THE Lowly Peon

with no direction home 
11 August 2009, 12:31pm

i can't understand how more people in this state are not dying left and right due to the fact that everyone drives enormous vehicles and are probably well drunk at least half the time and sucking down their big gulps and talking on the phone the other half the time.

i simply don't understand it. i've ranted about it before on several occasions, and i'll certainly rant about it again. but i just don't understand how people truly believe that this situation is not problematic now, and how no one is looking to the future thinking of how problematic it'll be then.

i went out with some friends this past friday to a nice little pub because they have amazing avocado eggrolls. they also happen to be a brewery, and they make exceptionally good beer. at the time, it was day 4 of being in america, and my excitement regarding the access to good beer was astounding. after living, for the last several months, with access only to belgian imports (that you have to pay for), the thought of drinking fat tire or other microbrews got me very excited. fortunately, my friend was driving.

then the next night, i went out and ate sushi and drank some napa valley cabernet, a favorite of mine since i've been limited mostly to french and italian wine that is overpriced and actually comes from american grapes but somehow the growers are convinced that america produces nothing of quality. it was delicious. but the whole time, rather than thinking of the texture and the flavors and so forth, i was thinking of how i could get home. after my search turned up empty results (let's see: no bus, no subway, no taxis, can't walk, need to get my car home), i realized that i could not drink said delicious cabernet, save maybe one or two glasses.

i remember the rough formula of 1/hr -1 > 0 is no good. in other words, i could drink one or two, then wait an hour to digest one glass. so what did i do? i had three glasses, panicked that i couldn't get home, and stuck around until 3am when i was sure i could get home.

i'm afraid to walk here after dinner time, especially on weekends, because i assume that half the city is driving drunk.

don't people see a problem with this? of course, my mother would say i simply want to drink too much. but i say this is pathetic. even if i stay close to my apartment, there's really no solution. i took a taxi home from a pub once when lizerbeam came to visit, left my car there, and it cost me something like $40 and an hour the next morning.

maybe i've just been spoiled. because this is the first time in almost a year (since i've been here last) that i needed to worry about something as simple as how to get home.

update
[11 August 2009, 12:36pm]

update
[12 August 2009, 3:09am]