It's 3 pm on a Tuesday, I had a shorter day at work but despite that I was feeling a lot more down than I wanted to. I'd been stuck in my head worried about that big question in every millennial's life. "When are you going to move out of your parent's house?" Working a job that pays juuuuuust enough more than minimum wage that you can't honestly call it minimum wage doesn't make the answer to that question an easy one. I don't think I can give myself an answer.
So what am I to do? Luckily, there's plenty of options! Finding a new job, finding some work on the side (writing here isn't worth much but it's something), overtime, crypto investment (hopefully and in my opinion most likely my best move), cutting expenses, educating myself, learning a skill, or what I did today; taking steps to build credit. I like cash, I try to operate mostly in it, but if using a piece of plastic will put me in a better situation in the future I'll use it. Unfortunately, no one was at the branch to help me get one so I had to schedule a meeting at a later date. Got a little literature to look over and figure out what card is best for me.
I leave the bank, stop by the latest local vape shop to replace my broken JUUL, and on the way home I was going to pass a bar. I'd been experimenting with alcohol as best any clueless novice could. Get the alcohol and pour it into things you'd rather drink, what could go wrong? A real, well made drink was just what I was craving.
It's a muggy hot day. Even just walking from the car to the door is enough to give you a film of moisture all over on a day like today. It made the cool blast of air that came from inside all the more inviting. It was about 2:30 pm so there was next to nobody inside. Drinking to me is a social thing so I was a little disappointed that the only other people were the bartender, a married couple talking about their family, and a young woman filling out an application. The bartender humored my attempts to start conversation at least. I thought maybe I could also throw my hat in for whatever job the woman was applying for but "experience required" disqualified me as usual.
I'd been to this bar once before with a friend last year just after Christmas. I had a good time as I'm sure many of us who use Steemit were at that time. Bitcoin was about to break $20k and did that night while I was there. It was a night that gave me a huge helping of faith in crypto currencies when in this rural farming area I ran into a couple of the old guard who'd made hundreds of thousands of dollars going all the way back to before the Mt.GOX hack. They were a couple of fun guys calling themselves Dandy since one was named Dan and the other was named Andy. I had good memories and wanted to think on them for a while so I ordered my favorite drink from that night, a whiskey sour.
There were no fun little garnishes but I'd rather it that way. I sipped on it through both straws. That strange taste I could feel all the way up in my nose is something I'd been craving for a month now. It was satisfying to just have a cool drink after work. I understand now why some people go down to their favorite hole in the wall every day with their work friends. While I wasn't talking to anyone I had an opportunity to really look at the situation. I was drinking alone, something I try to avoid because it makes me feel worse, but I was relaxed.
It isn't so much the alcohol that makes me like bars, but the atmosphere. I don't like sports but I'd gone to a sports bar. With TVs all over the place playing baseball, tennis, football, and soccer games you'd think there wasn't anything there for me. I think it's just the bar itself that I like. Sitting on a tall chair, leaning forward a bit over a cocktail, looking at all the colorful liquor bottles on the other side, it made me happy. I felt a little bit of a smile and a light headed feeling. Was a getting tipsy off of one drink? Of course I wasn't. It was the act of drinking in a bar that did it.
I mentioned earlier in this post that I bought a new JUUL e-cigarette. It's been about 2 months since the lithium battery in my old one pillowed up. Since then I've been doing a little admittedly immature thing anytime I got the notion to vape. I rolled up a little piece of paper and pretended it was a cigarette. It's dumb, I know, but I still got something out of it. I think just going through the motions brings along a little bit of the feeling I'd get. My happy feeling in the bar and that little rolled up piece of paper work along the same lines in my head. After using nicotine and drinking alcohol and having good experiences with them, the simulated act of smoking or going back to the place where I enjoyed my drink give me satisfaction. The bar I went to did more for me than the alcohol I drank there. I think that's a healthy way to use and look at alcohol.
I am in no way advocating for or against any type of drug use. Everyone is entitled to make their own choices regarding alcohol.
Whiskey sour picture sourced from Pixabay, a website full of free to use pictures. https://pixabay.com/en/whiskey-sour-cocktail-drink-alcohol-881016/
