Homecoming

I moved back to Hong Kong in late August.  I got in on a Friday morning, went to meet with my old landlord (since I was moving into the apartment one floor below the apartment I lived in before I left), unpacked and set up my tiny box of a room, took a shower and then headed out to meet some friends for happy hour.  I met them around 6 p.m. It was great seeing everyone again and catching up, however, I blacked out around 8 p.m. Clearly, I waste no time, and of course, I was still out until 3 or 4 a.m.

On Saturday, I woke up and soon after threw up, so I got the christening of my bathroom out of the way.  I spent the bulk of the day lounging and nursing my hangover before I went to meet up with some other friends that evening.  I told them about the night before, and they were very kind in blaming the blackout on jet-lag.  Cheers, I'll drink to that, and I did, and once again I blacked out before 10 p.m.

On Sunday, I woke up. Sprawled across my bed, still fully clothed, lights still on, with some 7/11 food remnants next to me.  Gross.  I like to think I have a thirst for knowledge (and water at this particular moment) so I researched blackouts and how to keep them from happening.  Here is what I found, to avoid blackouts you should eat, hydrate, pace yourself, drink weaker drinks, rest, don't drink in strange places, and avoid dumbness.  Ummm, I have a problem with all of these.

1) Eat--I don't feel like eating after a few drinks, I only think about food when I'm stumbling home drunk and I eat an entire weeks worth of calories before I pass out.  I really wish I was one of those people who would pass out before they ate all the snacks they drunk buy, but I'm very goal oriented.
2) Hydrate--I can't be wasting time hydrating when I'm in an all you can drink situation with a time limit.
3) Pace myself-- See the previous statement
4) Drink weaker drinks--I'm trying to rage, not chill, and I have a heavy hand when I pour drinks.
5) Rest--too busy drinking all the drinks
6) Don't drink in strange places--I did mention I moved back to HK, right?
7) Avoid dumbness--I've been writing this blog for around three years, if this is the first post you are reading, click on any previous one and you will see the tip of my dumbness, at this point I don't think its something I can avoid.  I don't think I search it out, but I do think its part of my personality.

This article went on to say if you have frequent blackouts you could try alcohol abstinence or marijuana maintenance to deal with the problem.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Head Weight

When I first got back to HK I had a couple days before work started, so I stopped by my old job since their school term had already begun.  It was good to see some of my old colleagues, but also weird to make small talk with some people there who I thought I would never see again.  Note to self, never burn bridges. Anyway, I ran into one of the Chinese teachers in the hallway, and this was her reaction seeing me again after a year and a half.

Yup, it's good to be back.

Push Up Contest

I'm not sure when I actually started doing this, but its been a couple years now.  Often, once I'm a few drinks in, I'm sure I can do more push-ups than anyone, and I want everyone to know I'm the best, so I'll pick strangers, sometimes actual friends, and challenge them to a push up contest.  I often get turned down as it seems most people don't want to do push ups in bars or at parties, I know, I don't get it either.  The rules are as many push ups as you can in two minutes.  I can usually get around 50 or 60, and, yeah, I do the push ups on my toes, not my knees.

Over the summer, I went to a wedding of some friends, and when the bride invited me she gave me two rules:  no rolling around on the ground and no push up contests until after 10pm.  I need very direct rules to know how to act at events.  So, at the wedding, I had my eyes on my watch waiting for push up o'clock.

I ended up having my push up contest with a less bulgy-biceped guy who was a firefighter, and I totally beat him!  He might have let me win...but I think I'm just stronger than him.