So you’re hungover…

So you’re hungover.  It happens, don’t beat yourself up too much over it.  But as I’m sure everybody will learn at some point during their brief stay on this planet, there is little worse than a brutally horrific hangover.  Focus, movement and completion of basic life tasks become near impossible, nausea threatens the your ability to consume solid foods and the terrific pounding behind the eyes renders sleep the only viable option.  Despair not! You can overcome the beast.

credit: bitsandpieces.us

First, understand your foe.  The hangover has four main causes:

1. Dehydration:  Alcohol is a diuretic, which means that you’re going to go to the bathroom a lot, which is incredibly dehydrating.  Furthermore, if you’re busy pounding double captain and diets, you probably aren’t pausing to drink an ice cold glass of water.
2. Electrolyte loss:  See previous remark about the diuretic nature of alcohol.  You’re also losing most of your electrolytes, which will contribute to that wonky feeling in the morning.
3. Low blood sugar: When you’re drinking, you’re essentially sending your body into sugar rush tailspin.  (Even more so if you like sugary mixers.)  The next morning, all that sugar is gone and its not a great feeling.
4. Withdrawal:  That shaky feeling?  Those, my friends, are the DTs.  Alcohol is so addictive, that your body starts to go into withdrawal after a night of heavy drinking.  Which is why a little hair-o’-the-dog-that-bit-you works like a charm.  And which is also why you should never. ever. cure. your. hangover. with. hair. of. the. dog.

Here is the point in time where I ought to offer some “hangover prevention tips” like: drink responsibly, limit yourself to one drink per hour and drink a complete glass of water between each, don’t consume sugary mixers and blahblahblahblahwhatever, you’re probably still going to end up wasted and brutally hungover one day.  So what to do?

-Drink water.  Now, don’t go chugging the water, because that would probably be disastrous  (Unless of course, you preach the detoxifying benefits of morning-after puking…which I don’t), little sips should do it.
-Think about your electrolytes and blood sugar.  This is where Gatorade comes into play for most people.  Personally, I hate Gatorade, and choose full sugar Coke instead.  However you do it, make sure you’re getting some form of sugar and electrolytes back into your blood stream.
-Solid food.  You aren’t going to want it, but you’ll feel so much better after you do.

So friends, what do you do when you’re hungover?

A brief cautionary tale.

This picture, of me proudly displaying my birthday crate of clementines, has absolutely nothing to do with this post.

Last night, several friends and I went to the bar.  One of these friends is in the midst of the law school application process.  His roommate was supposed to be home working on a paper.  Said roommate appears, still wearing a three piece suit and his formal wool winter coat.  “I can only stay for a minute” he declared (in hindsight, ominously) “but I think you need to open this.”

Bearing a standard white business envelope from a top-tier law school, Juris Doctor-bound friend shifted awkwardly in his seat and asked, exasperated “You want me to open this here?  In the bar?  In front of everyone?”  Roommate responded in an assenting manner.  The letter was opened, and it was not good news.

General consensus: Roommate should go home.
Now.

Extreme text-based pandemonium ensued.  The rejection letter was mad-libsed.  Alcohol consumption, and thus all tabs open, increased significantly.  While all parties involved are now fairly relaxed about the whole incident, there are some valuable lessons to be learned.

• Standard white business envelopes from top tier graduate or professional schools should never be taken as good news.  (I would amend that to say that no piece of correspondence from any of the aforementioned should be taken as good news – but I’m a cynic.)
• Good intentions aside, roommates should probably leave their fellow cohabitants’ mail alone.
• Three-piece suits are not appropriate bar attire.
• It might actually be good to open your mail at the bar (particularly if you’re in the midst of a highly stressful application cycle).  At the very least, you don’t have to change locations to drown your sorrows.  (Or celebrate…but let’s be real here, you celebrate with phone calls to family, you accept rejection with friends at the bar.)
• And finally, you could avoid this entire situation by living alone.  But then what would we laugh about later?

Weighty Issues.

If I had started a blog at the beginning of my freshman year of college, I may have titled it something arrogant like “How to rock out in the Big Ten and avoid the Freshman 15.”  And this super arrogant title wouldn’t actually be a lie – because I do rock out in the Big Ten and I did, in fact, avoid the freshman fifteen.  It was the mysterious Sophomore/Junior 45 that really came back to bite me in the ass.  (Or, it may have been closer to the Mysterious 50…I’m pathologically opposed to the scale, so I have no way of knowing.)

Credit: Self.com

The numbers are neither here nor there.  (And out of respect for my good friends who struggle with numbers on the scale nearly every day of their lives, I’m not going to tell you.)  The point is that, after 3 year of excess everything-but-exercise, I wasn’t feeling too great about myself.  And my clothes didn’t fit.  It was truly unfortunate.

The summer after my junior year, I took charge with the classic “Eat Better, Exercise More” plan.  And it’s working!  To be honest, I was more surprised than anything else because when you get trapped in the mindset of not feeling too great about yourself, it’s hard to shake the funk, even if you’re doing everything you thought would fix it.  The good news is, now that I’m starting to see results (including, but by no means limited to a wonderfully fulfilling sense of accomplishment), it is getting progressively easier to shake the negative feelings.

The main tenets of the plan so far have been to: figure out what I eat (anything that was easy to acquire and eatable with one hand) and why I eat it (boredom, stress, as a social mechanism) and make appropriate changes (I realized that I don’t actually like french fries).  Then, I had to haul my ass out into the scary world that is the North Campus Recreation Building and move around some more.  And so far, so good.  I’m not going to end up being super athletic (running is still not my thing, okay?), nor will I ever be a model.  But I’m feeling a lot better about myself.

And my clothes actually fit.

MUN is F-U-N.

Greetings all over again.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was super busy running a Model United Nations Conference (and subsequently recovering from said conference) this past week or so and I wasn’t around to blog much.  But I’m back, and now you fine folks get to hear all about my conference experience.

If you’ve never heard of MUN, it stands for Model United Nations, a form of debate/socializing for students during which they assume the role of a given country and spend a weekend collaborating with other students to pass legislation on a given topic.  We also throw a pretty kickass delegate dance.

My role for this year’s conference was to act as a liaison between the high school advisers and our college student staff.  This means that I put a lot of miles on my car and spent a lot of time apologizing because educators, as I have learned well, are incredibly needy people.

Me and a cohort.

Examples of fabulously ill-timed suggestions include (but are by no means limited to):*
-Would it be possible for you [college students] to provide midnight supervision at the [off sight] hotel?
-Can you find a way to desexualize the dance?
-Do you have a refrigerator we can use?

Their commitment to minutiae drove me crazy for the first two days of the conference until we had a fire in our building.  Suddenly, I was panicked beyond all belief and began manically searching for all 500 of the children for whom I was legally responsible.  And then I understood. The terror I felt that someone — some blessed little adult-in-formation — might still be in that building brought me back down to earth almost immediately.  Because when you are an educator you take on the unenviable charge of bringing these children successfully into adulthood.  And every little detail matters because there is nothing more important that ensuring the safety and well being of these children.

All of that is food.

So I chilled out.  Or rather, I mostly chilled out.  Because there was a lot of cool stuff that went down during this conference.  For example, we held the first annual UMMUN food drive, which brought in a ton of donations and garnered a free dinner for the winning school.  And for the most part, these kids had the time of their lives which for me, is all that matters.

Anyway, time to catch up on my life.  Later in the week, I’ll tell you about why I am passionately committed to Model United Nations.

*Clearly, there were also many, many positive and helpfully constructive questions and criticisms brought forth, but some of them definitely brought on “excuse me, what did you say?” type moments.

22 things to do the week I turn 22

Sorry for the missed post.  This week, I’m in the midst of shepherding 400+ high school students through a weekend Model United Nations conference.  This is something I plan to tell you about at length once it’s over.  In the meantime, it’s my birthday on Tuesday!  Because I’m turning twenty-two (or rather, because it is the first anniversary of the year I turned twenty-one), I have made myself a list of 22 things that I need to do the week that I turn 22.

Some of them are boring.  (As in, actual things that I need to get done this week.)  But some of them are new and exciting experiences and I’m really looking forward to sharing with you.

 

11 in Winter 2011

Today is the first day of my last semester of undergrad and while I’m out there searching for a job and plotting my entry to the dreaded real world, it feels like a great time to do some hardcore goal-setting and life-planning.  Following in Angela over at ohsheglows’ lead, I’ve set myself 11 goals for Winter 2011.

1.)  Develop a sustainable exercise routine.
The specifics of this plan are that I intend to go to the gym some five times per week.  I plan to take two classes with friends and I’d like to make at least three solo expeditions.  I know that five a week seems like a lot, but I do feel a lot happier when I take the time to get some exercise in.
2.) Stick to a healthy, balanced diet.
My eating habits have gone to absolute shit since I started college, and working in food service certainly isn’t helping the matter.  So I’m going to work on it.  Nothing too restrictive or hardcore, because I’m prone to obsession, but 5 servings of fruits and vegetables and laying off the cheeseburgers seem like a good place to start.  I’m also looking to expand my eating horizons, if you will, and be more adventurous with food.
3.) Finish my senior honors thesis.
Here’s the plan: I have a rough rough rough draft/outline already completed and by the time midwinter break rolls around (the end of February), I’d like to have a completed draft.  From there, I’ll have a month to polish and perfect my final project.  (Which I’ll need to defend in April…egads!)
4.) Update my wardrobe/all my other stuff in preparation for being a real live grown up.
My wardrobe isn’t too terribly bad, but like all college students, I need to be mindful that one day it will be expected that I dress like an adult.  So I’ll be looking for affordable pieces to add to my wardrobe, in the hope of one day having an employment-ready closet.
5.) Graduate with honors.
My job as a student is to show up to every class, be prepared and participate willingly.  So I’m going to do just that.  No more sleeping in just because, and I am going to speak up at least once per class session.  (Maybe twice for some of my smaller classes.)  If I can get that down pat, the good grades should follow.
6.) Excel at my job.
I was recently promoted (more on that later) and I aspire to be decent at it.
7.) Qualify for nationals and finish in the top 4.
This is a fun piece of knowledge, but I’m a competitive pool player.  I’ve gone to Nationals the past two years and done steadily and steadily better, and this year, I’d like to qualify and place in the top four.
8.) Blog regularly and expand this particular network.
So far, I have no real plan on how to do this, but I appreciate any help you fine folks have to offer!
9.) Find a real job.
This is sort of like crawling uphill, given the economy and my choice of degrees, but I full intend to give it my absolute best efforts.  That means setting up an appointment at the career center, polishing my resume to high heaven and getting applications to just about every job under the sun.  It will probably be entirely exhausting and, at times, disheartening.  But I refuse to fester in post-graduate unemployment because I didn’t try hard enough.
10.) Make plans to build a real life.
Once again, this is a goal with no real plan.  Please help me, readership!
11.) Have fun.
I recently made a joke that I want my last semester of college to be like Asher Roth’s “I Love College”, but instead of smoking weed, we’ll throw in “finish my thesis.”  Actually, it’s not really a life-pertinent song at all, but it’s fun – and that’s the point.  This semester, I want to have fun and enjoy my friends’ company before we all have to go our separate ways.

What are your goals?

There are so many things to be thankful for.

Wishing you all a safe, happy and wonderful New Year.

Like fancy nails and a strong cup of coffee.

Homemade candy.

Fancy toes and a rousing bowl pool.

Gifts from friends and family.

Gifts from the sea.

A home with a view.

And, most importantly, a killer family.

New Year, New Me?

It’s that time of year again!  Time for Ye Olde New Year’s Resolutions and the inevitable guilt their failure will bring!  Time to swear to go “all raw” overnight, to pick up a 10 hour per week exercise devotion, to quit your vices cold turkey…because you can!  And because your willpower will carry you across the next 12 months unscathed!
Absolutely, right?
Or not.

I’ve long since given up on “proper” New Year’s Resolutions.  I know that drastic life changes made just because it’s a new calendar year just aren’t going to do it for me.  (That’s not to say that it doesn’t work for anyone, and if you’re one of the chosen few who successfully pull of resolutions, go for it!)  I also am not so naïve as to delude myself into thinking that I can craft a reasonable 5 year plan.  Though, once again, I know plenty of people (who are not currently employed by the government of the People’s Republic of China) that can and do create fabulous 5YPs.

Seoul, ROK (Image via Jezebel via AP)

Because I’m not one of them, I’m trying a new New Year’s Tactic, the 1 Year Plan (1YP).  Or, at the very least, the one year loose guideline.  Thusly, one year from today I will:

-Have (finally) developed a healthy and sustainable exercise routine that will (hopefully) make sense for years to come.
-Be at a “happy” weight.  (But we can talk all about weight at a later, less festive date.)
-Be a proud and happy college graduate and largely productive and financially independent member of society.

Alright, seems easy enough.  Except for that part where it requires lots of work and lots of planning, but like all serious things, we can discuss them when we’re done celebrating.

Merry Christmas to all

...and to all a good night.

Holiday Blues? It’s okay, me too.

Credit: JourneyofHearts.org

If you haven’t noticed, the Holidays are upon us (and have been for some time).  If you’re like me, you may be caught up in this thing called the “Holiday Blues”.  It’s a truly post-modern quarter-life crisis type phenomenon, but it certainly is a valid one.  There’s just something very claustrophobic about the holidays.

Imagine the following scenario: four people (one with some pretty severe mobility issues) in one two bedroom, two bathroom condominium.  We end up with three people vying for one toilet and four people vying for rights to the television.  And don’t get me started on the strangeness that is sharing a bedroom with your 19 year old little brother who has space-sharing issues.

Credit: ChicagoNow.com

It is probably a sign of our troubling times that my idea of a true holiday would be to sit quietly in a darkened room watching a Criminal Minds marathon, refusing all forms of communication with the outside world.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t love my family or don’t want to spend time with them, just that my idea of a break doesn’t involve excessive cheer — holiday or otherwise.

So how to beat the holiday blahs?  First of all, one ought to recognize that there’s very little to be done about it.  If you don’t actually hate your family (and I certainly don’t), you can focus on how nice it is to be all together for a change.  If claustrophobia is getting to you, find things to get out of the house.  (Personally, I like the fact that the gym in this building has actual televisions attached to its machines.  Better to facilitate my Criminal Minds fetish.)  As always, feel free to fall back on the usual coping mechanisms.  (Excessive sleeping, organization of to-do lists, boozing, and laundry come to mind.)

Credit: Surfbakersfieldmag.com

If none of those seem to help, you can always guilt trip yourself (admittedly, much easier to do if you have any affiliation with the Catholic Church).  After all, you’d probably be very upset if they weren’t around to celebrate with you.  So remind yourself, its just a week or two.

…and if all else fails, you’re probably getting a bunch of swag.