What A Weekend
I was looking so forward to seeing my best friend. I hate that it takes us 4 months in between seeing each other. Friday I left work at 4:30pm not knowing if he had left or not after talking to him via yahoo messenger earlier in the day. Finally got a text around 5:30pm saying he left at 4:30pm and forgot to text me. I estimated that he would arrive sometime between 9-10pm. Sure enough I heard a car pull up as the Undertaker's music came on TV at 9:50pm. (I was watching Smackdown live for the first time in a while.) The long hug was nice as we talked about his drive over across the state. For the first time he actually didn't hit any traffic on I-80. We made dinner, which consisted of pepperoni balls and apple juice. He'd never heard of pepperoni balls. What is this world coming to? Ended up going to bed around 11:15pm since it was such a long drive for him. I knew it wasn't time for me to go to bed, so I started to reread Wicked.
I seriously thought he would be up and ready to go around 8:30am...sadly I was the one who was up and ready. I couldn't fall back to sleep, and Ayla didn't make it any easier. Finally, I got up around 9:15am and read some more after washing up. He strolled out of bed around 9:45am. I learned that I have enough hot water in my apartment for two consecutive showers. This excites me. They were long ones too. I smelled my bodywash when I walked into the kitchen, but didn't say anything. In typical Sam fashion he comes out of the bathroom and says, "I smell like a girl. I forgot my body wash." I told him, "Wait until you see how smooth your skin is." I have the Olay Body Ribbons stuff that is half soap and half lotion literally. The lotion doesn't wash off. Funny stuff. We sat around and watched some horror flick on A&E. They were having a marathon of horror films.
Sam wanted to go see SAW IV. Okay, horror films, I like them don't get me wrong. But I like the mystery type or the classics like vampire and such. SAW is nothing like that. It's slash and gore right on the screen. I shrugged it off. If I couldn't handle it I'd shut my eyes. The last horror film I saw was Fear dot com. The movie started off with an autopsy. It was gross, but hey I used to watch the surgery channel growing up, so it didn't bother me too much. The rest of the movie was typical gore and escape from contraptions. I kinda liked it. But shhh, don't tell anyone.
SAW IV ended right on time and Sam and I had enough time to go down to the stadium and watch some LMBA bands. We got in on a discount because we both still look like students. Hey, if they are going to call us students, I'm not going to argue with them. Actually we got there right on the break between A and AA bands. We saw all of AA, which included Fairview, Elk County Catholic, Seneca, Girard, and someone else. I don't remember. I'm sorry to everyone that comes from a small band like that, but I don't have the ears for them. There's not much you can do with less than 50 members on the field including guard. The stands started to pack up when the last band came on the field. As Girard came marching on the field, Sam and I saw the IUP buses pull up. Talk about unpack, warm up, and boom you're on the field in less than 20 minutes. Good job IUP. We got to see the 2nd half of their show because they were only allowed 15 minutes: Horn line warm-up, drum line warm-up, Bartok, Brehmn, and some thing else, plus Amazing Grace. There were a couple of IUP alumni in the audience. We were all wearing our IUP gear. Sam and I were against the back wall of the stadium out of the wind and I got up on the chair so I could see well. It was a good show overall. The drill was awesome for the closer. Grace was played as a block, which always makes it sound better. I leaned on Sam from behind and gave him a hug as Grace was being played. You have no idea how nice it was to hear Grace live again. Afterwards, we hurriedly left as we saw the clouds come in. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, it downpoured.
Sam and I drove up to meet my mother and Rick up at TGIFridays. It was Rick's treat. We didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes for our table. It was nice to have a dinner the four of us. I made an ass out of myself when I excused myself from our table because I saw a guy I hadn't seen in 4 years. Yeah, Matt was up in Erie and eating at Fridays. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but he looks awful. After seeing him on Saturday, what did I ever see in him? I dunno, maybe my tastes have changed. Who knows? The food was good as always. After dinner it was decided that drinks were in order so we drove down to the Sloppy Duck. I’m sure Sam was thinking about the reputation of a bar that is called Sloppy Duck. It was very quiet as there were only 6 people at the bar. Mom drank one tall Captain and Coke, Rick drank at least 3-4 Miller Lite’s, I drank 3 Parrot Bays and Cokes, and Sam had 2 Killians Irish Red. We had a really good time watching the beginning of the Penn State vs. Ohio State game. Mom seemed like she was falling asleep, so Mom and Rick left. Sam and I left almost right after them and as we were pulling out he asked what time Edinboro’s band was performing tonight. I told him around 10pm, and he wanted to go see what kind of show they put on. So, we trouped back out in the cold and drizzle to see General McLane perform, which he really liked. Of course he did, they have like 200 members. Edinboro came on after them, and they were actually much smaller than IUP and General McLane. Scotland the Brave was a bit slower than I remember, but it may have been because I was cold. I asked Sam his opinion on their 3 bagpipers, and he said they were decent. The announcer said the one piece was written just for the bagpipers and Edinboro’s band. Sam said he lied because his pipe band had already played it awhile ago and it wasn’t new. Guess they shouldn’t make a claim like that if there are real pipers in the audience. ;) Edinboro’s music selections were a bit better than IUP’s but IUP killed Edinboro in drill alone. I shouldn’t say that Edinboro’s was better, they were just more Scottish tunes that everyone knew. IUP was still more in your face louder than Edinboro.
Afterwards we left and headed back to my apartment. We started watching The Exorcist II, but we were falling asleep and couldn’t stay awake long enough to watch the end of the movie.
Sunday started off a bit later than I would of liked, but we both slept in. After showers, we went to EatnPark for lunch. Sam hasn’t been to one of those since he left IUP. Apparently, Allentown doesn’t have E&P. We got the exact same thing, and we caught up on the lives of our mutual friends: Steph, Suzie, Cassie, Annie, Phillips and all his brothers.
It was nice and sunny out and following the theme of the weekend, which seemed to be horror, I drove him out to the Gudgeonville Bridge where I took pictures of the fall foliage earlier in the week. It’s supposedly haunted and I told him of the story surrounding the bridge. He couldn’t believe that only car can be on it at once. Now he knows why. We talked off and on the whole trip back in. I did make one observation while with him. We both must be getting old or something. In college, him and I would be in the same room and we couldn’t shut up. Now, there are long stretches where we just sit in silence. Kind of unnerving in a way.
It was getting close to 2pm when he had to leave. I hate goodbyes, especially with him. Just because I know it’s going to be a while until I see him again. Location is not our friend. I expected him to be home around 7:30pm. I received a call at 6:30pm saying he was stopped on the highway and hasn’t moved in 45 minutes. He said he still had at least 70 miles to go on I-80, plus the little bit on 476 by Allentown. It sucks because what should take about 5.5 hours, took him almost seven. Ouch. He pulled into his driveway around 9:10pm.
At 6:30pm, I was still debating on whether to go the Fox for WWE’s Cyber Sunday. The matches were really good, but I didn’t feel like moving off the couch. I got a text from JD saying that he was in the burgundy room and had good seats. So, I threw on my shoes and went up there. Halfway through the show, I started to not feel good. Spent almost an entire match in the bathroom. I decided at 9:15pm that I should go home because it was kind of embarrassing. Not to mention, JD was starting to fall asleep and not much company. On the way out of the Fox I stopped to see a couple of the Outbackers that had come over after work, then left.
I was miserable for the next two hours, but finally was able to fall asleep around 11:15pm. At least that is the last time I saw the clock. I actually woke up before my alarm, which sucked. But I was also afraid of my heater because it made loud noises all night. I slept pretty well though in between the noises.
Tonight starts the Halloween festivities with the Outbacker Halloween party at the Fox and Hound. I can’t wait!