Every once in a while I'll get a little tickle in my throat for no apparent reason that's just irritating enough that I'll inevitably have to cough.  It isn't like a heavy chest cough or anything, just kind of a throat clearing cough.  I don't know why but like 99% of the time this then results in me getting the hiccups.  Having a heavy cough from a cold or something doesn't do it, but these stupid little throat coughs are a gateway to hiccup city.  

I've got to say of all the weird things the body does, hiccups are one of the most annoying.  I can't say they're the worst because pain and expulsion of bodily fluids are both definitely worse, but hiccups are just obnoxious.  I'm not really sure what, if any, function they serve and the fact that you never really know when the next one's going to strike that keeps you constantly on edge.  It's not like a sneeze where you can feel it coming and prepare for it.  It just sort of comes out of nowhere.

Hiccups don't really seem to go away of their own accord either.  I've tried once in a while to just let them be and see if they run their course, but they seem to just keep going indefinitely unless you do something to stop them.  Fortunately there are tricks that work.  The one that I've found to be the most effective is drinking water.  But there's a catch.  I can't seem to just drink it as I normally would.  Instead I seem to have to utilize a technique I somehow figured out when I was a kid and I still put to use today.  I don't know exactly how to describe it, but I kind of get a big mouthful of water, let it all kind of collect at the back of my throat and then swallow it all at once in a big gulp.  Sometimes I have to do this a few times before it works, but usually it will.  It has the side effect of making you feel really full somehow.  I'm not sure my stomach is used to swallowing that quantity of water so quickly or something.

One unfortunate thing I discovered is that drinking alcohol seems to make me lose the ability to use this technique.  I lose the muscle coordination that allows me to do it or something.  Thus getting the hiccups whilst drinking is an exercise in torture because I can't seem to make them go away trying the water trick just makes me uncomfortably full, but doesn't cure the hiccups.  I suppose I should google alternative hiccup cures.  Everyone must have a way they deal with them, right?  Maybe there are better ones out there.