An Amazing Week

Okay, so up until GT's 4th quarter collapse against Virginia Tech on Thursday, the 7 previous days had been one of the best weeks I can ever remember. Sure, I worked a few of those days in my usual graveshift job, but let's look at those 7 days.

Wednesday, October 20th:
My much-beloved Boston Red Sox complete the greatest comeback in the history of sports, rallying from a 3-game deficit to win the American League Championship Series 4 games to 3. Tonight's game capped off that comeback, thrashing the New York Yankees 10-3 at Yankee Stadium.


The Red Sox complete their historic 4-3 ALCS win in New York.

Thursday, October 21st:
After finishing up a night at work, I packed up and boarded a plane bound for Raleigh, North Carolina. Most of the day was spent flying around the southeast U.S. - I left Tallahassee around 7pm, flying into Orlando. I hadn't eaten dinner yet, and just figured I could get some food in Orlando when I landed around 845pm or so. Not so - the whole damned airport was shut down, thus forcing me to wait until getting some airline pretzels on the flight to Raleigh. Good times. Oh, and being bored in the airport, I decided to read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons - god bless eBooks and being able to store a couple hundred of them on your laptop. Sure helps to cut down the boredom.

Friday, October 22nd:
Arrived around midnight in Raleigh, promptly went to bed after giving both April and Laura their 23rd birthday presents. Today is Laura's birthday (April's was the 2nd) so after a day of them spending time in class and lab - and me reading my book - we head out for some birthday celebrations. First up is a trip to Kanki, a Japanese steakhouse. Dinner was good, and I got to meet one of Laura's friends, the very cool Sarah. After that, we headed to a coffee shop in Chapel Hill, the very cool outdoor Caffe Driade, where we sat around and watched the band One Less Frame perform an extended set. The evening was very chill, extremely relaxing. I couldn't help but think that this was the life - listening to great music while sitting around with my friends. The night was a bit chilly, but warm Mocha Lattes and hot chocolates kept us warm. [Side note: I still curse the Weather Channel for telling me it would be in the mid-60s all weekend in Chapel Hill, when in reality it barely cracked 55 during the day. Thanks guys - glad I "accidentally" packed a sweatshirt.] Anyways, the music of One Less Frame was so good that I decided to pick up their two CDs, which set me back $8, but it was well worth it. Go to their website above and listen to the song "Full Circle" - it's good stuff.

So after leaving the cafe, we headed to Franklin Street (where all the bars are in Chapel Hill) for some birthday-boozin'. April, Laura, and myself were joined by a sorority sister and friend of Laura's, Meg. I didn't really know what to think of Meg at first, mainly because Laura told me she was the "epitome of a sorority girl" - something which made me wince at first. What Laura meant was that she dressed like a sorority girl: very snappy and coordinated. And with a lot of pink. So once we all got situated in The East End (or "The Martini Bar" as they call it) I ended up seated next to Meg and we started talking. Now I've met quite a few women in my life - I'm social enough, I talk to a fair amount of people - but I've never met somebody in my life and left with such a stunning first-impression of somebody as I did with Meg. We just really clicked, more than I remember clicking with anybody I've met in a really, really long time (if ever). I was sad to leave at the end of the night, but our birthday girl had clearly hit her limit for the night, and it was time to tuck her in. Thus, Friday came to a close.

Saturday, October 23rd:
After sleeping through the early morning and watching some college football (Maryland! How in the hell did you lose to Clemson? You suck!) I got up and read some more. Now, I love visiting my friends at UNC, but they're both graduating in December. One thing I won't miss is that when I come to visit them, I stay in the dorms. The bathroom in the dorms require an electronic pass-key to enter, and as they're both girls, they don't have keys to the men's bathroom. So whenever I want to use the bathroom or take a shower (without walking to a completely different bathroom) I've got to walk down to a male floor, stand and wait outside the bathroom, and hope for somebody to come open it for me. Good times, right?

Anyway, so after letting Laura know what I thought about the previous night and miss Meg, she got me to go shopping with herself and Meg. Now, shopping's not exactly something that I love to do (unless it's electronics stuff) but given that I wanted to get out of the dorm room for a while and the company would be worth it, I went. So after spending an hour or so at Old Navy, Laura and I returned home and picked up April, then headed off to the movies.

We saw Team America: World Police - the latest creation from the South Park geniuses Matt Stone and Trey Parker. I have to say, I absolutely loved the movie. It was so amazingly over-the-top, and like South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut it did a great job at insulting just about every single group it possibly could.

After the movie, I watched Game 1 of the World Series, a close 11-9 Red Sox win capped off by Mark Bellhorn's game-winning home-run. Way to go, Mark.

When the game was over, Meg came over and she, April, and I headed out to Franklin Street again, to the martini bar again. Meg and I hit it off well again [at this point, I'd like to point out that Meg indeed does have a boyfriend, so we're just friends being friendly, okay?] and after a couple drinks and a couple places, we hit 2AM, Last Call in Chapel Hill. April says she's tired and wants to go home, so we all walk back to April and Laura's dorm [Laura stayed home to work on homework - boo!]. Meg and I however wanted to keep drinking, so I went with Meg to her place where on the way, we were pulled over by an asshole Chapel Hill cop who gave her the fifth degree in rediculous questioning. Highlights of the 5-0's questions: "Did you eat dinner tonight?" and "Did your passenger have anything to drink?" Absolutely rediculous stuff. So when we finally get to Meg's, we sit around, drink a beer or two, and talk until 6AM or so. She offers me a loveseat to sleep on, but as it was a wee bit smaller than me, she just drove me home where I snuck back into the girls' dorm room and went to bed.

Sunday, October 24th:
Spent most of the day just lounging around, watched Atlanta get absolutely killed by the Chiefs. Sunday was a good, relaxing day. The girls were busy with work and school, so I entertained myself. Though I was happy to see both Laura and April, I do have to admit that I did do a fair share of reading and watching TV as the girls were preoccupied a good deal of time. But it's their last semester of school, and we're near the end, so I can't blame them for working. Watched the Red Sox win game 2 of the World Series.

Monday, October 25th:
Today was a long, long day. I woke up around 630am, and around 10am, flew from Raleigh to Atlanta, where I would have to wait until 415PM to fly back to Tallahassee. I didn't mind this so much, as the Atlanta airport is one of the few airports that I really don't mind spending a lot of time in. I've been through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport so many times in the past 5 or 6 years that I pretty much know where everything is, so I had plenty of ways to keep myself busy. Grabbed some lunch, plugged in the laptop, and just screwed around and killed time till I flew back to Tallahassee. When I finally did get home around 630PM or so, I couldn't sleep. At 1030PM, I headed off to work, where only by drinking over 450mg of caffeine and some act of god was I able to stay awake the whole night. I got home from work after 730AM and collapsed.

Tuesday, October 26th:
Highlight of the day, without a doubt, was watching the Red Sox win Game 3 of the World Series. With a 3-0 lead, the unthinkable was now probable. The Sox were gonna win it all. As a Sox fan, I really didn't know what to think or do.

Wednesday, October 27th:

The Sox win their first World Series in 86 years. The picture just about says it all.

So over the course of 7 days I met an amazing woman, one who I will probably be friends with for a really long time - I got to experience an extremely chill night and discovered some good new music - and my favorite pro sports team wins the biggest championship series in the past 50 years.

Damn, what a great week.