Busy can take her buzzin’ ass and go make excuses for being flakey elsewhere. If I answer the simple question, “How are you?” with one of the above statements, you have my permission to roll your eyes and say, “Girl. And, if I’m lucky, I get to play the game all over again.
I get to remember every moment, even the mundane and depressing ones. I get to send eye roll emojis to other sober people. But I do get to live my life differently. So maybe I don’t get warnings on institutional clapboard signage. WARNING: America is still America and therefore you might occasionally want to get wasted or slap people but you won’t because you’re sober.
WARNING: The dickwads on this freeway might make you want to shoot heroin! WARNING: Entering this line at the post office could cause you to drink a box of wine in our employee parking lot. As addicts we don’t get these kind of warnings because, let’s face it, everything would have to come with one. I personally think the warning is a good idea and what the hell– maybe ongoing messages like this to young people could get them to talk about their problems. I sighed and shook my head, as I’ve been known to do for the last year and a half.
Cynical internet a-holes bemoaned the pussiness of millennials and scoffed at their inability to cope. It was posted by Hofstra University, where the shitshow was held, as a precaution. The above trigger warning caught fire on Monday shortly before the debates. So today when we– and by that I mean people like me who are sober– don’t meet for drinks to bitch about the state of the world, it’s nothing short of miraculous. What mattered was I had a what I thought was a legit excuse to get hammered and an excuse I wore out until January 2009. It didn’t matter that I was on the opposite coast. No, 9/11 didn’t make me a drunk (that was divine gift written in the stars or some shit) but trauma and the planet going to shit certainly helped grease the wheels of this hot mess machine. I was in Los Angeles on that day and went directly to the bar, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Studies from all over show a huge spike in drug addiction and alcoholism since 9/11. This being said, however, for the last 15 years every magazine under the sun has wondered if the screwed up state of the world actually makes people drink and use drugs more. Events were a nice excuse for sure but far from necessary. My point is, I didn’t necessarily need an event to get shitfaced. And cocaine was a nice accompaniment to everything from New Year’s Eve to Thursday nights at a Silver Lake leather bar. White wine also went well with laundry and episodes of Young and the Restless. I was one of those drinkers who thought everything went better with booze. Smartassery aside for just a moment, I often marvel at how any of us addicts and alcoholics get through anything sober. Besides, look at that whimsical font and little brown bunny! It’s the best game ever. The prize? I don’t get to hate myself and I won’t wind up in jail or in the nuthouse! Weeeeee! Okay, I throw in some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups as a bonus prize. Yet we still have 40 days of this political gum scraping to endure so what’s a sober guy to do? Well, this sober guy is gonna make his own brand new non-drinking game,goddamnit! The thrown together, half-assed rules look something like this: Besides, my drinking game for the better part of 20 years had looser rules like “Drink every time it’s Tuesday” and “Take a drink every time life pisses you off” and “Have a shot whenever you’re awake.” Unsurprisingly, I was usually playing alone and not having all that much fun. The debate version of the drinking game had things like, “Drink when you hear the word deplorable” or “Drink when they talk about immigration” or perhaps drink because this is the most fucking depressing election of all time (I’m projecting here as I didn’t watch the debates)įor those of us who are more Barrymore-like, every day is a chance to drink and therefore it’s a good idea we just avoid it altogether. Or the Law & Order drinking game where you drink every time that dramatic music plays. You know drinking games like the Star Wars drinking game where you drink every time they say, “the force”. That clever little devil the Internet was littered with “Debate Drinking Games” over the past week. For people who don’t turn into a lost member of the Barrymore family every time they ingest alcohol, Monday’s debate was a chance to drink.