James told me that he's not about to make people alcoholics, but says that if one has never been drunk before, they should do it at least once to see what it's like. He said to do it at home when I'm all alone so I don't get kicked out of the bar. I questioned, "You get kicked out for getting drunk at a bar?" He said that I might get kicked out because I don't know how I'll react to being drunk. He said to do it at home and if I like the feeling, I might want to do it again. If I don't like it, then I shouldn't do it again. I asked, "What if I don't remember?" He laughed and said that I shouldn't do it again.

I told him that I don't like drinking alcohol and one of the main reasons is the horrible taste. I've never had an alcoholic drink that I like the taste of, unless I can't taste the alcohol. Therefore, I'd like to get drunk in the shortest amount of time possible. He said I should get 2 8-ounce glasses of grape juice and put a shot of Everclear in each and drink them one after the other. He said I should have a light snack about 2 hours before doing this so it doesn't mess with my stomach so bad.

So, yesterday I went out and bought a carton of Welch's Grape Juice and a bottle of Everclear. I opened the bottle and smelled it. Yep, alcohol. I took a sip and instinctively spit it out into the sink. It burned my lips for a while because they are a little chapped.

For those of you who don't know, there are different "proofs" or alcoholic strength. As a reference, in beer, the alcohol is generally 8 to 12 proof. Depending on the strain of yeast, wines top out at about 28 to 32 proof. Hard liquors have a higher proof rating. Vodka has 70 to 100 proof while rum is usually 80 proof, but one specific type gets up to 151 or 160 proof. Now, Everclear is 190 proof. That is the strongest alcohol made. It is illegal to buy in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Washington, California, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and West Virginia.

I got out a 20-ounce glass and went online to see how much 8 fluid ounces was. It turns out it is a cup. So, I put 2 cups of grape juice into the glass. Then, I looked up how much a shot was. A single shot is 1.5 fluid ounces, so I put 3 ounces of Everclear into the glass and stirred it.

I took a drink and the taste was terrible. I knew that drinking it was going to suck big time. I had forgotten to eat anything earlier that day except some sunflower seeds. Oh well. I sat down at the computer and drank about a 5th of it. AWFUL! I decided to hide the taste by opening my bag of fun size Butterfingers and having some. The candy did make me forget the taste of it until I took another drink. It was worse after having the candy. At this point I was starting to feel a little dizzy.

I decided I just needed to get it over with. I closed my eyes and drank until I had about 1/3 of the glass left. Ugh! I had a few more Butterfingers to take away the taste. Then I got up and walked into the front room. That was crazy. I felt really dizzy, but oddly enough didn't feel like I was going to fall. I could still open doors and pick things up, but it felt like it wasn't my hand performing the actions, but rather like I was controlling someone else's hand like through a video game. My legs felt the same way. Everything moved in a slightly choppy manner like I was living in a video clip with a really crappy frame rate. I have to admit that it was kinda cool to experience everything like that.

Besides the low frame rate, nothing else seemed different. Well, I did feel halfway numb. I tried touching my forehead and face and arms and I could only feel it halfway. But beside the fact that I was taking note of the effects, my thoughts were exactly the same as normal. I didn't find anything funny that I don't normally. I didn't get upset more or less easily at things. Nothing changed mentally or emotionally. It was all physical. I didn't even feel more relaxed. There was nothing I experienced that would appeal to me on a different day. It wouldn't make me feel less depressed. It wouldn't drown out my sorrows. I couldn't understand what was so good about it. I felt like I had just gotten off of a carnival ride that spins and vibrates violently.

I decided that perhaps I wasn't all the way there yet. So, I went and drank the rest of it to the dismay of my taste buds. I thought being drunk was supposed to take away the taste. Lies. I didn't feel much different after that. Maybe the crappy frame rate and dizziness felt a little more intense, but that was it. I wondered what would happen if I had a little more, so I grabbed the bottle of Everclear and took a few more swallows and had some water to try to take away the taste.

Then I had to throw up. That sucked. I don't remember what time it was, but I know that I went and lay down because I felt tired and sick. I remember having to get up to throw up for maybe the 3rd time and it was 7:20pm. I would rinse my mouth out and drink water after each time vomiting and then go back and lie down on my bed. I didn't have any ginger ale or 7-up, though I wished I did. This went on until around 10 o'clock with me throwing up every 10 or 15 minutes, mostly just stomach acid. To make things worse, whenever I threw up the stomach acid, the taste of it was quite similar to the taste of the Everclear and it was like I was still drinking it.

Laura got home around that time and I told her what happened and she felt bad for me but told me that I was crazy for doing what I did. She looked at the bottle and was very surprised to find it was 190 proof. I guess she didn't know that existed. She said I should drink ginger ale and I told her we didn't have any. Of course, she didn't go get any. It's always my job to go get stuff like that, whether it's me or her feeling sick.

I went to sleep until around 11 when I woke up and had to throw up again. Laura had fallen asleep on her bed with the light on and my Dilbert comic strip book next to her head. I turned off her light and tried to go back to sleep. I did until around 12 when I woke up and had to throw up again. I slept until 2:56 when I had to do it yet again. I slept until 5:30 this morning and felt like I had to throw up, but decided to just drink water and try to keep it down. I slept until 8:30 and just lay there until 10 or so in the morning before I got up and actually used the toilet for it's normal purpose for the first time since this whole thing started. My mouth was super dry and so I had some more water. My stomach was hurting a lot and I couldn't tell whether I was really hungry or had to throw up again.

We went to her parents' house to wash her laundry and then I suggested we go to Subway because that sounded good. I got a cold cut trio and then went next-door to McDonald's and got some Powerade from the fountain. I ate my sandwich and drank all my Powerade and only then did my stomach feel any better, though it was still quite tender. I had a lot of gas. I felt out of energy all day and my stomach hurt on and off. We watched maybe half of the movie "Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" but then she had to leave before the bank closed.

Since then I've had some chocolate milk, some caramel corn, some sunflower seeds, and some coffee. I have some Gatorade in the fridge in case I get thirsty and also a Rockstar energy drink for the B-vitamins. It's 10pm now and my stomach just now feels almost normal. Even now, just imagining drinking alcohol of any type makes me physically shudder. I don't plan on ever having alcohol again.