Thing to Do #11: Visit Every State-New Jersey

You know how I’m always going on and on about how I never drink or ever party up?  Well, for the most part, that’s true.  However, like most everyone, I’ve got a few stories, and one of those stories is about how I spent one July night in Atlantic City back in 2004.

My good friend from Hollins, Sumner, had visited Atlantic City several times with her girlfriends in DC and she invited me and another girlfriend from Hollins, Courtney, up for a girls night in the AC.  We headed up to DC Friday night to get up early and hit the road Saturday morning.  Five girls in a tiny little rental car hit bumper to bumper traffic heading into the Vegas of the East Coast for its busiest night of the week. 

I remember that we all stayed in one room in a hotel way off the strip (when you’re young, its nothing to think of piling 5 people into one room-now I shudder to think) and I honestly can’t remember what we ate for dinner/where we ate dinner.  I DO remember very plainly that my friend Courtney had mentioned that she had missed her period and was beginning to worry if she was pregnant.  Courtney had gotten married the previous October, so this wasn’t a bad thing, per se, but she had planned to enjoy herself during this weekend and if she was pregnant, she obviously wouldn’t be drinking.  So before we headed out for the evening, Courtney went to a local pharmacy and bought several pregnancy tests.  Four pregnancy tests later, 2 were positive and 2 were negative.  So on the safe side, Courtney wasn’t drinking for the evening (btw, the following March she had her first child, Kabell)

I had never gone gambling before and when we went into our first casino, I was rather overwhelmed (as I can imagine many are) and just followed wherever everyone else went.  We finally began playing some slot machines and all I had brought to play with was a roll of quarters.  I played these for about an hour until I ran out of money-they kinda got boring fast and its the only time I’ve played slot machines since.  We soon decided to move on from the slots (i.e. we ran out of money) and decided to go out dancing.  We headed over to the Casbah at Trump Taj Majal, which was probably the coolest club I had seen at that point in my short little life.  There were girls dancing in cages and every so often silvery confetti rained down on the dance floor.

Anyone who has ever drank will know what I mean in the following sentence:  I began drinking and they were going down way too easily.  My usual drink of choice is screwdrivers-I always say that the vitamins in Orange Juice counteract the bad stuff in alcohol, so its “healthier.”  I started out drinking screwdrivers but then I began playing the game of “I really have a great buzz and I want to keep it so I need to keep drinking.”  So I began to doing straight shots of vodka.  It quickly became apparent to the others in my group that I was bad off and the time for heading back to the hotel had come. 

All I remember was walking down a long hallway in the casino, and I kept thinking (and probably saying) that we were lost.  Eventually we made it to the front of the casino, where we had to wait (seemingly) forever for a cab.  Once in the cab, I quickly began to feel sick and rolled the window down to get some air.  When we came to a stop at the next intersection, I opened the door with the urgency to throw up.  However, I’m a big baby about throwing up-its scares me and I will do anything to not get sick.  The cab driver quickly surmised what I was up to and began shouting at me in a thick accent, ”Do NOT throw up in the car!  Get out of the car!” to which I yelled back, “I’m not going to throw up in your car, a$$hole.”  Yeah, I get belligerent and mean and (the worst) emotional when I get drunk.  I think you could believe me that I don’t normally swear at strangers, but I obviously wasn’t myself.

We made our way back to the hotel without incident and as soon as we entered the room, I made a beeline to one of the beds (we had gotten two double beds and a cot).  I found out later this was in much protest as I had chosen a) a bed instead of the cot and b) the bed furthest from the bathroom.  Regardless, I passed out immediately, fully clothed. 

The next morning, as you can imagine, I felt like Hell.  I’ve since had worse hangovers with less to drink, but that’s old age for you.  When I finally made it to the shower, I realized I had the silvery confetti everywhere, even down my underwear (how the HECK did THAT happen?)  Moving much more slowly than my compatriots, we gathered our belongings and hit the road back to DC.  We decided to stop at a Denny’s or IHOP or something, where we had to wait forever (at which point I thought I may get sick again) but amazingly after I had food on my stomach, I felt 100% better (ah….if it was only that simple nowadays).

The trip to DC wasn’t that bad, but then I immediately had to get in my own car to drive 4 hours back to NC.  I’m amazed I stayed awake; that was a lot of time in a car with a hangover.

So that is my experience with New Jersey, other than driving through several times on the way to and from New York and places beyond.  I guess I could give it another try as I’m sure there is more to New Jersey other than the Turnpike and AC, but I don’t know what.  Do you have a good reason for me to give NJ a second chance?  AND, I know there’s got to be some good stories of nights on the town-let’s hear ‘em!