I'm Hopeful (Traveling XX?)

Friday morning was just like every other Friday morning we can remember, except that Nena managed to get out of bed when her alarm went off, making my own alarm clock's chimes, thirty minutes later, completely irrelevant. The alarm clock went off and there we were, up and about getting ready for our day. Nena'd planned to get to work early so she could leave early and get us on the road around noon. It should take 7-8hrs to get to NFLD from LTown, so we figured that the earlier we could get out of town, the better off we were going to be. The key to the early start was going to be staying on schedule. But in our house, schedules were made to be disregarded.

The weather in LTown was beautiful on Friday. By the time I got to Arturo after teaching the temperature was approaching the 60s, and I started to think that this was the perfect spring day to cleanse Arturo of all the salt and sand he'd been coated in over the previous few weeks of snow and ice. Plus, all that grime was making him look as though he'd seen better days and this was no way for my buddy to return to The Minny, looking like a shabby pauper.

Washing Arturo proved to be the flapping butterfly's wings that took us off schedule, but by 1p we were on I-70 and flying towards The Minny.

As the miles ticked by I found myself thinking more and more about being back in NFLD. Yeah, I'd visited since I graduated, but this was the first time I'd been there with MY WIFE. This was the first time I'd visit when no students knew who I was. As we sped down I-35 I began to wonder if I'd worked out all the issues I had with Carleton and it was probably in this thought that I was lost in near Owatonna when Nena started trying to get me to snap out of it. I don't know how long she'd been calling out my name when I finally noticed that she was doing it., but she eventually got my attention. That's when I saw the flashing lights in my rearview. That's when I looked down at the speedometer and saw that I was DECELERATING towards 90MPH. I was so totally fucked, leaving me nothing to do but pray that this guy would let me off.

Yup, that worked. The trooper blew right by me and kept on speeding north. Yeah, I didn't matter, he was going someplace else. Taking note of how lucky I was I smirked and slowed the hell down. Right, quit having issues and live in the hear and now. Message received.

We got to NFLD around 7:30p and remarked at how quickly we managed to get up here ... only we didn't have a place to stay. I'd left the hotel arrangements to Nena a few weeks ago and at the time she called the Archer House, heard they were booked up due to a Trustees' Meeting and didn't call any other hotels. I'll stop picking on Nena right there. Just like I had my issues with coming back ... she had her own ones to sort through. Though, I do have a pretty amusing little rant about the biblical implications of Nena's stalling if you want to hear it. ;)

Lucky for us there was a manger at the Country Inn. A smoking manger, but a suite-sized manger they'd give us at a discount. Figuring that this was as smiley as fortune was going to be on the lodging front, we took the room and moved in before heading off to Hogan Brothers for a much deserved dinner.

Slowly, but surely, friends started to trickle in. Before long we were surrounded by friends meeting up for the Olympic Hopefuls show at the Cave in a few hours. We talked and joked as more people showed up and before long it was time to head on up to the show. This is when the only real low point of the night reared its head. As we all got into our respective vehicles Nicepersonality and Notmonochrome informed me that they were going to head home and skip the show. I felt really guilty that they'd come down to see me when they were so tired. I mean, they worked all day, were exhausted and spent more time on the road than they spent hanging out with anyone. As they drove off, I found myself feeling pretty craptacular, like I'd become some attention starved starfucker that demanded more from people than they could give. Yeah, kinda put a damper on my mood and fed the introspective demons that'd been following me all day.

Cody, JdoubleL, Nena and I got to the Cave together and those alums amongst us immediately noticed how clean this place was. Seriously, it was as if the place had been mopped recently. What the hell was that about? I mean, I'm sure Lord Hertz would argue that the place was MUCH dirtier in 1995 than it was in 1999, but still. They're seriously cleaning up the place. What gives?

Also worth noting was that for the first time in recorded history Cody and I showed up to the Cave in time to catch the opening band's entire set. Yes, you may recall an incident or two that blows a hole in this claim, so I will offer a caveat. It was the first time we'd shown up to see an opening band who contained no members that we weren't friends with.

The opening act wasn't that bad, either. They were a solid three piece out of MPLS called The Glad Version. Oh delicious irony. Their name is "The Glad Version" but their songs AREN'T GLAD! OK, so that sarcasm was really uncalled for since they're totally a better band than my inflection would have you believe. Their songs were catchy, but they really need to have more than two different songs they play over and over. I mean, they're really great songs ... but they keep playing them over and over with slightly different lyrics. Still, they're definitely worth a listen.

I know there are some Carls out there wondering how weird it was to be back at The Cave all these years after graduation, well, here's the answer- it was hella weird. We didn't recognize anyone, but everything still looked the same. The kids were still dressed the same, there was still the same group of cool kids on couches and rockers up front ... it was is nothing had changed in the past four years, except me.

It was fortunate that Chas and KG showed up when they did. If they'd been delayed more than a few more minutes I might have been sucked into some sort of emo-driven introspection. And seriously, that wouldn't have been a good thing. Once Chas was there, I had something else to pull me out of my dark introspection- comedy. The comedy came after Chas introduced me to a friend of his who's a current student. We chatted for a while and then they took off. A few minutes later, the student came back and introduced me as "this alum friend of Chas's."

It was perhaps the most amazing thing ever. I was nobody, I was peripheral ... it was the most amazingly good feeling you can imagine, I'd outgrown my legend. I was me again.

The Olympic Hopefuls came on pretty soon after my epiphany and managed to rock the house off its foundation. The show was great, the place was packed like it'd have been for a Manplanet or ’ļml’ă¬½t show back in the day and the kids were dancing. Or, more correctly, the kids were swaying just out of time with the music. It was the sight of a hundred Carls swaying that led Cody to say to me "I totally think that the first Carleton band to really make it needs to be called 'Smart Kids With No Rhythm.'"

I know that this is a really craptacular show review, but that's as good as its going to get. The band was awesome, poppy, with infectious harmonies and really amusing lyrics. "But she knows I can never pay her back/Still she'll buy it for me anyway/She's a trust fund junkie/I know what they're like." or "I'm not prone to steal/But I'm not afraid to borrow." Not the deepest stuff ever ... but there's only so much of that deepness that I can handle.

After the show we began to see the real downside to NFLD's (sub)urban renewal. Midnight and there was no place to go. Bill's? Demolished. Crappy Chef? Demolished and turned into an auto parts store. The Monday? Neutered- they close at 11:30p now. We were Carls without a country ... so we went to the Cow.

I mean, not to knock the Cow. But, I mean ... it wasn't the kind of post-show hangout we were looking for. Yknow?

The Cow was chill, if not a bit deserted. We had the post-show munchies and the Cow's kitchen was closed. Sad, yo. No nachos for Cody and me. Without food to make life better we drank and talked for a bit before the fleet finally broke up. We all had things to do in the morning. Including the alumni association meeting that was my whole reason for being here.