82272c12f77171f57d428b4e34e6bb99

Your worst drinking binge was inspired by a boy. Makes sense that your first hangover would be too. You’ve never been much good at holding down your alcohol. That’s why you swallow so much water when you drink. But this time, it didn’t help.

You check the time. 4.00 a.m. Your mouth feels dry. You want to go downstairs and get some water but your feet won’t move and the room won’t stop. You text your best friend. Pink elephants are drumming in your head.

Your fish lights are off. You don’t remember putting them off. You remember thinking about putting them off, because if you leave the lights on all night, then your fish forget to sleep. You remember feeding the fish, and planning to come down later and put them off. But you don’t remember actually putting them off.

You go back to bed. You know you need painkillers. You have a stash of fifteen. In your desk. At the office. Crap. You check the time again. 4.15. You lie down veeeeery slowly, because sudden moves are costly. Your hangover has a persona and if it figures out that you’re trying to fight it, it’s going to whoop your ass. You send a text to your boss, and his response is touching, if not a little strange.

Boss text 1

Boss text 2

You check the time. 6.05. You throw on a red hoodie. You go back down the stairs. Slowly. So slowly. Because if you wait five seconds between each step, your hangover won’t notice that you’re moving. You quietly open the noisy metal gate. It’s cold outside. You amble to the closest open kiosk 200 metres away.

The lady at the kiosk watches you. She has a scarf over her nose and mouth. Is she cold or just reacting to your breath? Are your words making any sense? Could the ground stop moving please? She gives you Mara Moja and Eno worth a sock.

Maramoja

You consider making eggs. You hear they’re great for getting boozy toxins down the drain. But no. Scrambling eggs requires too much movement and your motor skills are shot. You text your best friend. She recommends bananas and Nakumatt juice. You figure you should start by imbibing the Eno. It doesn’t end well.

You sit on the kitchen floor, hugging a bucket. You tell yourself you’re not a stereotype, because you’re in the kitchen, not the bathroom. You don’t want to move because the cold tile is oddly comforting. You finish retching and clean up after yourself. Because you don’t want your baby to see a bucket full of puke.

bucket_PNG7766

You go back to bed but you can’t find your phone. You panic, search everywhere, but veeeeery sloooooowly. No sudden moves. You give up. You lie down and pretend to sleep but your body isn’t buying it. You look for your phone again. It’s in your back pocket. How did it get there?

You open your phone. You see the all numbers you drunk dialled. Oh God. You can vaguely remember having conversations … but what did you say? Why can’t you remember what you said? Fuck!

You check social media. Twitter. Facebook. You updated your status, apparently. Good grammar, no typos. You can’t have been that drunk. But why can’t you remember typing it? And more importantly, how the hell did you type it? You don’t have Facebook on your phone. You never have Facebook on your phone.

blackout

You check your laptop. It’s safely in the hidden compartment above the shelf. Did you take it down, log in, update your social media, and then stash it back on the shelf? Did you install Facebook on your phone, post a status update, and then uninstall? Why can’t you remember?

You pause. You decide to check your inbox. 43 messages. FORTY. THREE. MESSAGES! And some of them have pictures. What the hell … when did you do all this? And what were you trying to say? Clearly, autocorrect and alcohol don’t gel.

You call your best friend. She says she saw the messages and panicked, that’s why she called you. She didn’t know what you were trying to say. You ask her what you said, because you don’t remember chatting … or photographing baskets and sheets. Oh God, what else don’t you remember?

No hangover

You look at the messages again. You laugh. You have to laugh. Because, really, what were you trying to say? And who forgets typing 43 inbox messages on Facebook? You see a text. It’s from him. He says he’s sorry he put you through this, and hopes you can find it in your heart to forgive him. Uh-oh. You vaguely remember calling him. You’ve been fighting. No. You’ve been fighting. He’s been isolating. He needed space to think. And now he’s apologising. What. the. hell. did. you. tell. him. last. night?!?

You look above the apology. Oh God. Oh. Dear. Sweet. God. There are 57 messages on your phone. And you don’t remember typing a single one of them. You cave in. You call him. He seems excited to hear your voice. It’s the first time he’s heard it in weeks. Because he stopped calling you, and he told you not to call him. No, that’s not true. He heard your voice last night. And you can’t remember what you said…

What-men-and-women-should-know-gangstah-26315535-333-333

You talk, or try to. You ask what you’re forgiving him for. For putting you through this, he says. You ask him what you said last night. He laughs, but it’s a sad laugh. He says he’s glad you can’t remember. You ask if he has changed his mind. He asks why you won’t change yours. You both realise there’s nothing left to say.

When you met this boy, you knew he wanted kids and you didn’t. You talked about it over and over, and he said he was okay with not having kids. But now you’ve been fighting a cold war for weeks, because he changed his mind and the wedding is off.

You check the time. 4.15 a.m. You’ve been staring at the ceiling for 24 hours, pretending to be asleep. Your phone alarm rings. It’s time to take a shower and go to work. Because the baby needs to eat … and the bills need to be paid … and no matter how badly your heart is crushed … life. must. go. on.

♫ Electrical storm ♫ U2 ♫

134 thoughts on “Hangover chronicles

  1. Great beat ! I would like to apprentice even as you amend your web site, how could i subscribe for a weblog website? The account helped me a applicable deal. I have been tiny bit familiar of this your broadcast provided bright transparent concept

  2. I’d should examine with you here. Which isn’t one thing I normally do! I get pleasure from studying a put up that will make people think. Additionally, thanks for permitting me to remark!

  3. I believe that is among the most important information for
    me. And i am satisfied studying your article. But want to remark on some normal issues, The site taste is
    wonderful, the articles is in reality excellent : D.

    Excellent activity, cheers

  4. I think this is among the most vital information for me. And i am glad reading your article. But should remark on some general things, The website style is great, the articles is really great : D. Good job, cheers

  5. Heya! I’m at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone
    4! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward
    to all your posts! Carry on the fantastic work!

  6. I have not checked in here for some time because I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are good quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it my friend 🙂

  7. I’ve been surfing online more than three hours nowadays, but I never discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours. It is pretty value enough for me. In my opinion, if all site owners and bloggers made good content material as you did, the net shall be a lot more helpful than ever before. “I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.” by James Grover Thurber.

  8. Thank you for sharing excellent informations. Your web-site is so cool. I am impressed by the details that you’ve on this web site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for more articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found just the info I already searched everywhere and just couldn’t come across. What a perfect site.

  9. Hmm it looks like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess
    I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.
    I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything.

    Do you have any helpful hints for newbie blog writers?
    I’d genuinely appreciate it.

  10. whoah this blog is wonderful i love reading your articles. Keep up the great work! You know, lots of people are hunting around for this information, you could aid them greatly.

  11. Thanks for expressing your ideas. The first thing is that scholars have a solution between federal government student loan as well as a private student loan where it’s easier to go with student loan consolidation than with the federal education loan.

  12. Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success. If you know of any please share. Thank you!

  13. I cling on to listening to the news broadcast lecture about receiving free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the most excellent site to get one. Could you tell me please, where could i acquire some?

  14. I would like to show some appreciation to this writer for rescuing me from this type of setting. As a result of checking throughout the world-wide-web and finding suggestions which were not helpful, I believed my entire life was well over. Being alive devoid of the approaches to the issues you have sorted out by means of your article is a serious case, as well as the kind that would have adversely affected my career if I had not noticed your blog post. Your actual understanding and kindness in handling all the details was valuable. I am not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t encountered such a thing like this. I’m able to at this moment relish my future. Thanks a lot very much for your skilled and effective help. I will not think twice to endorse your web blog to anyone who requires support on this issue.

  15. great post, very informative. I wonder why the other experts of this sector do not notice this. You must continue your writing. I’m sure, you’ve a great readers’ base already!

  16. I have been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used to love this blog. Thank you, I will try and check back more often. How frequently you update your site?

  17. Valuable info. Lucky me I found your website by accident, and I am shocked why this accident did not happened earlier! I bookmarked it.

  18. Great blog here! Also your web site loads up very fast! What web host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol

  19. Great website. Plenty of useful information here. I am sending it to several buddies ans additionally sharing in delicious. And obviously, thanks in your sweat!

  20. I like this web site very much, Its a real nice position to read and get information. “Practice, the master of all things.” by Augustus Octavius.

  21. That is the proper weblog for anyone who desires to search out out about this topic. You understand so much its virtually hard to argue with you (not that I truly would need…HaHa). You definitely put a brand new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Great stuff, just nice!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.