T-shirt #211: Proud to be Awesome

This shirt is a new one (Target special) that I just couldn’t resist getting. I’m wearing it today because I will be off soon to pick up my friend Tim at the airport and I thought he’d get a kick out of it.

I met Tim my freshman year in college and we hit it off right away, throwing movie quotes back and forth like it was our job (what a great job that would be). Tim and I also shared a love of hockey and wearing t-shirts. My “Your favorite band sucks.” shirt (http://davestshirts.blogspot.com/2010/04/t-shirt-100-your-favorite-band-sucks.html) was one that Tim had before me, and I knew I had to have one of my own as soon as I saw it.

When I made the decision to see what drinking was all about, Tim was the guy I turned to. I asked him if he would be my “Drinking Sensei”, and he happily obliged. Me and a group of guys from our dorm set out on a mission to baptize me by fire into the world of underaged-undergrad drinking. The first stop was a place we called “Godzilla Burger” (www.eaglesdeli.com), so I wouldn’t be drinking on an empty stomach. Although Godzilla Burger put your picture up on the wall if you ate one of their one-pound burgers, I opted for a “regular” burger as my pre-party meal. We then made our way up to a party at 1711 Comm Ave that someone had found out about, and my journey towards the Drink Side had started…

As I drank beer after beer, I could feel the alcohol’s buzz as each drink went down easier than the previous. It felt a lot like getting Benadryl through the IV (which I had become a fan of during my cancer treatment the previous summer), so I had a hunch it wasn’t going to be the last time I drank. I sat on the couch sipping at my sixth beer and felt the room begin to spin, but I was determined to finish it. My stomach had other plans. Without warning I threw up on myself, yet I think I kept trying to drink. A friend of a friend saw it and told Tim, “I think your friend spilled his beer.” Tim looked over to see the damage and replied, “Um, I think he spilled his lunch.” My friends quickly got me out of there as I apologized to the guy who was throwing the party, telling him it was my “first time”. Thanks to my buddies, I managed to make it home safe and sound and without more throwing up.

Tim has told me a few times that he feels bad for “teaching” me how to drink, but I assure him that I would have found alcohol sooner or later. I’m looking forward to hanging out with him these next few days to catch up and re-hash old college stories. More of those will be written about, including how Tim nicknamed me “Balls of Steel” because I would approach any female I thought was hot or that someone dared me to. I am proud to be awesome, but that is only because I have been lucky enough to have such awesome people in my life. Should be a fun weekend…