The Fuzzy Edge of Drinking Too Much
Nov. 30th, 2023 07:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerVegas Travelog #8
At the hotel - Thu, 30 Nov 2023. 7am.
Working a trade show is not a sprint but a marathon. One has to preserve energy to work the show each day and not stay out too late at night drinking and carousing with colleagues. The temptation to do so is doubly high in a party city like Las Vegas. Last night I pushed it to the edge— the edge between "I'm still having fun" and being too far gone.
The fact I wrote a bloglast night— I mean, this morning— at 12:30am tells you two things. One, I stayed out late eating, drinking and carousing. I didn't get to bed until just after 1am. And I had a 6:45am wake-up alarm today. But also Two, I obviously still had enough presence of mind to write a coherent blog post. 😂
Finding the balance between "I'm having a good time" and "Uh-oh, I've had too much" when drinking is challenging. I'm not talking about the legal limit for driving. Driving is out of the equation here, and anyway that limit is both easier to gauge and way lower. This is about knowing "When to say 'when'" to still have a good buzz going but not get sloppy-drunk such that I make poor decisions or get sick or wake up hung over.
It took years to figure out this balance. It didn't help, of course, that my physical tolerance for booze changed as I got older. I remember back in college I could drink like a fish and wake up without a hangover. I didn't get my first hangover until sometime in my late 20s.
Last night I went right up to the line. I had a drink before dinner, definitely 4 maybe 5 with dinner, and two more later. I didn't really want to drink the last one, but there was peer pressure and my judgment was already getting fuzzy. Thankfully I still had enough presence of mind after that to put my foot down and decline more drinks even with colleagues egging me on. It's that impaired, fuzzy judgment that makes striking the balance difficult. It's an invisible line of no return. Cross it— like I think I would have with even one more drink— and I'd end up having 2 or 3 more drinks beyond that and waking up sick.
Well, here it is almost 7:30, and while I'm not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed, I'm also not... bright tailed and bushy eyed. 🤣 I'm ready for Day 4, the last day, of this trade show!
At the hotel - Thu, 30 Nov 2023. 7am.
Working a trade show is not a sprint but a marathon. One has to preserve energy to work the show each day and not stay out too late at night drinking and carousing with colleagues. The temptation to do so is doubly high in a party city like Las Vegas. Last night I pushed it to the edge— the edge between "I'm still having fun" and being too far gone.
The fact I wrote a blog
Finding the balance between "I'm having a good time" and "Uh-oh, I've had too much" when drinking is challenging. I'm not talking about the legal limit for driving. Driving is out of the equation here, and anyway that limit is both easier to gauge and way lower. This is about knowing "When to say 'when'" to still have a good buzz going but not get sloppy-drunk such that I make poor decisions or get sick or wake up hung over.
It took years to figure out this balance. It didn't help, of course, that my physical tolerance for booze changed as I got older. I remember back in college I could drink like a fish and wake up without a hangover. I didn't get my first hangover until sometime in my late 20s.
Last night I went right up to the line. I had a drink before dinner, definitely 4 maybe 5 with dinner, and two more later. I didn't really want to drink the last one, but there was peer pressure and my judgment was already getting fuzzy. Thankfully I still had enough presence of mind after that to put my foot down and decline more drinks even with colleagues egging me on. It's that impaired, fuzzy judgment that makes striking the balance difficult. It's an invisible line of no return. Cross it— like I think I would have with even one more drink— and I'd end up having 2 or 3 more drinks beyond that and waking up sick.
Well, here it is almost 7:30, and while I'm not exactly bright eyed and bushy tailed, I'm also not... bright tailed and bushy eyed. 🤣 I'm ready for Day 4, the last day, of this trade show!
