First Night Out in NYC!

One of the BEST times I ever had drinking was the time that me and my friends randomly decided to go to new york. This was almost two years still fresh from beginning my career in drinking, it was me, Mike and Hoj sitting in a bar in Bayonne.

We had a car bomb or two when all of a sudden someone blurts out that we should head into new york and hit up a couple of bars. In that moment we all agreed to be spontaneous and go for it, i believe we had another car bomb or shot before we were determined and ready. We stopped by McDonald's to try and stem the tide of liquor before it flooded are system (to no avail might i add).

At the time Mike drove around with our blessed treasure trove of liquor, which included the likes of Bacardi 151, everclear and the ever so deadly absinthe (imported from the Czech republic). We bought a couple of bottles of pepsi in an attempt to mask our liquor. We arrived at Newport because it was one of the few places you can leave your car overnight while taking the path train to new york. The added bonus was that Mike had keys to the store he worked at.

We carried a book bag full of liquor into the store and went into the back room, where we mixed our drinks and took our shots of absinthe for good luck. Once we finished our ritual drinking for a good journey we set out every member of the group with at least two bottles to tide us over till we reached NYC.

The path train ride over was amusing as we tried to best each other by drinking the fastest. Needless to say when we stepped out of the path train and made our way into the 'fresh air' of NYC we were beyond hammered. We stumbled around trying to seem at least semi-sober in order to get into any bars or clubs.

Now let me explain this to anyone that has not tried absinthe... the one that we had purchased has a very licorice after taste to it. After a couple of shots you feel very euphoric some would describe it as a 'high' you would get from other drugs. I myself have never hallucinated. But i have gotten high in the past so i can say it does give you that feeling. It's an odd sort of state you feel drunk but stay eerily coherent.

Despite attempts of walking around and trying to 'sober up' we kept drinking out of our water bottles. After walking around aimlessly we decide we definitely need to start drinking more! As fate would have it this lady is running along when she stops and asks where we are going? Hoj resolutely belches out "TAKE US TO LOOOOOOSE WOMEEEEN!" amazingly this line worked as we ran to what we thought was a bar.

To say we were under dressed would be an understatement... it turned out to be some sort of up scale bar/bistro type of place. Apparently it was one of the girls birthdays they invited us to two free shots of grey goose vodka each... till one of the bouncers said we were under dressed and asked us to leave. No problems after all we had free shots!

We left the place laughing that we were asked to leave and decided that we needed to find more bars! I know the abinsthe started kicking in when we started looking at buildings and saying that they were so tall. We hit up a couple of bars but only ordered a drink or two before we went into the next! In particular we went into an Irish pub when on of the patrons stopped Hoj and asked why he was wearing an "England" shirt. Me and mike were too busy ordering drinks to really care but they seemed a bit pissed, so we chugged our Irish car bombs and went on our way.

The last bar we stopped in we decided to get a couple of beers and attempted to sit down on their nice lounge sofas. By some stroke of bad luck hoj managed to find divide in the sofas and slipped right in between fall on the ground and spilling some of his beer on himself. After much laughter we had another drink or two and decided we had to find a way back home.

After being diverted from going home for a few hours (repairs to path trains), we redirected to the nearest White Castle. Mike went to get me some food while i watched over hoj... well i tried at least as the table next to me struck up a conversation. As it so happened i turned just in time to see Hoj throw up all over his fries! Me and mike ushered him into bathroom and left him in there... Eventually it dawned on us that he was in there for quite some time after the people we were talking to were about to leave.

We managed to get in the bathroom to the scene of hoj pants around his ankles on the floor of White Castle, vomit dribbling from mouth.... Me and mike had a great laugh and decided we should get out of there before the clean up crew show up. We barely manage to stumble outside before hoj throws up a few more times. Eventually we made our way to the path train where a passer by comments 'wow and i thought i was messed up' as he points to hoj on the floor.

We manage to get a seat when a tranny sits next to hoj and thinks he is cute, of course me and mike tried to stave it off. All the while trying to talk to girls on the path train. Mike and Hoj got off at newport and i took a bus home, that was our epic night in NYC.

A boy with two faces...

It was around 6th grade if i remember correctly when something happened to me that to this day i'm unsure how exactly it occurred. But for quite some time half of my face was paralyzed, i'm not sure if it was food related or something else. Though i have never been warned against any future problems that may occur.

I remember going into school feeling horrible because i know kids being kids would laugh and not understand what i was going through. Hell me being myself i did not fully understand why it was happening to me. I remember having to put on a patch over my eyes as well as some liquid (because my eye wouldn't fully close) to keep my eye moist.

I faintly remember thinking to myself that it couldn't last forever, even though i had no idea what was afflicting me exactly...

Asthma.. the enemy.

When you are young you don't really put much emphasis on death but rather whats happening in that week or current events and the such. There was one real definitive time i thought i would collapse of exhaustion and die. This time in my life i was in sixth grade and being yet even more young and reckless here is how my brush with death happened over a couple of days.

I remember it being cold out and me having a slight cough (enough to actually take halls) but otherwise i thought i was fine. I definitely made the unfortunate mistake of having menthol/eucalyptus flavored halls that day. When i ran up the steps (about 3 flights) full bore after the morning assembly, by the time i reached the top i was out of breath. I inhaled deeply but perhaps too much as i was rapidly running out of air and panicking... yes i induced and asthma attack something that i did not know that i could get. I laid down in the nurses office with even the most minimal of effort would draw all the breath out of me. Of course being a school nurse all she had to remedy things were band aids and robotussin.... yes i'm serious.

As i awaited my mother to pick me up from school i couldn't help but feel vulnerable, this was a recurring theme while i had asthma. I remember for a couple of days i took a leave from school as i just didn't have the energy or force of will to go to school (not just a BS excuse to skip class mind you). It was Halloween and everybody but me was outside trick or treating, i remember being so feeble i could barely eat soup by myself.

Thats were i truly hit a low point in my young life the feeling of being helpless is something that i have always hated. I always saw myself as someone that could be depended on but never depended on someone. I almost cried into my soup if it wasn't for the fact that it would just induce another asthma/panic attack. I literally felt that i would die right there eating my soup. It might sound a bit melodramatic but if you have ever had an asthma/panic attack you know that it is not joke. Unless you can control your breathing (which is hard because you are trying to draw in breath at a controlled rate) you keep trying to breath in ragged gasps only making the situation worse.

After this ordeal i never had a real asthma attack even if my lungs weren't 100% i had learned how to control my breathing. Ever since that day i have taken a staunch position in never feeling helpless again regardless of any condition. In some cases you can call it being really stubborn (i am a Scorpio after all)but i think self reliance is an important skill most people over look now a days.

The Sound of Crashing Cars.

I believe it was Junior year of high school when this had happened, it was Halloween and i was invited to a Halloween party. I guess i use that term very loosely as by party it was a get together at a local cemetery getting high or drunk. Regardless i was looking forward to the event because a girl that i wanted to get to know better would be there (this was still before i actually knew how to talk to women.. but that's another post entirely).

At the time Cori was my brother's gf and she was an interesting girl to say the least she loved risk to say the least. I made the unfortunate mistake of asking her for a lift to the Halloween party even though it was only a handful of blocks away.

Well Cori was driving semi-recklessly as always thinking it was fun almost hitting a car when she failed to notice that our light turned red. A jeep when speeding by and Cori had failed to hit the breaks in time so we ended up clipping the end of the jeep in Cori's older car (when cars were made of metal). Needless to say the results surprised everyone, the jeep we had hit flipped onto it's side and skidded to a halt when it hit the curb. As for Cori's car well it stopped dead in it's tracks me hitting the window hard enough to shatter but not break most of the window (i was sitting in the passenger seat).

Everyone just paused when all of the sudden if heard Plesca yell "get out of the car your brother is bleeding everywhere!". It took me a second to gather my thoughts that i had not died despite looking at the damage my head had caused and i got out. Apparently my brother cut his head on the hooks that people hang their dry cleaning on... yeah bizarre that he managed to injured yet i came out without a scratch.

As i was walking home alone since Cori's parents took her home, my brother and Plesca went to the hospital to check out their injuries, i thought to myself i was quite lucky to get away with a minor scratch if even that. Thinking back on it when i was younger i went through a lot of car crashes/accidents for one reason or another hell i even had a car crash on my birthday!

The thing about an accident is that your adrenaline runs so high that you cannot think straight. If you are hurt you don't really notice it that much (gravity of the wound would be an exception in some cases),but for the most part you are amazed something so sudden happened.

The night we were almost shot...

It's funny when you reflect back on things you have done in life you reflect on how when you were young you thought you were invincible to the real world problems surrounding you. As if anything that happens there is no consequence that is probably a possibility on why teens think they can get away with so much and still have a cocky attitude in life.

I remember being in grammar school and hanging out with my old buddies Evil Ed, Orlando, Luis, Plesca and my brother. Roaming the streets late a night without a care in the world after all we were in a decently sized group and thought nothing can harm us. When we were younger we would generally hang out in within a 20 block radius of where i lived and specifically in either union city or north bergen. But on with the story on this fateful night around 10pm or so we walked down this 27th st or so in union city.

Tell you the truth i had no idea why we even bothered going down that street it wasn't one of our usual hangouts. I think there was a possibility of searching out a party that was happening (after all being young and foolish we wanted easy access to liquor and girls, even if we weren't that sure what to do right away once we got there). We were just chatting and walking casually when we noticed two groups of people arguing we decided to keep our distance across the street corner to see what develops, we decided if a scrap was going to happen best to get a good view of the action.

When all of the sudden we a huge commotion some cursing and finally the unmistakable ring of three shots going out. At that point all of us ran as fast we could in the opposite direction to this day i don't recall any of us running as fast as we did that night. Eventually a couple of blocks later and all of us out of breath we looked around to make sure everyone was actually there.

Needless to say the group was okay but a bit shaken after that event, i can't recall what we did after although i think just go home was a good option after almost getting shot. I find it funny that unless we are part of something like that we as humans do not consider ourselves vulnerable, it is like the first time you have a fight. The reality of the situation doesn't really hit you (pun intended) until you are circling your opponent and ready to throw the first punch.