Hot Sauce and Aspirin

First off, happy Friday, you sly dogs!  You made it to the weekend again, and I drank too much on a Thursday again, so we are both killing it.  Yesterday was the holiday party for a few local democratic clubs, and I helped organize it, thus was in attendance.  It ended really early, so rather than do the responsible thing, we went to a bar, but I figured, it was for research, right?  At the party I made some traditional holiday punch with vodka, cranberry juice, ginger ale and frozen cranberries.  Once it ran out I switched to Shiner Cheer, because it is festive.  After the party we went to Vincent’s and I had some drink with 2 kinds of vodka in it, then 2 drinks that had vodka, beer and champagne in them.  Go big or go home!  Eventually I did both of those things.  Once I got home, I did what I could to take the pain off the morning, took a milk thistle, drank a glass of water, and watched TV so I could sober up a little before I went to sleep.  I knew it would help, but that I would likely still be doomed.

If I am being honest, (and why would I ever lie to you?) I didn’t have a lot of faith in the remedy I had lined up for today. Peppermint oil seemed too easy, too hippie, and too far fetched.  But, I said I would try it, and so I did.  I woke up around 9 AM, thankfully not feeling too bad, but I was queasy and wicked tired.  As far as the right hangover for the cure, this was hand delivered to me.  The peppermint oil is supposed to help with nausea and energy.  Could it be the thing to save me?  Proceeding with caution, I applied some to my wrists and my stomach.  I also resorted to sniffing the bottle.  Honestly, that helped the most.  However, it did nothing for the energy factor, I am still exhausted.  But it did make it so I could get up and brush my teeth and not feel like throwing up.  That’s something.  After it wore off, fairly quickly, a second application went on, and even a third.  Can you overdose on peppermint?  Eventually I realized that slightly less queasy was the best I could hope for and I ordered Denny’s to deliver me pancakes, hash browns and OJ.  I decided that rather than leave you, and me, with a failed attempt, I would power through and try the greasy food and OJ method.  If we are going with percentages, I would say the peppermint oil made me feel about 8% better, and the food added another 17%.  I’m still a long way from feeling great, but I have a car to unload, a party to plan and a sister in town, so hungover or not, the world waits for no drunkies.

A lot of people swear by both of these methods, so if you have had a good experience with them, let me know. Every body is different.  Silver lining, it’s nice to smell good when you are not feeling good, and I think smelling the peppermint activated some hunger receptors.  Usually if I am hungover I will go until around 6 PM without eating, and that does not help matters.  At least the peppermint made me eat early enough in the day to not make things worse.  So, maybe the 8% isn’t fair, I would say it directly contributed to the 17% and that as a two step process, it all gets you about 25% less hungover.

Enjoy your weekend, be safe at your holiday parties, and don’t drink and drive!  But do #hellodrunkies or #hotsauceandaspirin on instagram so we can all see what you are up to! And follow me @hot_sauce_and_aspirin on Insta.  Until next time, my favorite drunkies!