Hello.

I was clubbing last night, and it often leaves me in a strange state of deep thoughts. For example, right now I'm looking at an old fella walking outside with his red umbrella. He's holding the thing in front of him, so he's actually protecting the space immediately in front him from the rain. Furthermore, the edge of the umbrella is on top his head. I would imagine it drips some water on his hat. Not that it matters. I still think he thinks he's covering himself from the rain as best he can. It's the thought that counts, right? "It's raining, I have my umbrella, I could be getting even more soaked."

Like I said, these thoughts are well and thoroughly deep. Really.

Not that I have a hangover. I didn't drink very much, the reason being I don't want to have another lonely hangover. Hangovers can be ok if there's people to share them with. But not alone. Actually, I  heard a medical explanation yeasterday for the depressing thoughts that are often associated with hangovers: the serotonin levels are low during a hangover. So the stuff that keeps up bright and shiny is scarce for a while, and we feel like everything we did last night was quite stupid, even though it might not have been that bad. So, then, actually we didn't do anything stupid while drunk out of our minds last night, now did we? It's only the self-induced lack of serotonin talking. By the way, this all is only a complicated way of saying I actually sometimes think about what other people think when they hold their umbrellas in front of them instead on top of themselves.

Another thing about not having a hangover after clubbing  is that it's probably more of an exception than a rule around these parts. At least it seems that way (though this might just be another way of glorifying my own actions...). People go out to have fun, and the fun comes from the fact that everybody's at least a little bit drunk. I do it myself, too. Lately I've been wondering why. For me it's like this: it's a fine line between being in a good kind of drunken state, where everything seems good and funny, me included. That's the moment people drink for, i guess. The the next drink. And actually, maybe the one after that will be the one that brings on the great times. Well, no. When I get a little over that nice part, I tend to start forgetting the little things like, you know, what I talked about with some random people. I tend to remember that it happened, but not what it was about. So, was it fun, then, to talk to this person or that when I forget what it was about? Yeah, we laughed a lot. I must've been fun.

No. Why would I want to do that? Where's the fun in that? So far we've established that a basic point of going to a club has been achieved. I met a new person (maybe even a few). Awesome. As I was a bit too drunk, I remember meeting this person, but the next time I don't remember what it was we discussed. So how to proceed when next we meet? This I haven't figured out yet. And this is where the whole being-drunk-while-having-fun-at-a-club-thing gets a bit hazy: I meet people once, but the next time is bound to be awkward. I'm not actually sure if that as a whole at all fun. Is it? Talk about the weather to avoid revealing the fact that you forgot the other persons thoughts on the subject? Sounds like fun.

A little background: I'm male, near 30, single, living in Northern Europe. Just to give a stereotypical idea of what kind of a night at the club I might have. In addition, I guess I'm more of a introvert than extrovert, which might be why I tend to wonder about things a lot. It might also be why, if I've managed to get me a hangover after clubbing, I often find myself alone at home instead of the whole one night stand routine. Yeah, ok, I think I might have shot down the whole stereotypia here. Well, I contradict myself a lot. Unfinished thoughts, I guess. But it's still a sort of a backgound.

Getting back to the umbrella business, I just saw a couple running with their umbrellas held over them. I mean, how often do you see people running in the rain with umbrellas? I guess they were in a hurry, but it still looked kind of strange. And what do you know, just now they walked back to where they came from. Maybe they were in a hurry to get candy from the next door movie rental place?

Strange.

Yours,
T