Lost Weekend

Well, the big weekend is over and I’m finally getting back to normal. It was quite a ride. Here’s a rundown of how things went.

Thursday. John arrives in town (a couple hours late due to weather problems) and we immediately head to Round Table Pizza. He said he was craving that like a mofo since there isn’t a RTP within 2000 miles of his house. Somehow, I don’t think that is in their delivery area… A couple of people from the corporate office of his (that’s here) met us at the pizza joint in Eagle. So, we sat around, shot the shit and he piled away half a large pizza. After a couple hours, his plan was to spend the evening with his brother and family, so I was free for the evening.

Friday morning, we met on the golf course (Ridgecrest) at 7am. Man, that was early. I wasn’t expecting much, since I had golfed exactly 13 holes since last September. It was just good to hang out with John and talk trash to each other, even though he can kick my ass up and down the course. Remarkably, I didn’t lose a ball until the 12th hole. Thats when the wheels started coming off. I think I started to get tired. Which is ironic since I’m in better shape now than I have been in years, but I’m not in golf shape. Those twisting muscles weren’t working by the end of the round.

John had to go into the office after golf for an hour or so, so I just hung out waiting for him to come back. On his way to my apartment, he called and asked if I had eaten anything. When I said no, he said he would bring some food. Cool. What does he show up with? 2 more large pepperoni Round Table pizzas. Hell, I love pizza. We go to work on it. After, we blew out to go see the new Cabella’s Store that has opened in Boise. That place is pretty impressive. I’m not even much of an outdoor guy anymore but it was still pretty cool. We then jetted to the mall so he could stop by the Blue and Orange Store (Boise State gear) to get hats and shirts and whatnot for his family back home. Upon getting the proper equipment, we headed to the movie.

We saw ‘Invincible’ staring Mark Wahlberg as Vince Papale, a Philly native who walked on and made the Eagles in 76. Good movie. Not quite as inspiring as ‘Rudy’ but not much is. Still, very enjoyable.

After the movie, we had plans to hit a poker party put together by all of his co-workers here. This was a good time. We played Guts, which is a very simple game. Everyone at the table anties and gets 2 cards. You go around the table and everyone just says if they’re in (playing) or out (folding). Best 2 card hand wins, poker values. High pairs best. The catch is, if more than one person stays in, the losers must match the pot. So, if 7 guys antie 2 bucks, there is $14 in the pot. 3 people stay in, one guy wins that $14, and the other two match, meaning there is now $28 in the pot. As you can imagine, the pots can get pretty big. I won on like the 4th or 5th hand with a pair of queens (the 3rd highest hand you can have). Won a nice stack of chips. I also won again later when we were playing ‘Low’, meaning the opposite of ‘High’. In that case, a pair is bad and a 2-3 is good. I won there with a 4-3 (which is the 4th lowest hand you could have.) I was quite lucky that night. Except of course for the 9 or 10 beers I had. That wasn’t so lucky. More like stupid. As the end of the evening became a blur, John hoisted me up and got me home, and poured me into bed.

We had a scheduled tee time of 8:30 Saturday morning, but there was no way I was going to make that. I slept until 11:30. When I finally awoke, I found $60 more in my pocket than I had when I started the evening. That’s a positive. Of course, I paid for that cash the hard way with the way I was feeling. Woo… hadn’t done that in a long time. I might have gotten a little carried away.

When John got done golfing, he came by the apartment to kill some time before he had his family BBQ to attend. Let’s see if you can guess what he brought with him… If you said Round Table Pizza, you would be correct! At this point, even the pizza-freak I am started to wilt a bit. On the plus side, however, he pulls a hundred dollar bill from his wallet and hands it to me. The rest of my winnings from the previous night. Now THAT’S what I’m talkin about! After some more pizza, he was off to spend some time with his family, and I was back to lounging on the couch.

He returned that evening after, and we just hung around, watched a movie and chilled. We had grand plans for going out again that night, but neither of us really felt up for it. Plus, we had yet another tee time at 8 on Sunday morning.

Kinda strange how good golf sounds when you’re making the tee times, but when it rolls around, you don’t think it sounds near as fun as it did. That was the case Sunday morning. Nobody played worth a damn. John added at least 25 strokes from his Thursday score, and I lost at least a dozen balls. Neither of us exacty were Tiger here.

But, Sunday evening was the whole point of the weekend. The party my folks threw in my honor. As mom called it at the time, my ‘coming out’ party. Whoa mom… ease up there… I’m divorced… not ‘coming out’ of anything. Luckily, she didn’t put that on the invitations. It was a good time. Lots of friends and family there. Plus, we were toddler-heavy there which kept everyone distracted. It wasn’t exactly Mitch-a-pa-looza from ‘Old School’, but it was fun. George was wondering if perhaps my folks had some nice 26 year old catholic girl waiting for me, but no joy. There were no ladies for me. Way to drop the ball, everyone. Sheesh.

Following the successful weekend, John had to be at the rental car joint at 6am on monday morning. So, he had me set my alarm for 4:30 for him to get up and get ready. I gotta tell you, he is such a woman getting ready in the morning. If I had to leave the apartment at 5:30am? I’m getting out of bed at 5:15am. Bing bang boom, out the door. So, since I was awake after he left, I just decided to go to work. Spent the day with my eyes half closed, still sluggish from all the pizza. When I got home that afternoon, I napped for 3 straight hours, and I’m not a nap guy. But, it was necessary.

I’m still readjusting to normal life. Its a good thing he didn’t stay longer. John, I love you man, but if you were here for a full week, I think I would have slipped into a coma.

More later…