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Sometimes, some crap that we say in the daily entries may need a little elaboration, so that's what goes here. Check it every once in a while for an update. O Melissa, Where Art Thou? 2/16/2002
Well, as promised in the 2/17 entry, here is my Saturday, February 16th, in Columbus, OH. I woke up on Dan and Cody's couch around 10:40, and I remember my girlfriend saying she swims at 11:00 AM at Larkins Hall on the Ohio State campus. So Dan comes out of his room and I remind him that we gotta be there by then to watch her, and if I miss her event, she'll castrate me or something. So we skip the shower, hop in my car and take off. I had never driven to the Ohio State campus, so I didn't know exactly where to find it, let alone where to find Larkins Hall. I get lost a little bit, take a few wrong turns, do some circles, park up on a curb in mud, etc. before we finally locate our destination. It turns out she doesn't swim at 11, that's just when the meet started.
Curses.
At the swim meet I see some of the most masculine-looking females ever spotted. I juggle the idea of calling National Geographic for a second. I fear for my life at this moment, because I feel myself making disgusted faces as I watch some of the girls lumber around, muscles bulging and knuckles dragging. I think I actually heard one of them suggest to another that they fashion spears out of human bones and go hunting for wild boar, bison, and grizzlies. **Note...Melissa is not one of those.**
Anyway, at the end of the meet, Melissa finds her father, gives him a hug, and orders him to put her stuff in the van, giving him a sweet, innocent smile as she walks away with Dan and I. She tells us as long as we're back by 7, she'll be OK. Uh oh. A deadline...
3:00 - The three set out for Dan's apartment, for we still needed a shower. After some exhausting sessions consisting of laying around, we get hungry, and eat at Hoggy's. I suggest to my girlfriend that she needs a shirt that says, "Do it Hoggystyle." The food is tasty. We then go to Eastland Mall to see if my older brother is working. He was, so we hung out in there for awhile, he gave me a number and told us to call later that night if it got boring. Needless to say...he didn't hear from us.
5:45 - We set sail for Easton, where we were supposed to meet JP, Joel, and Cody. We get there and Joel gives us his phone, because Dan's phone is dead, my phone is in Cincinnati, and it was getting late. We leave again to take Melissa back.
6:30 - On our way back to the pool, cuttin' it close, cuz we took 270 all the way around, instead of taking a chance on 670, which I condoned after we passed the exit --- Mistake #1. We get there a little bit after 7, and parked in the same lot as last time --- Mistake #2. All the doors were locked except for the ones in front, which were all the way on the other side of the building. We finally made it inside, and we see some Bellaire girls, so Melissa asks if they've seen her dad. They say they have, and he was leaving. Uh oh. So we start frantically searching...Me and Dan stationed at the main entrance and Melissa on reconnaissance. She comes back out and says she found a guy from her boys team that said her dad is in by the pool. Phew. We stroll up to the place between the pool and our parking lot, and we say our goodbyes, and walk away ---Mistake #3.
So Dan and I go back to his apartment to recharge the phones, because both phones were dead now. So we hang out for a bit and take off for Easton once again. We discover the others are in Starbucks, and JP is playing guitar for the customers. He's taking requests and playing songs, from Led Zeppelin to Metallica to Green Day to Tom Petty. Chicks are diggin' JP and we're crampin' his style, so we leave him and stroll around Easton until it closes. We come back and he's still playing, up a few coins and a phone number. We decide that not many people are appreciating it anymore, so we head back to Dan's apartment. We see a car that must have flipped a few times, cuz the whole roof was torn off and it was mashed up pretty bad. We take the aforementioned 670 shortcut, and we beat everyone back by a good bit of time. Dan sees he has one message, and pushes play. It was my mom.
First words out of her mouth were, "Where's Melissa?" My heart skipped a few beats and I stop breathing. She had a recognizable hint of worry in her voice, and I knew immediately what was wrong...for several reasons. #1 - It was after 11 PM, and my mom would never answer that quick nor sound so awake on the phone, since it is about 3 hours past her bedtime, #2 - Melissa never actually saw her dad when we left, and #3 - My ninja intuition told me she never found him. She tells me she wasn't in the van with her dad, and neither her mother nor father knew where she was since she left with me. Shit.
So I call Melissa's house and talk to them, and we're plotting a search and rescue mission in the event that she isn't on the way home with another van. She didn't call anyone, which hinted that she was indeed on the way home. However, I knew she didn't have money, and she also didn't know the number for Dan's apartment or his cell. But she still would have called home at least, I figured. Or rather, I hoped. So we've got a phone triangle replete with people worried sick about her, and no sighting of her for almost four hours.
Around 11:45, I get a phone call. I quickly pick up...and it's my mom again, wondering if I found out anything. I lie to her and tell her that we're sure she is on the way home with another family, and that she had money to call if needed. So she goes to bed satisfied, but I'm still sweatin' it.
Shortly after midnight, another call. It was Melissa, and she made it home. Cue sigh of relief. Situation averted. It's 1:30 AM, and now I can finally stop worrying. Now, I can go outside and play football.
THE CAR TROUBLE 1/18/02
By Luke
Alright, many of you know parts of this story, but hardly anyone knows all the details, so here we go.
A little background first. Since I brought the Imperial back to school with me for the quarter, I was putting it to good use. Seven days prior to the time of my story, I had driven up to Columbus to Dan and Cody's apartment for the weekend (which was a pretty awesome weekend, by the way), so it wasn't like my car was just frozen in the parking garage from two weeks of neglect.
So anyway, it's about 1:30 PM and my roommate and I trek to the car for the long haul to St. Clairsville. I make it about a block and a half, and a deafening snapping sound rings out. This scares me, this scares me like a boozy carnival clown. Now, the car is still running, so I knew I didn't stall, but I found it difficult to turn the wheel. Bye bye power steering. I think to myself, I can make it without power steering, Dan's truck didn't have it and we made it around fine. And no other messages are coming up on the diagnostic screen (besides my car's constant belief that it's gas tank is empty), so I continue merrily on my ill-fated journey.
And then I reached the interstate.
Accelerating down the entrance ramp, a message pops up saying, "Voltage Improper." I glance down at the battery gauge and it's as low as it can go. Great, now I can't turn off the ignition on my way home, so I can't stop for gas. And I know that's an impossibility because I don't have enough gas to get me to Columbus, let alone the S T C. Like a St Clairsville High Schooler getting scolded by Mr. Ebbert, I disregard this message, and decide to continue my travels.
Not more than a minute later, another message reads, "Engine Temp High." Uh oh, I think, better start slowin down. I figure, I can make it as long as I stay under about 50 miles an hour. I feel like I'm in the movie Speed, only I can't go above 50 or my car explodes. I get a little chuckle out of that thought. Moments later, yet another message..."Engine Temp Critical."
.....Shit.
Car: 1 Luke: 0
It's safe to say, I lost this battle. So I get off the interstate and pull into a gas station...two miles from whence I began. |
