She turned 31 so of course we had to go out and celebrate. We went with a group of our friends whom it seems we never see except for once or twice a year for someone’s birthday. Elaine’s birthday is always a big event and lots of people showed up to hang out. We went to downtown St. Pete and ate/drank at a place called “The Garden” (skotteyss knows exactly what I’m talking about…) and did a little bar-hopping after. Additionally, last night was the first weekend of the month, so the city closes off a big section of street to traffic and a band plays in the middle of the street while multitudes of drunken people stumble around.

Of course, as usual, I was the designated driver… which I don’t mind because I can’t really tolerate alcohol very much anymore, and the extra fluid that comes with drinking isn’t so great for the whole kidney-failure scene. Because I drove, K1, Elaine and her new boyfriend Marcin got completely plastered. As did most of the other people who were partying with us. And, when I say plastered, I mean you could’ve painted drywall with them. The only thing that really sucked was it was SO F-ING HOT and HUMID outside/inside that everyone was sweating like pigs. Ick. Regardless of the heat, we all had fun.

After everyone was sufficiently tanked up, we left St. Pete around 1:30ish. Elaine and Marcin had come prepared to stay overnight at our house so headed home. As soon as we got home, Elaine passed out and went to sleep (within 10 minutes of being in the house) but K1, Marcin and I stayed up talking for a couple more hours.

While the three of us were talking, K1 and Marcin continued drinking - the two of them finished off a bottle of Stoli Vodka, a bottle of Goldschlager, half of a HUGE bottle of Bacardi 151, a bottle of some weird brand of Irish Creme stuff that K1 likes and they also had a few mixed drinks in-between. It could quite possibly have been the drunkest I’ve ever seen K1, even though I’ve seen him pretty wasted on a few occasions in the past. I was actually surprised that the two of them drank so much more at home after they’d already drank like fish while we were out…

Sometime around 4 AM I was sleepy (and still stone cold sober) and I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I excused myself and went to bed. K1 didn’t come to bed until 5:30… what?! Yes, 5:30. And, when he came to bed? It was so weird/funny! I had been asleep for a good hour at that point when he just walked right into the bedroom and turned on all the lights! I was like, WTF?! He was mumbling a bunch of stuff incoherently and acting like he wanted to cry (huh!?!) K1 is not a ’sad’ or ‘mad’ drunk, he is a happy drunk so this kinda concerned me so I stayed awake awhile to watch him breathe. Before he fell asleep I asked him if he wanted to turn his light off, and he said very clearly, in the cutest little boy innocent voice “I want to keep the light on, ok? Thank you…” So the rest of the ‘night’ we slept with the light on. Which sucked, but hey, what could I do? He probably wanted the light on so the world wouldn’t spin… and I think we can all appreciate the need for a little “light security” in a situation such as that. Thankfully, once he was asleep he was REALLY asleep… I was worried I might be awakened to him asking me to get him a trashcan to throw up in, but he has managed to keep everything down…