- Luckily I never did this in real life with mine, but now you can Crash Your Jetta into various things like a Rhino or a dinosaur (click on “Watch Safe Happen”)
- Know how to pour a Stella Artois beer correctly? This fun advergame/movie will tell you, and how.
This week, a rather large bottle full of a green liquid and labeled “Sciroppo di Menta” (Mint Syrup) appeared in our office.
I stared at it in horror as I was immediately thrown back to my college days.
We had moved into the 3 bedroom duplex after living in the dorms for two years, and we were glad to be “free.” Of course, the best way to celebrate this was to have a party to show the underclassmen, still living in the dorms, how cool we were. The night wore on and we exhausted every source of alcohol in the near vicinity, and of course after midnight in Texas you can’t buy alcohol because the liquor stores are closed.
I bent down and peered into our cupboard that was sufficing as our liquor cabinet/bar. I moved aside the plastic cactus margarita glasses and the empty Jose Cuervo bottle that hadn’t been thrown away. The light reflected off something in the far corner but I couldn’t see what it was. I reached back and grasped a bottle. Yes! Hidden alcohol saves the party.
As my hand withdrew it into the open, no translucent vodka or golden tequila caught the light. Instead, a dark glass bottle with a murky liquid sloshed in my hand.
I had bought it during my Grasshopper Pie phase and I guess I had one more pie to make. It was a little dusty from lack of use, but it was alcohol.
I stood up and raised the bottle in triumph for my fellow partygoers to see. An excited, yet sloppy cheer went up. Simultaneously, my 8″ tall “university” shot glass, the one with different levels etched on the side for the corresponding levels in university – “Freshman,” “Sophomore”, etc., up until Ph.D. student, was thrust into my hand.
Since I was a junior, I couldn’t do less than that, and already my stomach was roiling with the thought of all that green sludge sliding down my throat. To keep my cool points, I would have to go past Senior and straight to Grad Student.
I looked around for support.
“Monica, time for some hazing!” I recruited my replacement as President of the dorm to do it with me. I knew she wouldn’t refuse – she could outdrink me anyway.
“I guess I’ll have to use a normal shot glass since there’s only one University glass.” She held up an impossibly small normal-size shot glass. Damn. She was younger, but definitely not stupider.
The glasses were filled with the green liquid and it was so dark and dense we couldn’t even see through it. Everyone waited to see if we would do it. It was the moment of truth.
“1-2-3-bottoms up!”
It went down, and stayed down, but not without a fight through the corridors of my digestive system that makes me take a wide circle around the bottle every time I see it.
So, imagine my surprise to find that my coworkers were adding this to their glasses from the water cooler! I shuddered a bit at the thought, but that green bottle was emptying fast, and everywhere I went in the office, little green cups greeted me. It was peer pressure all over again, but this time it was office peer pressure, which is even more dangerous because it’s very passive. There’s no threatening talk in the bathroom like on the afterschool specials, but you notice just the same because everyone’s doing it, and you’re not.
I finally decided to try some to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, my coworker made it really strong and even diluting it in an additional glass of water didn’t bring it to an acceptable level. I finally admitted defeat after trying to choke down the first glass, and poured them down the drain.
That color green was too familiar to me.
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