Hot Alicia #2: Bears Suck

Overall I believe going to spend an evening at a bar is a waste of time and money. You and 4 or 5 friends can spend an evening at home and spend less money and get more drunk than going out to any bar. Look at it this way. $2.75 a beer X three beers per person X five people = $41.25. That's 15 beers. Three six packs are going to come to three X at the most $9 = $27. That's 18 beers. 41.25 / 27 =1.53, 1.53 X 18 = 27.54. So, for the same amount of money you would spend at a bar to get 15 beers, you could buy 27 and stay at home, where let's face it, more of us would rather be anyway. That's at least five beers per person. So far, which looks like the better deal?

Then there's the issue of who has to go without. I am talking about no other than the poor poor designated driver. Watching your friends get hammered is so much more fun if you are on your way to sloshedville right along with them. When you go to a bar, unless you live close enough to walk, (which some people shouldn't do drunk, either) you have to have someone who is sober enough to drive everyone home. There is nothing worse than trying to concentrate on driving at 3 am unless it is of course driving home at 3 am listening to your friends have drunken discussions about pretty much anything. If you drink at home, or at a friend's house, you can always decide to drive home in the morning and just crash on their couch, or at least next to the toilet. Try convincing that bartender that the place will be ok while you sleep it off. It won't work. You'll be out on your keister unless you want to pay more money to have a cab take you home. Again, the benefits of drinking at home are clear to me...

Third, the overall atmosphere at home is better than any bar ever will be. Look at it this way, you don't have to sit on the patio with the smokers, you don't have to have people elbowing you in the head while they try to walk by. The bathrooms are almost guaranteed to be cleaner - depending on who's house you go to. There will not be crowds, there will not be drunk assholes you don't know trying to convince you that they are George Clooney and you have to sleep with them, there are not vapid, brainless women staring you down because you have a good looking date and they want to catch their eye. There is no deep house music with the bass traveling up your spine through the walls when you want to listen to some classic rock, and if you want to hear the sport announcer's commentary which is playing in the background, you can. Just walk over and turn up the TV. Your friends will take a shut up a lot better that a bar full of strangers. And have you ever tried ordering a pizza to have it delivered to the bar? Have you ever tried to walk in with a bag of Jack In The Box? It's kinda frowned upon. I wouldn't suggest trying it.

My next point to consider is getting ready for going out. Now I can't speak for men out there on this one, but if I'm going to go out I am going to put at least an hours effort into the way I look. Staying in, the most I might do is comb my hair and touch up my eye makeup. Right there is an hour's worth of time. Then there's drive time, which on the San Diego freeways can take a while what with all the interchanges around the I8, I5, 805, 163 areas. Then there's the time it takes to get a parking spot, good luck finding one on the street, you may end up paying $5 for a spot in a parking lot 3 or 4 blocks away. And that's the close spots. Again, at home, no driving, no parking hassles. No Cover Charges, No ID checks.

Which brings me to another point, why should I have to refuse to include my under 21 friends when I want to drink even if they don't. Now, I am of course not condoning underage consumption of alcohol, but I can enjoy a drink at my house and hang out with my underage friends. Even if they don't want to drink they can't hang out with me at a bar. That blows. I tell you what, I have seen quite a few underage drinkers that hold their liquor better than some older "wiser" adults.

Anyway, this may just be the ravings of a homebody at heart, but if you think about it before you go out, drinking in is the obvious choice. It saves you cash, prep and parking time, it includes all friends, underage and legal, no DD's. It gives you a place to crash and be comfortable, and it just makes SENSE. I really feel sorry for people who think that going out is the end all of a good time.