this is pretty silly. i mean, who could have ever thought that just a few cups too many of your morning coffee could make you vividly hallucinate? or, in my case, a large chai latte and a watermelon redbull? well. settle down, because i’m about to tell you the story of how i almost overdosed on caffeine from two (2) caffeinated beverages.
alright! so. i was on my way to rehearsal. rehearsal of the night before had gone pretty late, and i was really tired, so i went to the coffee shop that was in the building that had the theatre in it. i got a large chai, and drank it pretty quickly. it was really good, and i had a lot of change so i decided to buy myself a redbull for the next day. what i had forgotten is that sometimes i don’t have a lot of self control when it comes to not eating/drinking whatever edible is in my hands at the moment. this was one of those times. i was excited about trying this flavor, cause i’d never had it before. it was watermelon, and i got it since it’s called redbull red edition and i thought that was funny. so i drank it. i drank the redbull. why i thought that was a good idea, the world will never know. but i drank it. now, keep in mind that the recommended limit for caffeine for my age group is 100 mg. by now, i had consumed almost 4 times that amount. coincidentally, the amount of caffeine needed to overdose for my age group is also 400 mg. do the math. now, i hadn’t consumed 400 mg, but i was pretty damn close. and even without doing the math and research needed to find this out, i knew something was strange, and different, and wrong. i have also never done drugs, and now i never will. i felt like that one guy from twitter who did green ketamine at work and met mary mcaleese. i felt like someone gently slid me through a paper shredder. i could feel every drop of blood coursing through my body. i discovered so many profound realizations about everything, i was a threat to plato and aristotle themselves. i saw shapes in the corners of my vision beckoning me to give in to my emotions and come with them. i saw the forbidden shrimp colors dancing in front of my eyes. that last thing was a problem. all of that was entirely very problematic, but seeing different colors when i was supposed to be running lights and fixing little things with my director was a problem. especially when we had to change some cues and i had to violently restrain myself from crying because i was going to miss them. this was an hour and a half of pure, concentrated hell. the devil came down to that theater to torture me himself. we finally ended that rehearsal. now, i was thinking that i would get a small break to myself to collect my emotions, mourn the loss of my favorite cues, and come back cool and calm like i usually was. i did not have that opportunity. i was able to have dinner, then i went back to rehearsal. i was still convinced that everyone hated me and wanted me gone, but at least i couldn’t hear the frequencies coming from the light board anymore. rehearsal went pretty much normal, i was a little shaky and in a perpetual head rush, but everything ended up being a ok. so there’s your daily reminder to limit your caffeine intake!
