spring break part II: 3.21.2002 7pm – 3.23.2002 7pm
(the continuation of part I)
we left the story as i was beginning the drive to gainesville. man, i flew. normally a two-hour drive, i made it in just under 1:40. 84mph while eating tacos. i got to josh’s apartment a little before 9, and he was there, which was nice. we got back in my car and drove to UF to go to the crusade meeting. arriving over half an hour late, we casually walked in and sat in the back as the speaker taught. the message was standard–not too phenomenal–but the time of worship was real and sweet. and by sweet i mean totally awesome. by that time nate akers had come in too, even later than us, so it was good to have him there as well. we hung out after the meeting until late, probably 10:15 or so. then nate and josh and i went back to josh’s apartment to hang out. jason, josh’s brother, was back, and it was good to see him too. we sat in their room and played guitar for what seemed like hours.
then chris nyffeler and his girlfriend anne showed up, to my delight. more hang out time. josh’s girlfriend meghan came over too, rounding it off and completing the rocking party which we then had. but, rock wasn’t enough–we needed food. anne had to go home, but the rest of us sans jason (who was flirting with a girl on IM and so could not come) piled in my jeep and we were off. we stopped at checkers for food, and then–stogies. chris and i bought a punch (i.e. puncharello) cigar and some cloves to share, and josh and nate did the same. we dropped meghan off at her dorm, and then back to the apartment patio for stogie night.
stogie night was fantastically magical. surrounded by the quality guys that i was, the pleasant odor of burning leaf, and the sweet sounds of wise and sober words was like water to my thirsty soul. now i will quote from chris’ blog, because i feel it’s very accurate: “with stogies we figure out the world. and our world is girls.”
and this is exactly what we did. we talked and discussed and compared and felt and listened and understood. until 5am. then i fell asleep, glad in the company of brothers.
i awoke shortly after noon to a very weird comedy central show on tv. and to the blessed question, “do you want to go eat?”. josh, chris, paul copenhaver (who had come over), and i went to the gainesville alehouse. this is a standard hangout place for UF folks, but it was my first time there. more importantly, i lost my big red virginity, as josh and i shared one of the big spicy-chicken-and-ranch sandwiches. more than the sandwich, though, josh and i share the love of the sandwich, first expressed with the Chili’s chicken and ranch, and now in the big red. a beautiful time. we sat out on the patio and lit up some cloves after eating breakfast and dessert. paul and i argued about whether the simpson’s was a symbol of american greatness or not. we both agreed that if it was, america would be a sad place.
it was a beautiful day.
back to the apartment, and we donned swimsuits and went to the pool at In the Pines (the apartment complex). i read the bible and tried to get a tan on my chest and back, and dreamed about when it would be that sunny and gorgeous at stanford.
then it was time to go–josh, chris, and nate had a bible study leaders’ retreat to go to at a camp half an hour east, with crusade. i decided to tag along, hoping that the people who were running it wouldn’t mind that i didn’t actually go to UF. we picked up mike graham on the way, loaded our bellies with crappy mcdonalds fakeness, and shouted along with various tunes on chris’ compilation minidisc as we drove.
we got to the place, called something i’m now forgetting, and i met a good number of people before the retreat actually got underway. that night the speakers just gave a little background, and reasonings and motivations behind having bible discussion groups and whatnot. it went until about 10, and then everyone just hung out and played cards. i played euchre, and my partner lana and i lost badly to nate and a girl named kelly. sooner or later everyone drifted out, to the cabins where we were supposed to stay.
however, josh, chris, nate, and i didn’t leave–we hadn’t brought sleeping bags or pillows or anything, so we decided to just camp out in the meeting room. nate and chris settled down to talk, and josh and i took a walk to a basketball court, where we sat and talked and puffed on cheap cigars. well, mostly i talked. about emily, and all the stuff i’ve been thinking about her. see, josh had fallen asleep on stogie night so he hadn’t heard a lot of what we had been talking about concerning our girls.
we got back to the meeting room (the “fireside hall”–i bet every camp in the world has a “fireside hall”) and nate and chris were still awake. by this time it was at least 2am. and so we decided to make a fort. a secret fort, with battle plans and codenames and guns and mines and booby traps and barracks and swords. and smokestacks and food carts and pianos for scoring chicks. we made the fort. we played our parts as mr. hobble the disabled guard, junior mint, the ninja plumber, and falcor the librarian. we slept in the fort. and we froze our butts off, not realizing that the AC was on and all we had to do was turn it off.
we woke up at 7, tired and cold, and snuck into this place where there were lots of highschoolers, and stole hot chocolate from them. then the crusade folks came back for the day’s sessions, confused and a little bewildered by our fort. the rest of the day was a little hazy, because of the fatigue and the lack of being able to concentrate, but i remember that the talks were informative and interesting. i even took a group picture with everyone, and i’m sure they were like, “who is this guy?”
3pm, saturday, 3.23 came slowly, but come it did, and so 5 of us piled back into my car and drove back to gainesville, rocking along to hip-hop, john mayer, and cake. we stopped at chris’ dorm and watched a taped simpsons episode because we were too lethargic to do anything else. i said my goodbyes to chris and nate there, and josh and i drove back to his apartment alone. we shut the blinds in his room and fell asleep, he in his bed and i in jason’s, listening to a mandy moore cover of a switchfoot song.
i woke up at 6:30, groggy and hazy. i took my contacts out finally, and it felt like i was ripping my cornea off because they’d been stuck there by time, sleep, and eye boogers. josh cooked me up some nathan’s hot dogs, and then it was time to go. i had to go home, and he had a girlfriend to attend to. he hadn’t seen her in a little over a day, you remember! so i gathered my personal belongings and stumbled out to the car, trying to zone myself into a wakefulness fit for driving 2 hours. i waved goodbye to josh and left. when i made it to I-4 the clock read 7:30 and chris carabba was singing, “the moon is down, and heaven is waiting for us to find her in our sights”.
i looked, and the moon was still there, suspended and glowing, but small and far away.
to be continued…
