We shipped RMS SP1 on Friday - the announcement should have been made in the press yesterday. Not that I would know which newspaper or what the text of the announcement was - by the time Monday became Tuesday, I had gone through the entire cycle of Sober, Drunk, Wasted and then Sober again. I don't know what else to call my state last night as I slept on the couch, watched TV and talked to Ashley on the phone. Wait, what about that monster headache...
So this is how the day's events unfolded. I couldn't sleep very well on Sunday night because I had been sleeping till late in the afternoon over the weekend. I was finally out of my apartment a little after 11 last morning and as I walked to the car, I had to squint my eyes from the uncharacteristically strong April sun, a slight headache building up between my temples. I'll fess up and say that I didn't get much done between the moment I arrived at work and the moment we left for The Garage. On the flip side, nothing has changed since we signed off on SP1 this past Friday so what was there to do? ;)
Arrived at the bowling alley with Amit and gang and walked over to the bar to get myself a Long Island Iced Tea. I had told everyone that I was going to have just 1 drink, enjoy the buzz and then stay sober the rest of the evening. Yeah whatever... The drink was stronger than I'm accustomed to but I drank it over the course of an hour interspersed with very ordinary bowling (on my part) so it was just fine. What wasn't was the fact that I had downed two random shots even before I had finished my first drink. The buzz was setting in...
About this time, the hankering for a Mojito gripped me but the bartender didn't have any Mint Leaves. Now the Garage is in the perfect location on Broadway - a grocery store is right around the corner. I got out of my bowling shoes, into my street shoes and ran out into the sun again and realized how tipsy I was. The sun hurt, I could walk straight but just about and while I was figuring all of this out I suddenly heard, "Manoj".
"That is a girl's voice", I thought to myself, "No you are dreaming, just continue running along to QFC." I heard my name again and this time around, it was louder, as if I was running towards the caller, so I looked up. And there she was, Kirsten, ex-Pro Club employee and good friend. I stole her from her friends, walked into QFC, she found Mint Leaves for me and I walked back to the Garage, mint leaves in one hand and girl on another. I walked up to Kelly, the waitress, emptied out my wallet and said, "Please get us drinks till this tip lasts :)" and had this sheepish grin on my face. And what do you know, she kept those Mojitos coming, 10 of them between Kirsten, Steve and myself.
It only took another hour for me to have my head on the table, eyes half closed bemoaning my binge drinking. Five trips to the bathroom, some violent puking and my head began to get screwed on in the right direction. We got out of the Garage and walked for what seemed to be an eternity (5 minutes, 5 blocks) to Steve's place on Capitol Hill. I can remember most of the walk but didn't figure what direction we were going in. Besides, Helle was even more drunk than I was and we were walking back arm in arm - one drunk helping another home, now that's what I call team-work!
Steve has a wonderful apartment with a breath-taking view of the Space Needle and the mountains. I got more and more fluids into my system along with some carbs while the others sipped on wine and beer. Steve was a great host, he kept the food and drinks coming all the time and not for an instant did I realize how wasted he was himself. Lots of flirting, strawberry feeding, shameless hooking up and three hours later, we walked over to Machiavelli's for dinner before Jim Vu (Helle's husband) drove Karan and me home. And that's when the headache hit...
The drive home from work in PGY seemed to last longer than the four minutes it actually was. I couldn't get my head to stop throbbing; water didn't help, tang didn't help and eating food definitely made the throbbing stronger. It didn't help that I yakked away on the phone with people, flirted with Ashley and tried to stay awake through an episode of American Chopper. When I finally got off the couch and slid under the covers, it was nearly 2am but my headache was nearly gone.
I woke up this morning to find that the bathroom door from my apartment was totally busted. Time to call facilities, again! Moral of the story - whether we ship or not, we should definitely have ship parties more often ;) Ok honestly, the parties on Friday and Monday have helped me bond more deeply with people on the team, especially the folks who made it to Steve's place. There is a lot of merit to attending these events because people let their guards down after a couple drinks. Once the person emerges from behind the garb they must don at work, I get a peek into their real personality and understand them better. If not anything else, parties make for great stories...
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