After returning from the European roadtrip of a lifetime at 0530 12 November 2003, I found myself inside my flat wondering what the heck I was supposed to do for two hours until the guys came back to return the car. We had pretty much decided that to go back to sleep would be fatal: it’d be over. So sorry, but we should die. There’d be no chance of making it to class. But then again, what else do you do at 5:30 in the morning? I started to clean my room, but chided myself thinking that I had just gone on the most amazing trip, I couldn’t clean my room now! Maybe if I just slip into my PJ’s and lie down under the covers…Dangerous move. Somehow, though I managed to fall asleep and wake up in time. In the midst of my get ready routine, I noticed a white plastic bag on the table. I peeked inside to see what it was. DUDE! Ruey had bought Christmas lights!!! I had been jabbering away about wanting to get some for the past few weeks. I was estatic but knew I wasn’t supposed to have seen them yet. Stoked, I hurried downstairs to tell the boys about my discovery.
First it should be noted that after 3 solid days in a car, we all looked miraculously transformed after a shower and change of clothes. With a smile on my face and a bounce in my step, I called out, “Guess what? I don’t think I’m supposed to know but Ruey bought Christmas lights! I’m so excited!” This was going to be a good day.
We returned the rental car without event. This was kind of disappointing since we had doubled the odometer and were hopeful for a dramatic reaction from the rental employee when they saw that we had put nearly 5500km on their car. She didn’t seem to notice or care. Man! Nick was even on the phone line from the other end of town receiving live updates. No dice. Ah well, back to school.
Lectures were anything but stimulating, but the breaks…that was the stuff dreams were made of. These provided the opportunities to tell our story. To answer the question we were dying to be asked, “So, what did you guys do this weekend?” Finally, someone asked and the story telling began. My friend Maria always laughs at me and my “it’s all about the story” approach to life. Well, she should’ve been there. All weekend long me and my roadtrip compatriots were scheming about the story that we would tell.
Somehow, one of my friends managed to get a word in edgewise. How, I don’t know because I was in hyper-story-telling-mode. Nevertheless, Serina managed to tell me that her boyfriend had brought In N Out sauce for us and we would be having ‘almost In N Out burgers’ tomorrow. I was so stoked, never having imagined in my wildest dreams that somehow, someway In N Out would ever be in France! Score one for Abe (Serina’s Boy).
Today was a good day. Beth’s mom came through via Tyler (Beth’s Boy) with socks from Canada thanks to random conversations with Beth about the ridiculous price of socks in this country. Gifts from people I’ve never even met before, how awesome is that?
After school, hung out with Nick in an attempt-to-stay-awake-til-8-buddy-program. The fear was that if I just went home or he just went to his place, we’d fall asleep right away, then wake up at an annoying 0300 wide awake. Had some conversations about stuff that matters and stuff that doesn’t. I’m always amazed at the people that you meet and the conversations that you have and how much you can learn from others. How crazy it would be to never hang out with my classmates, there’s so much to learn from all of them. Yet there are so many I’ve still to hang with. Anyhow, we watched a horrible series called “Taken.” Brian, are you reading this? Did you see that I said horrible? I can’t believe you gave me 9 disks worth of this cheese. You’re causing me to consider your future film reviews with a certain caution.
In summary, returning a rental car with double the digits, telling the story of a lifetime, hearing about In N Out France, receiving presents from moms of friends via a boyfriend I’ve never met and chill time with friends…well, to me that pretty much equals one of the best days of my life. I’ll leave you with this excerpt from a real-life conversation with my friend Mark. No names have been changed.
Brooke: “Dude, this is the best day of my life!”
Mark: “You’ve been having a lot of those lately.”
B: “Got a problem with that? Is that bad?”
M: “No, it’s good.”
B: “Ya, I know!”
Life’s a cool thing, guys.
Imagine how cool it would be if every night when you went to sleep you thought it couldn’t possibly get any better than this.
Imagine if every morning you were wrong.
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