Kicking the Habit

This past weekend, I went to visit my friends in Berkeley to celebrate their graduation. I called my brother to pick me up after he got off work, and while I was waiting, I decided to go to the on campus coffee house for a small coffee and to watch the closing minutes of the Game 2 of the Cleveland-Orlando series. (Holy cow, that was a long sentence!) I ended up leaving when there was only 1 second left on the clock and Cleveland was down two. Now, in hindsight, I know it was a bad time to leave.

I got to Berkeley that night around 10pm. We were low on car space so I spent a bit of time walking between on friend’s apartment and the other. On the way up, I was talking to one of my friends, and the whole time, I didn’t realize he was extremely drunk. On the way back, I walked with a different friend and we saw some very scary things. Note to self, the streets of Berkeley are more dangerous than you think. At some point, we walked by somebody, sitting upright on the sidewalk, with his upper torso wrapped in sheets. My friend and I started talking about how that could easily be a horror movie. Somehow, that idea transgressed into making a movie about a small alligator with a pink bow. Don’t ask.

I stayed up pretty late with my friends that night. We mostly talked about a book we’re planning on writing about attending private school (particularly, middle school). Believe it or not, my chapter is going to be about being one of the coolest kids in the class. I’ve been in private school my whole life. You can take “coolest kid” to mean what you want.

I went on to celebrate three more graduations that weekend; however, celebrations were cut short when I developed a severe headache and mild flu-like symptoms. It’s weird how paranoid your mind can get when you’re sick. You have so much trouble sleeping which gives you all this time to think about what ails you. I thought I had swine flu, a stroke, meningitis—all sorts of terrible diseases. Combined with my refusal to take medicine, and you get one very, very grumpy person.

I eventually succumbed to taking some Advil, and after more moments of clarity, I started to realize that this might actually be caffeine withdrawal. I looked up and lo’ and behold, there were my symptoms! (It’s actually quite terrifying to go the other direction—that is, searching for possible diseases that match your symptoms.) I’m fairly convinced this is what’s going on with me, and even if not, convincing myself that it is has certainly brought my spirits up. The idea of me being able to champion an addiction (rather than lose mercilessly to a serious disease) is really inspiring. I hope to make a movie (think Requiem for A Dream meets Ratatouille) out of it one day.