Home is Hot

Well, home was not all that hot temperature wise on Friday evening as we embarked to Town Point Park to enjoy the music of hometown heroes Carbon Leaf as Erin put on all three long-sleeved shirts she had brought with her and blamed me incessantly for the cold weather. The concert kicked serious butt, as you may have assumed. My parents were awesome enough to attend and rock out along with my high school physics teacher who we dicscovered near the fron of the stage with beads wrapped around his head. Also in the crowd were my brother's dear friends WillBChap and Matthew Crowe Park who had brought Will's mom along and described the show as "like seeing Hendrix down at the beach". While I must say that Carbon Leaf and Jimi Hendrix are not quite musical kindred souls, I think she was referring to the vibe of chillin' out and rocking out. To answer Brian's criticism, Carbon Leaf has and always will have a special place in my heart that no matter how furiously "Johnny Get Your Gun" can be played will ever replace. In addition, I went home to kick it (I stole this phrase from Eminem and now claim it as my own) with some of my bros. Let no man ever accuse me of passing on a concert with bros ever again.

Later that evening we linked up with Sam who had only hours ago escaped the University of Virginia and exams to return to the homefront and together we struck out for Baron's Pub to share some time with our favorite English teacher/lacrosse/football coach Alexander Trent Blythe. This was all well and good until we attempted to leave amidst a bar brawl that ended in an ambulance parked behind my vehicle. The 6 cops on the scene took their time in clearing things up and finally around 3 in the morning we were allowed to depart. Later that evening Sam's dad would get a call to the mergency room to fix one of the victim's mouths and two days later my own father would receive a visit from the cousin of a man wishing to get out of jail because he was involved in an altercation behind a local bar and punched a girl in the mouth. It really is fun how things in Suffolk really seem to come full circle.

Saturday night brought us out to Sam's home where we roasted marshmallows and more importantly, hot dogs over an open fire and stared at the river for a decent amount of time. This was by far my most enjoyable time during the weekend back home, however all time spent with hometown friends and family and most importantly my special lady friend were well enjoyed.

This evening is my debate against universal health care in my Health Economics and hopefully some more work, but I am not too optimistic regarding that. There remains a fat Political Science paper, an Ireland presentation, a PM MEGAquiz, 4 days of class, and a Health Econ exam between me and the sweet sweet release of summer.

There's nowhere that I can't go and there's no one that I don't know

Birthday weekend was quickly followed up four days later by the hilarious onset of beach weekend, a Furman tradition unlike any other. Mr. Summey joined myself and roommates Adam and Jimmy at the Atlantic Paradise Inn where we were happy neighbors to the illustrious Ben Pauluhn and several other members of the FU tennis team. This was a strategic command post as we were situated in the midst of the Polynesian and the Viking, home to SNu and SAE and countless other friends of ours. The weather was not what we would have chosen, but we managed to make do on Friday with a solid three hours of jacuzzi time in Paradise while ignoring all relevant health warnings posted by the hot tub. Tim, the crusty janitor of our hotel, sold us his loyalty and the use of his radio for a beer or two and things were off and running. Adam and Matt proceeded to show us various anatomical oddities during our time soaking in the tub which will haunt many of my worst nightmares for the days to come. The highlight of this evening was my first experience with Beer Kix, which came about rather accidentally, but I have grown to love since then. Try them sometime, I promise you will never go back to Beerios. The lowlight of this evening will go without mention. Saturday brought some quality time with the Bruce which included further consumption of Beer Kix with a suicidal trip to Arbys and a call from the one and only Kimdrugs. There are too many glorious details to go into regarding the enjoyment of Beach Weekend, so just understand that it is perhaps the most fabulous 3 days of the year.

Moving on and looking forward as always, there is still more to look forward to! This Friday will carry me back to 'ol Virginia as the song says, to hear the music of Virginia's finest (Carbon Leaf) with some of Virginia's finest (my dear friends Kim, Sid and Sam). This will be a short two days chock full of Suffolk goodness and my only hope is that Erin will enjoy her time in my quaint homeland. The big upside to this weekend will be my family's elation at seeing me again after a considerable drought and after my birthday will compel them to purchase me food in enormous quantities at quality hometown establishments. I will report back on all the fun of this weekend's events and focus on wrapping up another year in academia. Be on the lookout for the third milk glass to cap this year off.

Legal, but still not Responsible

The post that was 21 years in the making has now arrived into your hands with patient readers. Thats right, Sunday night I crossed over into a brave new world of legal alcohol consumption, no cover charges at concerts, and the ability to reserve a beach weekend hotel. Yes, Sunday was the day of rest and the Lord's day, no there was nothing holy about our activity on this day. Hopefully your first question of wether I am still alive has been answered by the existence of this post and by my dear friend Kevin's best estimation I was 3 drinks from death. How he knew this from 1000 miles away, I'll never know, but from the looks of me on Monday, it was a very good assessment. Monday, I broke my perfect spring term attendance streak and stayed in bed until 7 PM. All in all, the kickoff to Guapolooza was a rousing success.