Vacation Recap (Part I)

I know that it’s been awhile. My bad. We’re going to break this into three or four parts because, well, I want to.

I left Bloomington in the late morning on a Thursday. The plan was to make the jaunt down to Tuscaloosa, party it up, go to graduation on Saturday, and then make my way to the beach. Mission accomplished.

The drive was pretty typical. Long and mostly boring, but for a 7-8 hour drive, it could be much worse. I was heading down to attend a graduation celebration for the ladies of the Eightizzle, which they wisely chose to have on Thursday night instead of Friday. The people who partied on Friday night were easy to pick out at the morning ceremony.

Now, KimHo has been telling me for weeks (if not months) that I had to meet her friend Kristen (AKA K-Co). I don’t think I had been in Tuscaloosa for 20 minutes when K-Co arrived and immediately endeared herself to me by offering me a beer. I would soon find out that she is also very funny. Between those two things and her “distinct” southern accent (which gets more distinct and more southern the more she drinks) I decided that she was “good people”.

Before long everyone got ready and we headed out for the night. We originally had planned on staging a coup at the upstairs part of Mugshots, but it was closed for a private party, so we headed for 4th&23rd… but not until I ran into Laura, Jim, LeeAnn, Rebecca, and Carey and I ate half of Laura’s cheeseburger and some of her fries. Now 4th is a place that I got to see a lot of when I was in school, so it was good to go back.

As one might expect at a bar, there was some drinking. Even little Kimmy got into the action. I was shocked. I never thought my favorite little puritan would poison her body that way. Alas, I was wrong. I was generous, paid for some friends’ covers and some of their drinks… and why not? I hadn’t seen them in months! Of course, I also paid for my own drinks which were greater in number than those I bought for others.

In fact, by the time I was said and done, I simply could not remember how many beers I had had. This is generally known as a “bad sign”… but what the hell! I’m not in Tuscaloosa every night, am I? So the drinking… it led to some fun times… laughing, joking, carrying on… and some people (not me) did some dancing. Most notably, however, I met some of the biggest freaks in T-Town, and got my picture taken with them under the guise that I was Australian and wanted a picture with some “Real Americans”. They were drunk and stupid, so not only did they buy my horrible accent, but they also posed for the pictures.

Left to right: Me with the Crazies; Bo being… umm… a bit scary; and HOORAY Dancing!

As you can see, Thursday night was a good time. I awoke on Friday a little groggy, but no serious ill effects. I wish I could say the same for my hosts, some of whom took to puking in the bathroom for half of the morning.

Friday was my day to eat. I ate at two places that I’ve been craving since the moment I left Tuscaloosa. First, of course, the well known City Cafe. I don’t even remember what I had, besides a gallon of the sweetest sweet tea in the state (sorry, Laura). Of course, the other place that I had been craving (aside from Dreamland, which I cannot justify splurging on most of the time) was a Chili Nacho from McAllister’s. These things are seriously yummy, as evidenced by the picture. I also walked around campus with KimHo and took some pictures.

Saturday was the commencement ceremony, which was great, though it definitely reminded me why I didn’t walk. Nothing of high interest happened during the ceremony¹ itself, but I did get to finally meet KimHo’s mother. In obvious realization of the fact that I am amazing, she asked me how much it would cost her to get me to marry her daughter. She was joking. Mostly. I think. Anyway, it was funny… and the woman is HILARIOUS. Kim doesn’t think so, but she’s wrong. Afterwards, she took Kim and I out to lunch and then I left for the next leg of my trip: St. George Island, Florida.

To be continued…

¹ - Except a young man, crippled or handicapped in some way, who graduated. He got out of his wheelchair on one side of the stage, and with help on both sides, struggled across the stage to the other side. About half of the way across, the entire ceremony pretty much stopped, and people started clapping and cheering for him. By the time he was across the stage, he pretty much had a full-on standing ovation from everyone in the Coliseum, faculty and administration included. That was neat.