Thursday I went to work as usual, and at some point in the afternoon I went out with a co-worker to grab a Slurpee. I'm honestly not sure when the last time was that I had one of those... My best guess is three(ish) years ago. Which is kinda scary, considering in was such a staple of diet in my youth. But I digress. I consumed said Slurpee (of the root beer variety, if you're curious), and continued to work. I think it gave me a little bit of an unsettled stomach for a little bit, but other than that, all was good. I left the office several hours later and went to visit some friends for dinner.
We had a grand ol' time chatting and so forth, and eventually sat down to eat. And as I finished up my first serving, things started to go... Wonky. I wasn't dizzy, but it felt like I was being slowly pulled out of reality. Like there was a fog, and I had found myself submerged in some kind of syrup. Then I started to feel a bit warm. Loosened my collar a bit, and did my best to keep up with conversation. And then I started sweating like mad, which was odd considering how totally cold my skin felt. I mentioned I was feelin' kinda weird, and my hosts informed me that it looked like the blood had started a mass exodus from my face. Following their prompting, I went and crashed on their couch for a little bit. I slowly returned to normal over the next half-hour or so, but the fact that my body had thrown a complete meltdown over the course of about five minutes was impressive, worrisome, and absolutely surreal to experience.
I really have no idea what happened or what prompted it - my friends told me that it might be sheer exhaustion catching up to me. I've been feeling much better since, so I know it wasn't an allergic reaction or some other flu/sickness... It came and beat me over the head and took the rest of the evening to fade off. It's like my system crashed spectacularly and then did a hard restart, taking a while to get things back up and running again. I've never experienced anything like that before.
Onto Interesting Thing #2. I got home later that evening, still feeling a little bit uneasy. So I pretty much went straight to bed. Lo and behold, midnight rolls around and my phone rings. I jump out of bed to grab it - a call this late has to be important, right? Uh-oh, it says it's a friend from school. I hope everything's alright. Answer, say a groggy "Hello, Chris speaking," and... Rustling noise. Muffled conversation. And then my friend answers in a very up-beat manner, full of slurred speech and rambling disjointed phrases. I could hear other people around him, joking around. I've never been drunk dialed before! How exciting!
First thing he told me was that he was going through his phone, drunk dialing all his contacts. Another classmate then comes on with him and they asked me what I was doing. I replied that I was feeling kinda sick and was about to go to bed. They said I should stop doing homework. I said no, I'm not feeling well so I'm going to bed a bit early. They told me I shouldn't be doing homework this late. I gave up on trying to convince them I wasn't, in fact, doing homework.
My friend then informs me (again with the help of the classmate) that I should learn how to drink and get drunk, and that they are the perfect teachers for the job. Nay, masters from which I can learn their knowledge and skill. We laughed a bit, and then my friend takes over the phone solo to tell me a quote by some philosopher. He stumbled through it, assuring me that this was his effort to act intelligent while drunk. But the gist of the quote was something to the effect of how it's our immature moments that kind of define us - give us a chance to learn, put us in unexpected situations that'll let us experience things we might not have otherwise. Despite the lack of eloquence with which it was delivered, it was a really interesting idea.
I asked him if he was telling me this because he thought I should be more immature. He said yes.
From there, things drew to a close so that they could move on to call the next person in the contact list while they were walking to the next bar. I got the obligatory "I love you" that comes from drunk people, and that was it. But the truth had slipped out already.
It doesn't really surprise me that people (particularly classmates) view me as mature. Too mature, even. Probably that I work hard, work too much, don't have fun or unwind... I'm probably the very definition of square. And hell, let's face it - had it not been for a colossal bodily meltdown, I would have been doing homework when they called. It's what I do, even on the first evening of a long weekend.
But it's still kinda surprising/jarring to hear that kind of an opinion in person, even if you expect that it's already lurking there. Makes me wonder what they say about me when I'm not around. I wish I could get more candid truth like this drunken candor showed me a glimpse of.
Maybe I could afford to be more immature. Maybe as that botched quote suggested, I'd learn a lot more about myself and the world, and I'd be a more rounded individual. I can't say that learning to get drunk is the way to do it per se, but the idea of being less mature might have some merit to it.
I dunno. I feel like both the sudden illness...thing and the drunk dialing are supposed to be a part of the same message that the world is trying to tell me. I'm not quite sure how to decipher it, though. Is it as simple as "relax and live every once in a while"? I don't know. But it made for one hell of a night. Lots to think about.
And now, unfortunately, the homework wheel must grind on. Heh.
-Cril
Lippy kids on the corner again
Lippy kids on the corner begin
Settling like crows
Though I never perfected the simian stroll
The cigarettes and it was everything then
Do they know those days are golden?
Build a rocket boys
Build a rocket boys
One long June
I came down from the trees
and kerbstone cool
You were a freshly painted angel
Walking on walls
Stealing booze and hour long hungry kisses
And nobody knew me at home anymore
Build a rocket boys
Build a rocket boys
Build a rocket boys
Elbow - Lippy Kids
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