THIS WEEK IN MY HISTORY: NASHVEGAS AND SWITCHFOOT

For the first time in as far back as I can remember, I got outnostalgiaed....
I was going to return to the blog with a look back at the great Nashville roadtrip from the weekend of Nov. 3, senior year at UGA (Might as well look back since the present day is far from anything to write about), but in a roundabout way, I was beaten to the punch by Borenstein's recap of how the "other half" of the office lived that weekend, roadtripping to the UGA-Kentucky game.
Rats on the originality.
Nonetheless, I still feel it appropriate to tell our end of the story. That weekend still goes down as one of my favorites from the UGA years, and it also began a good string in November with the following weekends turning into the Auburn venture and Racist Potluck 1 (which I'm sure I'll be back to recap here in the next week or so). We had become somewhat close at the R and B, but actually getting to spend a good deal of time together away from the office made me realize how important that aspect of my life truly was.
Here goes nothing:

I guess this all began when Katy on a whim decided to try out for College Jeopardy, perhaps inspired to follow in the footsteps of a certain coworker who made the game-show rounds earlier that year. Normally, an invitation to join the roadtrip up to the audition in Nashville would be something I laugh off and dispose, but for some reason I this sounded fun and why not.
As is often the case with a good group of friends, the roadtrip ends up being more fun than the destination. The highlights:
- Stuck in traffic in Atlanta (big surprise), I broke out the Trivial Pursuit questions to help in the, um, studying. Surprisingly, this got old quick, and we had more fun reading the 90s trivia questions than actually doing anything productive.
- On any road trip, you have to make a Cracker Barrel stop at least once. I believe we hit one in Cartersville. The first thing I noticed was how insanely early it was for them to have Christmas decorations out. I mean, Halloween just passed, and the tchotchke turnover was immense. This dinner would incorporate several of the weekend's themes. I can't remember if Philip originally had the Magic 8-ball or purchased it there, but he broke it out at dinner and we asked it to predict everything from the UGA score against Kentucky to potential future hook-ups at the paper. And the bajillion Cracker Barrel signs on the highway prompted us to take count. As Katy confirmed yesterday, there were 21 between Atlanta and Nashville, or at least 21 that decided to advertise well.
-A simple stop for gas brought a personal highlight, as I discovered a single case of Sun Drop waiting for me in a Dalton Racetrac. This was before they started selling it at Kroger, and I think I may have shrieked with joy like a 5-year old finding a puppy under the tree at Christmas.
-Another staple has to be the transition to it being OK to belt out lame pop songs. And boy did we ever, digging deep into the sugary contents of a few IPods. I think I took some flak for being familiar with a Spice Girls song. Yikes. And I also remember a good rendition of Ocean Avenue.
-Outside Nashville, there was this one particular hotel where the "e" and "l" were not light up before the name (which has slipped my mind). This reading, combined with the bright redness of the lettering, made it look really interesting. We all said something akin to, "Ooh, let's go to the Hot Christina. That sounds kinky"
-Downtown Nashville is actually a really cool setting...I'm not particularly a fan of country-western bars, but it was some scene. Granted, we were tired and had to get up early for Jeopardy the next morning so we couldn't be out and about, but definitely somewhere to keep in the back of my mind.

We instead retreated to the hotel to, as Katy described it over cell phone to Megan, "drink and eat Goo Goo Clusters". Along the way, we learned of the Kentucky group's decision to break into Dollywood...hmm, advantage push?
Now the rest of us were on the outside for this, but the Jeopardy tryout seemed to go well at the time. We swear we were the most normal people there if nothing else, as the College Jeopardy finalists were exactly as you'd expect they'd look. DeLuca also said she knocked it out by not sugarcoating, saying she'd use her money to buy Yankees tickets and seek a career in newspapers.
It was then on to Opryland Mills before heading home. Opryland Mills is essentially a shopping mall that would be like if Discover Mills decided to renovate and become 1o times cooler and more relevant, with mega-stores and restaurants out the ass. We wanted to find somewhere to watch the Dogs and Kentucky, but it was not televised period I guess.
After a good bunch of indecision, we stumbled into the Rainforest Cafe for lunch, which turned out to be a good call. Notably: Andrea's humongous blue drink and taking pictured with the giant gorilla, who we later found out was named Bamba.
We closed the weekend by going to see Borat. Yeah, hard to believe that was 2 years ago. Of course, no surprise as we all laughed out asses off, and of course, the lines from Borat would be our calling card from that weekend for the rest of the semester. I still can't shake laughing at the movie and crying when checking the score on my phone to see we wound up losing to Kentucky (this was back in our not-so-good rebuilding period).
Oh yeah, and I guess the way home was good too even though we were spent. Someone came up with playing "Name that Movie" somewhere around Chattanooga, which kept us all from falling asleep. We also all determined we needed Steak and Shake and did so off 316.
So that's my weekend recap. Not as good as Matt's but we still swear we had to have had more fun along the way. If nothing else, this was a good way to develop inside jokes we still run with today. I'd be all for a return trip somewhere down the road. High Five!

- I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that November 4-ish of junior year was a good one as well. First off, this was the conclusion of my marathon weekend of pick-up football. After a good game at the IM fields Friday with Goforth, Bowles and the hundreds of Caleb siblings, we for some reason decided to do it again Saturday. Granted, both games were fun and I'm a huge fan (and currently miss a ton) of pickup sports, but by the end of this one, we were (to quote a buddy) "d-u-n...done". Pransky, Tyler and I just sat at the Wendy's afterwards with big drinks, simply saying things like "pain".
Though a little beat up, we made it that night to Switchfoot at the 40-Watt. I was by no means a big fan of theirs going in, but the little bit I had heard I liked and figured it would be a good show. Boy was I blown away. I'm not sure what it was, but the sound in that place was so awesome for that show. On top of that, the band and crowd energy was amazing. I still swear this is probably my favorite show among the ones I took in in Athens during college.
This was also the show with the Augustana incident. We had seen Augustana open for Our Lady Peace a month earlier, so we were familiar with them when they were a surprise add to the bill. Afterwards, as is par for the course for Tyler and I, we waited afterwards to meet the bands and wound up talking to the parents of Augustana's bassist. It ended with them asking us for a recommendation on somewhere to get late food with their son. We gave them Little Italy, which was where we were headed. Surely enough, we go to get pizza later and there's Josiah and the 'rents, who thanked us for the suggestion.
I'm sure they weren't so thankful the next day when they realize that Little Italy does a number on your insides. We still joke this is why Josiah left the band, something about internal bleeding.

So that's my look back at a string of good weekends to start November. I could really use that now, seeing as how my weekend started this year with me losing my marbles for a few hours on Saturday and UGA giving back any progress they had made in the Florida rivalry.
More nostalgia to come I guess...surely nothing from the current would be worth it.

JC