Descriptions of this weekend's events are starting to pop online and I suppose I will chime in with my own run down (i.e. The Most Detailed Weekend Description Ever™)....
Thursday: I got up at 5:30am to continue working on things from the night before and to try and pack stuff so I could leave from work. I then went to work and had an absolutely crazy morning finally being able to leave around 12:30. After running some quick errands (and getting some Bojangles) I got on the road and headed towards Charlotte. Throughout the drive I had conversations with ...Trail of Dead's manager because we were supposed to have an interview earlier in the day. The interview eventually went down about 30 minutes before I arrived in Charlotte and it all worked out well.
Once in Charlotte, Jeremy C, Jeremy D, Hala and I all piled in JC's car and headed to Asheville. In Asheville, we headed to Grant’s where Michelle came by for a quick visit. We then all went over to Barley’s for some food and to meet up with Michael, Ryan, and Mason. Food and beer were consumed and we walked over to the Orange Peel to see the Arcade Fire show.
After standing in the cold for a while, we made it into the venue and were pleasantly surprised by the one man show of Final Fantasy…violin playing singer-songwriter who would play parts and then loop layers and layers on top of each other. Amazing. Next up was Arcade Fire, and I don’t think anything else needs to be said about how amazing this band is…great songs, great stage presence, all around great show. I think the only problem was apparently I consumed a little too much alcohol while at the show. We all decided to stay in town for the night so we found a hotel and piled into two rooms for a couple hours of sleep.
Friday: We got up, checked out of the hotel, and jumped on the road towards Charlotte. I was riding with Michael so we could talk about all the random things that are nice to talk about in person rather than over email, and I think he may have regretted that later. After stopping at Arby’s to get some food, I pretty much felt like crap, so I decided to buy some Pepto Bismol. I got in the car, drank it down, and within 45 seconds, threw up in the Arby’s bag I had brought along with me in case worse came to worse. Fortunately we were right at a rest stop, so we stopped, I got out and disposed of the foul evidence of the awesome night before, and we moved on. I would later be told that this was the most elegant and smooth vomiting ever.
We arrived in Charlotte and headed back to JD’s house where we sat around watching Stranger’s With Candy episodes and trying to think of something to do. Since I hadn’t really eaten, Jeremy, Mason, Ryan, and I went to Bojangles and got some food before heading to a thrift store to find JD some house warming gifts for his new place. I found him a plunger (who doesn’t need a plunger?) and a porcelain cow’s head thing for Ryan to give him. We headed back to JD’s, gave him the gifts, met up with Sarah, and then tried to find something to do again. That night we went to get some food at Lupie’s where Robbie joined the gang and we then made it over to Park Lanes for some crazy bowling action. At this point Rachel also showed up and got her bowl on with the rest of the gang. Bowling was followed by a trip down the street to the Bucket Shop, which was a small karaoke bar. While I thought it was going to be lame at first, the alcohol consumption by the rest of the gang (I wasn’t going to push my luck two nights in a row) made this one crazy night. Highlights were definitely the Soundgarden master himself Sco-bee, Michael and Sarah doing and amazingly drunk rendition of “Reo” (and capturing it on video), the guys running the bar dry of Jack Daniels, and the whole group doing a great rendition of “Say It Ain’t So” to close out the bar. After leaving the bar, Mason decided he needed to use the bathroom despite the fact that we were in our cars already (all sober drivers folks), and I watched him get in Robbie’s car instead of ours. Since the people with me didn’t know this small fact, I pretended that I had left Mason and had quite a laugh over the 20 minutes it took us to get to our next destination as they tried to plead with me to go back and get him. Once at the Landmark (our final destination for the evening), all was sorted out and we consumed food once again. That night Mason and I went back to Robbie’s to sleep on some comfortable bedding and around 5am we finally fell asleep. Too much fun for night.
Saturday: We slept in pretty late Saturday and awoke to a winter wonderland. Well not really, but there was a good bit of ice and snow outside at the time. We met the rest of the crew at Pike’s for some breakfast/lunch and just to kinda sit back and reflect on what was going to happen that day. It was decided that we would go see Finding Neverland, but it didn’t start for an hour, so we went over to Manifest to do some CD shopping and to kill time. The opinion on the movie was kinda mixed, but I really liked it and thought it was interesting. It seems that the guys who cleaned the bar of all the Jack Daniels the night before fell asleep during the movie, and since it did move at a pretty slow pace, I can understand their disinterest. The movie was followed by a trip back to JD’s where we killed some time by watching the Spike Jones DVD and just trying not to fall asleep. This was followed by a trip to the Penguin for some good southern food in an unpleasantly smoky environment. I apparently ate way too much because for the rest of the night I was uncomfortably full and didn’t feel like doing anything. We did however make it to a party and hang around with a bunch of people I didn’t know. Everyone was friendly and the band playing was OK, but the scene just wasn’t what I was into that night, and I wasn’t disappointed when we split kinda early. Mason and I once again headed back to Robbie’s for showers and a nice rest.
Sunday: The last day of this fun-filled weekend was a pretty lazy one. Everyone met at JD’s and went over to Bojangles for some breakfast before saying our goodbyes and hitting the road. I then lead Mason and Michael to their desired Interstates, and headed back home to Raleigh. The ride home was pretty boring and I was tinkering on the edge of sleep, but a pit stop or two and some loud music got me home in one piece. Once home, Leigh was frantically trying to use the last part of the weekend to clean our house, which had gotten pretty dirty, and I tried to pitch in and help her finish things up. A little bit of school work, email checking, and SU work later, I made my way to bed and was grateful have had an awesome weekend, to be home with my wife and to get a good night’s rest.
Thanks to everyone involved for coming into town and for all the good times. (4:09pm)
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