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.

Separation of Church and Rape

I was visiting a couple friends, and we were having some midday drinks.  We probably were all feeling a bit tipsy, but we were no where near drunk enough for where the conversation took us.  It started out as a joke, but just kind of spun out of control.  If I explain the whole thing it is going to take too long and get too political.  I'll say how it started though.  These were friends I have from my first post-college job...about 10 years ago.  One of my friends referenced how I used to frequently say, "silence equals consent." There was a rapid downward spiral from there that ended with one of my friends walking out of the spiked ginger beer bar we were in (hippy west coast style).  We eventually tracked the friend down and he was sitting on the stoop of an abandoned church.

The conversation continued in a ridiculous fashion, through no one's fault, it just all got way more heated than it needed to.  Either way, the best part was, when this woman was crossing the street and what she shouted out to us:

Sage words, passerby.  I will keep them with me always.

Things in My Handbag

I went to a beer festival yesterday, in preparation for all the beer and foodstand carnage that was going to happen I rad 12 miles.  That might have been a mistake though, because I was buzzing way too early.  I just get too excited at events and am incapable of pacing myself.  I was hopping around between a couple friend groups and kept getting lost.  I made friends with a couple of beer stand people.  Bought a shirt at one of them and negotiated for a free beer...I have no idea what I paid for the shirt, so it may or may not have been a good deal.  I also, gave that beer stand my phone number and email, I think I might become an apprentice there if they get in contact with me.  I was trying to talk this drummer (who is in a band with one of my friends) to giving me drumming lessons...he was not into it at all, but for the record, I think I would be a good drummer.  At one point when I was standing around talking my skirt just fell off...it was just a jersey knit, and I just got it a couple days ago, but apparently that material stretches out easily.  Anyway, here are the contents of my purse as found when I woke up the next morning fully clothed with my lights still on:

-2 hangover cure drinks (I sadly did not bother to drink any of them)
-1 bottle cap
-kowloon bay brewery t-shirt
-neon glow bracelets
-bonus points for still having my wallet and phone!!!
-8 packs of condoms (one of the stands was giving these away...and apparently in my drunken state I was very sure I was going to get lucky, in reality I woke up with the remnants of 2 7/11 sandwiches in my bed...not a man...I'm gross)

Basic

I met up with a friend for happy hour.  The bar was one of those great ones with an obscene about of beer on tap.

We were having a great time, when the bartender set a sample size of an IPA in front of me and said a guy down the bar sent it over.  I'm not the kind of girl a guy buys a drink for, I'm the kind of girl a guy sends a free sample of a beer to.  The bar was really busy, so I didn't really see who the tiny beer was from.  I did drink it.  Then, more than an hour later, when the bar had cleared out a bit the guy came over and asked if I liked the beer.  I'd had a couple more regular-sized beers at this point, so I couldn't really remember it, but I said yes, in an attempt to be congenial.  He chatted with us for maybe 5 minutes, then left.  Didn't hit on either of us, buy either of us a drink, or even chat for that long...such a weird interaction.  Several non-basic IPAs later, the bartender comes back by and my friend (one of those people who know their limits) totally sells me out!! haha

Painful Realization

I first signed up for some online dating website last September.  I was scrolling through facebook and saw that over the last year he started seeing someone, and they just got married in vegas.  Over the last year I have been on about four dates, none of them leading to even a second date.