First of all, let me just say I am super excited Mike is letting me guest blog the spring break part two post. I'm honored. Mike is probably terrified. (Editor's note: Yes.)
Anyway, I've been putting if off for a little while because a) I needed a break after returning from spring break and b) the whole "law school" thing and its accompanying work got in the way. (Editor's note: Yes.)
Where we left off in the story, Kelsey surprised Mike by being in DC when we returned from New York, which was awesome. It also made Monday morning a lot easier, because we weren't going to have to transfer cars in Virginia. Kelsey, Mike, Brian, Ben, and I all piled into Kelsey's car and got on the road. Mike and Brian made mix CDs (yes, actual CDs) for the ride. Mike's was an epic mix of all types of epic music, and Brian's were a kind of best-of tour of musical theater. Considering the group of us, perfect.
About an hour into our drive we hit some snow. And then some more snow. And then before we knew it there was a full-on blizzard. I was kind of shocked (snow? on spring break??), and then amused, as Kelsey regaled us with the story of how the last time Mike drove her car, they also ran into a blizzard. It continued snowing for awhile but the farther south we got, the more it cleared up. Huzzah!
Along the way, we stopped at Wa Wa (apparently some type of east coast road trip/late-night staple) (Editor's note: It's WaWa, not Wa Wa. Davia, are you even from America?) for lunch, at which point we witnessed Mike eat a giant sandwich faster than should humanly have been possible. He should consider participating in eating contests. After the Wa Wa incident, I'm pretty sure he could win everything.
Anyway, the drive was really long and I started to get kind of fed up toward the end of it (are we there yet? are we there yet?). But finally we made it. Beau was another story. He got stuck at Dulles for six hours, so he didn't arrive until late Monday night/Tuesday morning. Awaiting us at the house, however, were Rachel and Audrey, and baked spaghetti and cake. We were all exhausted, so we did some grocery shopping and had a relatively quiet night in.
On Tuesday everyone went running but me, and we spent a relaxing and sleepy day in doing work (ish), reading, hanging out, and preparing for grilling. Apparently this is a beach week tradition, and a delightful one at that. Brian led the effort, but we all helped assemble the kebabs and kept people's glasses filled with Arnold Palmers, the required grill-night beverage. Surprise winner of the night: chicken kebabs. Also topping the list: grilled corn. So good.
(Editor's Note: I'm supplementing this guest blog with my pictures.)
Other highlights: Ben ate alarming amounts of food: 10 kebabs (to everyone else's 4-5), and a sandwich, and some corn, and an apple. We called Kay because we were all sad she couldn't be there. Rachel busted out her guitar for some sing-a-longs. Ben and Kelsey and I locked ourselves in the bathroom upstairs for a heart-to-heart (Mike was sad about this. When he tried to open the door, we shut it in his face and said "no! you're not invited!").
Wednesday! Following in a similar vein to the day before, people ran, napped, worked, read, and hung out all day.
(Kelsey is the most photogenic napper among us.)
Mike introduced us to shockball, the worst thing in the world. (Editor's note: I disagree.) Ben made bread. Josh was driving out alone so we decided to send him updates every hour to keep him motivated, which led to a rewrite of "Three Little Maids From School Are We" as well as some other hilarity. At dinner we decided we needed hush puppies, so we drove up the coast to a seafood place. Dinner was both hilarious and kind of scary. Hilarious: Mike made Kelsey try soft shell crab ("it's in me, it's in me now" + horrified expression). Scary: Ben, in the middle of eating an entire fried fish, fell ashen and told us he was having heart palpitations. We located the nearest hospital on my phone and Ben and Mike headed there to get Ben checked out. The rest of us finished dinner in a slightly less jolly manner and headed back, to await Josh's arrival and hoping Ben would be back soon.
Once at home, we listened to Tragedy (naturally) and waited to hear updates from Mike via Kelsey's phone. I tried to keep Emily abreast of the situation, but Mike couldn't provide her with sufficient details, so she called the hospital herself and tried (but was prevented) to fly to South Carolina to check on Ben herself.
(Editor's note: Emily later detailed her frustration with me in a series of "hipster Mike memes" that she made from a picture she pulled off of facebook. For the record, I was giving her all the information that I had.)
At some point, Kelsey informed us that Mike and Ben wouldn't be back that night, but that it didn't appear to be anything serious. The requirement of Ben staying in the hospital led to a minor breakdown on my part, so I ate half a pan of brownies and locked myself in my room to make Noah deal with me via Skype (Mike had my phone with him at the hospital). Noah also had to calm Kelsey down later. Beau won quote of the night, when we realized Mike wouldn't let us come to the hospital: "what you could do is get so trashed that they give you the bed next to Ben." Anyway, no one else was quite as worried about Ben being gone as Kelsey and I. Translation: everyone else was being rational. But Josh arrived and he made things much happier.
Thursday. Kelsey and I woke up and wanted to go to the hospital to see Ben, since we had no idea when he was getting out. She made pancakes for everyone and sandwiches for Mike (since apparently he hadn't eaten since dinner the night before). Josh drove us to the hospital and Mike responded to the bringing of the sandwiches with "they're not on Ben's bread?" Whomp. (Editor's note: it was a joke, I was very appreciative of the sandwiches.) We all hung out for awhile and then Josh drove Mike home so he could sleep, and Kelsey and I watched over Ben while the doctors didn't arrive for many hours. They finally ran an echo-cardiogram and then we waited for several more hours, and around 8 that night they released him, with no explanation as to what was wrong with him. I'm not sure what happened at the house that day. Rachel and Audrey left at some point.
Thursday night was poker night. Poker Mike is terrible. (Editor's note: I have redacted a number of nicknames given to me while playing poker. They were not terribly nice.) I would actually not be friends with him. In response to Poker Mike, Poker Davia developed. She is equally terrible, and her entire goal is to ruin Poker Mike's evening, which she did with some success. Ben won poker (expected), and Beau made delicious strawberry daiquiris. Josh and I split the last one, which led to "It's the daiquiri of friendships." "Is there any other kind?" "...the daiquiri of regrets." Ben drank out of his souvenir mug from the hospital all night.
Friday. It was pretty warm out so Mike and Beau and Josh and I biked (on new bikes!) to the beach to study and read. We were there for a little while when it got really windy and dark and rain seemed imminent, so we headed back to the house. Mike's dad stopped by to chat for a little while. We lounged. Kelsey went for a run and then we headed for dinner (ALL THE HUSH PUPPIES). The proprietor of the establishment (Perhaps simply called "Fish House") gave us all shark tooth necklaces and had us compete to untie them for a sword. Beau won. The six year old in me thought this was the best last night dinner ever. When we headed home, we were all pretty exhausted and worn out from the week, so we settled in to watch some Star Trek TNG, and people gradually filed out for sleep and packing. Josh, Brian, Beau, Mike and I played a few games of bananagrams, with Mike attempting to play the same way he plays poker (which works out much worse in bananagrams than it did in poker. two 8s. jeez.). (Editor's note: Davia left out the story to which she now refers. During a hand of poker, Poker Mike decided not to look at any of his cards for a specific hand. On the table was a 5, 6, 7, 9, and something else. I believe someone had a two-pair and someone had a three of a kind. When Poker Mike turned over his cards, revealing not just one but two eights, Poker Davia went berserk. The laws of probability do not apply to Poker Mike.)
Saturday. Beau left super early (4 am early), and Kelsey and I headed out around 10, leaving Josh, Mike, Ben and Brian for a boys night in the house. We were really craving Chick-fil-a on our way home, but there wasn't one within close range. Mike and co. decided to be obnoxious and go to Chick-fil-a to make us upset (it worked), and tweeted pictures from the restaurant (which only served to make us more angry). Iphone directions took us through ghost towns and woods that seemed like zombies would pop out at any moment, and we were relieved just to reach a highway that wasn't made of gravel and dirt and was more than one lane. Other than that, the drive was relatively uneventful, but Kelsey and I got to talk a lot, which made me really happy. When we got back to DC, she went to a Mutemath concert and I hung out with Noah and attempted to stay awake for her rearrival. Back in South Carolina, the boys grilled more and bonded over "manpagne."
(Editor's note: well yes we grilled more. Look at it. Wouldn't you?)
Sunday! The boys cleaned up the house and got on the road while Kelsey and Noah and I went to Coco Sala for a chocolate brunch experience, which was incredible. We enjoyed tweeting pictures of this in retaliation for the Chick-fil-a. After brunch, Kelsey headed back to Williamsburg. That evening, Josh and Ben and Mike and Brian arrived, not significantly worse for the wear, and spring break was effectively over.
General notes and TL;DR version (editor's note: TL;DR means too long, didn't read.): Spring break was awesome. A gigantic thank you to Mike for hosting us and for bringing all of these people together.
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