new Dremel came in the mail, as well, so I went home, settled down with a glass of apple juice, put on season 3 of Prison Break, and experimented with wood-carving. I tried carving ivy leaves since I’d just done a presentation for Art History on Benn Pitman’s dresser from 1882, whose leaves were SO intricately carved that they inspired my trials with my new Dremel. Unfortunately, I was so tired from soccer and late-night walks to the river, that I fell asleep (yes, I remembered to turn the rotary tool off).
I slept through the beginning of Occupy Cincinnati, but I really wanted to hear and understand their cause, so I walked down to fountain square to catch the end of it. Unfortunately, they spent 45 minutes arguing what the best system of organization would be for the next meeting, and zero minutes actually “petitioning” (?) for their cause, so I left.
Hopefully today will turn out to be a “hermit” day, where I stay in and work on more projects for school and for myself.
anyway. Over the weekend I saw Fourtet, Atlas Sound, Florence + the Machine, Justice, and Tycho all live, and there are around 200 shows from now until the end of October… So pray I don’t lose my hearing.
