Round 3

I knew that the third day was probably going to be the hardest.

I woke up on the third day feeling pretty okay. I was definitely dragging ass, but a bit of framboise later and a few glasses of water to go with it, I was feeling a little bit better. So, off to a day of work at the brewery, mostly doing odd jobs that no one else has the time to do and helping out on the bottling line a little bit.

The day was going well. Got some cleaning and reorganizing done that had been sort of half-assed by someone else doing their best to finish the job so they could clock out. Things were going well after a few more bottles to pump up the energy levels a little bit. Made sure to have plenty of water to keep the warehouse heat at bay. Then bottling started. They were doing 12-packs of 420, their most popular brew. They have a case gluer that they've been fighting with for at least 2 years. It sucked ass then, it's not much better now. It's like a good woman, it works for a few minutes, then it gets bored (think homonyms). Yeah, it was pretty much fucking up every other case that come through, tearing lids off of some, tipping others on their sides and compressing the bejesus out of them. Needless to say, we couldn't keep using the temperamental bitch. So, we had to resort to hand taping each case, hand dating them for expiration and load them onto pallets. Usually only the pallet loading is necessary. So it required more manpower. And I ended up being one of the dater/pallet loaders. So after my 10th pallet of 72 cases, I was totally zonked. I was teetering on an edge mentally. You know, sort of like when you've had a few too many and you start to realize it. You're aware, but that awareness comes with the side effect of not having a fucking clue as to what your body is doing. And I was extremely nauseous. I felt like I was going to throw up (what did I have to throw up?) and pass out at the same time. And passing out on a brewery floor is not something to look forward to. Broken glass, sanitizer, random dirt mostly from pallets, etc.

So faced with a choice between sticking to my principles and being a shitty employee versus caving in at the 60 hour mark, I had to cave. This time. I know, I'm such a loser. I feel like Mike Tyson but without the necklace made of ears and not having to rape to get laid. If I had nothing to do except hang out around the house for most of the day, I feel like I could have beaten it. All of this buildup to fail well before the halfway point.

But failure has its rewards as well. No, not being branded a pathetic piece of crap. See, we got invited to go see the Paul Simon show at Chastain Park Amphitheater last evening by some friends that we tailgate with at Tech football games. When I found this out on Monday evening, I was very disappointed. Why? Because of this guy, half of the couple that invited us. And when you go to a concert venue where you're expected to bring your own food and beverage with a guy who was the executive chef of a major restaurant in Atlanta, and all you've been asked to bring is beer and dessert, you can imagine what a treat you are in for. Keep in mind that for the Georgia game last year, he cooked a whole fucking baby pig and about half of a cow and enough "side dishes" (most of them could be consumed as a main course) for a small platoon, or at least the 60 or so people that tailgate in our area. So the reward of being a big, fat, failing, faggoty-ass fuckstick was that I got to eat some divine food (think curried chicken salad, beef tenderloin with chef's special horseradish sauce, "orgasmic" rolls as descrbed by Chris' wife prepared by the pastry chef at Canoe where Chris currently works, and a wine from 1927 that tasted like smoking raisins in a fine cigar's tobacco wrapper) So being a loser has its benefits.

But for those of you that are wondering what would have happened if I had been able to finish, just keep checking in every so often. I'm going to do this sometime before the end of next summer. I just have to plan better and probably do a little more training. Training to drink beer? Exactly! I'll keep posting over at SudsPundit in the meantime and I'll holla' at ya' when it's on like Donkey Kong!