![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Friday night
Aug. 29th, 2009 01:35 amI just got back from taking ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
omegadonut to his car. It's 1:30. Bars close in half an hour. It's Friday night. It is a ten minute round-trip to his car along the Light Rail route, and I saw three police cars pulled over behind three cars. On the three minute walk from my car back to my dorm, I saw three different girls drunk-stumbling down the sidewalk in spike heels. Something about the rule of three, maybe. On the way to my car, I saw an ambulance and a fire truck pull up next to Hassayampa (the dorm complex next-door). Paramedics were wheeling a stretcher into the dorms. Certainly it is possible somebody had a brain aneurysm burst or something, but I would bet with 99% certainty it's alcohol-related. That's great. Paramedics taking care of idiot students who gave themselves alcohol poisoning instead of car wreck victims (there will be a lot; it's Friday night in Tempe) or cardiac arrests or the like.
I don't get it. I never have gotten it, nor have I admittedly tried. But I have been privy to a great deal of it--this is my forth year in university. I'm not entirely sure what to call "it"--a fusion of clubbing and bar-hopping culture and binge-drinking college bullshit. I understand having a drink with friends. I understand getting trashed with friends. Hell, I understand getting trashed for its own sake. (For the record, I usually only get tipsy at most, and if left to my own devices will do what I usually do--read, play video games, write, etc.) But drinking to the point of alcohol poisoning? Going to parties where you know nobody and trust nobody? Dressing up, going to clubs, paying ludicrous amounts for drinks, only to be seen or find a hook-up?
It all seems so vacuous and mind-numbing. I don't know how anybody can stand to be immersed in such a reality for more than thirty seconds. And yet, people actively seek it out. ASU's student body embodies this mutual reality with an intensity and thoroughness I thought only possible in trashy teen movies. I honestly do not get it. I wonder if it's a self-fulfilled prophesy.
For the record, I consider a pub-like atmosphere different, though related in some ways. I don't mind the pub if I remain intellectually stimulated.
Also, going out with the hopes of getting laid at the end of the night? I stayed in, read Murakami, watched Colbert Report, and still managed to get laid.
omegadonut to his car. It's 1:30. Bars close in half an hour. It's Friday night. It is a ten minute round-trip to his car along the Light Rail route, and I saw three police cars pulled over behind three cars. On the three minute walk from my car back to my dorm, I saw three different girls drunk-stumbling down the sidewalk in spike heels. Something about the rule of three, maybe. On the way to my car, I saw an ambulance and a fire truck pull up next to Hassayampa (the dorm complex next-door). Paramedics were wheeling a stretcher into the dorms. Certainly it is possible somebody had a brain aneurysm burst or something, but I would bet with 99% certainty it's alcohol-related. That's great. Paramedics taking care of idiot students who gave themselves alcohol poisoning instead of car wreck victims (there will be a lot; it's Friday night in Tempe) or cardiac arrests or the like. I don't get it. I never have gotten it, nor have I admittedly tried. But I have been privy to a great deal of it--this is my forth year in university. I'm not entirely sure what to call "it"--a fusion of clubbing and bar-hopping culture and binge-drinking college bullshit. I understand having a drink with friends. I understand getting trashed with friends. Hell, I understand getting trashed for its own sake. (For the record, I usually only get tipsy at most, and if left to my own devices will do what I usually do--read, play video games, write, etc.) But drinking to the point of alcohol poisoning? Going to parties where you know nobody and trust nobody? Dressing up, going to clubs, paying ludicrous amounts for drinks, only to be seen or find a hook-up?
It all seems so vacuous and mind-numbing. I don't know how anybody can stand to be immersed in such a reality for more than thirty seconds. And yet, people actively seek it out. ASU's student body embodies this mutual reality with an intensity and thoroughness I thought only possible in trashy teen movies. I honestly do not get it. I wonder if it's a self-fulfilled prophesy.
For the record, I consider a pub-like atmosphere different, though related in some ways. I don't mind the pub if I remain intellectually stimulated.
Also, going out with the hopes of getting laid at the end of the night? I stayed in, read Murakami, watched Colbert Report, and still managed to get laid.
