That Just Happened Part 2

Did you somehow miss the exciting first part of the story of my weekend in Raleigh? Check it out here before reading on.

So! When we left off with the story, we were turning in around 5 a.m. We'd all had quite a bit to drink, although I quickly learned Nick and Mike are extreme lightweights. Mike had four beers and was nearly unconscious. Nick didn't have much more and was worried about feeling awful Saturday morning.

What in the world guys!

Anyway, 9 a.m. rolled around on Saturday and I was UP and ready to go. I walked Allie and got ready, and then I waited to get up with Nick so we could gameplan for the rest of the day. Predictably, it took a while. Weaksauce.

We finally rendezvoused at lunchtime. The game was at 6 p.m., so we had plenty of time to grab some food and tailgate for quite a while.

This seems like a good place for the story of acquiring tickets. Obviously, I'm no longer a student. But for a while, I still had my student ID, so I could just find a student to get me a ticket, and flash my student ID to get in. Well, first of all, I no longer am up to speed on the whereabouts of my student ID. Second, I know fewer and fewer students every year.

When I told Nick I was coming back, I asked him to please get me a ticket with everyone who'd be going (and we had a fairly substantial group). He said it wouldn't be a problem. That was last weekend.

Monday rolls around. Tuesday rolls around. Nothing. Hey Nick, ticket update? "We're totally fine." Nick, I need some reassurance about this. I'm driving an awfully long way to get to this game. "I have the best reassurance ever for you: SOUTH ALABAMA (meaning it shouldn't be hard to find tickets to this game because of the team we were playing)." Nicholas, that does not help me.

He kept telling me it would be fine and not to worry. So I stopped asking. Asking wasn't going to get me anywhere anyway. We didn't have the tickets in our hand until 2 p.m. on SATURDAY -- the day of the game. In retrospect, I'm glad I stopped asking about it haha. Truthfully, if I still lived in Raleigh, I wouldn't have cared about getting the tickets on that timetable. But all the driving made me nervous.

Anyway, we met up and headed to Wendy's for lunch, where I got a grilled chicken sandwich (because I'm watching what I eat...lulz), fries and SWEET TEA, which I can gleefully report was readily available everywhere. We recounted the stories from Friday night and filled in the newest member of the team, Chad, who replaced John in the car with Nick, Mike and me.

Chad was instantly a fan of everything that happened and couldn't wait to come out with us Saturday night.

As we got closer to the stadium, we realized we had neither tickets nor beer for tailgating. Nick and Mike went to meet the guy who was selling us the tickets. Chad and I hopped out of the car at the intersection of Hillsborough and Blue Ridge. There's a gas station across the street there, so we went and bought beer. It was kind of like a game of Frogger with us trying to cross the street.

Well, Mike and his four beers from the night before made it impossible for him to finish more than ONE beer at the tailgate. Nick did a little better, but he was also not feeling well from the night before.

We met up with Justin and a few of Chad's friends. And one of Mike's friends, Eileen, who was out with us the night before, came to tailgate even though she had no ticket for the game, nor did she plan on acquiring a ticket to the game. Also, she walked three miles just to tailgate with us for a few hours. Hardcore. Major props. Then again, tailgating at N.C. State is kind of a way of life. Nothing comes close.

Tailgated for a few hours. It was relatively chilly and light rain fell almost the entire time. My long-sleeved State shirt proved to be a brilliant decision. Justin was totally clutch, too. He brought a small HD TV with a box that connects to the cigarette lighter in the car, so we got to watch football while we tailgated without a ridiculous generator situation.

No point in talking about the game. Check out the ESPN game recap for that if you want. It was raining and sloppy, and we won by more than 20. A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL. Here's a photo I took from where we were standing. I really love our stadium. Man.

We didn't bother going to our seats. Another friend of ours, Dennis (D-Burt) has season tickets and NEVER sits in his seats. He and his buddy Doug just stand in the concourse near the big scoreboard. It's actually a pretty solid view, so why not? This way, it doesn't matter where your tickets are. You end up with the people you want to be with anyway. Oh! and I took a video of the team entrance with my blackberry, so pardon me if it sucks, but here it is anyway.



While at the game, I ran into J. Mike, another Tech sports alum who we hadn't seen in a long time. We agreed it was necessary for him to come out with us that night.

Got back after the game, showered and got ready. I didn't want to wait for Nick to go back to Durham to do the same and then come back, so I cabbed downtown to meet Laura, and I actually got to see Danielle and Adam for the first time in like two years. I think the last time I saw them was the very first Bark for Life event we did the day before my half-marathon. So Oct. 2009. Crazy. They lived in Spain for like nine months. Kick ass.

So we met at Mecca, which I'm told is the oldest restaurant in Raleigh. Awesome! Seriously, any place that has a framed portrait of FDR over the bar is A-OK by me. Had a drink there and then went to meet Laura and her friends again at Busy Bee. I've heard a lot about Busy Bee from friends in Raleigh, and it was pretty awesome. Tough to beat $2 cans of High Life. Also, I had a swedish fish shot for the first time ever. It really does taste like swedish fish. That could get dangerous.

Nick, Chad and their friends arrived, and we just kinda sat around at Busy Bee for a while. I feel like we probably wasted too much time there, but it was fine. Around 1 a.m., Nick and I looked at each other and pretty much said, "I just wanna dance," at exactly the same time. It was getting late. We needed to get moving. Literally.

Laura, who is pretty much a hipster haha, said we had two options. There's a place where the people would look like Nick and me (The Hive, where we were Friday night), but there's a huge line to get in; or a place where the people would look like Laura (Neptunes), but there probably wouldn't be a line to get in.

We chose the latter, and got in after not too long. Laura was right haha. J. Mike was waiting for us there, and I'm not sure it was possible for us to visually stick out more than we did. But the music, man. The music. It was kind of a 60s/Motown/funk kind of thing, and it was just unbelievable. It was exactly the kind of vibe I was looking for that night. Seriously amazing.

Laura described it best when she said it was like a scene out of Dirty Dancing. You couldn't really dance fast to it. You just had to groove (and yes, I know how white I sound right now. Suck it.). God I just loved every second of that. We didn't have much time to dance there, but I really made the most of it, I think.

J. Mike had the incredible foresight to take a picture of it. It's a little blurry because, well, I was dancing and it was dark. But it's too good not to share.

It was around this time when Justin, Nick and J. Mike began to wonder how many energy drinks I must have had given how hard we went the night before, how late it currently was and how much energy I was displaying on the dance floor haha. They couldn't accept that I just had that much energy pretty much all the time. But I did, and I do. Apparently, they all feel like I should spend time being in energy drink commercials. I'll take it!

Anyway. Excellent night. Lots of drinks, friends I hadn't seen in a long time -- great success. Must be done again soon. Saturday night was mild compared to Friday night. I was asleep by 3:30 or so.

Woke up the next day, feeling good as always. I took Allie to a dog park downtown, where she promptly sat down next to me or under a table. Allie is one of the smartest dogs I've ever encountered, but I really think she fundamentally does not understand the purpose of the dog park. Or maybe she just uses it for mental stimulation. Or maybe she just doesn't like dogs who are strangers. I don't know.

She had two beagle friends when she was younger, Ella and Lady, and she always loved running around and playing with them. She loved playing with our family dog, Spunky, too. Who knows. After the dog park, I went to Laura's house and hung out and had a few drinks with her and her roommate. Allie and Laura's dog Rainer got to run around their yard some more before we hopped in the car for the 4-5 hour drive back.

I made the brilliant decision to call ahead to Lilly's and pick up a pizza on my way out of town. Great success on that one. Thankfully, there was no traffic, and we made it back in a decent time. SO great. Thanks to everyone, seriously. Amazing weekend.

And that's all she wrote for my weekend in Raleigh. I'm sure I've left out some things I did not intend to leave out, so feel free to let me know via messages or comments or whatever. All in all, it was a perfect weekend.

I couldn't have asked for a better time seeing all my friends, and I absolutely must get back soon to do it again.

Also, standing invite to everyone to come to D.C. whenever you can, and we'll make sure we go just as hard here as we did in Raleigh. Man. Just awesome. LET US GO.

-BG

That Just Happened: A Raleigh Recap

I spent the later half of last week in North Carolina, visiting family and friends -- Wednesday through Friday morning in Charlotte and the remainder of the weekend in Raleigh.

Charlotte was excellent, of course. I got to see my parents and some of my oldest friends. I got to rock out on my drums a good bit. It was, generally, solid.

There really are not a whole lot of exciting details to say about that though haha. It was an excellent few days, and I'm excited to go back next month for Kirk's wedding.

Raleigh, on the other hand. Whew. As my texts, blogs, Facebook status updates and Tweets said, I was expecting a ridiculous weekend. I never could have imagined just how ridiculous it would be. I'll talk about many things here, but suffice it to say there is also quite a bit I will never mention in a public forum. Ever. That just happened.

This may require two parts. We'll see. Here we go!

So when I left my apartment on Wednesday, it was 85 degrees. Relatively hot. Humid. You know. The usual summer weather. When I woke up in Charlotte on Friday, I discovered Fall had arrived overnight.

That's fine and all. I like Fall. Well, I love Fall. But I was not wardrobily prepared. And also, I don't know if you're aware or anything, but I've lost a shit-ton of weight over the past few months -- 42 pounds to be exact. I haven't worn jeans since I was a fat-ass. They no longer fit! WAY too big for me. They'd fall down after taking barely a few steps, and the belt caused such ridiculous bunching-up it was just time for new jeans.

When I got to Raleigh on Friday, my first stop was the Go Pack store to buy a long-sleeved State shirt for the game on Saturday, which was supposed to be cold and rainy (it was, more on that later), and my second stop was the mall to buy jeans.

I bought jeans with a 34-inch waist. Let's. Go. I haven't been able to wear jeans that size in six or seven years.

Anyway, so I got situated and I was ready to go. I heard from Nick, and we made our plans. We planned to hit this bar called Foundation because our friend Laura works there. The group started as Nick, his roommate John, Mike and me. Mike, as I've mentioned, has become a close friend of mine through talking on Gchat every day, but this was the first time we ever got to hang out in person. Lulz.

We got our hugs and greetings out of the way and hopped into the car to go downtown. It was drizzling a little bit, and it was not really warm at all. We got downtown and found parking, and I called Laura to find out where Foundation is because none of us had ever been there.

I don't want to cause trouble, so I'll just say Laura was unavailable to hang out on Friday night haha :-). Mike helped us find Foundation anyway with his iPhone, and we decided we'd order a round or two of drinks before heading to the next stop.

I had a Manhattan (great success!), and we all took these shots called Carolina Sunsets. I couldn't tell you what's in them to save my life, so there you go. Some of Mike's friends from work showed up, and we had a pretty solid party going now.

It was then we agreed it was time to dance.

A brief aside about dancing: I had NO IDEA how much I loved dancing until very recently. I mean, from my stories from my cousin's wedding a couple years ago and various random nights out, obviously I knew I enjoyed it, but this was another level.

We made our way to The Hive around 11 or so. It was still pretty early, so it wasn't very full. We immediately went over to the dance floor and commanded the area until almost 2 a.m. It was beyond insane. Lots of drinks -- beers, whiskey, shots, let's go -- lots of fun.

Friday night really helped me realize how insane my energy level is now. Some of my friends have been commenting lately on how I seem to have a ridiculous amount of happy/fun/positive energy. I mean, is there any doubt it's completely tied to losing 42 pounds and working out six days a week?

I mean, we didn't stop dancing for three solid hours. I danced in the middle of a circle on the dance floor. What in the world? WHO AM I? So incredibly awesome. I really have to say, Nick, John, Mike and I know how to break it down. It was nuts.

A theme of the weekend seemed to be various people marveling at my energy level haha. And how they couldn't believe I was able to keep it up for as long as I did and at such high levels (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID). But seriously, I was completely fired up all night, and I couldn't get enough dancing.

So John and Mike disappeared around 1:30 to find some other friends who were out. Nick and I stayed to continue dancing and drinking with some girls Nick had started chatting up who were in the aforementioned circle with us on the dance floor. We were under the impression Mike and John were going to bring the friends back to The Hive to continue dancing until it closed.

When it became apparent that wasn't going to happen, Nick and I wandered outside into the rain to find wherever Mike and John were. I think they were at Raleigh Times. Anyway, obviously neither Nick nor I knew where that was. So we asked this random guy named Wayne where to go, and he totally pointed us in the exact opposite direction.

Thanks a lot, Wayne.

As we were walking, we encountered a bachelorette party full of girls from Wilson. They were looking for their stretch Hummer limo. We ran across the street to ask them if they knew were Raleigh Times was (obviously not, since they were from Wilson, though we didn't know that when we decided to ask them). Instead, a few of them ran up to me, grabbed me and asked me to tell this creepy guy to leave them alone because he was following them despite repeated requests for him to stop.

Oh lord.

I don't particularly remember saying anything to the guy, but he left them alone. It must be because Nick and I are such a strikingly intimidating pair. Ha. Anyway, the girls then insisted on Nick and I following them to the Hummer to go to Wilson with them. Like you do.

For reasons completely passing understanding, we did not get in the Hummer. Instead, we got chili dogs. Again, like you do.

We eventually found Mike and John after nearly 30 minutes of walking around in the rain downtown. We were able to take shelter inside, but it was well after 2 a.m., and the bar was closed. Fail.

We left and found the car and ended up having another beer and hanging out at a friend's house for an hour or so after that. The fog of "you better believe I'm not disclosing these details on a public forum on the Internet" prevents me discussing this night further.

But oh boy. That just happened.

We made it back around 4:45 or 5 a.m. and hit the sack so we could do it again on Saturday. We had to tailgate and check out some State football before going out again Saturday night. It was going to be a long day!

That'll do it for part 1. Part 2 later!

God. This weekend was just so, so unbelievably awesome haha. Let's GO.

-BG

Guilty Pleasures are Embarrassingly Fun

First thing's first:

OH YEAH JERSEY SHORE YEAH.

Jersey Shore returns with its new season tonight! LET'S GO!

My No. 1 guilty pleasure at the moment is -- without question -- Jersey Shore. I know, I know. You're about to tell me how it's such a terrible show, and the people on it are so awful and Italian American stereotypes and etc. etc.

Here's my counterargument to all of that: Bite me.

I don't care.

I normally hate reality shows. The Bachelor and The Bachelorette make my skin crawl. The Real Housewives series gives me a stomachache just thinking about them. I haven't watched the Real World in 10 years. Never watched Survivor or the Amazing Race or American Idol or anything like that. I don't mind some cooking shows like Hell's Kitchen and Masterchef.

I have seen a few episodes of Dancing with the Stars with various girlfriends over the years, but let's face it, there are ample reasons to watch that show other than the competition.

Jersey Shore, on the other hand, I just can't get enough. I don't exactly know why. But I know I'm not alone.

Here's the thing, I find Pauly D to be completely compelling and engrossing. I will watch Pauly on any show he does from now on. And here's another thing: when they first started running promos for this show a couple years ago, I definitely did NOT expect the guy who looks most stereotypically like a douchebag to be the most down-to-earth and chill of all of them. But there it is.

The show is not without its downsides. I find almost all of the girls on the show to be terrible -- especially Sammi.

Sammi, stop messing around with Ronnie. He's obviously not that into you, and he's a slimeball, ok? How many times does he have to throw your shit outside before you take the hint that maybe you're not right for each other?

I find Snooki and her friend Deena borderline OK. They annoy me, but nothing like Sammi. I can tolerate their presence. Angelina was terrible. No redeeming qualities. I'm so glad she's gone. I am, however, a big fan of JWoww. She's pretty awesome.

As for the guys, I've already discussed my mancrush on Pauly. Vinnie is fine with me, too, and Situation, well. I don't know. I liked Sitch a lot in the first season, season and a half maybe. But his act is growing old for me. Ronnie just needs to stop. We get it. You treat Sammi like shit. You cheat on her, and then somehow convince her it's her fault. I mean. What can you say about him?

With all that said, not only can I not stop watching it, but I'm incredibly excited for it to start again.

Don't judge me. We all have guilty pleasures. I just find some of the embarrassing things I like to be funny. Jersey Shore is No. 1 on the list, but it is hardly alone.

I'm also a huge fan of the MTV Challenge. Like I said, I haven't watched Real World in nearly a decade, so I'm still playing catch-up with the people on it, but this show is fantastic. Bill Simmons calls it the fifth American professional sport, ahead of NASCAR, which I have a hard time disagreeing with, honestly.

I also own the following DVDs and Blurays: Bedazzled, starring Elizabeth Hurly and Brendon Frasier; Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man (heck yes.); The Sweetest Thing (a really terrible [read: awesome] chick flick); and The Holiday.

I make no apologies for these movie choices.

And oh my music selections. One time when I was back at Technician, I was driving to dinner with a bunch of people in my car. The Colbie Callait song "Bubbly" came on because we were listening to a mix CD I'd made. One of the girls in the backseat commented how she kept waiting for the fast guitars to start. But no. It was really a Colbie Callait song.

Riding in my car has always guaranteed a really...strange?...mix of songs. My mix CDs contained songs ranging from The Beatles to Belle and Sebastion to Reel Big Fish to Mariah Carey to Tim McGraw to Third Eye Blind to the Smashing Pumpkins to the Pixies to Muse to Lady Gaga and so on.

One other time, we were riding in my car, and the following two songs played back-to-back:

"Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood
"Always Be My Baby" by the aforementioned Mariah Carey

What could I say other than, "well this is embarrassing?" Yup.

Want to know some more embarrassing songs I have on my iPod? Of course you do.

Ashlee Simpson - Pieces of Me
Backstreet Boys - I Want it That Way
Beyonce - Single Ladies
Extreme - More Than Words
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
Miley Cyrus - 7 Things I Hate About You
New Kids on the Block - Tonight
R. Kelly - Ignition
Shaggy - Angel

And that's nothing close to an exhaustive list of the embarrassing songs I like. Those are just the few that jumped out at me on a cursory trip through the playlist.

I would absolutely love to know what some of your guilty pleasures are. It may give me some more ideas of terrible things I need to listen to, watch or read. Because, as you can see, I love me some awful things.

Lulz.

-BG