About Last Night

Last night was a great example of why I need to keep my school friends and the Roving Alcoholic separate and distinct. There was this new student/alumni event at the school pub last night. I've mentioned them before, they have them regularly, and they're generally good fun. For some reason, I invited the Roving Alcoholic.

It was a clear mistake.

He had not had anything to eat all day and started with quadruple vodka red bull. Things went south from there. I figured I could contain him a bit by sequestering a pool table. Poor logic. That just made him want to play for money. He got wild, out of control, and almost started three separate fights. At one point (I was sitting down next to someone having a chat), the bartender came over and told me I needed to deal with my friend because he was about to get his ass kicked. I settled him down...temporarily. Eventually, the bar closed and we went home. I hope he got home safely, but at some point, I didn't even care. I reached my limit with his shenanigans. I will have a chat with him on Monday about all of that. It was totally uncalled for and disrespectful. I invited him into that environment because I didn't want him to go back to his house and sit around and mope (broke up with his 5 year girlfriend less than two months ago). To come into my environment, normally a very chill place, and try to start something, generally be a jackass to the point that you're about to get kicked out, well, that's just not polite to me or my friends.

Real World was noticeably absent from the event last night. In fact, she saw me on campus briefly and ducked out. She's dodging me because she doesn't want to pay me the money she owes me because she doesn't have it (or, more accurately, she's spending money on beer instead of dealing with her debt). I'm very angry about this and I'm going to have a sit down with her on Monday as well. If she wants to write off the "friendship" over 100 pounds, I will be willing to do that. But I still want my 100 pounds! Either way, she needs to know that her behavior is totally unacceptable and that she's not pulling the wool over my eyes - it's entirely transparent what she's all about at this point. So, if she doesn't want to hear what I have to say, and she tries to avoid me, I'm going to give her the business. Because I'm done with her as a friend anyway.

And last, but not least, smoking. I almost left that little comment out, but this forum is a place where I try to be 100% honest. Yes, I've become a bit of a smoker since I moved to the UK. I had been smoking off and on for about a year prior to moving here, but I wasn't really a smoker. It slowly became more of a habit than I intended.

This is how it works: You go out for some drinks, at some point, when all of your friends are smoking and you're a little tipsy, you feel the urge to smoke. So you bum one. Over the course of a night, you bum three or four. But, you know you can't keep bumming from your friends so the next time you go out, you buy a 10 pack (they sell those over here). Repeat a few times. Then you realize that a 10 pack is like 2.65 and a 20 pack is under 5, so economically, it makes more sense to purchase the larger size. Then, you're a smoker.

How much of a smoker? Well, more than I would like, but less than many around me, not that it matters. Any smoking is too much. I've gone through phases here where I haven't smoked at all for a time and I've gone through phases (exam time) where I've smoked entirely too much. It is what it is.

I know I should stop and I will at some point, I just haven't reached it yet. I remember one time in college when I was smoking (a brief month or two) and I was walking toward my car after taking an exam. I knew that I wanted to stop and I remember quite vividly reaching the sudden conclusion that I should just stop right then. So that's what I did. I flicked away my cigarette mid-drag and I didn't smoke after that for a long time. I know that I will reach that point again soon. And I'm also not worrying about it too much. Life is already overly complicated to the point that the smoking issue isn't number one for me right now.