“Liquor before beer, you’re all in the clear.”
After a long, hard, studious week of classes, homework, and tests, we’re all ready to unwind and let down our hair. For some of us this may mean going home to see our family and friends. For others, this may mean getting a solid 8 hours of sleep (something hard to come by during the week). But for most of us, this means dressing up and getting down.
However waking up Saturday morning and finding a random boy next to you, or not remembering anything about your night after you left your dorm room, isn’t the best way to celebrate a few days of freedom. Instead, follow these few simple rules to having a good time while staying safe.
1. Eat
Eating before (and while) drinking is the first step to having a safe night out. Although alcohol has plenty of calories in it, they’re not “good” calories. In order to handle the alcohol in your system, you need food in your belly. The best types of food to eat before, and while, drinking, are those that are fatty and full of carbs, according to MSNBC news. This prevents the alcohol from spreading quickly into your system.
2. B.Y.O.B.
NEVER accept drinks from anyone at a party unless it hasn’t been opened yet. You never know what is in the cup, how much vodka is in a mixed drink, or if the cup has been used previously (and by whom). The safest way to avoid being “ruffied” is to bring your own drink in a water bottle or Nalgene, aka something with a screw-on top.
3. Walk With Friends
When going downtown, walk with a group of people. Walking by yourself is just calling for creepy, unwanted attention. Make sure you always leave the party with a group of people, and always have someone to walk back to campus with. Leaving the party with a stranger is a definite no-no, and will leave you with the walk of shame in the morning.
If you do have to leave the party by yourself, then find a lit up main street to walk down (Pearl Street, College Street, etc.) Do not walk down a back street where there isn’t a lot of lighting. Once on a main street, there will probably be plenty of large groups that you can walk closely behind in order to prevent walking alone.
4. Count Your Drinks
Bring a pen, a marker, anything, and tally the number of drinks you’ve had that night on your hand or wrist. This is a good indicator of how intoxicated you are, and will stop you from reaching for another drink once you see all the hash marks on your hand.
Playing drinking games at a party or while pre-gaming will definitely get you drunk faster, and you won’t actually know how many drinks you’ve had because many drinking games you chug a smaller portion of alcohol in each game. After three or four mixed drinks, depending on your weight and how much you drink, you are legally impaired, and your BAC can rise to 0.06.
To find out your BAC, use this super easy online calculator.
Following these simple rules still allows us to have a good time and dance our bottoms off, but ensures our safety at the end of the night!