Watch Me Entertain Myself!

Sacha Guitry once said, "You can pretend to be serious, but you can't pretend to be witty." Oh yes, I'm the great pretender.
(pilot episode: 20 January 2004)

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Party’s Over

Two cases of Soju (original daw), at 20 bottles per case, check. 30 shot glasses, 15 blue and 15 clear, check. Three bottles of wine from Gibbs, presents given to him but he can’t consume by himself, so he donated them for the party, check. Six thousand plus pesos for the apartment suite, check.

At Saturday 4pm, I had the venue and drinks covered for the Fabcasters Summer Party. But I also had work that afternoon, so with much reluctance I left the party venue to go to a boxing match.

There were 6 undercards plus the main event. We started at 5:45pm; by the time the main card was about to start, it was already close to 10pm. Tired and quite hungry, I asked my boss if I could leave once the main event (which was also the last fight for that night) started; she nodded her approval. I passed by Yellow Cab to get me some hot wings. So by the time I had arrived at the party, I was hungry, tired and… aghast at the number of people inside the suite.

Okay, so in the official Facebook invite there were 41 “attending” and 22 “maybe.” Still, I’m so used to people backing out at the last minute. But even outside the hallway, I could hear the noise of more than 5 dozen gay men talking, chatting, laughing and being animated, thanks to the spirit of the glassful of Soju.

Inside I went from kitchen area to living room to the small bedroom then finally the master bedroom—which was plunged in darkness. Hmmm, okaaay. There was a group of people squatting on the floor and whispering in low voices; had there been chanting, I would have wondered if I had stumbled upon a séance.

A little past midnight, a few guests who had stepped out for a bit came back with bad news: the management had received complaints from other guests about our noise level. A few minutes later I stepped out of our room to appease two ladies from the front desk who personally had to appeal to us to keep the noise level low; furthermore, they said that they never allowed parties to go on after midnight. I promised them I’d do something about the noise.

When I stepped back into the room, I was weighing the options: continue and just let the people have fun, or risk being asked to halt the party? In the end I chose to play bad-cop and kept going from group to group, shushing people and reminding them to keep the noise level at a tolerable level. Moving around and barely stopping, keeping people quiet—major stress plus major tiredness plus I wasn’t enjoying the people’s company plus people were parading shots of Soju in front of me and me just chugging them all in plus when the Soju was gone they started serving vodka—in short, around 3pm I don’t remember anymore what triggered it, but I found myself hugging the toilet bowl and throwing up. I remember TBR and AJ helping me and taking care of me. I think Tony also lent a helping hand. Someone slipped a bottle of Gatorade onto my hand and I chugged it down. Jusko! Parang balik-high school ang feeling ko! Yung pakiramdam mong tatanga-tanga ka pa sa pag-inom at hindi mo pa matancha kung saan ang kaya mo.

They helped me to bed and I blacked out.

The next morning I woke up with my head throbbing and the half-finished bottle of Gatorade still on my hand. The rest of the guys ate the free breakfast for four, but I couldn’t bear the thought of putting anything in my mouth—I had a feeling I’d throw it up immediately. True enough, after a few minutes, I had to go back to the toilet and throw up the remaining Gatorade that I drank upon waking up.

If there’s one thing I really hate, it’s that feeling when you still need to throw up, but there’s nothing in your stomach so what’s coming out is really stomach acid? Ugh. It’s the best feeling in the world; it’s the best feeling to make me swear to myself that, “Never again! Never mix Soju and vodka—never!”

Still I heard that people had a great time. Thank you to my fellow Fabcasters for a wonderful party. Pardon my being killjoy and shushing everyone the whole night, and our apologies to the guests who couldn’t sleep because of our noise. Oh well. That’s the last time we’ll ever book that place for a party.

God, I still feel a slight throbbing pain in my forehead.

19 comments:

Felipe said...

i miss getting drunk.

Capital "I" for Inggit. Next time, I'm going. Kung payagan ako. Hihihihi. :D

I'm sure the party was a blast. :)

[G] said...

oh, i missed it again :-(

closet case said...

good grief! i really am sorry you had to go through all that, mcvie. i left at 1am thinking this was one of the more sedate parties. i left too soon.

jamie da vinci! said...

my mader, the... well, MADER. hope ur feeling better!

Mac Callister said...

haha i missed that feeling,yun mag throw up ng wala na mailabas kundi laway!LOL

atleast na knocked down ka thats the best part!nyahaha!

Marcus-kos said...

Hey McVie, sorry to hear about what happened to you. Awesome party, though. It was a great way for me to get back into the scene. Last PLU party I attended was back when I was still chatting on mIRC in 1998.

Hope to get invited again to the next one. Oh, I also don't mind helping out in any way I can.

Cheers!

Marcuskos aka Polar Bear (as christened by MGG)

Anonymous said...

It was a great party and you, of all the people there, should have been enjoying it rather than playing the bad cop.

Actually, earlier on, when we were being told to keep it down, CC and I tried to start a 'spin the bottle' (kiss the person who the bottle points to) pero someone kicked it or it stopped spinning where no one was there (I know with that many people may vacant area pa ba!?!). I looked to the heavens and just asked "Why?".

Anonymous said...

too bad i missed this. see you next time.

london boy said...

hey! i hope you're feeling better already. hangover is a bitch!

Justin said...

awww... bangenge ka pala nung partey, di ko na naabutan na sabog ka! but its ok, ayos din maexperience yung ganyan na sabog paminsan minsan. parang bata lang! till the next partey! =)

Ming Meows said...

kaya pala wala ka sa mood. sana next time you'll be okay.

Guyrony said...

I'm sorry to hear that but at least you guys still get to enjoy each other's company. Sorry had to run early, had to do a marathon as well.


Bwahahahaha!

TBR said...

ok lang ang magsuka, pero hindi ang hindi mag-enjoy!

people give too much credit to soju. hellow, malandi lang talaga lahat haha.

btw, i slipped the gatorade in your hand, but i don't remember who bought it for you. thanks to him!

enegue said...

did the vitamins work? it's my med friends' magic pills for their hangover. works for me..at times hehe.

it was a nice party. first time i saw you drunk. you were the quiet type. hopefully next time, you'd enjoy it more.

missed you during the lunch though. hope to see you when i get back from HK. hugs.

Vince (Discreet Manila) said...

Hi McVie, no need to apologize for shushing everyone. We should be the ones that should've been more considerate and kept our voices down, hard that may be.

But anyway, my friend and I had a really great time. Thanks!

(Now the challenge is to find a better venue. Dapat city resort na! Hehehe.)

Unknown said...

Kurt bought the Gatorade. You complained pa nga because it was Lemon-Lime flavor. Haha.

Next party, let's include a notice sa invite: DO NOT BRING VODKA.

Next time, too, I will not bring vodka. Sorry teh, isa ako sa mga nagdala ng vodka! Hehe.

I must say that party was a blast! In spite of and despite everything else that happened. Ang daming bangenge! Yun lang.

joelmcvie said...

@AJ: Yeah, I hated lemon-lime Gatorade.

Teh, wala akong problema in people bringing vodka. Please, please, bring vodka by all means! HOWEVER, I know better than to mix soju with vodka because TO ME, that's a deadly mix. =)

Teh, my biggest regret is that I was out like a light and missed all your quotable quotes. Yun na! Your quotes made the party.

palma tayona said...

crap! i left my comment in the wrong post. heto ang tama...

There was a group of people squatting on the floor and whispering in low voices; had there been chanting, I would have wondered if I had stumbled upon a séance.

--- Lol! That was me leading a group of younger gay boys in a huddle doing a sort-of "so, this the first PLU-party I've been to and..." They were a group of first-timers there and acquainting them to a "one can have fun in the dark without having to remove one's clothes" while I passed around the soju poured from a couple of bottles someone just left in the middle of the circle.

I have to say, that was one of the quietest parties I have ever been to... with clothes on. :-)

cheers! *hic*

TBR said...

i almost brought vodka. almost brought mudslide, but was wondering if it goes well with soju. so i brought red wine instead, and nobody drank red wine haha

thanks kurt! sensha na mapili sa flavor yung lasing hehe.