Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Victim or Drunkard: The Saga Continues

Well it is a fine fix I have gotten myself into. Although that saying places the blame squarely on me and I am not sure how much blame I share in this fiasco. Let me explain, apparently while I was asleep, or not conscious at the police station early Saturday morning they asked me a series of questions. Some of which I was able to answer. One of those questions pertained to my place of employment. Attempting to be apologetic and polite I gave them the name of my school and not my company. It was not a mistake I would make whilst lucid. The police then proceeded, by their own volition, to call the city hall, the board of education and my vice-principal, at his home, at 2am, telling them that I was drunk and being held at the police station.

Let me pause here and say that I have though about this one at great length. Is it possible that I am lying to myself and was a victim of by own debauchery rather than food-poisoning. That I have let food-poisoning become a convenient excuse for my conduct even in my won mind. Here are the questions I have formed around that:

1. Drunkenness won't explain the strange and very noticeable swelling of my face which was witnessed and commented on by my housemate, without being asked about it.

2. When I awoke, I had no sense of a hangover or headache or any feeling associated with heavy drinking. I merely had the severe need to vomit.

3. If it was from drinking, why was I still throwing up at 7-8AM when the last drink I had was at 11pm? That seems a bit of a stretch.

4. This is subjective, but I was on my way home at 11:30pm after beginning drinking at 8pm. This signifies to me that it was something other than drink. This wasn't a night where I staid until morning at shouter drinking cuba libres after a night at Beat Crap drinking whatever is in those cardboard boxes. Subjective, but nothing to indicate the level of drunkenness needed to propel the story forwards.

5. When I was treated for food poisoning, I got better.

6. I lost 4kg over the span of Saturday. That doesn't happen from drinking.

I have gone over it again and again and I really don't think it was drinking, although that definitely didn't help. I also am realizing that I did try to communicate what was going on with the station staff, saying to them, "I really don't feel good. Please let me rest." While they kicked me out of the station, leaving me no way to get anywhere. I don't really blame them.

In any case, the reason I am ruminating on these matters is that the board of education is very angry with me and demanding that I come in and apologize to them and the city hall. I am not really sure what to apologize for. If I wanted to think about it like an asshole I could say that I got food poisoning at a school function arranged by the school with food selected by the school. When I was in need of medical care after eating this food, no city or school employees came to help me. In reality I blame no one, but I also don't know what blame I can accept. I ran through the scenario if I had been perfectly sober. I would have still gotten of the train to vomit. I would have still had no train to take home. I would have still been stranded outside the station. The only difference being, I would have probably asked to go to the hospital.

Anyway

1 comment:

The Morholt said...

Well, both are likely contributing factors. Seems that the problem was caused by food poisoning, your inability to solve it as it developed based partly in drink and the fact that you likely smelled of drink. I'd write it off as "just one of those things."

attempting to silence the voices in my head.