What are You Drinking?
April, 2002
Here's a conversation for you.........
The setting: I'm at work at the mayor's office with a water bottle filled with iced tea (thanks to the powdered peach tea Michelle Detmer sent).
Accountant: What are you drinking? Gin?
Me:
Nope. It's iced tea.
Accountant: Tea? But you drink alcohol, right?
Me:
Yes.
Accountant: Then why are you only drinking tea right
now?
Me:
In the US, you don't drink alcohol while you're at work. You wait until after
work to drink.
Accountant: You don't drink for breakfast? Or for lunch?
Me: You drink for breakfast and lunch, but juice or water or coffee, not alcohol. If you come to work after you've been drinking, you could be fired. In most places, that would be against the rules. In other places, it just wouldn't be done.
Accountant: What? You only drink after work? Where do you get your strength? (A nice shot of alcohol for breakfast is thought to "get you going" in the morning.)
So there you have it, just another reason why this is the "toughest job you'll ever love" -- because you end up explaining why showing up to work sober is "better" than showing up drunk!!