How ya livin, blogosphere? Sir Marcus back here
WOW, what a weekend. This weekend was Family Weekend at MU, which also coincided with NFL Opening Weekend, but by the end of it, they both surprisingly had a bit of competition with the shitshow that was the MTV Video Music Awards 09. So much going on, so much to say about what went on; so much that I'll hafta relay the information in two installments. Let's get right to part one.
Last week seemed so long, partly because the workload of an 18-hour class schedule is starting to build up quite a bit, but mostly because I was pregnant with anticipation for Family Weekend and the impending arrival of my brothers and my cousin. See blogosphanatics, my family almost never gets to come out here. As of this weekend, my younger bro Nate has now been here 4 times since I got here in 2006, my cousin James twice, and my older brother Ricky - Yes, as in Ricky Williams, insert joke here - once. I was excited to show them my newest residence and show them a decent time while they were here.
They arrived on Friday afternoon around 2:30ish and we immediately went out for lunch on the town. After watching the 3 of them scarf down Applebee's like they hadn't eaten for days, we returned to my place to get them settled in. They met my main man Ryno, and then Gossip Girl stopped by for a little bit to get a taste of the Brothers Williams Plus One's group dynamic. I was glad to see that they all liked each other and that it wouldn't be weird, just in case she returned at any point over the weekend.
Next, we took a trip to the Rec Center for a lil' b-ball action. Unfortunately, none of them even brought any shoes that were appropriate for basketballing, so I had to lend Ricky and James some of my more worn-out shoes. Since they had already weathered many a storm, the black-on-black Nikes Ricky wore made it thru the day, but the black-on-black Adidas that James wore could not say the same. James has boats for feet (14's) and though I also have somewhat big feet (12's), even my shoes seemed nothing more than a cruel joke when on his feet. The only things in more pain than James' ankles during Rec time were my shoes that he was wearing, as we all had to watch them as they began what would turn into a slow, painful death that afternoon. They looked as if they might explode at any minute; as Nate so poignantly put it - James looked as if he were out there running the court in "Ballin Slippers." They'll simply never be the same again. R.I.P. Black Adidas.
We didn't fare too well out on the court that afternoon, but hey, it was more about the experience than anything. We returned to the house for some quick showers and adult beverages for Ricky, then headed off to the marquee event of the evening - bowling. Three of us are good-ish at bowling; the other one is not, but his identity is not of importance. The three of us that are good went in hard - PAUSE - for 2 games before conceding defeat to fatigue early in the 3rd game. I came in a close 3rd both of the games that mattered. You see, I'm a power bowler, known to be able to get my ball to reach speeds upwards of 21-22 mph. However, I have yet to really harness this power into a more controlled bowling stroke, which oftens leads to many frames in which I hit alotta pins, but few in which I get strikes (but also few gutters, I might add). Anyone who has ever been bowling with me can attest to the fact that I get MORE than my fair share of frames in which I only knock down 9/10 pins, even when I know and the pins themselves - though they'll never admit to it - know that it should be a strike. I simply will not debate this point.
After officially calling it quits on bowling, we returned to the house around 12:30ish to rest up for what would be a long day on Saturday. Well, I should say, THEY got to rest up. While I would have loved to get some sleep, this goal became far too ambitious for me to achieve because I decided to sleep on the floor next to the air mattress where James slept. Poor form, Sir. James snores quite a bit and quite loudly so, I think I may have gotten 3 hours of sleep. I kept getting up to turn on the dryer to try to drown out the slumbering giant next to me, but I'm pretty sure I heard him snore out "NEGROOOOO PLEEEEEEAAASE,"at one point and only slept louder from then on. Not even making that up. I only got any sleep at all because I finally had to tell him to go sleep in my room on the floor so that he and Ricky could tag-team to snore the paint off the walls in my room, but leave me to get some sleep outside the room on my own.
After being awoken shortly after that (I think it was about 7:30), we sat around for a few hours as Ricky began what would be a day-long slow drinking binge. Never drunk but always drinking, he was pouring drinks down his gullet whenever the opportunity arose. After showering, we then ventured onto campus for brunch at the Plaza 900 dining hall. They were in love. For some reason, Nate ate right before we left so he didnt eat a whole lot, but James and Ricky set out to prove that the previous afternoon's Applebee's performance was just a small hint of what they could do with unlimited food resources. Between the readily available food and the parade of college-age women, Ricky dubbed it "the best cafeteria experience he'd ever had." That made me proud.
We then went down to the bookstore for a short tour of the merchandise mecca that is the MU Bookstore on gamedays. That place is crazy on gamedays, and though it temporarily deterred him, Nate ended up perservering through it and buying himself 2 Mizzou t-shirts. Next, we went to Mizzou Arena so that I could try to get them tickets to the game that night. Ricky had been adamant all weekend that if the only seats available were the overflow grass seats, then he would just as soon not go, especially since he knew the USC/Ohio State game would be on shortly after ours started anyways. When I got the the arena and was told that those wear indeed the only seats left, I was dismayed that my family would not be able to go to the game. In hindsight, i realize that I should have just tried to buy tickets online when I found out they were coming out here, but also in my defense, when I picked up my student tickets at the Arena, I was told to come back there to get general admission tickets ON GAMEDAY, so I figured that I wouldn't be able to get them at all until then. But now we know.
But it's probably no big deal that they couldnt go to the game because Nate and James took naps when we got home, while Ricky and I watched some football. Gossip Girl came around for her 2nd appearance of the weekend and to her credit, endured some pretty relentless grief about her beloved ND Fighting Irish. She's about as passionate a female football fan I've ever met. I'll admit that though her passion for football can be a bit too tense at times, it's also one of the reasons we can hang out so much. Having partaken in a few adult beverages herself, she let me drive us to the game - an adventure all its own - because we had already paid for the tickets, so we might as well go, right? I realize that this decision to go without my family was an ethical gray area, but Ricky gave me his blessing to go and James/Nate didn't really care anyways.
It's a good thing Ricky didn't go to the game. Though we ended up pulling out a close game against the Falcons of Bowling Green (who I maintain are a much better team than people think), I can also admit that MU didn't play particularly well and Ricky's constant reminders of such would have irritated me to no end. Gossip Girl and I left at halftime so I could get back and spend time with my family, who were leaving in the morning. We decided to go out to dinner, but before that, we spent a lil time at the house talking, dancing around, and generally acting like assclowns. The photo evidence of said events is sure to hit the web any day now.
After bidding adieu to Gossip Girl, we hit the Macaroni Grill, where we preceded to eat ourselves into a stupor. I cannot think of any meal in my recent memory that hit and held the way this one did; we were completely stuffed and borderline immobile when we were done. We did somehow make it back to the house, but were completely useless for anything but sleep. Having learned my lesson from the night before, I quickly sacked out on the air mattress outside of my room, which removed all doubt from James as to where he would be sleeping from the beginning of that night. It was only about 11 or so, but having been up since 7:30, there was no way we could do anything else that didn't require us to be in at least a reclined position.
We woke up fairly early-ish the next morning around 8:30 or 9, and after bullshitting for awhile, the 3 of them showered, grabbed a lil food for the road, loaded up the rental car, said their goodbyes, and headed out to return to the KC airport. The "family" part of the weekend was now in the books and had been a relatively big success, but little did I know, the weekend still had quite a bit more to offer me.....
Stay tuned for part 2, blogoteers.
No comments:
Post a Comment