Tuesday Morning Hangover

So last night I left work and went climbing up in Tacoma. Following that, I headed back down south for "trivia night" at the Steilacom pub (aka Steli Deli). There's a group of residents who do a weekly trivia night there on Monday nights. I'd been there two or three times before, and its fun so I went back again last night.

And drank too much.

After the trivia "match" was over (we ended up only in fourth, sadly), we headed to Pete's taint's house and decided to play some beer pong. Normally I wouldn't be doing this on a weeknight (I only rarely drink on nights before working these days - it's really just too much to walk into a hospital with a hangover), but we just changed rotations. I'm off the hospitalist gig and into a research month (see sidebar). This is one of our sweetest months, and I can essentially make my own hours on most days, as long as I produce something substantial at the end of the month.

Today I worked zero hours.

That's because of the beer pong. We must have played until midnight, and then about four of us slept vs. passed out on Pete's various couches and chairs. I woke up this morning with a hangover and absolutely no desire to go to work. So I didn't. And that's kind of a nice feeling, because nearly every other day I simply have to go and there's nothing I can do about it.

Beer pong is a fun game, especially battleship beer pong. The rules are thus:

Each team (you play doubles) has nine cups of beer on their side per game. These nine cups are divided into "ships" of four cups, three cups, and two cups. The "ships" are then spread around the table anywhere on your side (a la the boardgame Battleship). Beer pong commences, and the goal is to hit the other team's cups and "sink" their ships. If a ball hits the rim of a cup and bounces off, then half that cup must be drunk (drank?). If the ball sinks in the cup, then the whole cup goes. Ships get smaller as the game goes on, and if you sink either cup of a two cup ship that has only one and half beers left in it, then the whole thing is sunk.

All shots must go UP off the paddle (i.e no slams). The exceptions to this are if the ball hits a cup, then you can do anything (including slams) to save the shot. It's a good game, and its sure to get you buzzing/drunk pretty fast. It's best played withl Lite (Tm) beer, for obvious reasons.

The game reminds me of medical school, as many of our "big nights out" after test blocks were started with some crazy beer pong games before pouring ourselves into the french quarter. Out of control.

My mission for today is to find a Halloween costume. There is an "80's themed" party I'm going to on Saturday night, and hence the costume must be fixed appropriately. George, Pete, and I are working on something. Perhaps we should rehash our smurf costumes from Cabo last year (great costumes), but we sort of feeling like doing something different. They want to do Ghostbusters, but my San Diego boys (*pats chest like Sammy Sosa*) have been doing that for years and I don't really want to copy. We've also toyed with the A-team (we'd need a fourth) and the Three Amigos, both of which could work. As a solo project, I've considered being Rambo, Hulk Hogan, and also Ivan Drago of Rocky 4 fame. (Sadly, you need some muscle for all those characters). I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'm reading the second book in the Riverworld Series (see sidebar). I'm really digging it, sort of fantasy/historical fiction stuff that's really getting good. For some reason, I really think Norm would like these books.

Out.