On Friday after work I met up with two of my buddies for a rock climbing session at MetroRock. After a solid three hours of crushing it we opted for food and beer at RedBones afterward. RedBones is a place where mass quantities of excellent meat (pulled pork sandwiches hmmmm) meets freely flowing beer taps (30oz mugs?!), basically it’s heaven. It was obvious that I wasn’t going to be drinking any beer but the thing that surprised me the most was that I was actually jonesing for a veggie burger. The me from 6-months-ago NEVER would have ordered a veggie burger (let’s put it in a time frame: EVER), let alone a veggie burger at a BBQ joint like RedBones, it’s borderline sacrilegious. Nonetheless that’s what I ordered, it also helped that one member of our trio was a vegetarian. I figured I’d also try out one of their non-alcoholic beers because I’ve never actually had one. As long as I was on this sober month I might as well give it a try.
Turns out O'Douls is pretty nasty, it's like a crappy rendition of PBR, something I'm sure not even hipsters would tolerate. Thanks to Ryan for rubbing it in in the background :)
The next day Sarah got back from a trip to New Orleans and she had bought me a flask. I’ve wanted one for a while so it was an excellent gift, although an excellent gift that will have to wait until April 1st at 12:01am.
Then Saturday night my friends were having a Ke$ha-themed party for our friend’s bday. It mostly involved a lot of glitter, which I’m still trying to get out of my hair. The plan was for everyone to party at our friend’s apartment and then to hit up Phoenix Landing, a bar meant for sweaty dancing and 80s/90s/top 40 songs. I was kind of excited to go experience the glory that is Phoenix Landing as a sober person because I’m sure very few people have witnessed it sober. When we got to the bar the line was outrageously long so we made peace with the fact it’d take an hour to get inside so we decided to go back to my friends apartment and resume the party with beer pong and more Ke$ha.
Sober beer pong, not sure I've ever done that before this weekend...
Maybe it was just me being sober, but drinking out of the cups seemed pretty gross after watching a half dozen dozen people slobber all over them. I’ve never really cared much to think about it but I’m sure it’s a great way to get mono. I prefer having my own side beer and filling the cups with water anyway. For this game I stuck to my tasty, yet sans alcohol, fruit drink.
We ended up losing the game, I'm sure my skills were off because I was sober, all my training throughout college was under the influence so I'm not surprised we got smoked by our opponents.
On the way back to the T going home, we stopped by a great late-night pizza place because we had the munchies. It was then that I learned that drunk food definitely tastes better when you’re drunk.
Late night pizza tastes WAY better when you're not sober. Definitely gross, definitely ate it anyway, #SorryImNotSorry
I rounded out the weekend with some live blues at the Beehive in the South End. The event is free but generally involves food and beer as an expectation for attending the event. We stood around watching the show for about an hour before finally getting a table but it was totally worth it because we were front row, pretty excellent.
Front row for blues at the Beehive.
The waiter came by and asked us what we would like for beer or cocktails and we all ordered waters. I definitely felt weird about not ordering a drink and we definitely got a hesitant weird look from the waiter in return. A bourbon on the rocks seemed much more appropriate for blues music but water would have to suffice for tonight. It was interesting to be at the Beehive and not be drinking. It’s such a cultural norm to drink during entertainment and it felt a bit bizarre to simply ask for water. I felt fine about it because I also ordered their poutine which was fantastic. It was no Dysarts poutine but it was good nonetheless.