Talk Derby To Me or: Otter Bares All

What a weekend. Kudos to Louisville for having a day dedicated to cute girls in cute hats. I put just under 800 miles on my car in about 48 hours. I love road trips, though I wish I had better copilots. Bruges was with me on the way down to Louisville, so that's a big plus. She ranks high among a small group of people with which I could drive across the country and be happy with the whole time. It was a great drive. We made the full 270 miles in just over five hours, including stops for food and booze. I learned that the Thunderbird tops out 116mph before the the rev-limiter kicks in, which is good to know. Unfortunately, I left my sunglasses on the roof of the T-bird when we stopped for gas in South Bend. Fortunately, when we stopped for gas outside of Indianapolis, I found them stuck in the spoiler. This was after hitting 116mph on US31. It was the first of several Derby miracles.

The weather when we arrived at the campsite was pretty dismal, which resulted in about 30 of us all huddled under a 10 ft. x 10 ft. rain canopy. It turned out to be pretty fun, with everyone boozing and getting to know each other. I only knew five of the people in our group at the beginning of it all, but everyone made friends fast. Finally the wind took down our canopy and we retreated to the car to smoke cigars and sip Woodford. It wasn't quite camping, but it wasn't that far off either.

Derby Day started with the same dismal weather as the night before, with cold rain and a thoroughly gray sky. However, as we got our tailgating on outside of Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, a sliver of blue appeared and slowly spread across the entire sky. It turned out to be a beautiful day. There were hundreds of Notre Dame seniors around and I ran into dozens that I knew. The highlight of the tailgating was our own miniature derby in the parking lot. It was done in teams of two, a "horse" and a "jockey". The jockey had to shotgun a beer and jump on the horse, who then ran about a hundred feet down and back, and then the horse shotgunned a beer at the finish. Oh college.

The race itself paled in comparison to the tailgating. I had mint juleps and lost fifty bucks with no regret. It was fun, but there were fewer people I knew and less room for us to get into trouble. At some point, I made a bet with Aitch which I only vaguely remember. The evidence is in a note I left myself in my phone which reads "Aitch Cookie Monster 10 dollars 60 days". I seem to recall it had something to do with her finding a cookie monster t-shirt and I was giving her 60 days to do it. I wish I could figure it out. On the bright side, she can't figure it out either, so I'm looking to come into some money.

The good weather continued that night and we all went back to the campsite and sat around a fire. As I lay on the grass, I couldn't help but wish that I had someone there with me. Others were around, but no one was with me and it seemed I was the only one to appreciate it as others scrambled to get their food and alcohol in order.

The next day we drove back to South Bend and the Derby trip came to a close. To celebrate, I accidentally walked in on Otter naked. She wasn't changing, just standing around naked in Toners' room. It was surprisingly not that awkward (at least in my opinion, she may disagree). Slightly more awkward was the dinner we went out to soon afterward. I don't know if it was just me being so tired, but I felt somewhat annoyed the whole time. It seemed like there wasn't much of a conversation. One girl we were out with in particular got on my nerves and I think Otter may have felt the same. Everthing she did just seemed childish. On the other hand, I randomly began singing "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah", so I can't really claim to be an adult.

For the conclusion of this seemingly endless weekend, I met with Aitch for tea and hummus. We were both still wiped out from the drive and the partying, but it was nice to relax with her. I think I'm going to miss her more than anyone else after this school thing is all done. It could be because I think she's going to go on and do grand things in a new life that's starting imminently, and it will be harder to stay close. Or it could be because I still can't seem to shake the crush I have on her. It's probably a little of both.

The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!

Allan Sherman - Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah!