No Cake Day

I was thinking of the title name for this bit, and there were many:

• ‘Phoenixing’ got my top, as for the reborn experience, but I also thought of other options, like
• ‘Reboot,’ in the same fashion.
• And ‘No Cake Day’ happened as an obvious in-your-face naming.

I had other options too, I’d add them if I’d recall them.

Yesterday, just following the ereyesterday’s bit about Tomorrow is important, we had a fair fest in my son’s pre-school. It’s a yearly fest show that the kindergarten assembles. I wrote more about it in its separate story.

It’s not unique to just our Kindergarten: our new friends had the same fest the same very day, in their kindergarten. Not great, having them in different times, we could visit their fest, and they could visit ours.

For you to grab the context, I failed to continue this story when it was created, Oct 17, and I continue writing it over two weeks after the event, Nov 3. I tried to summon some energy for writing within the following days, but failed. However, as I often do, I started this story to not miss it in the everyday’s life, which became too fast these days.

After bringing Nadia to her school, I came to visit the Kdg, where mostly mums and a few dads were helping with decorations.

We had a drone attack that very time, so I wasn’t sure what do, it got me on my way.

‘Why aren’t you in the shelter?’ I ask.

‘Oh, we’ve just been there!’ they reply.

‘So what? It’s the danger again!’ We’re having two attacks, with 10…15 minutes between them.

We were decorating for like 3 or 4 hours, went home to grab something to eat (we’ve got coffee, and perhaps something extra), and to take some rest too.

I went to get Nadia from her school, and Solomia went to the Kdg. Then, we both went to the Kdg, arriving at 16:00.

The parents agreed to sort us all parents for selling stuff with 40 minutes sessions for each parent, and our turn was at 16:10. So, I had like 10 minutes to say hi to those I knew there, gave Nadia to Solomia and went to sell stuff. Within these 10 minutes, Solomia gave me the restoration potion she bought already, which turned out to be rum, Oakheart. Spicy something flavour.

That rum was a major point in the event, since I told quite a few people that it’s my favourite, simply mistaking this shit for the (super expensive) whiskey we were drinking with my son’s godfather some time ago.

I found the photos of the rum, I remember there was some spicey flavour too, but it turned out that the one I was thinking about is Honey Whiskey.

You see, I’m not into alcohol, and sometimes—

Well, at least when I’m tired and exhausted, which is most days today.

Sometimes logic fails me. Yeah, why would they sell the super-expensive shit in the first place? Me and Roman, Hnat’s godfather, we were drinking this super expensive alcohol at his place, and he does like this expensive alcohol, and he drink a lot (compared to me, a non-drinker), so he doesn’t know the difference.

I am, you see, mistake rum for whiskey. I won’t tell you the difference between the two without googling and exploring some Wikipedia.

The fair fest meant to become the party for the parents, especially when the dark falls. (That was about 19:00 or about that.)

When my watch has ended at 16:50, Hnat’s best friend’s dad approached me joking that we’re going drink tonight. Jokingly, I replied that I’m all-in (not really meaning it). He came to swap me with selling things, I’ve spent another 10 minutes with him, and then realised I’ve got tired. That’s pretty exhausting, to sell things, especially when you have lots of customers. I wasn’t alone, we were 4 or 5 parents at a time, yet customers were abundant too. We were ones of the first to sell, so we needed extra time to figure out the prices and what we’re having.

When I released myself from my duties, I met Solomia and she informed me Nadia has left with the grandma (wife’s mother), till the morning.

‘Well, better than nothing’ I reacted, ‘so we’re till the late night today!’

It’s Hnat’s 3rd or even 4th fest in the Kdg.

And obviously the latest, as he’s going to school next September. We’d visit the following events, actually that’s a great party out of a thin air!

And never ever we’ve been there till the night time. All the times, Nadia would got bored and hysterical, and we went to home, at about 7 or 8 PM. Not too bad, and we enjoy having some life schedule. I enjoy going to sleep early too. So no real complaints here, yet it’s nice when you can stay longer, if you want to.

We wanted to, as we never had this experience.

‘Yo, I’m going to drink with you all guys till the late night today!’ I approached the aforementioned dad, to which he was obviously happy.

I thought I’d drink that rum I tried already. Never was an issue with the whiskey before, I could drink quite a lot of it, and had zero issues in the morning.

It’s been mostly great, at about 17:00, when I was released from my duties, I switched into the party mode. I was drinking and eating, chatting with everyone. Our task was to waste some money, at least a hundredth (of euros), which is quite a lot. But we agreed we can spend that much, since the event is a charity in the first place, with all the money going to the charities, including the Armed Forces (of Ukraine).

At about 19:30, when it was dark, I remember it very clearly, I’ve got this thought: wow, what an evening it was! Such a long night. Checking my watch, I was shocked it’s not even 8 PM! We had at least a few more hours to go, which means, twice the time we’ve been there already!

There was the mistake: I’ve got somewhat hungry again, and I tried my best to not overeat, as well as not overdrink. That was the point most people dissolved, and only us the parents, with our kids, staying there.

Some girl of our group gave me the coctail with vodka, which I refused, as I decided to drink rum. I put it at the table and left there… but! At some later moment, I took to sip it. And oh boy, it was great! I sipped it entirely. I found out my wife is drinking the same coctail, and so I thought, ‘oh, fuck it!’ The vodka they had was some good one (we’re not in Russia after all! God forbid). I wonder me ignoring rum, but taking vodka, would it be better?

After that turning point at 19:30, I made two mistakes: I ate something (not much, but it was late evening, and I’m not eating late evenings), and I continued drikning. The latter is worse, I guess.

At about 22:00 or 22:30 or so, we went home. Me, Solomia, and Hnat. At about 20:00 or so Hnat told us that he wants home, and we asked him kindly pretty please to stay for longer, which he refused at first, but then he got into playing with his classmates. Hnat was having great time, mostly. We both were drunk, and that was the first time he was seeing us like that. We were giggling, and I believe Solomia was slightly drunk, but I was very drunk. Weirdly, I remember everything, even over two weeks later, and my mind kept being totally present, but the body movements were affected. We managed to get home by foot, without any incidents. That’s a fifteen minutes walk, which both felt like eternity, but also happened within a single moment.

At home, to my later surprise, we managed to change into pajamas, and I think I brushed my teeth. We were having an air raid alert, and I was somewhat terrified by realising I cannot care at the moment, I barely can control my body. Which is fucking dangerous. Which is scary! Luckily, the air targets were downed and nobody’s got killed or otherwise damaged that very night.

The things got bad in the dead of the night, 2:30 am or something. October Seventeen. I’ve managed to never mention anyone that ‘I’m having my birthday tomorrow’ as I didn’t want to have extra unnecessary attention, and I didn’t want to have that all about me, while that was she shared party, not my birthday’s party.

It felt weird, in a way. I had almost none proper conversations with the folks. Which is sad. On the other hand, nobody was in a proper condition to have some meaningful talks, and that wasn’t the point, to have those talks. We were having a good time together. Yup, alcohol made it less great that it could be, but actually nobody got really drunk there. I would ont be really drunk, if I stuck to my decision of not even trying that coctail, and if I won’t continue drinking. I should have switched to water instead.

At 2:30 am I woke up being in the toilet. On the toilet, to be precise. I guess I woke up throwing up into the sink (the toilet was busy with my very ass).

What a birthday, my ass!

I’ve got somewhat scared that this could have happened in the bed! (Hnat slept with Solomia that night, and I’ve slept alone.)

I would have mentioned that to a friend later, and he’d say ‘ha, yeah, throwing up is a nasty business, but don’t be scary, you won’t die (by suffocating) as your body controls things. Well, unless you’re drunken, obviously.’

‘Oh, fuck, you don’t know, do you?’ I thought.

Early morning, 6 am, I woke up thinking I’m not willing my family members (and especially Hnat) see the mess I made in the bathroom, and so I went cleaning. Took me almost an hour to make the bathroom look clean, almost clean. I was thinking it’s weird, how the motivation works. I’m so exhausted, yet here I am cleaning the bathroom, 6 am Saturday morning, my very birthday (not that I particularly care here, just the cherry on top). I’m having hard time grabbing my resources to do that on an average day. Yet here I am, having difficulties controlling my body, and cleaning the bathroom.

After that, I’ve spent half a day in the hell, feeling very ill. I’ve certainly got intoxicated, and my version was that I’ve got that intoxication not with alcohol (I did not take super much after all, just too much for me, but it wasn’t some crazy amount). Perhaps mushrooms, I’ve got some mushrooms soup. Throwing up mushrooms, I was thinking ‘hey, that looks like parts of my body!’ Which it wasn’t… but in a way it was.

Solomia and Hnat woke up at about 7:45 am, and I informed them I’m not well. I asked Solomia to buy some Cola, and mineral water too. She checked that the nearby shop opens at 8 am, and so I thought she’d do that any time soon. Instead, she would bring the Cola in an hour! I had some expectations that Cola would help, which made my 8 to 9 am hour especially exhausting.

Turned out, fucking Ruzzianz bombed Coca-Cola, and we were having only Coca-Cola Zero, only 1.25l bottles. What a wonderful taste that Coca-Cola Zero has! (Sarcasm!)

I couldn’t properly drink that shit, but I forced myself to drink Coca fucking Cola! Now, I understand how Hnat feels about Coca-Cola (he doesn’t like it in the slightest, but he was drikning it when he was throwing up).

A college friend of mine, he was drinking Coca-Cola (Bela-Cola, to be precise) while throwing up, and he’d have that taste strongly associated with the alcohol poisoning and throwing up afterwards.

‘Yeah, I need to send him my birthday wishes’ I thought. Max having the birthday the very same day I’m having.

I’ve been throwing up the entire day, up to some evening. When I grabbed some power and went to the pharmacy to buy some medicals for me to recover. Also, it turned out the shitty shop nobody visits was having normal sugared Coca-Cola, and I was relieved to have it too! Turned out, the sugared Coca-Cola is the same shit, and I couldn’t tell the difference. (Almost!) That’s weird, considering only recently, a mere year or two ago (or a bit longer), I had this Coca-Cola addiction. I have never been drinking that shit, but after living with my wife’s idiot mother for a while, chips, cheap beer, and Coca-Cola returned to my life.

I have been remembering the other friend of mine. He actually likes parties like that, when you have to spend the entire weekend aseembling yourself back together. I thought, that could make me reborn, in a way.

In some parallel universe I had surely died that day. In our universe, I often think (especially these 4 last years the war is happening) that duying that day is somewhat symbolic. My grave would have these round numbers. He lived exactly N years!

It took me two more weeks to have a one night’s of proper sleep. The damage that was done to my body, perhaps I’d never recover from it. Or it’d took months (if not years) to properly restore, the way we students could restoreb within the weekend, to have the crazy party the next week again.

I was never partying like that. So, my body is was in somewhat better shape. But on the other hand, I’m so unexperienced with the alcohol!

…as if someone needs that experience.

I guess I’m willing to have this birthday remembered, or rather this event remembered, using my birthday as an aritificial seasoning to make it memorable.

Oh, it was memorable indeed!

No cake day it was.

The cake would come the next day, with Hnat anonuncing the surprise I shouldn’t know about. It was very touching and memorable too. But that’s another story.

I ended up with one bottle of this rum in my bag. I was walking with it, too drunk to find a better place, and just slid it in my bag, to find it a better place later. I found it’s on me when we arrived home. Solomia sips it slowly. I made an attempt at it, and it feels like this very rum was the reason of me throwing up. Even its smell makes me nauseous. It’s definitely not the same to the whiskey we were drinking.

Here, I tried to compare the prices, so to understand it better. The rum I was drinking, its price is 525 UAH (€10 or £7 or US$12) for 1 litre bottle.

The whiskey I thought about is 700 UAH (€14 or £12 or US$ 15.5), for 0.5 litre bottle.

So, effectively twie more expensive, if not ×2.5, as the litre would cost 1400 UAH (€28 or £24 or US$ 31). Here, I found the same whiskey, but bigger 0.7L bottle in another shop for approximately the same price.

So, yeah. Just to learn the lesson. And if I drink, at least have some understanding on what I drink.

Alcohol is poison anyway.