Snakes on a Plane
This weekend was an experience. I'm going to try to recapture the magic, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it justice.
I left work early Thursday, at 2:00, so that I could get to rifle team by 3:00. Of course, when I showed up, the armory was being used by another group, effectively cancelling our practice. Unfortunately, I had to stick around until 4:30 to ensure that all the kids were told that practice was cancelled, as they all seem to filter in at different times. I think if I continue helping out with the team we'll have to get more organized - a phone tree, set practice times, etc.
I got home around 5 and totally planned on going to the gym, but instead ended up doing laundry and scrubbing the kitchen floor. I smelled like I dropped a bottle of Orange Clean on myself. Annie arrived around 8 or 9 I think. We went to Friday's and then headed over to Wal-Mart around 11 or so to pick up some supplies to make letter shirts. I think we got back to my house around midnight. The plan was to stay up all night, make letter shirts, then leave my house between 4 and 4:30 to make our 6:33 am flight.
This didn't exactly happen. I couldn't convince Annie to watch Sports Night or Alias, so we watched two episodes of Boy Meets World, Season 1. The shirts never got done, but we did end up catching a nap for a half hour, maybe an hour. (That reminds me, Annie's got our letter shirt materials in her suitcase. I'll have to pick those up next weekend.)
Then it was up and off to the airport. My alarms were already set for 4 (since that's my normal wake-up time) and we rolled out around 4:30. We arrived at the airport around 4:45 (I live about 10 miles from Dulles) and stopped off to get breakfast. The flight went fine and we even got to sit next to each other. The plan had been to sleep on the plane, but that just didn't happen. We were way too pumped.
Arriving at the airport 45 minutes before our connecting flight proved to be a problem. Or, perhaps, the problem was that our boarding passes had the wrong gate number. We ended up missing our flight and catching one 3 hours later. This really wasn't a problem for us, as we now had plenty of time to get something to eat or drink. However, we both felt awful for Patty and Nick who were driving in from Houghton to Marquette to pick us up.
We touched down in Marquette (one of the tiniest airports I've ever seen) and Nick and Patty were waiting at the door. We went to Culver's for lunch and then headed back to Houghton.
It was touch and go for awhile after I received a disturbing phone call from Lou, but it seems that neither she nor her husband can work a door lock (at least mine) and everything was resolved by Carol later that night. I was pretty much prepped to fly back (or, gasp!, drive back) to Virginia and was quite thankful that didn't happen.
Dinner was at the cafeteria in the dorm and then we went off to Jasper, an unofficial Mu Beta Psi house. I'm not sure what is or is not non-brother info, so I'll write a separate post later for the weekend's brother events.
Phil showed up later than expected due to storms in Houghton. I can't remember when we actually got to bed (which was much earlier than we got to sleep... we really shouldn't talk so much when we're so exhausted), but it was late. I think I slept in until about 10:30 Saturday morning, which is incredibly abnormal for me. Normally I get up by 7 on the weekends.
Nick gave Phil and I a great tour of campus, with help from Katie and Lila. The campus bookstore was pretty cool and I found lots of great stuff there. And did you know that the tallest building in the Upper Peninsula is on the MTU campus? That's right folks, eleven stories. I got a couple of good pictures from there. Like I said it was a great tour.
Then we headed to Hancock and poked around there for awhile before we went back to another bookstore in Houghton. I found a book that I'm pretty anxious to dive into (probably before I even finish my DiMaggio book) about the history of the U.P. The most amusing part of the bookstore, though, was the accent of the woman that ran it. Thick does not begin to describe it.
Later we went to the pasta dinner and then on to Jasper for the lock-in. It was great. More in the other entry.
We didn't get to bed until the next morning and I think I had about an hour/hour-and-a-half of sleep before I got up to head back to the airport. We ended up in Marquette much earlier than we thought and stopped off to have breakfast. Unfortunately, breakfast ran over and we almost missed our flight. But, as I told Annie, things worked out. They held the plane for us. We hopped on board, the flight went smoothly and all was right with the world. Annie and I talked. I tried cheering her up by yelling out "Snakes on a Plane!" every once in a while.
On the shuttle, or maybe in the car, Annie decided that it should be "Snakes on a Plane", as in the infinite mathematical one. So it shall be done.
We went to Panera and grabbed some food, and then headed back to my house. Luckily, my parents were home so we didn't have to deal with horrible dogs, only mildly obnoxious ones. Annie chilled for a bit and then headed home. She was going to give me a call last night when she got in, but I'm guessing that she was too tired. I went to take a nap around 7, but ended up sleeping until I got up for work this morning. Oops. Guess I needed it.
And that was the weekend, or at least the public part of it. More in the other entry.
I left work early Thursday, at 2:00, so that I could get to rifle team by 3:00. Of course, when I showed up, the armory was being used by another group, effectively cancelling our practice. Unfortunately, I had to stick around until 4:30 to ensure that all the kids were told that practice was cancelled, as they all seem to filter in at different times. I think if I continue helping out with the team we'll have to get more organized - a phone tree, set practice times, etc.
I got home around 5 and totally planned on going to the gym, but instead ended up doing laundry and scrubbing the kitchen floor. I smelled like I dropped a bottle of Orange Clean on myself. Annie arrived around 8 or 9 I think. We went to Friday's and then headed over to Wal-Mart around 11 or so to pick up some supplies to make letter shirts. I think we got back to my house around midnight. The plan was to stay up all night, make letter shirts, then leave my house between 4 and 4:30 to make our 6:33 am flight.
This didn't exactly happen. I couldn't convince Annie to watch Sports Night or Alias, so we watched two episodes of Boy Meets World, Season 1. The shirts never got done, but we did end up catching a nap for a half hour, maybe an hour. (That reminds me, Annie's got our letter shirt materials in her suitcase. I'll have to pick those up next weekend.)
Then it was up and off to the airport. My alarms were already set for 4 (since that's my normal wake-up time) and we rolled out around 4:30. We arrived at the airport around 4:45 (I live about 10 miles from Dulles) and stopped off to get breakfast. The flight went fine and we even got to sit next to each other. The plan had been to sleep on the plane, but that just didn't happen. We were way too pumped.
Arriving at the airport 45 minutes before our connecting flight proved to be a problem. Or, perhaps, the problem was that our boarding passes had the wrong gate number. We ended up missing our flight and catching one 3 hours later. This really wasn't a problem for us, as we now had plenty of time to get something to eat or drink. However, we both felt awful for Patty and Nick who were driving in from Houghton to Marquette to pick us up.
We touched down in Marquette (one of the tiniest airports I've ever seen) and Nick and Patty were waiting at the door. We went to Culver's for lunch and then headed back to Houghton.
It was touch and go for awhile after I received a disturbing phone call from Lou, but it seems that neither she nor her husband can work a door lock (at least mine) and everything was resolved by Carol later that night. I was pretty much prepped to fly back (or, gasp!, drive back) to Virginia and was quite thankful that didn't happen.
Dinner was at the cafeteria in the dorm and then we went off to Jasper, an unofficial Mu Beta Psi house. I'm not sure what is or is not non-brother info, so I'll write a separate post later for the weekend's brother events.
Phil showed up later than expected due to storms in Houghton. I can't remember when we actually got to bed (which was much earlier than we got to sleep... we really shouldn't talk so much when we're so exhausted), but it was late. I think I slept in until about 10:30 Saturday morning, which is incredibly abnormal for me. Normally I get up by 7 on the weekends.
Nick gave Phil and I a great tour of campus, with help from Katie and Lila. The campus bookstore was pretty cool and I found lots of great stuff there. And did you know that the tallest building in the Upper Peninsula is on the MTU campus? That's right folks, eleven stories. I got a couple of good pictures from there. Like I said it was a great tour.
Then we headed to Hancock and poked around there for awhile before we went back to another bookstore in Houghton. I found a book that I'm pretty anxious to dive into (probably before I even finish my DiMaggio book) about the history of the U.P. The most amusing part of the bookstore, though, was the accent of the woman that ran it. Thick does not begin to describe it.
Later we went to the pasta dinner and then on to Jasper for the lock-in. It was great. More in the other entry.
We didn't get to bed until the next morning and I think I had about an hour/hour-and-a-half of sleep before I got up to head back to the airport. We ended up in Marquette much earlier than we thought and stopped off to have breakfast. Unfortunately, breakfast ran over and we almost missed our flight. But, as I told Annie, things worked out. They held the plane for us. We hopped on board, the flight went smoothly and all was right with the world. Annie and I talked. I tried cheering her up by yelling out "Snakes on a Plane!" every once in a while.
On the shuttle, or maybe in the car, Annie decided that it should be "Snakes on a Plane", as in the infinite mathematical one. So it shall be done.
We went to Panera and grabbed some food, and then headed back to my house. Luckily, my parents were home so we didn't have to deal with horrible dogs, only mildly obnoxious ones. Annie chilled for a bit and then headed home. She was going to give me a call last night when she got in, but I'm guessing that she was too tired. I went to take a nap around 7, but ended up sleeping until I got up for work this morning. Oops. Guess I needed it.
And that was the weekend, or at least the public part of it. More in the other entry.