Friday-Saturday: Art and I departed our beloved university around 3 pm. Quote: "Wait, Virginia is south of Maryland, right?" And we arrive, remarkably, in Myrtle Beach three hours and twenty minutes later. Without a hitch. No, we didn't get lost, get over it. At the hotel however, the drama associated with any Art and Jared trip began. They won't tell us the number of Art's parents' room. So Art has to call the directory thing and ask. Two calls no answer. So we decide to go get dinner. One more call on my cell phone to leave my cell number, except Jared, not giving out his cell number very often, gives the wrong digits. Anyways, while we are trying to turn into the mall, Art spies his parents and aunt walking back, yells out the window, and gets their attention. Green light, I drive into the parking lot, and drive around, and around, and around looking for a friggin way out. Stupid people who design parking lots. So we get back to the hotel lobby, and they are not there. So Art leaves another message. And we wait, and wait, and eventually, Larry, Art's stepfather, comes down to get us. We finally get to the room. Enter Jared trying to keep Art honest about the real length of his relationship. The five of us go to dinner, finally Ruby Tuesday's is decided upon. Enter the French Onion Soup fiasco. Larry's soup came after his entree, and he was irritated by that, and demanded the soup be removed from the check. After chewing out the girl who brought the soup, he chewed out the waiter. The rest of us were trying to hide. And then there was the Chocholate Tall Cake, which came in a "goblet on steroids". Good stuff. Back at the hotel, Art leaves to study, leaving Larry and I to watch Daredevil. Wretched movie, so fakey looking. Sleep after American Chopper at 11. Art's mom calls to get Larry up at 4:30, and 4:45, and 5:10. Art and I get up at 6:15, miraculously without an alarm, we just happened to get up. Down to the start of the race. "When we watched my cousin run cross country, we used to run all over the place to see him in as many spots as possible. I guess we won't be doing that today." We cheer Julie on at the 2 mile mark outside the hotel, and then go get a continental breakfast. It's all about the pastries. Larry makes fun of the people trying to make waffles. We depart after 2 hours in the lobby to go to the 11 mile mark. And here is where we meet the people that will be seeing a lot of us during the day. The tattoo lady, the Ranger lady, the other Julie, and Lynda to name a few. We cheer on Julie, and then the craziness begins. Larry, and his superior driving and navigation skill get us to mile 12, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 23, and 26. Like I said, some of those people got annoyed at seeing us everyone. And remember what I said about not running around everywhere? Anyways, at 14 Larry parked on the sidewalk, until the cop told him to move it on the grass. At 18, Art unfolded his chair and found a Black Widow residing in it. That was a big spider. At 21, Larry pulled one of the most boneheaded moves I've seen in a Jeep Cherokee. To get back to the road, he drives behind the strip mall, and then drives up on the grass. Now the mall we are driving by is tiered above the one we came from, so we're driving on a strip of grass barely wider than the Jeep, with a store wall on one side, and a hill on the other. We make it around the building and drive off the curb back onto the street. And Julie finished her race at about six hours five minutes. A remarkable accomplishment, I was definately happy for her. I'll never run 26 miles, ever. Not gonna do it. After race pictures of Julie's blisters, yum. Art and I leave about 1:30ish. I say I'll drive until we eat, which I was planning on doing somewhere on I-20. I wanted Applebee's, which there was none of in Florence. FACT: On I-20 from I-95 to I-77, not only no Applebee's, but no sit down restaurants at all. So we go south on 77, and get off at an arbitrary exit, fed up with it all. We drive through this town for like 2 or 3 miles, no sit down restaurants. We finally stop at a mall to eat at the food court. Low and behold, there's a TGIFridays. After nearly 3 hours of searching, we found a restaurant. Art gets to drive my car back to school. The view from the passenger seat is a weird one. And I didn't realize how tired I was until I stopped driving, I guess I was pumped for driving. It was fun to watch Art try to put in the clutch and shift gears in my automatic. Back at Winthrop at 6. Bed time: 8. Until Kat called at like 9:30, and I went to get her, except Benson beat me there, so it was pointless. Apparently, I looked like I was tired. Bed time: 10:30.
And hey, I finally managed to go to Myrtle Beach without cruising for chicks.
Sunday: Got up at 9 to chase squirrels and rollerblade around campus. Then pizza at Cici's. Six plates, lots of dessert pizza. Then, right to frisbee, except only Sarah Mae, Andrew, and I showed up. Probably a good thing. Dinner: Brian versus Benson, who can get the most women? And man was the competition on. And neither was actually trying.
Monday: Firecrackers win. It was an ok game. Then we won our first game. By forfeit. But we played Brittany, Anne, Lindsey Merriman, one of the refs, and that guy with no shoes. We crushed them, and it was all fun. Walking back, I see Mani and Charlie walking with a frisbee. I join them in throwing the disc around Peabody. Early on, Charlie leads Mani into the lacrosse goal, he made the catch and braced himself a bit, the post hit him in the chest. Matchups: Jared beats Mani, Charlie shuts down Mani big time, Jared catches almost every throw against Charlie. At about 11:15, Charlie throws this sweet backwards throw so Mani can toss it up for us again. It curves back to Mani perfectly, and he runs it down and catches it in stride. Smack. Mani never saw the goal, I could tell by the how he ran right into it. He had paint on his glasses, and there was a mark on the post. That's when we decided to call it quits, cuz we might eventually kill Mani if we keep going. I drop by Benson's room and hang with him for a bit. Then I go to Wal-Mart to get something to drink. It's remarkable the number of people at Walmart at 2 am. Back with Benson, trying to fight the depression, I obtain Orange Soda Nirvanah. MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm, good stuff. I downed a little over half of a two liter bottle in about an hour. And I really appreciate Benson putting up with me til 3:30 in the morning, it's nice to have such good friends.