The best drinking game in the history of drinking games

Once a week, I play volleyball with New York Social Sports Club. Perhaps the best thing about NYSSC is that, more than any other league I've played in, they really want you to go the bar and drink after.

I mean, they take the social part VERY seriously.

And so on Tuesday or Wednesday each week, I end my day with countless games of flip cup, survivor flip cup, and some beer pong thrown in for good measure. And then more flip cup. And if we're lucky, some shots.

This week, I was introduced to a magical new game: beer dueling.

The game is simple. You grab a cup of beer and a partner. You stand back to back. When told to start, you walk a designated number of paces. You chug your beer as quickly as possible. And then you turn around and PELT YOUR OPPONENT WITH YOUR CUP. The first person to do so wins.

Sadly, the staff shut down our beer dueling pretty early on. Yet my fabulous friend Ian luckily had someone take this video of us beer dueling while the festivities were still in full swing. Enjoy.

Friends are cool

Yep. I've returned from an unintentional blogging hiatus to tell you all something you already knew.

Friends are great. They send you links to funny things to make you laugh, accompany you to places like bars and movies and even musicals called Jersey Shoresical. They help you celebrate your birthday and make fun of you when you do stupid shit just so that you stay grounded.

But here's another reason why friends are great.

Sometimes, if you're going through a crisis, friends are there to help you maintain your sanity.

Recently, a friend sent me a completely innocuous text message, but I was drunk and happened to be upset about something and so her phone ended up chock full of crazy texts from me. Those texts, over the last number of days, have moved into gchatting and emailing and more texting and more of me being like WAH WAH I HATE EVERYTHING SOMEBODY CALL THE WAHMBULANCE and not once has this friend said, "Arielle, I didn't sign up for this." Instead, she keeps asking, "Are you okay?"

At happy hour 2 days ago, a different friend who I hadn't seen in awhile asked me a harmless question about something which, yet again, triggered a whole lot of nonsense spewing from my mouth about how I was upset (same issue as last paragraph). And she, like a champ, talked me through it. When we were done, I apologized. Profusely.

"Sorry about this, I didn't mean to unload all that crap on you it just sort of came out and seriously, thank you for listening and REALLY I AM VERY SORRY."

She looked at me like I had 3 heads and told me to shut up with the apologies.

It's not like this news to me, that friends will listen to you vent about things or will give you feedback as to whether or not your thoughts or feelings are crazy. I guess I just needed a reminder that complaining to someone doesn't automatically make you a burden. It makes you a friend, who is normal and vulnerable and who, if the opportunity arose, would absolutely return the favor.

Friends are good peoples. Remember that.