Where did I read an article recently about lowering the drinking age to help curb binge drinking? It was some kind of lowbrow news source that I should probably be ashamed to have read. Like USA Today, or Parade.
The article said that people who drank back in the day before the over-21 laws did so much more moderately. Supposedly, blackouts were rare and alcohol poisoning was unheard of. It also said that while alcohol-related driving fatalities have decreased since the passage of the law, so have crash fatalities in general, due largely to improvements in safety technology on the part of auto manufacturers. Thought that was an interesting perspective, particularly coming from the McNews.
Anyway, yeah, being a lady I have never blacked out in a strange place. Although in college, when I would reach a certain level of intoxication I would take off my clothes and fall asleep next to the nearest warm object. Which was more often a clothes dryer than anything sexy. Most of my college drinking experiences were in the apartments of friends; Pedro was in the theater and they used to throw some hell of awesome cast parties.
I don't know if I "outgrew" this tendency or if I just don't drink as much at a time as I used to. (Hangovers are worse than death when you have a toddler to take care of the next day -- can I get an amen?) But I haven't done this since I was 22 or so, and never in a place where I wasn't with a group I knew would take care of me. So, no hilarious stories. I'm much funnier sober, anyway -- like the time I showed up to a party in nothing but a bra, thong and garter belt. (It was a theme party, I was not dressed inappropriately actually.) I won't tell you what Pedro wore to that party, but he managed to upstage me just the same.
Man, those days are gone.