I'm not one to form addictions, though I've certainly tried. It probably sounds funny, or odd to some that at 26 I made an effort to become an alcoholic. I was living in Oakland California at the time and I was in search of an experience that I've never had... which literally could have been anything because I was raised so sheltered and lived such a Leave it to Beaver life that I was naive about the world and I was ill prepared to live in it, though I wasn't aware of it at the time. I just assumed we all thought the same way, we all did the same things, we all believed in simple black and white definitions of what the "right thing to do" meant. But I had this need to move away from the safety of my family's arms. I needed to not have the comfort of my friends and girlfriend conveniently available on a whim. I wanted a hint of struggle. I wanted to know aloneness or perhaps loneliness, maybe both. I couldn't tell you why I needed these things, I jus...