Thanks MLK!
"To know your enemy, you must become your enemy."
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War
After a nice, but busy return to schoolwork following winter break, I had already began to yearn for a vacation, perhaps an extra day off to serve as a respite from my scholarly burdens. Of course, I'm joking. As interesting as my classes are this semester, I find myself having a pretty healthy work-life balance between my schoolwork and my free time. My schedule actually tips the scale in favor of free time, since I have every Friday free this semester, meaning every weekend is a three-day weekend!
However, my hunger for entertainment during these large expanses of free time grows with every day, as I have begun to exhaust all chores, games, shows, and activities to do with all of this time. So, when I realized that we would have next Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day (thanks bro), I set my sights on adventure beyond the limits of Tallahassee. Since I now wielded a four day weekend in my schedule, and had confirmed that my buddy Wade also had these days fully free, I decided to message my friend in Gainesville, Jaime, with a complete long-shot question:
By some miracle (Jaime being the best friend you could ask for), our travel was assured to Gainesville to spend the long weekend with our friends from home! Additionally, I mentioned this plan to my buddy Angelo, who said that he and his cousin could also make the trip an impromptu reunion for our group! As soon as details were confirmed, I told Wade about the plan and we prepared for our adventure into enemy territory as traveling Seminoles entering Gator country...
Skipping forward four hours of driving through the Floridian countryside and silly hypothetical questions, the three of us had finally arrived at Jaime and Sebi's apartment, where we would be staying. As happy as I was to see my friends from home, what really captured my attention was their home. Instead of getting a dorm or an apartment, they had rented out the bottom floor of a duplex, meaning they had their own little house in a nice neighborhood, where it was just them two living in their area, with their upstairs neighbors being virtually nonexistent to them.
It feels pretty stupid to mention, but I was just obsessed with the little life that two of my best friends had carved out for themselves in another city. While I struggle with shitty random roommates and an apartment building that has a new problem every week, these two had been making a home for themselves, a smaller floorplan but with ten times the personality and life that my own home has. And while this sounds pretty depressing for me, I actually felt the opposite. Before any concern for Wade and I's current living situation, I felt so much happiness and pride for my friends, seeing them thrive and live in comfort in a space that radiated their personalities so strongly. When my thoughts turned inwards, instead of being frustrated or jealous, it just further fueled my excitement and hope for my future living arrangements, since we are also getting a similar setup for ourselves. The thought that one day, I could have something like this had filled me with joy, hope, and comfort!
Moving on from my House Hunters moment, we generally just sat around and chatted for a while, catching up on each of our academic and social endeavors. Sebi made us some coffee, and for a brief moment, the moment felt like a glimpse of what life might've been like if we all went to the same university. Even though I've settled into my new life and friends in Tallahassee just fine, I do still really miss my boys from home, and seeing them again outside of our hometown, in their new university lives, struck a chord within me that felt oddly emotional. As chill as things were, we still had the same goofy ideas and sense of humor, so we ended up going to the UF union and filming some stupid videos there. My excuse: I'm deep undercover in my rival school, so I must act just as stupid as the rival school to blend in...
Moving onwards from that silly video, I don't have a lot else to say about the trip. I don't want to really do a play-by-play of everything we did on the trip, because then it feels more like I'm just listing off activities, rather than writing about the experience and feelings I had reuniting with so many friends from home. So instead, I'll mention a few more things before wrapping up the blog.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the novel concept of the "several dinners" we had during our stay in Gainesville. To put it simply: we are a bunch of young dudes with terrible sleep schedules doing a lot of activities, so naturally, we are going to eat. A lot. So much so that the traditional structure of breakfast-lunch-dinner wasn't working out for us, as we would eat early, then feel like we were starving a few hours later, resulting in us having a "second dinner." However, this issue compounded beyond second dinner, resulting in a third dinner, and on one night, a fourth dinner after that! I can say with certainty that this weekend, I had eaten more than I have even during my stay over break with my family, just to the sheer amount of food we would consume between eight hungry (and financially irresponsible) men.
Funnily enough, one of the main contributors to our many dinners was this random food truck that had popped up around the corner, which I think we ended up visiting like five times in three nights. Though the wait time tended to be pretty long, the food was delicious (imagine how good it must've been for us to keep coming back). My favorite order was their philly cheesesteak sandwich, and after having like four of them in a single weekend, I can say with confidence that my body is suffering the consequences. Health issues aside, I ended up talking with the owner of the food truck one night while I waited for food, since some random drunk guys were harassing him for taking long on their food. Turns out he used to work on a TV network where they'd review food trucks from around the country, and then he opened up his own with the connections and knowledge he gained after going to so many food trucks. I know that some people find it weird or embarrassing, but personally I love striking up conversation with food workers, since they always have an interesting story to tell!
The final bit I'll mention (since I've been rambling for quite a while now) is our favorite activity we did together during out visit: gambling. Specifically, Liar's Dice. While we didn't actually place bets on each round (at least, not on the books) we had so much fun playing the game, calling each other out, and coming up with funny punishments for the loser of each session. I think we must've played over 200 rounds of Liar's Dice over the few days we spent in Gainesville. If you don't know how Liar's Dice works, here's a simple explanation: each player gets a cup with five dice. Everyone rolls, but keeps their five dice hidden from the others. From there, players take turns making guesses on how many of a certain number are on the table (for example, I think there are three sixes on the table). If someone doesn't believe the call, you call them a liar and everyone exposes their dice counts, revealing whether the guess was right or not. It's a pretty simple game, but we must've spent hours rolling dice and bluffing to each other!
So overall, I'd say this trip was a resounding success. We had good food, good laughs, and good company, which in my book is the marker for a perfect trip. Though I doubt we'll get another opportunity to visit them again anytime soon, I remain hopeful that our bonds will stay just as strong as the day we split apart for college. Now, with a rejuvenated patience and exciting weekend, I can't wait to go back to work this week with a new vigor and work ethic!
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