Sobriety is Refreshing

July 10th, 2011
I was chatting until 4AM and I’m able to wake up before 12PM. I had a good night of sleep, my body recovered, and I feel awesome. This really reinforced how I want to change everything. I’m not sluggish at all. On a usual Sunday, I would sleep way into the afternoon, eat something, sit at my computer, and just watch videos and do nothing the entire day. My mouth would be dry, my mind would be fuzzy, and my body would never want to be active.
However, this day, I’ve superman. I’m the complete opposite that I was the day before. I’m down to do stuff today and I’m talking about making moves. I jump in the shower and I’m set on going to the MET. I don’t pussyfoot around. I just gather up my plans, stuff my pockets with my wallet, cellphone, keys, and I’m out the door. Boom.
I get to the MET, but then Ela tells me that her and Lena are going to Central Park. I end up joining them, I guess I could leave the MET for another day, though I only had 2-3 hours before it closes because it’s Sunday. I should find a day where I can pay for the audioset and spend the entire day there.
I get something at Bouchon Bakery, I’m so French, and meet them. We walk around and Ela makes fun of me for wearing jeans on a 90 degree day, but I was supposed to be in a cold museum all day, now I was stuck with them.
After walking for a bit, we go to Keste and Vino for pizza. Some of the best NYC pizza, I’ll write it in my review. We then go to Amorino, a new gelato place.

July 11th, 2011
Jenn calls me and reminds me of this thing she wanted the gang to go, she initially told me about it a month ago. She calls and immediately spews off for about 10 minutes about the situation of the people that make the meals for airplanes and their bad situation and how there’s a labor rally for them. I mean, I listened and retained everything, but I’m a bit surprised that was her approach. I’d assume most people would just blank out because she didn’t even start off with how I was involved in this. It was basically like a news article on the hardships of these workers and I wasn’t quite sure how I fit into the plan.
Turns out she wants the gang to go and support the workers. They’re going to be in Hempstead. I ask the gang, and surprisingly, more people are down than I thought. Spamps has work. Kenny says Yes, which is hugely surprisingly, but I think it turns out he wants to bring his resume and it’s related to his major. Miah is down, which sort of makes sense because he likes this activist stuff. Bolanos even seems willing, which makes absolutely no sense to me. We’ll see if he ends up going.

July 14, 2011
Today is the rally thing and I did actually sort of plan on going, except Nikki, a friend from years ago who moved to Thailand, is in America for a short while and wanted to grab a bite. As a fellow foodie, it was my job to show her the East Village an do a little of a food tour. Then again, I did have reservations for Restaurant Week at the Modern- Bar Room at 10PM the same night.
I get a call from Jenn while I’m at work and I tell her that I can’t go, but she’s really pissed off at me, Jeez, that’s heavy shit on me. I do feel bad, but hey, I have plans and I wasn’t even interested in the rally in the first place, I was just going to go to support Jenn and get to see her since she’s in RI these days working.
I meet up with Nikki and we go to Caracas, Otafuku, and then St. Dymphna’s. By then, it’s time for me to split and meet up with the boys for dinner. The meal is quite good, though the portions are a bit light. We play this game where I gather Bolanos’ “issues.” He always seems to have something to complain about. Just from dinner, he had issues with dancing, waiting for people to get there food at a restaurant, and the French Quebecois. This list will continue on.
After that, we meet up Sam in the Upper West Side. We find this bar that has a sweet deal on Thursday, 5 bottles of beer for $12. They even had $1 beer nights. Jeez, I think we should hang out in this area more. It seems a bit less classy and diverse than the East Village, more the douche college kids, but hey, I’d give it a try especially if the drinks are so cheap.

July 15, 2011
I have lots of moves to make this weekend so I decide to go up to Ela’s BBQ on Friday night instead of tomorrow morning. Her family was gone, but she had to stay in to pet sit, so I forced her to invite people and throw something so she wouldn’t be miserable by herself. The drive up isn’t bad except the part where I got lost in the woods and drove around for almost an extra hour.
Right before I leave, I somehow end up sick right before I leave though. I basically get a full on cold, stuffiness, running noise, everything. I try to man up and I feel like I heal up during the drive.
I get there by 10:30 and the gals are just chilling watching some TV. I awkwardly say Hi, grab a seat, have one beer, and then we head to sleep for the next day.

July 16, 2011
I wake up at 10AM because everyone else is up. I brought a waffle iron to make breakfast for everyone. It’s actually a lot of work to make proper Belgian waffles from scratch, especially since you only can make two waffles at once and I overmade.
After that, I’m super tired so I pass out for an hour while the girls go get lunch (sushi), booze, and some movies. I sit around after an hour while they’re still out a chat a bit with one of the Germans. There’s a French girl and two other Germans than Ela.
The nap doesn’t end up helping and I start feeling super sick. I’m hungry, but I can’t have much more waffles, I had two with Nutella. I have a glass of wine and that’s about all I’ve eaten and drank since the night before. For some reason, I feel quezzy, my head is hurting, and I’m really sluggish. Ela tries to get me to jump in the pool and hang out more, but I’m being a bit of a Debbie Downer, then again, people are mostly just chilling out by the pool not doing much.
A girl from Hungary joins in. I guess the thing isn’t really a BBQ since I’m not cooking up anything. By 5PM, I decide to get going and drive back. There’s a club thing that Nikki is going to and also the rest of the online gang. It’s basically about diversifying myself. I could take it easy and chill out at Ela’s, but I also haven’t seen these people in forever and keeping those connections could be useful.
I get lost in the woods again because they closed a road. However, I’m a genius and use the sun as a sense of direction. Along with asking for some directions, I’m able to find my way back and the drive is actually really easy. Just a highway, a bridge, and that’s it.
I get home and pass the fuck out for 2 hours, but not people gorging on some dollar menu Wendy’s. After that, I’m feeling way way better, so I guess sleep would’ve helped me earlier as well. I was thinking about taking the LIRR and then subway to Long Island City, but decide that since I was feeling shitty earlier, drinking tonight might not be a good idea so why not drive.
I drive there with Bolanos and we meet up with Nikki and go there by 11:30. When we get there, the line is hella long. The cover for guys is $15. At the front of the line is a guy checking people. I’ve never seen a more serious man. The sad thing is, airline security in a post 9/11 world is less intense than this guy.
He first finds a hat in a guy’s pocket. He tells him No hats, the guy says he didn’t know, but he smartly replies, “Then why is it in your pocket?” The guy says he won’t wear it, but the bouncer can’t even trust him with that so he takes it from him and leaves it in the front. With the next guy, he does a serious pat down and then finds a hat in the guy’s pants, “And for a second there, I thought you were really well endowed.” The guy isn’t happy that he tried to sneak a hat in, but lets the guy in. I joke with Bolanos what if someone was hiding a ten gallon hat in their hands.
When he checks Nikki’s bag out, he’s super intense again. He even checks inside her glasses case, and pulls her glasses out to make sure there’s nothing possibly in there. He is 100% checking for drugs because he really made sure every crevice was checked, even the insides of a cigarette pack and looking to the bottom.
With Bolanos and I, he checks inside of my belt and boxers, which is way awkward in public. He’s basically inches away from giving me a handjob. I mean, he’s serious and good at his job, but why is this club in the middle of nowhere really care that much. I doubt they are at fault if someone brings drugs in. Secondly, these are just a bunch of douchey dudes really, no one is bring knives or guns into this place. No offense, these guys are probably the biggest pussies around, they have no use for that shit. I don’t want to be racist, but this ain’t no bounce show in New Orleans. With those shows, I’ve seen metal detectors in the actual menu, classy shit.
We get inside and find Mae. I’ve known her for a bit, but she’s from Virginia and I finally get to meet her. It’s this guy’s record release show and he’s playing on stage, but he ends up not happy about it because there’s no one there. The place is pretty nice, but there are seriously about 30 people there about 5 are women. It’s really a sad sight to see.
Seeing as how long the line was, people must’ve got inside and simply left, even though all the guys had to have paid the $15 cover. So with the intense bouncer, if I was him, I would let the girls with drugs in because you really need drugs to make sure that girls stay at that place. Also, what’s the point of being so strict when you have no one in your place. Just let fucking people in, you’re probably going to close next week because no one is at your club.
I actually bring up an interesting conversation with Nikki, Bolanos, and I are walking to the club. I’ve read on Wiki about how this club stuff makes for economic incentives. They charge guys $15 because they want less guys and the club is doing “A group of 5 girls get a free bottle” service because they want more girls. And it makes sense because you don’t want a place infested with all dudes (even though this place made this incentives and it still ended up being filled with girls, wow, nice job).
However, the true question is, if this is the issue, where are the girls? Seriously, if all the guys are out and girls never show up to places and even if they do, men outnumber women by a huge ratio, then where are the women? There are even more women than men in the population. I really don’t know the answer, but the only thing I can think of is that girls must just stay home by themselves or something. Maybe they are more prone to hanging out with other girls indoors. I really want to pinpoint where all these women are because there’s no reason why on a Saturday night, establishments all over the world have issues filling up places with women while they are overcrowded with men.
Anyway, we plan on staying for a free bottle because they guy played his show, but Nikki says she’s getting a ride home and I don’t want to stay. The club is empty and nothing is happening. The group actually didn’t show up, just Mae and the guy doing the show, who are hooking up. This guy Don from the group, who’s a really nice guy, but that’s it. An awkward small group of us.
Don actually gives me props and I wonder why, he then says that it’s because I know awesome people like Bolanos. He spoke to Bolanos for a bit and apparently they got along. I laugh and joke how Bolanos is going to use this against me weeks later saying, “Hey, remember that guy that said you were awesome because you know ME!” Not that I care, I just thought it was funny to think of Bolanos as an great attribute of me personally and that he even mentioned it.
We end up splitting after 30 minutes or an hour of just sitting around. I’m super disappointed in myself for making such a dead night and wasting a Saturday night, and also how I dragged Bolanos along.
I could’ve had such a better time at Ela’s. I guess I like the minutia of a house party, but I feel like there’s something different about drinking and hanging out a bit earlier than usual and at your own pace during the day/night instead having to go out. There’s no trek, trains, walking around and all that business. I don’t know, there’s a lot of regret running in my head that I should’ve just stayed at a pool party, I could’ve bought some food and BBQed for dinner for them, chilled out, drank a bunch with them later because they did buy liquor and I guess were waiting until night to let loose. Meh, silly me.
Bolanos and I hang out at my place for a bit, we have a beer, end of night. Real Saturday night.

July 17, 2011
I get woken up at 10AM by Miah’s sister looking for him. I don’t know where he is nor how she has my number. I go back to sleep and thought I set an alarm for 12PM, but I didn’t. I end up waking up by myself at 2:30PM, which alerts me that I probably really needed sleep. It’s good that I catch up on sleep on weekends because sleep is super important to me. I can tell some people can operate lacking sleep, but I always make sure I nap and stuff, but I just feel partially no human without sleep. My mind isn’t sharp, I can’t remember certain things and things get stuck at the tip of my tongue, I’m slow and unproductive.
Either way, I’m feeling awesome because it’s a no hangover weekend. I try to see if I want to go into the city, but I don’t see anything specifically attractive that I want to do, so I just give up on that. I end up going at 6PM with Bolanos to do some nerdy Magic stuff in Mineola and that’s my chill day.
In a bigger picture, I’m enjoying this new sober style. Then again, I did have three beers on Thursday when I was out after dinner and felt “it” a bit the next day, but I wasn’t bad. I also had a beer with Nikki when we were grabbing some bites before my dinner with the guys, but that was far out of my system by dinner and afterwards. I then only had a beer at Ela’s on Friday night. I had a glass of wine next to the pool the next day, which maybe didn’t end up being the best idea and probably didn’t help how I was so headached and queezy. I then had a beer with Bolanos when we came back to my place from our dead plans.
So boom, there we go, a week where I can count that I had six drinks and I spread them out really periodically so they were basically chill out drinks other than the few out at the bar on Thursday. I’m really proud of that considering how I’ve had nights where I’ve had double that in one night. Hell, it would be the norm for being to have six on a weekend night, and do it both Friday and Saturday. I’m feeling mentally a lot clearer and physically more active on weekends. My mood is up. And I get the bonus of being healthier and being able to lose weight instead of being at a constant struggle of dieting, but being stable because of the drinking calories. Lets see where we go with this new plan.