early booze experiences

Spokanicity has been a little dead lately, my friends. This makes me sad. So I thought I'd post about something we can all relate to: booze.

The first time I ever got drunk was October of freshman year. I mean, I'd definitely tried alcohol before, but I'd seen so many people do so much stupid shit while drunk that I tended to stay away. Well, enter the college party scene and peer pressure and I was a goner. The culprit that time? Good ol' Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Well, not entirely. Greg served me my first gin & tonic in his room in CM (I still think they're gross), and THEN I drank two Mike's(es?), and THEN I was drunk as a skunk. Becca was there too, even though she claims not to remember disappearing with the backpack full of hard lemonades. I proceeded to drink more at a house party somewhere on Sinto, have my first of many embarrassing, regrettable drunk makeouts, and then pass out in my room in Crimont in front of MTV. I remember thinking that Dave Matthews' "Gravedigger" video was craaaazy. Also, my roommate didn't come home that night - she'd passed out at 1003 Mission. Needless to say, this was the beginning of many good times.

Fast forward to the summer of 2004. First college summer, first time living "on my own" not in the dorms. Becca and I had some fun times in our adjacent basement rooms. I believe that Becca introduced me to Bacardi 151 that summer, a drink that I never, ever developed a taste for. I'm going to defer to Becca for stories from her 151 days, since I'd never be able to do them justice. I do remember the night that I got kicked out of the Big Easy (a blog post for another day), Becca, Teresa, and I took some classic drunk-girl pictures with the bottle of 151. I wonder where those pictures are now.

That summer was also when tequila and I stopped being friends. I never really liked the taste of tequila, but I got custody of a bottle after the Second Annual Chelan Trip that summer. One weekend, Scott was in town, and I thought it'd be a good idea to take some tequila shots by myself before going to a "crew party" (turned out to be like, four crew girls watching movies) with him and Becca and Ben. Mistaaaake. It was fun wandering drunkenly through Mission Park, barefoot, but the next day I had one of the worst hangovers I have ever experienced to date. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had to lie motionless for hours - any movement would cause head pounding and severe nausea. I've only had tequila three or four times since then, only once or maaaaaybe twice in shot form, and I still hate margaritas. Ugh. Just thinking of the taste gives me shivers.

The third alcohol experience of that summer has to do with the Nevada wonder-drink that we all know and hate: ethanol. Let me make clear that I think it is disgusting to drink the stuff. Why not drink nail polish remover, huh? Or turpentine? Or make a hobo cocktail of milk and gasoline? Yeah. Gross gross gross. But at the end of summer, some of the boys roadtripped back to Spokane with a huge jug of the stuff. They landed at Piraeus on the evening before we were allowed to move back into the dorms, and so the glass behemoth full of ethanol lived on my microwave for a night. One whiff of the stuff and I was drunk, I swear. Yuck. I will be grateful for the image that it gave me, though, of waking up to Swift sleeping on my floor and cuddling with my stuffed bunny the next morning. I'm sure he doesn't remember that, but I do.

I hate the taste of Mike's Hard Lemonade now. And tequila, of course. What kind of booze did YOU all imbibe in our early college days? What kind of booze can you no longer drink? Post, post, post. I demand it.