This is a story I hope will 1) warn those youngsters out there to respect alcohol 2) remind everyone that a little bit of respect towards cops can go a long way to making your life a lot easier, and 3) hopefully entertain you guys

My girlfriend went home to visit her parents yesterday, so I had a saturday evening to myself. I decided that rather than holing up in my apartment with video games, I'd give a friend a call and grab dinner and maybe go out bowling or something.

I call my friend and invite her and her boyfriend out to dinner with me. Well it turns out that not even 12 hours before I called she and her boyfriend broke up. Rather than grabbing a nice dinner, it was my duty as the close friend to take her out to the bars and have some fun getting smashed together.

I've been saving all my coin change for the last year or so in a big jar, and I dug through that and pulled at least $10 in quarters out to feed to the jukebox and darts game.

Hours later, I had consumed a moderate amount of alcohol, 3 or 4 drinks. My friend bought us another round.

This is where it gets interesting. The next thing I remember is being driven home by the cops.

They used my cell and apparently called my girlfriend asking to pick me up and perhaps for where to drop me off..(I don't know how they knew which number in the cell to call) and also told her they found me passed out a few blocks from the bar as I assume I was making my way 20 blocks or so back to my apartment. I must have gotten searched as well, because I do have recollections of saying "yes sir" and "no sir" a ton, and when they dropped me off at my apartment I remember them putting things back in my pockets.

Then it was all black until this morning when I woke up to the sound of my phone and a roaring headache with the entire room spinning.

It was my girlfriend calling me to make sure I was alright. She wasn't even angry or anything, which I'm pretty surprised at!!

I took some ibuprofen and went back to sleep for a few hours, and just woke up headache-less but feeling very dehydrated with the room still spinning a little.

The point of all of this is to let people know that drinking too much can hit you before you realize it's going to happen. I didn't drink all that much, but they were pretty strong drinks. In addition, this was the first time I actually went out to get drunk since I started taking an SSRI, which are notorious for lowering alcohol tolerance.

It's also important to remember that even being completely obliterated out of your mind is no excuse for being rude, especially to cops. If you nod your head, cooperate with all of their wishes, say yes sir and no sir a ton, you might very well get a comfortable and very needed free taxi ride back home someday. I've never liked cops before, but I'm already in the process of writing a letter to the local department thanking them for taking care of me when I was being an idiot and getting too drunk for my own good. They could have thrown me in the drunk tank and probably charged me with some misdemeanor 'drunk in public' charge, but they did me a huge favor and were just wonderful, nice guys. It really pays to be nice to people, especially cops.

All in all it was a great night! Even with some dumb decisions I'm no worse for wear, and have another story to tell about "the time I was in the back of a cop car".

P.S. I just got off the phone with my friend and we're debating whether or not I drank something that was spiked with some kind of non-alcoholic substance. I was hit faster than a bullet train and got absolutely floored. It could very well have been something more than just booze + being on SSRIs. Be careful out there ladies and bring friends when you go to bars!

Time to stumble over to the gas station and grab myself some sprite.