The Invite

Vague:  Not clearly outlined; indefinite in shape or form; hazily, obscurely, or indistinctly seen or sensed.


SuperK and I were invited by a good friend in The Program to spend the recent holiday weekend at a cabin that he owns in a small seaside town not far from where we live.  He invited a lot of other people from The Program as well which made me briefly question his sanity.  I acknowledge the wisdom in the bromide "Anywhere that two alcoholics are gathered together then something or the other is going to happen or could happen in a generally positive sense."  I may have messed up the wording a little but you get the point, or maybe you don't.  What do I know? 


Less familiar is the saying: "Anywhere three alcoholics are joined asunder then you better be careful because that's about two alcoholics too many."  We're a little volatile is the implication.  That's a lot of alcoholics to manage.  There were many times in the past - when we were all still drinking - that just ONE alcoholic could draw the attention of local law enforcement; sometimes the feds showed up, too.  More than one alcoholic was an invitation to mass chaos.  You could expect a fistfight or at least someone saying something that would lead to a resentment lasting several years.


There aren't any little sayings suggesting what can happen when more than three alcoholics are gathered together.  That's just way too many alcoholics all at once, outside of a meeting room.  That's really pushing the limit of rational behavior.  And this is a really excellent group of friends that I really enjoy being around, rare enough in its own right.  We looked forward to the weekend, both for the spectacular natural beauty of the area and the chance to socialize in sobriety, a special treat for the recovering drunk.


We stopped on the way to the resort area and took a long hike up a tall mountain.  It was a great hike -- normally from the top you can see many miles down the coast but this day there was a lot of heavy fog obscuring the view.  As we took a break to eat our lunch the mist started to blow inland with a real vengeance so that the hike down, in woods cloaked in a heavy fog, was even more spectacular than the hike up.  Plus, the downhill part was a real plus as compared to the going up part.


We arrived at the cabin mid-afternoon, whooped out and filthy and hungry as hell.  The town in which the cabin was located was a nice town; I had hoped that by "cabin" my friend meant "really huge house with 30 or 40 bedrooms," similar to people in Newport, RI, calling their massive summer mansions "cottages."  I have no idea why I thought that.  Probably along the same lines that I thought when my boss said "Get the hell out of here and never come back" I heard something more along the lines of "I'm a little disappointed in your effort today so why don't you go home and get really drunk in front of the TV all by yourself, come in an hour or two late tomorrow, and we'll talk about it then."


The cabin was a very nice small house with one bedroom.  I had pre-bitched about the accommodations so our host had given us the bedroom.  "Sheesh, what a crybaby," I can imagine him saying.  I didn't feel too bad about it as we were definitely the oldest people there.  We looked around doubtfully - 10 people in a one and a half bath, one bedroom cottage seemed to be about 8 people too many in my prissy opinion.  I want to be able to pee and poop in privacy, at my convenience, and go to sleep whenever I want to and wake up when I'm done sleeping and walk around with my fly open.  I confess to some trepidation that this was going to happen.  I was pretty sure that we weren't all going to be on the same page as far as sleeping, dining, and pooping schedules were concerned.  And it was me that I was concerned about.


"Hey, can everyone clear out for a few hours so I can take a nap and read the paper?" I almost said.  Some vague sense of social responsibility grabbed hold of my tongue, for which I'm quite grateful.  I was vaguely aware that I was a guest in someone else's house.  Everything is vague with me.


I had a great time socializing with my friends.  If you want to really delve into the word "insanity" try to get 10 alcoholics moving in the same direction.  Our host wisely tried to lay down a couple of the vaguest, most general, voluntary suggestions.  As soon as he finished speaking I could see everyone move off in a different direction, like little children on a big red pop binge.  We're drunks - we hear what we want to hear and we do what we want to do, and we don't even know we're doing it.  I ask someone what their favorite color is and they say: "Blue."  I walk away thinking: "Wow,  their favorite color is yellow just like mine."  I'm not trying to be a bitch but I can't help myself.  I'm all wrapped up in my own head. 


Tomorrow: dinner.