TMI Thursday: My First Drunk Experience

While many people were regular drinkers in high school, I did not have my first full drinking experience, unless you count Manischewitz at synagogue or holidays, until college. During the first week of my Freshman year, I went over to some friends’ room to hang out. (Friends is always an interesting term during the first week of college since everyone is just trying to fit in and get acclimated to a new environment.) In this case, I had a crush on one of the girls in this room and became friendly with her roommates. The other people there included a guy who was dating the girl that I liked (he was a bit of a tool and I was only friendly with him because I couldn’t be a jerk to him and still be friends with his girlfriend; at least, this was my logic at 18; plus, I am generally a nice person and am nice to almost everyone) and a few other people, including someone who was able to access alcohol. I’m not sure if drinking was on the agenda for the night, but that’s what happened.

Here’s the TMI in my TMI Thursday. I got drunk on Zima, the extremely manly drink that is not even in existence anymore. I also tried some wine coolers that the girls were drinking. I don’t remember how many Zimas I had, but I managed to stumble back to my own room on the other side of campus. When I got there, my roommate had a open beer, and since I never had a Budweiser, I decided to try it. A little later, I laid down to go to sleep and remember being a little dizzy. Then, all of a sudden, I didn’t feel well. Mixing Zima, wine coolers and beer was not a good idea. I jumped down from the top bunk of the bunk bed but couldn’t get any further. Sprawled out on my hands and knees, I threw up in the middle of the floor. My one roommate was great in supporting me (and the next day laughing at me) and even helped clean up. (We didn't have very good cleaning supplies, so the stain on our carpet lasted the entire year.) My other tool of a roommate decided at some point just throw my towels away.* The next morning I retrieved my towels from the hall’s bathroom trash can and washed them. I didn’t have many towels and certainly didn’t want to spend what little money I had from my $4.30/hour campus job to buy new towels.



Anyway, I never had Zima again and really didn’t drink much beer for another 2-3 years. Of course, the next alcohol-related lesson I learned took place on the night of my 21st birthday. Long Island Ice-Ts plus Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is an even worse combination than Zima, wine coolers and beer.

Make sure to visit LiLu for more TMI Thursday. Plus, you can now click here to see my TMI Thursday archives.

* I should really include stories about this roommate in future TMI Thursdays. He was a spoiled a-hole who on his way back from Thanksgiving break decided to buy a disc-man because he was bored in the airport. Please note that this was 1993 when disc-mans were still fairly rare. Just about everyone I knew listened to and bought tapes.