Holiday Detox Week Seven/Eight

I have started a new work schedule where I work seven days in a row and then have seven days off, which has changed by drinking habits.  I am working midnights, so on my work week, I cannot drink unless I want to do it at 8 in the morning.  This more or less results in one guaranteed week of sobriety and one week in a drunken stupor.  Which is much better than two consecutive weeks of being in a drunken haze.  So, all and all, this is a good thing.  The only bad part is, it is hard to work out during my on week.  Working 80 hours in seven days does not leave a lot of energy or desire to head to the gym.  Hopefully it will get easier as I get more used to the schedule.  If anyone tries to call me on a Wednesday night, you will get no response for two possible reasons.  Number one, I just started by first night and will be MIA for the next seven nights.  Number two, I got drunk immediately after getting of work at 8am Wednesday morning and will be passed out for the the next twenty hours trying to get back on a normal sleep schedule.  So far, I would rate the detox a success overall, I have exercised more often and confined my drinking to an average of one huge binge a week.  I don't know at what point the detox stops being a holiday detox and just recovery of a crazy person though.

Holiday Detox Week Six

So far, so good.  I am going on a brewery tour throughout Chicago today though, so my good streak will come to a screeching halt.  I am starting to work midnights this coming week, which entails a seven day on seven day off work routine.  I get the feeling that every other week will be detox and the other a drunken stupor.  I am going to be working nights in Merrillville/Gary.  Should be an interesting overnight crowd.  I am currently looking into having a Kevlar white pharmacist coat made to protect me.  More to follow on the new gig.

Holiday Detox Week Five

Currently on my fifth beer, so you can take from that what you will.  I did work out everyday this week, so that's a plus.  I also ran 8 miles this morning, and have only drank 1 vitamin water accompanied by 5 beers all day, so you can take from that what you will.  On an unrelated note, I just watched the movie Real Steal.  It was actually pretty good.  I think I will have a permanent man crush on Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, I will just have amnesia to the last 2 X-Men movies.  I consider working out six days a week, getting mildly buzzed 4 days a week, and getting shit faced 1 day a week as totally normal.  That leaves 2 days of detox, what more can one ask for.  Back to the movie though, pretty inspiring stuff.  Makes me want to start making robots to kick the shit out of my pharmacy customers.  I can't wait for the future.

Holiday Detox Week Four

Week four?  What happened to week three?  Week three was spent off the wagon for the most part.  Not really drunk every night, but a little buzzed most of the time.  As usual I blame work.  Trying to get back into good habits, but a work schedule that changes from day to day via text message is waning on my sanity.  Unfortunately not a whole lot else going on.  I will be more entertaining soon.  Or as entertaining as I can be.

Holiday Detox Week Two

Detox was going great until this weekend.  I fell off the wagon Saturday night.  Four beers and three long islands later, I was not feeling so hot.  The next two days I was back on track, then somehow managed to drink a bottle of wine last night with dinner.  At least I have kept running and working out pretty regularly, so I may have cancelled out my backslides somewhat.  Detox on!

Holiday Detox Week One

After spending the last 2 weeks in a diabetic/alcohol induced coma, my post-holiday detoxification has begun.  After one week, I have been alcohol free and pretty much lived on Lean Cuisines.  So far so good.  Not a great week to stop drinking.  The first few weeks of the new year are notoriously rough in retail pharmacy due to the moron customers not realizing their insurance has changed, and that deductibles were not just something you do once in a lifetime.  An insane amount of transfers from Wags has also been brutal on my sanity.  The only thing good about sticking to the detox this week was that if I didn't have it in my mind that I was going to be doing it, I probably would have been doing shots at work out of prescription bottles.  I did land myself a sweet gig for roughly the next 2 weeks going to stores after they close and entering all the extra prescriptions.  Retail pharmacy actually isn't too bad once you remove dealing with people from the equation.  Also adding to the positive mental attitude of the detox, I was able to play golf today.  Not often that occurs in January, and on top of that we got to play for free.  Due to the lack of alcohol to keep me entertained over the next few weeks, I will try and blog a little more often.  Good for my brain, not so good for you.

Batman: Arkham City Review

I figured I would get a quick review in of the game that has dominated my life for the past two weeks. So far it's pretty great. According to my progress report I am roughly 15% through the game, and have probably logged about 20 hours of play or so. I know that's not as good as the prepubescent kids that rock 20 hours a day, but for a full time doctor, it's about all the time I can put in. The graphics and sounds are great. The actors that do the voices of the Batman characters all do an amazing job that makes the story much more interesting. The plot of the game is that a portion of Gotham City has been walled off, and all of the criminals are just thrown in to fend for themselves. It's a great way to work all of the classic villains into the story, and the game provides character bios if you are not familiar with some of them. There are a lot of side missions throughout the game as you follow the main story line. Some of the side missions overlap with the story so you can take care of both at once, others are a nice break from the main story to go do something else. The city itself is extremely well designed with lots of places to grapple onto or jump from one roof and glide to another. Speaking of jumping, gliding, and grappling, the controls take some time to get used to. Every button on the controller is utilized and sometimes a combination of several buttons at once is needed to accomplish a task. There is a hint option that is very nice, it tells you what button to hit if you find yourself getting bludgeoned to death to give you a chance to escape or retaliate. Overall, it is one of the better games I have played lately. My only fear is that it will now sit unused for several weeks since Modern Warfare 3 comes out tomorrow.