Monday morning I got drunk.There’s no other way to say it. By 9:30 a.m. I was sipping Captain Morgan and Diet Cokes at the Magnolia Steakhouse Bar and I didn’t get home until 3 p.m.It sounds horrible (and in a way it was) but at least it was for an educational cause.I was one of six test subjects who spent their day as guinea pigs for local law enforcement. We drank, blew breathalyzers and went through the field sobriety tests for 12 officers. As state trooper Matt Sorenson said, "Not everyone wants to come in and subject themselves this early in the morning."We had varying body weights and tolerance levels, but we all had to drink measured amounts of alcohol in the same amount of time.I was hoping to learn something, and I did. Four ounces of alcohol put me over the legal limit of .08 blood alcohol concentration.In fact, after four ounces of alcohol, I blew a .125 in the breath test.We didn’t get our test results until after the day was done, but we were watched and supervised the whole time.At the point I reached more than the legal limit, I was told to slow down my drinking because my chosen brand of rum was 40 percent alcohol. Another test subject, Vickie Steensma, was told to pick up the pace because her Malibu rum was just 24 percent alcohol.My following breathalyzer tests showed a .08 and .092 blood alcohol level. Although we all drank at assigned paces, the actual tests had a range: the highest tested at .144 and the lowest at .066.In a way, it was fun to spend the day playing hooky and chatting with the people who also were test subjects: Steensma, Cory Tiesler, Irwin Rozeboom, Paula Anderson and Jess Greenwood.It was also fun to see law enforcement personnel in a friendly way. One out-of-town state trooper said in a sweet, motherly voice, "If you get sick, you wouldn’t be the first."Then she followed that with, "But you’re not riding in my car."I’ve never been arrested or had to deal with law enforcement outside of my job duties. But, even so, they don’t exactly give most civilians the warm and fuzzies. Seeing them in research mode rather than enforcement mode was rather nice.Sorenson helped lead the classes for county law enforcement. He said, "The purpose of this is to accurately define a person who’s under the influence to make driving safer for everyone."I’m not saying I’m happy to arrest people but I have to look at either doing that or having to notify someone’s family that there’s been an accident."Sorenson said there were 600 fatal car accidents in the state last year, and 200 were alcohol involved. Another local statistic is that Rock County had 26 DWIs last year. Nobles County had about 140. The average drunk driver is arrested with .16 blood alcohol concentration.While I was a research subject, all the officers were observant, non-judgmental and made everyone comfortable. I also learned that I can tell when I’ve had too much to drink … but after being under the influence for a while, it’s obvious that judgment gets impaired. I told one officer I thought I might be able to drive when my level was .092, which is over the legal limit.After being charioted home at the end of the experiment, I was falling asleep to an episode of "Dr. Phil" and I thought drinking all day is pretty fun stuff. I realized I was wrong when I woke with up a hangover to cover a 7 p.m. event for the newspaper. Realizing and being reminded of what is legal and healthy behavior are some things all of us walked away with after Monday’s experiment.So, thanks, Sheriff Mike Winkels, for inviting me to participate.