How do you spend $20 in Seattle? Well, let’s face facts: if you’re me–and I know you’re not, but pay attention because it might be your turn next–you spend it on booze. (Full disclosure, right up front: I went over, to $21. I thought I had the maths right last night, but again, alcohol.)

Most of my Tuesdays this summer and fall have been spent in exactly this way, starting with arriving at Linda’s at 7:30. Linda’s has a happy hour that goes from 7-9, with cheap beer and $1 off well drinks. I started off with a whiskey soda, $3. A friend and I decided to split the sliders, three mini hamburgers, which are $1 each at happy hour and make for a perfectly good snack. That makes my part $1.50. And another whiskey soda, another $3. Wait, before happy hour ends, how about another whiskey soda? $3 more.
Total at Linda’s, with tip: $13, for three drinks and one and a half little hamburgers. Also, part of a pickle.

Sitting for a couple of hours in a booth at Linda’s always starts to make parts of me go numb, so we moved on to our usual Tuesday night next stop, the Cha Cha, for one last whiskey soda: $5, with tip.

Now what do you do with all of that whiskey in you, once the booze madness hits? No, going home is not always the best option. On Tuesday nights Havana hosts Hotel/Motel, a dance night that was really good in the spring and summer and has been declining in awesomeness since then, but which is still arguably the best place to go dancing on a Tuesday. The cover is $3. Even though I didn’t go last night, because I’m still sick, I could have.

And that would have brought the total to $21, for four stiff drinks, one and a half little hamburgers, part of a pickle, and a few hours of dancing.