Riding the Dragon! Chasing them Fairies!

I just started to pack about an hour and a half ago and feel like I've gotten nowhere. It's really quite obnoxious how much shit I've managed to accumulate in my life that has to follow me around. So far I've got a pretty solid pile of gear and toys packed up and ready to go, so I've just got to keep telling myself that looks good so I can give up for the night.

Mostly I wanted to take a break and spend a moment to review my first experience with the, now legal, Absinthe that I had last night. I'll preface this by saying up front it was nothing special. I did not "hallucinate" and didn't even get particularly "out of the ordinary" drunk. That seems especially odd since it was preceded by the always awesomely terrible experience of grape flavored Four Loko. I figured this would be an absolute recipe for disaster, but it really wasn't. To any of you who are now probably concerning yourselves with my health because I drink silly things like this I'd like to also note that this is the first time I've had so much as more than two or three beers in a night for the past several weeks since today was my first today completely off from both jobs in about three weeks. So no. I'm not a drunk.

But anyway, Absinthe... the magical blue and green legend from France or wherever they drink the stuff. It in no way lives up to the hype, but I also only had one glass of it. So what I can tell you is that it's probably not going to make you hallucinate like they say it will, but I can see how it'd get you dangerously drunk. The reason for this being that the stuff is about 100 proof, but in no way has any of that alcohol "bite" and "burn" that you're used to with other more familiar drinks in that alcohol content range. The reason for this is most likely because it's actually a spirit and has no added sugar until you do the whole silly sugar dumping ritual. Thus, it's flavor is pretty mild, like a not very sweet sugar water. It does however smell delicious. It has a very strong scent of licorice which is really all that makes it enjoyable. If you didn't know any better you could easily plow through several glasses or shots of the stuff and not realize that you were even drinking until it smashes into your face like a brick wall thirty minutes in. I think that's where all the hype comes from.

I did however notice after glancing through Absinthe's Wikipedia page (yeah, I said it) that it was as described on there a much more "lucid" or "clear-headed" feeling of drunkenness, which I definitely felt. But as I only had one glass, that's pretty inconclusive. I think I was mostly just in a real good mood on account of having a day off. There's that and the amount of sugar involved between that one glass and the Loko I had before it... that can all make one quite wired. Also there was a tiny dopey puppy there which is always exciting.

So in conclusion, Absinthe tastes somewhere between "mediocre" and "terrible", in no way lives up to the hype... but made for an enjoyable evening... until I woke up on Joe's couch and groggily realized how much crap I had to get done on this one day off. I managed to sign my lease, pay all my rent and utilities, drop all my library materials off, schedule a doctors appointment, make some pretty sweet quesadillas, get my electric service switched over, order some internet (which takes way longer than it should), get a hold of Doug to pick up his drums, and do some packing. Sheesh! I did not however get around to posting all that stuff I was talking about earlier on Craigs List, which was kind of my main goal. I guess there's always tomorrow. But I seriously need to get rid of some of this crap in my life! Please. Just take it!