Weeknight Drinking: The Most Dangerous Game

By Lev Novak

It’s Thursday today, and that means tonight is one of the odder situations. It’s both a weekend and a weeknight. Some of us have work tomorrow, some of us don’t. Some of us have class, and some of us don’t. And you’d imagine the split of drinkers would directly correlate to those who had tomorrow off, but you’d be wrong.

New paragraph for the dramatic effect: people are drinking on Thursdays. And some of them have stuff to do on Friday.

If you’re going to drink on a Thursday, though, you may as well do it right. That’s where I come in.

1. Have a Plan

Weekends are made to be unstructured. Unfortunately, Thursday isn’t technically a weekend. You have Friday the next day, and if you want your Thursday night to succeed, you’re going to have to play the game along those rules.

Think about it this way; you already have the end of your night planned- you have to get to your Friday duties regardless- than you understand why you need a plan for your Thursday. You already have the end written in stone, so it’s important to check that your plan coincides with getting back and ready for Friday (or whatever weekday comes after the weeknight you’re drinking for.)

An example: it’s a friends birthday. It’s dinner and drinks. You can do that fairly easily- you can even get a bunch of drinks, because you’re going to get sleep. But you can’t let time bleed out; two more drinks and two more hours is going to turn a fun night out into a problem. On a weekend, that sort of thing can happen, and you should let it. But on a weeknight, you need your evening on a leash.

2. Plan For The Weekend

If you’re going out on a weeknight, you have to treat yourself like a special flower who’s never had a drink before. After every drink, check to see; “how drunk am I?” and “how much money have I spent?” That’s not just because you have to make sure you aren’t too drunk for the next day, but also because you don’t want to spend your entire weekend recovering from a Thursday. Thursday is a practice, gentle, version of a weekend night. If you go too hard, you’re going to be feeling sick- literally or financially- before the actual weekend comes up.

3. All In Moderation…But Have An Out

Obviously, you should be drinking in moderation. You shouldn’t stay out too late. But things happen, especially while drinking. That’s why it’s important to have, if not an out, then at least a way to minimize your problems.

Have a banana and bread with a gatorade before bed. Have the same thing by your bed for the morning, too. Yeah, that’s pretty intense, and you probably don’t need both, but that will help minimize any hangover issues that would bleed into your actual work. Similarly, if you over-prepare, what’s the worst that happens? You’re too un-hungover for your internship?

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