Over the years I’ve become an expert on the topic of dehydration and alcohol. I even recently read over this website which is great research on what happens when you drink. Casual drinkers don’t understand it, scientists only can write what is supposed to happen, but I can comment on the experience first hand. I’ve grown leaps and bounds from my nights of every weekend blackouts but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t get carried away and succumb to the joys of alcohol. This past weekend was another example of the effects of alcohol entering real life.
I’m going to recap what I drank over what periods of time to understand my intake and the aftermath. Starting Saturday, I had my first beer at 11:30 am. I than drank about 5 dixie cup beers playing poker. Next I had a Heineken, a shot of Jameson, and a Yuengling before 4pm. After checking in to our room I drank 2 more Bud Lights. While playing Pai Gow I drank 3 Captain and Cokes and preceded back to the room to drink another beer and have one shot of Jameson. Next, we went downstairs and did an Irish Car Bomb. At this point it was around 9pm and I believe I had a beer to sip on and that was the last bit of alcohol I had until after the concert which ended at 11 or so. At this point I lost count of every single drink I took but I drank a beer consistently until 6:30 am. The break of not drinking anything during the concert was the saving grace as I didn’t black out the entire night and remember virtually everything. With this summary of my drinking, this takes me to Sunday morning. A final note is that I ate a bagel for breakfast and a burger at around 2pm.
When I got back on Sunday I slept for a few hours till about 4pm. Adam wanted to know if I wanted to watch the games with him and I told him I could barely move. I was trying to drink water throughout the day but my intake of liquid and food is in complete disarray. I was unable to work out and didn’t do anything the entire day. I feel asleep at around midnight and woke at 8am feeling better but far from perfect. I was able to eat some breakfast and drink some coffee but my body still wasn’t right. If you stick your tongue out and there is a white film covering it, you’re still dehydrated. So I basically started chugging water but what happens is that your body just pisses it out. I urinated about 10 times today trying to rehydrate my body. My motor skills are also completely out of whack and typing is challenging. Also I don’t feel happy. The alcohol and lack of water make you feel down and depressed. Everything about days like this are painful and you really need to get them over with and heal with time. The other hard part is that the sleep you get isn’t real strong sleep. You don’t wake up rejuvenated but still with the fuck this shit feeling. The only real solution is being a man about it, continue drinking water, and knowing it will pass.
So why do I put myself through this? Probably because I had the best time at the AWOLNation concert in lord knows how long. I wouldn’t have been able to “rage” like that if it wasn’t for alcohol. You think Pat would be able to crowd surf without it? It was something that could never happen without alcohol. I don’t care how awesome people who are sober say being sober is, you can’t enjoy a concert like that standing around. So it’s basically putting up with some pain for a concert/weekend experiencing you’ll never forget. Take your pick.
People who do psychedelics or other drugs would probably say that people who go to concerts drunk are missing out too. And then people who do crazier drugs would probably say those people are missing out. Science.
Good point.