March 29, 1999
Recently, over on MySpace, my sister sent out a bulletin asking people for good late-night places to get something to eat. I sent her a place I knew of back in Harrisburg, and in the message I said something along the lines of 'the night I got drunk we went there for hot dogs at 2am.' She wrote back saying, 'you may be the only person I know of that can actually say 'the night I got drunk.'' And she's probably right. I've only gotten drunk one night in my life, and it was March 29, 1999.
Life was simpler back in 1999. You could still party like it was 1999. Conan O'Brien's In The Year 2000 sketches still made sense. The upcoming Y2K bug allowed Chris Jericho to enter the ring and call himself Y2J. And I still had the chance to fulfill my childhood fantasy of being married, having 2 kids, and living in a house with a white picket fence by the year 2000. I would likely have to be married and get my wife pregnant by the end of March 1999 for that last one to happen, but it was at least possible.
I was in my final year of law school in March of that year... the final couple of months in fact. I had managed to build up a small group of really close friends, and a large group of regular friends, thanks to my Jesus hairstyle, and my ability to fly through law school doing as little work as possible and still passing. That year was even more special however, because my beloved UConn Huskies men's basketball team was in the Final 4 for the first time in history. On March 27th, 1999, they beat Ohio St. to advance to the finals against the much hated Duke Blue Devils. I wanted to have people over to watch the game because if UConn won, I wanted to celebrate with friends, rather than alone. My apartment could comfortably hold 4 or 5 people, so I figured get some friends over, watch the game, eat some pizza, have a good time. But how to get them over? Only one of my friends was a real basketball fan, but no one else really cared. So I floated the idea that if UConn won, I'd drink that night.
Now realize, I'm not a real big drinker. To this day I don't really drink all that often. I honestly had my first drink on my 21st birthday (a shot of Mad Dog 20/20 orange flavor - not a great way to start.) And I had never gotten drunk. Many, many people had been waiting for the day that I finally broke down and got wasted. My college friends had been waiting close to ten years for it to happen. Hell, even my mother was waiting for it to happen. I was told it should be turned into a pay-per-view event so people from far away could watch. So when I told my law school friends I would drink if UConn won, it was a big deal. And on March 29, 1999, I had close to 20 people in my apartment to watch the game.
As you might have imagined (since I'm writing about this) UConn won in a thrilling game. My only reaction after the final buzzer was to stand up and yell 'Whoo hoo!' and quickly sit back down since I forgot to put on a belt and my pants were starting to fall. I sat back on the couch, and I'm not ashamed to say that tears were in my eyes. UConn had won a national championship. About 2.3 seconds after my yell, my friend Keith (his real name) said, 'OK, let's do this!' and ran off into my kitchen. Another friend of mine joined him and a few moments later they came back and handed me my drink. It was in one of those frozen plastic mugs (I believe with a Batman Forever logo on it) that was large enough to hold a can of soda. This was filled to the brim with a Screwdriver (orange juice and vodka.) If I'm not mistaken, there were 2 shots of vodka mixed in with the orange juice. It was nasty tasting (which is the reason I don't really like to drink) but I polished that sucker off in a few minutes. I should have sipped it because as soon as I was done, Keith took the mug and refilled it. I drank three of those concoctions in 30 minutes. At the time I didn't realize it, but now looking back, 6 shots of vodka in 30 minutes is a hell of a lot to drink, especially for someone who has no tolerance.
But it was a little strange. All those people came over to watch me get drunk, yet out of the 20 people, 17 left before I finished my drinks. I think they were all satisfied just watching me drink, and didn't care about the after effects. By the time I finished, only Keith, Wes and JD were still there. I hadn't moved from my place on the couch, but I could feel my head swimming. Wes asked what I was going to do now, and I wasn't sure. But good old Keith was there to say 'we are NOT wasting this opportunity... I don't care what we do, but we're doing something!' I agreed, and Wes and JD nodded, then said they had to go. So it was just going to be me and Keith. Keith suggested we go for a drive and I agreed, as soon as I went to the bathroom and put on a belt. I stood up, took two steps, and fell sideways onto my closet door. Wes and JD were already walking to the stairs so they didn't see, but Keith did and laughed. I slowly made my way to the bathroom and then to my bedroom and came out ready to go.
We hopped into Keith's Wrangler and took off. Neither of us had any idea where to go. So Keith suggested we go buzz by the house of this girl he was in love with. She lived about 20 minutes away so we had a nice drive there, found her house, drove around the block a few times, then took off. Keith still didn't want to take me home, so we went to downtown Harrisburg to a place called The Spot. It was a late-night restaurant, known for their hot dogs, among other things. We got there and went inside. Behind the counter was this large, hideous woman with the biggest moustache I've seen on a female before. Now, I do remember seeing her and thinking this, then quickly turning away. Keith however says that I stared at her for a solid 5 minutes with my mouth open as we waited in line. I suppose that's possible because I know it took a while before we got to the front of the line and ordered, and frankly, I don't remember much else about being there. We got our hot dogs, ate and took off. There was some talk about going to a strip club, but as it was around 2am and a Monday night, we did have class the next day.
Keith dropped me off at home, shook my hand, said congrats, and went back to his apartment. I stumbled up the stairs, still lightheaded, and got on the computer. At which point I sent out a mass email to about 30 people informing them that I had gotten drunk. In my stupor, I thought people might want to know. Of course, looking back on it, I probably should have waited till the morning because I'm not 100% sure what I wrote. I am 100% sure though that my mother and my sister were included in the email. I may be the only person in history to email his mother and tell her that her only son got drunk and ate hot dogs at 1am. She must have been proud. Afterwards, I crawled into bed and somehow made it up for class the next day. I had a small headache, but nothing I couldn't manage.
March 29, 1999 will go down in history as the day the UConn men won their first national championship and as the day I got drunk. Since then UConn has won a second title, but I'm still waiting for my second time. And if and when it happens, I'll be sure to email everyone... including my mother.
Life was simpler back in 1999. You could still party like it was 1999. Conan O'Brien's In The Year 2000 sketches still made sense. The upcoming Y2K bug allowed Chris Jericho to enter the ring and call himself Y2J. And I still had the chance to fulfill my childhood fantasy of being married, having 2 kids, and living in a house with a white picket fence by the year 2000. I would likely have to be married and get my wife pregnant by the end of March 1999 for that last one to happen, but it was at least possible.
I was in my final year of law school in March of that year... the final couple of months in fact. I had managed to build up a small group of really close friends, and a large group of regular friends, thanks to my Jesus hairstyle, and my ability to fly through law school doing as little work as possible and still passing. That year was even more special however, because my beloved UConn Huskies men's basketball team was in the Final 4 for the first time in history. On March 27th, 1999, they beat Ohio St. to advance to the finals against the much hated Duke Blue Devils. I wanted to have people over to watch the game because if UConn won, I wanted to celebrate with friends, rather than alone. My apartment could comfortably hold 4 or 5 people, so I figured get some friends over, watch the game, eat some pizza, have a good time. But how to get them over? Only one of my friends was a real basketball fan, but no one else really cared. So I floated the idea that if UConn won, I'd drink that night.
Now realize, I'm not a real big drinker. To this day I don't really drink all that often. I honestly had my first drink on my 21st birthday (a shot of Mad Dog 20/20 orange flavor - not a great way to start.) And I had never gotten drunk. Many, many people had been waiting for the day that I finally broke down and got wasted. My college friends had been waiting close to ten years for it to happen. Hell, even my mother was waiting for it to happen. I was told it should be turned into a pay-per-view event so people from far away could watch. So when I told my law school friends I would drink if UConn won, it was a big deal. And on March 29, 1999, I had close to 20 people in my apartment to watch the game.
As you might have imagined (since I'm writing about this) UConn won in a thrilling game. My only reaction after the final buzzer was to stand up and yell 'Whoo hoo!' and quickly sit back down since I forgot to put on a belt and my pants were starting to fall. I sat back on the couch, and I'm not ashamed to say that tears were in my eyes. UConn had won a national championship. About 2.3 seconds after my yell, my friend Keith (his real name) said, 'OK, let's do this!' and ran off into my kitchen. Another friend of mine joined him and a few moments later they came back and handed me my drink. It was in one of those frozen plastic mugs (I believe with a Batman Forever logo on it) that was large enough to hold a can of soda. This was filled to the brim with a Screwdriver (orange juice and vodka.) If I'm not mistaken, there were 2 shots of vodka mixed in with the orange juice. It was nasty tasting (which is the reason I don't really like to drink) but I polished that sucker off in a few minutes. I should have sipped it because as soon as I was done, Keith took the mug and refilled it. I drank three of those concoctions in 30 minutes. At the time I didn't realize it, but now looking back, 6 shots of vodka in 30 minutes is a hell of a lot to drink, especially for someone who has no tolerance.
But it was a little strange. All those people came over to watch me get drunk, yet out of the 20 people, 17 left before I finished my drinks. I think they were all satisfied just watching me drink, and didn't care about the after effects. By the time I finished, only Keith, Wes and JD were still there. I hadn't moved from my place on the couch, but I could feel my head swimming. Wes asked what I was going to do now, and I wasn't sure. But good old Keith was there to say 'we are NOT wasting this opportunity... I don't care what we do, but we're doing something!' I agreed, and Wes and JD nodded, then said they had to go. So it was just going to be me and Keith. Keith suggested we go for a drive and I agreed, as soon as I went to the bathroom and put on a belt. I stood up, took two steps, and fell sideways onto my closet door. Wes and JD were already walking to the stairs so they didn't see, but Keith did and laughed. I slowly made my way to the bathroom and then to my bedroom and came out ready to go.
We hopped into Keith's Wrangler and took off. Neither of us had any idea where to go. So Keith suggested we go buzz by the house of this girl he was in love with. She lived about 20 minutes away so we had a nice drive there, found her house, drove around the block a few times, then took off. Keith still didn't want to take me home, so we went to downtown Harrisburg to a place called The Spot. It was a late-night restaurant, known for their hot dogs, among other things. We got there and went inside. Behind the counter was this large, hideous woman with the biggest moustache I've seen on a female before. Now, I do remember seeing her and thinking this, then quickly turning away. Keith however says that I stared at her for a solid 5 minutes with my mouth open as we waited in line. I suppose that's possible because I know it took a while before we got to the front of the line and ordered, and frankly, I don't remember much else about being there. We got our hot dogs, ate and took off. There was some talk about going to a strip club, but as it was around 2am and a Monday night, we did have class the next day.
Keith dropped me off at home, shook my hand, said congrats, and went back to his apartment. I stumbled up the stairs, still lightheaded, and got on the computer. At which point I sent out a mass email to about 30 people informing them that I had gotten drunk. In my stupor, I thought people might want to know. Of course, looking back on it, I probably should have waited till the morning because I'm not 100% sure what I wrote. I am 100% sure though that my mother and my sister were included in the email. I may be the only person in history to email his mother and tell her that her only son got drunk and ate hot dogs at 1am. She must have been proud. Afterwards, I crawled into bed and somehow made it up for class the next day. I had a small headache, but nothing I couldn't manage.
March 29, 1999 will go down in history as the day the UConn men won their first national championship and as the day I got drunk. Since then UConn has won a second title, but I'm still waiting for my second time. And if and when it happens, I'll be sure to email everyone... including my mother.
posted by SC | 9:06 AM
2 Comments:
Good post, Chief. Wish I had been there to see it. I would have even held your hair if and when you puked.
-Jesse
I was on that email list. It wasn't so bad, it was actually quite dramatic. I think it was like, UConn has won the finals so I've accomplished something I've never done before...I got drunk. I remember laughing, but I may have been drunk.
Post a Comment
<< Home