Where to, Master?

Notes on 12/17

The other day, Mama was watching a video about Buddhism that explained how you never really know whether something is a blessing or a curse. This morning, I had to cart my brother around from drumline practice to home to a birthday party, yadayadaya. I've fully resumed my position as family chauffeur, and this time, I hadn't even had a chance to get breakfast, so I was getting rather cranky. But as I was pulling up to the party venue, I was reminded that there's a Subway right next door, and I soon remembered the unused Subway card in my wallet. Perhaps it's fate that I didn't eat breakfast. I didn't think too much on it though, because I was busy with my sandwich.

The evening plans were simple: laser tag in semi-formal attire. I wore a sweater over a polo, jeans, Vans, and a Gatsby cap. That seems pretty semi-formal to me, but pretty much everybody else seemed to disagree. (Comment your opinion on that one if you'd like.) Kevin and I were the only ones dressed that informally, and incidentally, the only college students in attendance. Correlation? No, causation is probably more accurate.

Eli, Kevin, Elliot, and Caroline all piled into the Saturn and we were off, followed by Josh L and his fully-loaded Volvo. Getting to the laser tag arena was the fun part. And when I say fun, I don't actually mean fun. My father and I had a bit of a miscommunication on how to exit the highway, which ended up in us lost for about 20 minutes, miles away from home. Partially my fault for sure. I was the leader car, though, so I took a lot more blame than I deserved. We made at least three wrong turns, got separated at least once, and retraced several steps.

Laser tag was delightful, just as laser tag always is. The first round, Kevin and I were a two-man strike team, and the second round I flew solo. Of the two rounds we played, I was overall top scorer for both of them. This happened once the last time I played laser tag, so it would seem I am becoming quite the phaser-ace.

Getting home from the arena was the REALLY fun part. (And in case you haven't guessed, when I say really fun, I actually mean really shitty.) This was possibly the most stressful hour of my life, because there were lots of twisty roads (some of which were highways, though I couldn't always tell), virtually no signs telling me how to get anywhere or where highways will end up, I was driving around in the middle of Wherethefuckami, United States, and IT WAS DARK. Also, when I was about to turn onto the highway home, Eli had the bright idea to suggest I take that road in the other direction. I was stressed, so I tried it, and it took us away from home for a little while. I guess roads tend to do that when you're driving the wrong direction. Also that led to another separation. Turns out Andrew G had had an iPhone the whole time. A trip that should've been 25 minutes took 75 minutes.

My navigational skills were reaffirmed when we returned to familiar territory. I took my own route that got me to the next destination a whole 5 minutes before the other car. Boss sauce. The next destination was Josh D's garage that he converted into a man cave, in which we snacked, watched TV, played cards, chilled, and generally had a smashing time until far into the night.

Thank goodness Josh D lives close to me; I don't think I could have taken much more driving. Tomorrow is to be a day of staying the hell inside.