By Rachel Garvey
Why do I get the feeling that people are still recovering from ‘RAG’ Week? You poor souls deserve a week’s recovery in bed with unlimited food and access to Netflix. I’m just pulling at your leg, get yourselves up and out of that state in amongst the pool of empty beer bottles, cans and tightly squeezed bottles of tan. You have only yourselves to blame for your recent pounding heads and sickly stomachs. However, I do hope that your week was a good one and that you took full advantage of letting off steam within safe limits of course. I didn’t exactly take part in the chaos that is ‘RAG’ Week, but I was merely an innocent bystander who stood on the sidelines and watched as the battle unfolded in front of me, sometimes stepping out of the way to dodge an unnecessary situation.
‘Donegal Tuesday’ was not the night for a sober person to be drunk, but when your best friends want to take a trip to Java’s Crepe Cafe, you find it impossible to say no. We comfortably seated ourselves at the window where we had a full view of the street and the large line that was waiting impatiently to get into Electric. Comments of “Jaysus, is she not freezing in that dress?”, “I wonder will he get in, he’s absolutely hammered”, and “Oh my days, watch the car coming towards you” were thrown in amongst our conversation of more normal things. It was like watching live reality TV except it got to a certain point where the waitress had to lock the door to the cafe as a precaution. Storm Ciara was busy twisting her cold fingers around any bit of skin that was visible. Maybe I felt sorry for the way things turned out with Storm Ciara leashing her rage upon our city of Galway during ‘RAG’ Week, the one week where the girls really don’t want their hair and make-up and fake tan ruined, but it is what it is.
Fast forward to midnight and my best friend and I are standing in front of Coyotes, conversing with a few promotors and acquaintances. When you are surrounded by a sea of intoxicated people, it really is an interesting experience, especially when someone gets arrested right in front of you and you have to step out of the way of cameras gearing towards the scene that unfolds beside you. It’s even worse when your partner in crime feels hungry and has a craving for something from McDonald’s. I have never touched so many stranger’s bodies in my entire life and I didn’t like it, I value my personal space. It was also interesting to see how much patience an intoxicated person has in comparison to someone who is sober. We are so impatient when we are sober and I learnt that when waiting in line to use the electronic menu, but the situation was diffused with a friendly drunken smile from whoever was in front of us. Then I accidentally bumped into a friend from work and I threw up my hands, saying, “I really don’t know what I’m doing here!” for him to reply “Yeah, I was meant to meet a girl here and friends”.
I asked rather excitedly if he was going on a date with this girl and his reply was simple, “No no Rachel, I don’t do dates!”. At that moment, all I could think about was my date with my bed and with that one thought, it wasn’t long before I was home and the best date ever had commenced.