Hey, Gramps...

I am an old man. Sneaky, but old. I went over to a Hungarian colleague's house for dinner with most of my team from work on Saturday. To make sure I wouldn't get destroyed, I made sure to drink a big bottle (750ml) of water on the way there. Sure enough, as soon as I show up, they offer me a couple of samples of some native schnapps. One was a peach and honey schnapps. It was pretty good. Really smooth thanks to the honey (I think). The other was a kräuter liquor (think Jägermeister). It was spicy. I then talked a little smack and made fun of some people and got myself into a little more trouble with a couple of more shots. What they hadn't seen, though, was me gunning another liter and a half of water in between to help thin everything out. We then sat down to eat some really good gulasch on boiled potatoes. It was awesome. I ate two huge helpings because a) it was damn tastey and b) because it was a good road block to me being drunk. I don't like that situation as much as I used to. Even more so now that I have two kids that like me to get up early. So I managed to do a pretty good job of looking like a jaded, experienced drinker while actually having not had nearly as much to drink over the last year as was previously the case.

I also fixed their kitchen faucet while dinner was cooking, and we were all standing in the kitchen drinking beers and BS-ing. Really. I get fidgety. It seemed to be a good way to use up some energy.

Then we went dancing. That is funny business. I really am not much of a dancer. I am way too emo. I tap my hand on my chest or my leg and nod my head when I go see a show. But by golly I danced Saturday. It's easy when you are in a club full of fools. As a rule, the average joe can't dance. At all.

I managed to get home without having done too much damage to myself. Outside of getting to bed really late, I was in good shape today. I also managed to survive that weird situation of hanging out and having fun with a bunch of people who work for me. I haven't tried that yet. And I am by no means that guy who makes sure people know who is the boss. I try to stay out of the way of their work until I have to get involved and approve a vacation or intervene with a personality problem or something. It worked, though. A good dose of humility and a willingness to try new things seemed to be the answer.