IT’S A BAD THREE
On Friday night, I was deep into a project that is due on Monday. There was a Family Guy beer garden at the SUB, but I could not go. Many people from SJC did.
From about 7pm to 11pm, I wrote code for my database project. I was in the zone. I thought I’d have a boring, yet productive night.
A little after 11pm, I get a call from my friend Rhonda. She offers me a deal. If I give her some butter, she’ll give me half the grilled-cheese sandwich she wants to make. This is perfect since I’m feeling a little peckish anyways. I have a large stash of butter to give away.
We meet in the upstairs kitchen five minutes later. As Rhonda makes the sandwich, I ask her how her evening went. Sarah spies us from the hallway. She comes in and tells us they’ve just returned from the Family Guy beer garden. Everyone is having drinks in Bryan’s room. She invites us to join them. She especially wants Rhonda to come to add some estrogen into the mix.
We tell her we’ll show up after we’re done eating. Sarah leaves. A few minutes later, Dana wanders into the kitchen. It’s a parade of stars tonight. We talk with Dana as we eat the yummy grilled-cheese sandwich. While we’re chatting with Dana, Sarah runs back into the kitchen.
“Who’s a medic here? I think Jan broke his arm! He was reaching for some alcohol in his room and I think he fell.”
“Where is he now?”
“He’s in Bryan’s room.”
We all make our way down to Bryan’s room. Before we go in, Sarah offers us this tidbit.
“Oh by the way, they’re all drunk in there.”
We open the door. I see Adam, Frank, Bryan, and Jan. Jan is sitting on an armchair. He has a goofy smile on his face. I look at his arm. It has a slight raised bump on it. Rhonda goes to inspect it. It doesn’t look broken. Some ice is produced and Jan applies it to his arm. The decision is made to not bring Jan to the emergency room.
“Jan on a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it hurt?”
“It feels like a bad three.”
Bryan, who is an excellent bartender, continues to serve drinks. Jan gets the next one. He looks pretty sauced up to me. I believe that he would be probably complaining a lot more if he was sober. Everyone settles down and is given a drink. I decide on a rum and Coke. My little break in the kitchen is probably going to be a lot longer that I had anticipated.
For some reason, German music is being played in the background. Jan and Frank (both German), start to sing along in German. Adam and I can only offer the word, “Scheisse”.
I have a good conversation with Adam with women. We talk about everything we know about them. It is a ten second conversation.
Jan by now is being a real character. His behaviour turns “sassy”. I won’t say anything more about that.
I decide to leave at this point to get back to my code. About two hours later, I’m coming back from the vending machine. I see Jan coming back to his room. We stop at his door. He’s got an armful of bottles of alcohol. One of them is an open beer bottle. He bends over at the waist to put them down. The beer pours copiously out and onto the hallway carpet. I swear it takes him five full seconds to realize he’s pouring beer out of the bottle.
“Whoa there cowboy.”
I say goodnight to him. I haven’t seen Jan all day. I have a feeling that arm of his hurts a lot more now that it did last night.