A Rush of Intensity

During the holiday season of 2006, I found myself working a few extra shifts at the local pharmacy. As typical of a holiday season, a swarm of people would ambush the store and the lone cashier tried to survive the rush. As expected, I was that lone cashier. And anybody who has gone to a pharmacy (seriously, who doesn't go to one?) knows how crazy it can get during the season.

So you have a formula for insanity right there with the season alone, but now let's add the "Saturday Rush Factor" to make it interesting. So what's an overwhelmed cashier to do in a tight spot with no backup? Easy, he resorts to a method never attempted before. And no, it wasn't that bad a thing. I bought one of those little energy shots that are supposed to give you energy for hours.

That's what I needed anyways, but I didn't know what I've gotten into until after I chugged that beverage of energetic proportions. At first, I didn't feel a thing and everything was going normally. And that's when the rush hit. Suddenly, everything started to slow down. And no, I wasn't on an acid trip (don't even know what those feel like, just for those of you wondering), but rather the energy drink was starting to work.

I was so hyper and charged with energy, that the whole world suddenly seemed to slow down around me. I felt like Neo, I was taking on the Matrix (or groceries) with lightning speed and max precision. I kept scanning and bagging items so fast, I felt like I had grown additional arms.

I felt like I had extra limbs thanks to that little drink of energy!

I don't know how much it lasted, but it's a rush that I've never felt before. Now I know why my friends warned me of energy drinks during high school. If I've been unbearable in my normal state, just imagine what an energy drink would do. With that kind of energy, I would have chatted someone to death. Lucky for me, all that energy was wasted on bagging like a maniac.

By the end of the shift, I was so beat, but I didn't realize I still had another bottle to go. And what a time it was to choose the remaining bottle. Here's a little bit of advice for anybody wanting to take energy drinks. Don't drink one if you're going to help navigate someone to a particular destination (this was before the GPS was commonly available and was expensive), so I took that map and made it my bitch. Navigating with energy drinks are quite an experience.

I'm glad to say I've yet to take another one of those since 2006, because they turn me into something else. Kind of like Bruce Banner and the Hulk, but not really focused on destruction.