How Did I Get Here?

Quote of the Day: “It was seen, …visually.”

During mid-morning when there was little to do, I made a trip to the Parris Island Museum for a simple reason: to visit the Rose Garden DI.

Chuck Taliano was just as I had left him a year ago: a friendly older gentlemen obsessed with his business of providing Marines and their families with Marine Corps memorabilia. Since I had been there, though, they had expanded his gift shop by 4 times so that it was much larger than the last time I had seen it.

Lucky for me, it was not that busy so I got Chuck’s attention for the better part of an hour. We talked about “webifying” his gift shop and the different options we had. Ironically, one of our concerns is it becoming TOO successful to the point he can’t fill the orders in a timely manner.

One of the other things I took care of is a surprise and since the people it’s for read this blog, I will have to wait to explain it (great, I just piqued the interest of all my readers, most of which will be mad at me when they never see any surprises come their way and realize I was not talking about them. Get over it.)

After we got done with what we had to do, we went back to the hotel which is cool when we have fast internet. We can go back and finish up any work, answer email, and surf instead of suffering through dial up or worse: no connectivity.

After last night’s gorge-fest, I decided I didn’t need to eat dinner. This little plan got sidetracked at about 2000 when I was suddenly hungry. I had brought some soup but then I remembered that I had some trail mix. Peanuts, raisins, and M&Ms (the airport type which means they had cost me $2.50 which I STILL stewed about). So I downed the rest of the bag.

As though that was not bad enough, I met the others at the tavern which was within walking distance. After 3 beers my decision-making ability took a hit and I got it in my head that I needed a Red Bull vodka.

What is this, you ask? Well, it’s a Red Bull and, well, vodka.

For those of you that know me, you know that me + hard licks = lots-o-pain. Did that matter to me at the moment of decision? Nope. And it gets worse.

South Carolina has the little bottle law. It’s sad that I only know about this because I saw a report on the Daily Show but basically, the state does not allow free-pour (using the usual sized bottles and letting the bartender pour the amounts). Instead they are required to use the little bottles you see on airplanes.

I thought the reason they do this was to normalize the amount of alcohol in each drink and at first I thought, damn, the bartender can’t “be nice” to you by making you strong drinks.

I was wrong.

A normal shot is 1 ounce. Each of these bottles is 1.7 ounces which, for you math whizzes, is almost double the size of a normal shot. Turns all they are ALL stiff drinks in NC.

Two more factoids for you:

1. This law is going away, so I’m told by the stereotypical single-mom-with-attitude bartender, as of Jan 1, 2006.

2. The reason they went to little bottles in the first place is because the state can yield a bigger total tax on numerous small battles than on the big bottles.

Back to the Red Bull vodka (a full can of Red Bull with exactly 1.7 ounces of vodka). It was good. Too good.

After I finished it, add in the fact that I had started a tab at this point and you have the makings of a rough Thursday.

I went on to try a 180 vodka which was also new to me. I had no idea there was another energy drink called 180. It has more of an orange flavor.

As if three beers and 3.4 ounces of vodka on a stomach halfway full on peanuts, raisins, and $2.50 worth of M&Ms (bastards!!!) wasn’t enough, I had to go on and snag a repeat performance on the Red Bull/vodka gut punch.

That’s three energy drinks and 5.1 ounces of vodka. There may even had been another but I can’t remember. I DO remember thinking that the energy drinks counteracted the depressive qualities of the alcohol. Yeah, that was the logic.

When I got back to the room at about 0100, the bed was spinning, the heartless bastard. But I got to sleep rather quickly.

I hoped for the best, knowing that in 5 hours, it would be time for that piper to get paid.

Free Advice for Today: “Become the type of person who brightens a room just by entering it.”