Body Damage - a week in review

The Closing Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics are winding down, a great ending to a somewhat crazy week.

Monday and Tuesday were "storm days", our first sight of a potential hurricane. As usual, the media acted like the end of the world was coming in order to get people to flood their local Publix, Wal-Mart, and Home Depots.

Wednesday, I met up with a buddy at Tatu sushi at the Hard Rock where we downed some of what I like to call "base food" before heading into the Stone Temple Pilots concert where I proceeded to put on a beer drinking clinic. The show kicked major ass. Scott Weiland sounded unbelievably good and didnt seem strung out on drugs at all. Maybe there is a direct relationship here? They played a lot of classics and managed to play at least one song from each album. Then they came out with an encore of Dead & Bloated with the entire crowd singing along. I was 10 beers deep at that point, double-fisted Heineken's throughout the entire show. Yeah. The show ended and we headed to a few bars where I proceeded to drink another 3 bourbons and pick up a few new friends to drunkenly makeout with. My buddy bailed and I ended up eating at some obscure diner with the ladies in Ihavenoclue, FL at 3am. Around 3:30am I started to head home and that was a really dumb idea. I got home ok and drove fine but I was really lucky. I put myself on "timeout" on Thursday.

Thursday I was hurtin but I hid it well. I had to drive to meet with a few customers and it was a long day. McDonald's at 2pm saved my life that day I think. It was still a very rough day. Meetings went well but I wouldnt have minded if I was at my house in my bed. Im getting too old for this shit. That night, I met up with a friend and his girlfriend at MGFD. We dined outside in the middle of a monsoon but we managed to stay dry and the food was great. They have a nice bourbon selection there so its a little hard to resist. I managed to limit myself to 2 though, until I got home and threw a few more back, finding myself kinda drunk again for no reason whatsoever. I start to think I have a drinking problem at this point.

Speaking of drinking problems... Friday I headed up to West Palm to hang out with my cousin and his fiance since it had been awhile. We went to a party at their neighbor's house that got way out of hand. We had picked up a bottle of Basil Hayden, my favorite, and then proceeded to drink the entire bottle. Then the Bacardi 151 made an appearance along with a bonfire. Uh oh... We had one of the girls blowing fire and dousing the fire pit with glasses of it as well. This was hilarious and naturally we had to go and get a huge bag full of fireworks to throw into this inferno. We lit up some cubans and enjoyed a nice smoke while tossing fireworks into the fire pit, about 150 at a time. There are few things in life that beat bourbon, cigars, and drunken pyrotechnics.

Saturday I woke up and didnt know where I was for a second. Kinda common because I travel a ton but weird nonetheless. Much to my surprise, I had zero hangover. I figured my body was probably used to being 50% bourbon at this point. Around 1130am, we headed out to go pick up some ammo to go trap shooting. After buying some ammo and grabbing a much needed bite, we headed to the range. I had never shot before. I will admit Im not a fan of guns and I did experience some anxiety once we got there and got ready to shoot. After getting a walkthru, we started shooting some clay pigeons. I nailed one on my first shot and was hooked. It was awesome. I got better and better as we went along too. The gun didnt have the recoil I thought it would and we shot both 12 and 20 gauge. The only part about the whole day that sucked was that it POURED rain all day. The rain pounded down, only letting up long enough to lure us out away from shelter where Mother Nature would have a chance to soak us to the bone. I ended up buying a shirt and hat because I was drenched and figured I should grab a souvenir anyways. When I got home, I headed into the Grove to Jaguarto grab a bite and enjoy a few bourbons. Met some cool people and had a good amount of "base food" and then met up with some neighbors at Sandbar for a few beers. Around midnight I realized I was kinda wasted and needed to get up really early for the SFDB Classic so I headed home.

I woke up Sunday ready to hit the links. I got to Melreese/International Links around 745am and headed over to the range. Id hit my driver terribly the previous weekend and was hoping to work out the kinks since the driver is usually the best club in my bag. Well, I didnt figure it out. The driver killed me all day. I did manage to battle back on each hole though and ended up shooting a 93 which wasnt so bad considering I didnt make it past the ladies tee on at least 6 shots. Meeting up with Rick (from SFDB), Steve (formerly of Owenized), and Nonee Moose (commenter at SFDB) was fun. Rick was the only one who really played well but the rest of us had our few bright moments and there were a lot of laughs. I got home, showered quickly, and headed on over to the Rusty Pelican for brunch and managed to avoid drinking any alcohol.

The week ends with the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics, the best Olympics ever. I look back on a week where I did some not-so-bright things, a ton of damage to my body with alcohol, gunpowder, and golf, but it was a fun ride. I also met a lot of new people and thats always good. Next week is Labor Day weekend which means an extra day off. I can only imagine what is in store there...