tryptophan and road trips

This is a recap of my Thanksgiving weekend.

Tuesday: My weekend actually started last Tuesday at 10:15am, partly because I only had one non-relevant class scheduled on Wednesday, but mainly because I wanted it to. Left UCF around 11:30, got home around 2:30, hung out with the Mom,took Jennifer (my little sister) to her dance practice, went to say hi to Jennifer (hmm, how to describe Jen...friend just doesn't cover it, lol), and went to The Walk with Jen.

Wednesday: Woke up at my normal time (there is no such thing as 'sleeping in' for me...), went to a dentist appointment, then picked up Jen and went to visit my high school. At some point in the past 1.5 years since I graduated from CGHS, the school has morphed into a prison, except worse, since vistors are not allowed at all. Treating it as such, Jen and myself used a very high-tech and elaborate scheme to gain entrance to the school [aka walking in a side door during class change] and proceeded to carry out various evil and nefarious deeds [aka hugging and catching up with our old fave teachers and faking smiles for our old not-so-fave teachers]. No worries, we were not the only ones doing this, as one teacher said she had lost count at about 40 former students stopping in to say hi =D Then I went to the mall with Jen and Nanki, where we bought awesome goodies and took photo booth pics [fun fact: I love photo booths]. Met up with Alice and went to visit my good friend Corbin, who was down from Darthmouth for the break.

Thursday: Thanksgiving! Started re-reading 'New Moon' during the morning then went to Grandma's for Thanksgiving dinner. Sanctioned gluttony ensued. Afterwards, I kept up with my post-Thanksgiving dinner tradition and went to Corbin's house where an assortment of friends had gathered to take part in video games and revelry. Then I went home and hung out with the family.




Friday: Began my psuedo-impromptu road trip around the state [yay google maps!]. Departed bright and early for New Port Richey [North of Tampa/St. Pete] to get Jen. It was my first time driving on Alligator Alley and while it wasn't anything special or anything, I can see why it has the notorious reputation it does: miles of straight highway; not very crowded, even at its busiest [excluding hurricanes]; NO streetlights, not a one for miles on end. Basically, no driving on Alligator Alley at night o.O Got Jen, headed to Ocala to visit our friend Alex. NOTE: Ocala is literally in the middle of nowhere, as in there is NO cell phone reception, ever-encroaching darkness from a lack of streetlights and non-observant drivers who rear-end drivers when you are that far down the rabbit hole [yes, I got rear-ended (!), but my car (once-again) proved its amazing robustness and didn't even have a scratch]. Then it was off to UF [Gainesville], where we spent Friday night.

Saturday: Left for FSU [Tallahassee, henceforth Tally] around 11, got and hung out with Meagan, who could not go home for Thanksgiving [Jen and I thought we would cheer her up/visit her for fun, and hence the purpose of the trip]. As it was a football game day - and an in-state rivalry at that [FSU vs. UF - UF won, of course] - Tally was extremely crowded, with 70% of the population wearing either orange/blue or garnet/gold. We went to the mall, hung out in Meagan's dorm, had dinner, more dorm time, then went clubbing at Tally's Club Rayn [and yes, people were there in orange/blue, lol].

Sunday: Left FSU around 11. It was raining when we woke up and it was STILL raining 3.5 hours (note: a normally 2 hour drive) later when we arrived in Gainesville. Traffic sucked in general due to many factors but mainly the deluge of bad weather and the post-Thanksgiving travel. After having lunch, I left UF at 4:30 and headed back to UCF, getting back in 3 hours [another normally 2 hour drive], concluding a 922 mile journey [excluding the initial drive home].

All in all, it was a good weekend, enjoyed in a way that I saw fit ^.^