Slainte

I may be unemployed but I'm still living rather well right now. I still go out to dinner on the weekends, for instance, and I still have cable with every movie channel available that I watch in hidef and record on my dvr. Of course, I'm living with somebody now so I'm actually paying less for cable than I did before and my package is bundled in such a way that it's actually more expensive to get less channels, but still. I hear and read all these horrible stories about people these days and I feel guilty that I'm not suffering more. Shouldn't I be eating only ramen these days or working at Safeway 60 hours a week to get by like everyone else? Instead, I spend my days surfing the web and watching History Channel documentaries (I'm making my way through the Barbarians right now).

Since I really do need to cut down on some spending, I decided that maybe I should cut back on happy hour and/or drinking related activities. I've done enough of them in my life (seriously) to not feel the need that I need to do more of them and I know as well as anyone that just one beer inevitably turns into another beer which turns into another beer which turns into a late night dinner and very often an expensive cab ride. So when plans were made to go out for St. Pattie's Day, I decided I was going to stay in and not spend the money.

That morning, a friend called to say she had called in sick and that she, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend's friend from Ireland were going to a pub to grab a pint and watch a soccer match. Naturally, of course, I ran out the door as fast as possible to meet up with them.

Drinking at night is bad, of course, because it's an activity that's done frequently enough and doesn't necessarily need to be done at all. Drinking during the day, however, is okay because it gets me out of the house. Plus drinking at night is no big deal while drinking all day is always fun.

And, yes, one beer led to another beer which led to another beer followed by expensive (but amazingly yummy) dinner).