How I Spent My Summer Vacation I

The first month of summer really seemed to float by without anything important happening. I got lost in Rapture, took down Wesker, and managed to move into a penthouse with my cousin Roman before I got bored and took on some T-600s for about 4 hours before the storyline was complete. The definite highlight, however, was when my two person squad of myself and Doug hoarded the entire horde. If you can't tell by now, I played a variety of video games...mostly quality, but Terminator Salvation managed to sneak its way in there. And yes, two people beating horde mode in Gears of War 2 was a tad insane, but insanely fun. Anyways, on June 16th my parents took off for Michigan as my brother and I stayed behind, having the house to ourselves. So here we are, two college kids of 19 and 21 with a house to ourselves. The week ahead would surely be spent with raging parties and massive alcohol binges.

...okay, if you believed that, you don't know us very well, haha. We really spent most of the time watching movies and playing video games...with moments of regular boredom and slow pacing in between. We haven't even had friends over to play Call of Duty. We're being self sufficient and responsible in the absence of parents. However, if that were the entirety of this post, I'd kinda be failing as far as entertaining my audience goes. So, here's an anecdote from the first week without parents.

Awaiting the arrival of my next GameFly goodness in the mail, I found out that an ethernet cable that my dad had ordered for a friend arrived. With nothing better to do on a Sunday night, my brother and I decided to drive over and deliver the cable, as well as hang out for a little while. This probably would've been a better idea before 11:00 pm, but we're both valedictorians, and common sense tends to elude us in these moments. As we pulled into the driveway, I could tell the night was just beginning as I saw the materials for the classic Works/foil/pop bottle experiment laying around. Our friend's little brother was up to his usual jackassery and trying to blow mailboxes off their posts with the poor man's hand grenades that they were fashioning. This provided us with an hour or so of entertainment, as four college kids sat around and tried (and failed miserably) and discouraging the kid's behavior...but really, when you've got people exploding soda bottles, how can you keep a straight face?

Anyways, I'm dragging. We went inside and watched some of The Dark Knight, while helping format a paper in APA style. For the record, I'm a big advocate of abolishing APA, MLAA, etc. and saying "Cover sheer, paper, source" should be the only requirements. These formats are a tad ridiculous. Anyways, around 1 am we decided we were hungry. Almost out of second nature, we piled into the car and drove the 30 minutes to the nearest Waffle House. After confusing the first-night waiter with our order, we enjoyed the food...and the same song on a loop due to the younger brother putting a dollar into the juke box and pressing the same song over and over. That's when I realized: My brother, my friends, and I tend to eat at the oddest of times. Once a week, I'd wager that we find ourselves at a restaurant between 12 am and 6 am. Something about late night meals just hits the perfect spot for a sound night's sleep, and often provide amusing tales. [for example, I saw a girl that was smoking hot...until I saw her face and wondered why Bruce Campbell's face would be on a slender, female body. I love Bruce, but jeebus, that was creepy] That's kinda where this idea comes from...the Waffle House diaries...a place where I can tell the antics of my friends and I, as well as ranting about random crap or providing links to things that interest me at the moment. This may be a somewhat boring place to start, but I feel as if it's a fitting one. Until next time, stay classy, readers...and thanks for stopping by. [Yeah, I went there]

Actually, I'm not done. I want to thank my late grandmother, Rachel/Penny (nobody knows where the nickname comes from, so just go with it), for passing on the late night hunger genes to us. She graced the University Parkway Waffle House with her presence on many, many nights, spreading the love of the restaurant onto my younger brother shortly before she passed. I can only hope that someday, I'll be the 70 year old hanging out with friends until 2 am, eating breakfast foods and talking about nothing important. Thanks, grandma.