Remote Posting!!!

I'm making this post via my gmail account, so brace yourselves...you're in for a white-knuckle thrill ride!

Actually, don't have a heck of a lot goin' on right now. My life is pretty ordinary on most weekdays, which is how I like it (for the most part). I finally feel like I've rejoined the realm of the living after my 2 day hangover, although I woke up this morning with some nasty back pain, which kind of sucks. While I can't really blame that on any drunken injuries, I can't rule out the fact that my interrupted sleep schedule caused violent some late night flounder-flopping, which led to my tweaked back. Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh. After all, I'm not looking for a permanent divorce from sweet lady liquor...I just need my space.

SO, as I said yesterday, I am contemplating getting on with my little experiment starting this weekend. Of course, as soon as I almost make the decision to put my plan in motion, I got a Facebook message from a friend from out of town who's gonna be here in Alexandria on Friday and looking to hit some bars.

Now, the way I see it, this could go one of three ways. Since I didn't initially plan to start my hiatus until April 1st, I wouldn't technically be "cheating", so I could just do what I would generally do and get crunked, take a cab home, and wake up hung over and missing some cash. I actually don't feel like doing that at all, believe it or not. I could also make an excuse, hang out at home and shun the outside world, and suggest we do lunch on Saturday. Totally not my style, and I don't really like missing fun times. I COULD also opt for moderation and go out for an hour or 2, catch up, tuck myself in early and hope that the "3 beer hangover" doesn't set in- a test of will power, to be sure. That actually sounds like the best option, if not an early barometer of my will power to succumb the sweet siren song of the Irish Car Bomb.

Not sure which way I'll go yet, to be honest. Michelle will be with me and can be fairly influential as to when I leave bars (a pinch to the ear generally does the trick, although I never make it easy to remove me from a bar!), so I think I may opt to go out, have a couple of farewell drinks, and embark on my odessy on Saturday. We shall see...we shall see.

Guess that's it for this evening. Once my dry-out begins, I've decided that I'm going to write a 4-part series chronicling the evolution of my relationship with alcohol. I'll start with 17 year old Panek right around the time he vomited on his shoes after drinking 3 Keystone Lights in 1994. Then I'll move on to College Panek- virtuoso of the beer bong, host of the bitchinest parties this side of Charles and Hawke St, and conisseur of the plastic liquor bottle. We'll catch up with Philly Panek and explore his penchant for Yuengling Lager and double fisting large breakfast sandwiches at 2 am, and his eventual metamorphosis into a fairly physically fit and active Weekend Warrior. Finally, we'll look at my life since I moved to VA...which has been very cool but occasionally a tad overindulgent- a balancing act between 100 mile bike rides and high octane Belgian beers (oh, how I'll miss them...).

I'll keep em short and sweet, and make sure to include some hilarious pictures that sum up my state at each stage. I think you'll like them.

Ok, Suze Orman's gonna tell me how to save some money now...if she saw some of my bar tabs, she'd pull my ass out of that bar by the ear before Michelle could even get to me.