Maybe it’s because every year I give this post the same title, but it seems that my birthdays seem to be getting closer and closer together. Like I’m living on Venus where time moves really quickly. However, I notice that my birthdays are getting better and better each year.
This year, I made reservations at my favorite dive bar, Iguana Macks. How can you go wrong attending any establishment with “Mack” in the title? The 3 days prior to my birthday, it rained. It rained all day on my birthday, but luckily just hours before I was to go to my reservation, it magically stopped. It was perfect..well as perfect as it could be, it was still as cold as a mother fucker. I use the term “Cold as mother fucker” in all relativity of course. It is Arizona.
I had 5 or 6 close friends drinking with me. I like to drink Coronas. They’re my all around stand by. However, on special occasions, I like to mix it up. Mix it up I did. My friend John, the only other guy I know in the world with a “boca” (the ability to talk) like mine, insisted that I try “Soco and Lime”. I, after some coaxing, agreed. Our waitress, the quintessential blond, brought us these very brown, very large shots.
“John, These soco shots look and smell an awful lot like Tequila…” I said somewhat suspiciously. Alcohol makes me a skeptic.
As I suspected, even in my somewhat drunk state, they were tequila. We told her she brought us the wrong shot, and she apologized and scampered off to make it right. She brought us back our limey drinks, and we drank them. Much to my chagrin, they were good. Then, a few minutes later she came back with the tequila shots. I kidded with with her, “The bartended didn’t have a funnel to pour them back in the bottle?” She blushed slightly. The kind of blush that made me think she hadn’t thought to try and use a funnel.
These were damn close to triple shots. Served in a cocktail glass, about 1/3 of the way full. I like to use the term “raunchy” to describe them. We cheersed to something drunken but celebratory. Free tequila will have that effect on people. I watched as Brooke, the beautiful 110 pound girl across from me, slammed down her glass in victory, followed by several other. I found myself still drinking, my top lip totally submersed. This was a lot of tequila.
I finished, but felt very sick. I stood up just in case I needed to make a dash somewhere. Shooting tequila is fine. Drinking it like water on a hot day is not. My friends, knowing me very well, knew that I was sick. Apparently I have ‘a look’. Someone, and it’s only because I was trying to not spew that I do not remember, suggested I just “mosy to the bathroom and come back when I feel better”. However, I persevered and totally impressed everyone by sitting down 2 minutes later, totally composed again and drinking a beer. Sometimes, I do feel like a rockstar.
Unfortunately, after that moment, things start to get hazy. They had an awesome wood burning stove that kept everything really cozy. The next morning, our clothes smelled like a campfire. It was a great birthday.