I AM the 'Self-Destructive Friend'!

To anyone who is a frequent reader of my dear friend, Grace’s blog, you are already familiar with my behaviors for I am ‘the self destructive friend.’ I would like to give you all a background of where I come from. I hail from a wonderful Irish family (I am 4th generation) who are full of hard workers and hard boozers. As I came into my ‘boozabilities’ my father warned me, ‘kid, lay off the hard stuff, it only leads to trouble,’ as he poured his second glass of Chivas on the rocks….. Although my father shares the love of the drink, my mother does not. She will have a sip of wine and break out in hives or every special occasion she will have a Manhattan (I won’t even touch that) and her reasoning is simple, ‘I like to get it over with quickly.’ My sister is a good combo of both. She has definitely had her moments but generally she is a more controlled drinker but she is in all other aspects of her life. She is very scheduled and goes to the gym, puts in a hard day of work and is always on time for EVERYTHING. And then…there is me, ‘self destructive.’

In high school, my freshmen year, I could not WAIT to go out drinking for the first time. Sadly, the first attempt resulted in just two beers, no buzz and a big disappointment. Then one night, sophomore year, I had a sleepover and my friends and I discovered a hidden and forgotten stash of vodka bottles….JACKPOT! We would have sleepovers taking shots, dancing, playing pool and sneaking out at 2am on adventures. We probably did not have much to drink but we definitely had a good time. Then Junior and Senior year when we were old enough to drive, we started frequenting the ‘Rez’ and the ‘Pit’ where mostly upper class men would navigate through the woods, start a bonfire and drink. Those evenings would typically be broken up by the ‘5-Os’ two to three hours later and everyone would run as fast as they could to hide and get away. The best part about it was that most of us were athletes and could easily outrun the town cops who had pretty much engraved the chairs at Dunkin’ Donuts with their butts.

Then onto College. As most college kids, I did not have too much of a preference since I would take whatever I could get my mitts on. My freshman roommate and I had a love of the Captain and preferred Natty Ice since, to quote my mother, ‘got it over with quicker.’ Then I believe it was the summer going into my Junior year that I discovered Stoli Vanilla and Diet Coke….it was like a light tunnel flashing down from heaven and I was HOOKED on the delicious combo that reminded me of a cream soda. Senior year I continued that trend and also got myself into a little vino as well, but wasn’t so much of a fan....YET!

Post college, the obsession with the Stoli Vanilla continued but then I dabbled with cosmos and then was introduced to Appletinis….. THAT was a blur of a time. I remember going out and having at least 5 or 6 of those bad boys in a night, my liver was less than pleased. A couple years later, my company had been bought and I decided to make the move to NYC which then, introduced me to one of my favorite ‘hours’…..HAPPY HOUR!!! The best part of Happy Hour was that at many places it consisted of more than just an hour, I was in heaven.

So, here I am, going into my fourth year living in NYC and I have certainly found my way around bars and Happy Hours. I have also become less picky on my alcohol choices. I am happy with a Cosmo, Dirty Vodka Martini (with olives of course), Vodka sodas, pretty much any form of ‘brewski’, have opened my repertoire of wines and have been known to proudly hold a can of Natty Light at Bro Jo’s just to bring me back to the good ol’ days at college. I have also formed a love for brunch cocktails mainly being Bloody Marys first and Bellinis second. My Sunday football partner and I rate sports bars to watch the games based on their Bloody Mary and Wing quality….it is hard to find a good one to satisfy both necessities.

Now onto the more ‘exciting’ things, such as my drinking-capades that lead me into certain ‘mischiefs.’ My pure as can be dear friend Grace, has been able to escape many of my experiences because she understands the term I hear often thrown around called ‘moderation.’ This is a term that I’ve heard and have been able to apply to my life in certain realms but am yet to apply it to my bar outings. That being said, she is foreign to the ‘one night stand’ and the waking up next to a stranger in a twin bed with another twin bed in a room with a man who claimed to be a lawyer the night before. Yes, I have experienced both and am not particularly proud of those moments but heck, I’m single, I’m social and I like to have a good time. The next day I tend to leave knowing that I will not hear from these men but generally I leave not feeling bad about it because with the exception of getting overly tempted (one night stand) I tend to keep myself to a limit of making out because you never know what is out there. I would also like to throw in the disclaimer that although many tend to have their ‘experiences’ in college, I was not one who took advantage. When I moved to NYC I could count the number of partners on one hand and now after living here for three plus years I have added another hand. I believe that not too many people of my age can say the same and I am not upset or bothered by my number. Yes, there is the occasional ‘sleepover,’ but its mainly because I am a HUGE fan of the cuddle... Oh yes, I think that if it had been a class in college, I would have EXCELLED!

Then we move onto instances where I have lost my personal property. Most recently was my wallet which contained; my discover card, my license, my work I.D, my health insurance card, my Weight Watchers lifetime member card (I’m quite proud of this), my work ‘key fob’ to get onto my floor and most importantly, my ‘Treat Truck’ card that had 10 holes punched and I was eligible for a free treat! I was mortified for allowing myself to get to the point that I clearly lost it in some cab while running amuck in the city but also devastated for losing all my personal information. Thankfully, due to ‘luck o’ the Irish,’ I received a call days later from a lovely couple who had found my wallet under the front seat of the cab driver. When I picked it up the woman said, ‘Yeah, we probably wouldn’t have seen it if it weren’t so….shiney.’ (Thanks mom for hookin’ me up with the gold Kate Spader!)

With all that said, welcome to my life and my chronicles as I meander through the city day to day, mostly going from home to work to the gym and to the couch but come ‘Thirsty Thursday’ through ‘Sunday Funday’ the gloves come off and the ‘Self-destructive’ habits come a’ flying! So I leave you until Friday, when I will share with you my adventures with my beloved partner in crime, Gumbi…you will be filled in on his nickname then….until then, live it up and never discriminate a beverage or when to drink it!