You know what kind of thinking can get me in trouble? The kind where I think that on Sunday (my 31st birthday), it'll have been a decade since I was old enough to drink. Kids who were being born when I was in third grade will now be able to have their first legal drink in this country. Yeah. I was all nonchalant about the birthday until I thought that beauty up.
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I had been drinking before I turned 21, of course. I started the summer after I graduated from high school. I think my first drink was at my friend John Notch's apartment. He lived across SE 5th in an apartment complex that had sprung up somewhere in the five years before that summer. I don't really remember what it was I first had. I kind of wish I did, because deciding to drink was such a big deal to me at the time. The oddest thing to think about is how in those 10 years, things that used to seem like the biggest decision in the world are now the easiest. It used to be whether if I started drinking was I going to turn into an alcoholic like both of my grandfathers. Now it's do I feel like and ale or a porter.
And it used to make me feel grown up--in the way that an 18 year old is always so grown up and able to make the tough decisions for themselves. I never would have imagined that 10 years later life would be so much more complex. It's not really harder, because I approached everything like it was the biggest thing and you know, if I'm being honest, I guess it kind of was. I was about to go to college (an experience that absolutely changed my life). I was about to have sex for the first time* (an experience that is similar to starting to drink in that now, it's not so much of a big deal, but at the time every step in that direction was monumental). And I was feeling just as confused and frustrated as I am today.
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I remember my girlfriend at the time taught me the helpful rhyme, "Hard before beer, you're in the clear." And it's counterpart, "Beer before hard, you're in yard" (presumably throwing up). Though, I've never thrown up in a yard. In an alley once, but that's a different story. I later learned the more sensible "Beer before liquor, never sicker." It's a better rhyme and I can't help but think Alexander Pope would approve of this a little more.
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I turned 21 in London, where the drinking age is 18, so I'd been drinking legally for 3 or so months before that. Still though, there's something awesome about turning 21 and being surrounded by friends and doing something special. We went to Wagamama's in Soho (which I hear is still there, by the way), an awesome noodle bar. They say they can help you live a better life, which I don't know about really. But the food tastes good.
Anyhoo. That's where I had sake for the first time. And really the only time until recently.
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Like I said, I don't remember what my first drink was (though it was probably a Heineken knowing what John was into that summer), but I do remember sometime that summer I started drinking Mountain Dew and Vodka. Together. Before you go out and make yourself a pitcher, let me just say it's not a drink that holds up to more sophisticated pallets. But jesus, I used to love those things. What the hell was wrong with me that I thought putting those two things together was good?
*As I've cryptically mentioned before on the blog, I was molested when I was younger. I've always struggled with does that count as "the first time"? I can see it either way and I change my mind about it, but today I'm counting this as the first. Possibly because it makes my point** a little better.
**I could be flattering myself by thinking I have a point.
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