May 2, 2006

So: I've decided to give up drinking for good.

Not that I was much of a lush anyway. I've been, at best, a wannabe drunkard. I won't go into the whole crummy story, but it involves a 95-degree day in Phoenix, potato salad, an outdoor rock concert, free tequilla, and me throwing up repeatedly in front of my aunt & uncle, several cousins, one of my aunt's coworkers, and at least 12 people I'd never met.

That was my Saturday evening. Sometime during the 48 hour hangover that followed-- and which is indeed still ongoing-- it occurs to me that drinking alcohol is just socialized self-poisoning. In the span of a few minutes, it can turn a fun evening into a life-or-death situation.

I broke my best pair of sunglasses. I lost the umbrella craze had given me-- not that it was a particularly special umbrella, but it reminded me of the last time I'd lost an umbrella, under similar circustances and whilst suffering a similarly catastrophic hangover. In a weird stroke of deja vu, I later realized-- since being incapacitatingly nauseated gives you lots of time for reflection-- that I was even wearing the exact same clothes I'd been wearing then, right down to the socks.

The whole synchronicity of it seems like Karma somehow crossing the line, beating me over the head with how I'd said "I'll never do that again" last time. The trouble is I'm too much of a string bean to handle much liquor, and too much of a crowd-follower to stop when I should. After two lost umbrellas, two nights spent clinging to life in a booze-soaked Hawaiian shirt, and another great weekend ground to a halt, I'm starting to get a hint that the universe is trying to tell me something. Actually, the message seems pretty clear: Stay off the devil's elixer, kid.

So that's that.

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Before my weekend got obliterated, I was actually planning to write a completely different daylog here, about my moving to Seattle in a couple months. But right now my body seems more interested in remaining horizontal.

Thanks for putting up with a brief but important tangent, friends. Stay tuned.

A Beautiful Spring Day On A College Campus

I’ve got the good fortune of working near a college campus. OK, so it’s in the middle of a city, but I believe the environment is the same as just about any college campus across the country. Kids hurrying around. That new, electric feel with the beginning of each semester. Lots of young people who haven’t been beaten down by life yet.

My dad is a professor, and I grew up in chi-chi college towns my whole life. So maybe my fondness for the college environment is just a learned trait. Maybe it’s just what I’m used to. But I don’t think so.

Take today, for example. It is absolutely gorgeous outside. The “hazy, hot and humid” DC summer is still a long ways away, and everything in the city seems to be bursting with new life. Trees, flowers, people, everything seems to be waking up from a long sleep. And that’s never true more so than on a college campus. No matter what time of day I walk through the university – except maybe before 10:00 in the morning – the whole place seems to be exploding with students doing all kinds of different, interesting things. Sure, a lot of them are studying. But there are Frisbees everywhere. Kids eating, flirting, or just talking. Today I saw a couple of guys practicing tight-rope walking on a tether strung between two trees, just a few feet above the ground.

And it’s not like some guys I know, who just like walking around on days like today because of the tremendous amount of female skin that’s available for viewing. No, I’m a 42-year old guy. I’ve been a lawyer for 15 years or so, I’ve got a wife of five years I love dearly, and a 10-month old son who makes sure I never get enough sleep. It’s not about the sex. It’s about the energy.

You see, at this point in my life it might be really easy for me to settle into a low-energy orbit around my life, to give up the really vital things I used to do when I was younger. In fact, I’ve got to confess, that’s exactly what it feels like I’ve been doing this past winter.

But today it feels like I’ve got a new breath of life. Just being around the students on a day like today makes me feel 10 years younger, and it makes me want to shake off this winter coat of the adult life I’ve been wearing for the past few months. And the best place I know to rejuvenate like this is on a college campus, on a day like today, when all those kids just can’t help but share their own joy of life with you.