Jim and Luke's 26th birthday

You’d think I’d have learned from my jaunt out on Thursday night. I guess I did to a point, but I made one key error: I went out to celebrate Jim’s birthday.

For the record, Jim’s a great guy. He’s a lot of fun — he has no inhibitions to speak of, he lives more on the edge than most (especially when it comes to skiing), and lives for the moment. He’s a great web developer, he’s inquisitive, and is always interested in pushing the boundaries of website development. Unlike most people, Jim doesn’t really have a shell to come out of — he wears pretty much all his internal organs on his sleeves.

What’s all this mean? Well, when you receive an invitation from Jim, asking you to attend an evening of drinking, you can immediately know where it’ll likely head. The fact that today is Jim’s 26th birthday made events of last night all the more … necessary.

I arrived at Jim’s apartment (a two-minute walk from the venerable Rose & Crown pub) shortly after 20:00, the approximate time we were asked to arrive. Upon entering the apartment to the loud calls of Scott (who’d arrived mere moments before me), James (already quite well into the bag), and two of Jim’s friends (whose names I’m drawing a blank on), I was informed of the house rules:

  1. No smoking inside. (No worries there.)
  2. No throwing large objects.

Other than that, there were no other rules. But there was a bit of preparation.

As each person arrived, they had to roll dice. For most people, it was three. Women only had to roll two. Mia and Lindsay got away with only one — Mia was on antibiotics, so was taking a (wisely) careful approach. The number you rolled were the number of drinks you had to have before the night was over. The rules (as stated by Jim) meant that all ones were actually sevens. Thusly, the drink minimum was six, and the maximum was 21. Jim (and Luke, the co-birthday boy) each had to drink 26, because that’s their new age.

I rolled a 17. Figures. James rolled a 20. He finished even before we left for the Rose & Crown.

To ensure that everyone had their share, you strung the number of candies (taken from a candy necklace) onto a piece of dental floss, which you wore around your necklace. For each drink you finished, you ate one of the candies. Beers and shots counted as one. For pints, it was in groups of three: first pint was a single drink, the next two were two drinks each, for a total of five.

I don’t know if anyone every really put that rule to the test.

With most of the group assembled around 23:30, we departed for the Rose & Crown (Mia and Lindsay had come and gone by that time). It was cold, but the alcohol kept us (somewhat) warm. Luke bypassed the pub, saying he needed food. He never came back. We kept going at the Rose & Crown, talking drinking, and eating nachos until … well, until you couldn’t hang out any longer.

I stopped around 1:30 or so. I was out of money (I had budgeted myself as a limiting device) and feeling kinda tired. I also didn’t want to relive Friday when I woke up later this morning. So it was off towards home, stopping at Canadian Pizza Unlimited for a little repast, and at the Mac’s to pick up a litre of Gatorade and a small bag of chips. (Gatorade restores the salts, etc. your body loses while drinking.)

Falling asleep on the couch, I awoke only when Tamara came crashing through the door around 4:00. I don’t wholly remember her return. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. I haven’t slept that well in a long time.

Aside from being really tired, I had a much better day than on Friday. Oddly enough, it felt really good to just laze around for a change. It’s been a while since I outright relaxed. I can only imagine what kind of a day Jim must’ve had. But something tells me that he wouldn’t mind if it was not so great — he almost certainly had a great time last night.

As for me, I think I’m going to remain sober for a while yet to come. Two nights of debauchery in such close proximity isn’t good for me. I might begin to like it.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, no, I didn’t finish the 17. I might have actually had 13 drinks, including shots. Even then, I’m not too sure. It was probably less — I cheated a couple of times.