Celebrations, Fear and... no actually there wasn't any Loathing now that I think of it. Hmm. Odd.

"White Russian and a Jack and Coke"

No flair in execution, but given the generosity in spirits one would be hard pressed to find fault.

"That'll be ten bucks"

"Here you go."

The currency was dispensed and I handed the latter concoction to my friend. The bartender gave me a funny look.

"I said ten bucks"

"I know. The rest is a tip"

"Huh?"

"a tip"

"what?"

I turned and approached the stage. No point in dealing in explanations here.

"Keep the change."

An acoustic guitar and a cello were being tuned. The one on stage doing nothing explained that the three of them were Ascetic Junkies, which caught me as being a rather odd addiction but I'm not one to judge. And hell, it turned out they were pretty fucking good.

They were in the middle of "You're so Bad," when something came over me. I could see only the singer; everything else was obscured by a blue haze and she was illuminated. A wave of pure joy was diluted by panic as I tried to make sense of my perception. My second White Russian was sitting on a small rail on the wall. Bad policy to leave a drink out in a public place, but it was a sparse crowd and had anyone come in that could have messed with it I would have noticed.

"Something wrong?"

My friend, standing behind me.

Motherfucker.

"no, I'm fine"

I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Ignore this terrible drug, whatever it is. Besides, I thought. Better minds than his had tried and failed to predict the results any chemical rendered on my mind.

The ride home proved difficult, as I was called on for directions. He was toying with me! I somehow managed to get him to my street. Home safe. I walked up the stairs calmly and went inside. Immediately I called the only person who I knew would have a bead on it.

"Hey, what's up?"

"What could someone have slipped me as a prank?"

"Huh?"

"I think my friend spiked one of my drinks with something at the show. Everything started going blue."

"Oh no shit? I wondered how long it'd be"

"The fuck?"

"remember that time I hypnotized you? I told you to think of a happy moment and then imagine it getting overwhelmed by a blue haze?"

"Maybe? Yes?"

"The moment you'd focused on... you'd been drinking, hadn't you?"

"You prick." The blue gave way to, well, my home. There was laughter on the other end.

"You wanna get coffee?"

"Yeah, sure."

A note from the management. It would be a mistake, as the title may have mildly suggested, to take the preceding entirely as fact, though the hypnosis bit is the truth.

Pia had mentioned that a birthday is not just a one day affair, and that's especially true with this one, as I've a few friends who've felt the need to celebrate it with me whose schedules didn't match up. Which is why there was a gap this time. I do have something for tomorrow, but that will be dealt with then. For now, the rest is silence.

Of course, technically it's been silent since word one but you know what I mean.