FINALLY. I’m so over talking about this trip, lol. Last day, Monday, Nov. 13. We got up & took a walk through Federal Hill in Baltimore with Mr. Bill (Tricia’s dad) & got a very early lunch around 11:30am. I really do love that area. It’s really cool; I can’t wait to go back with Tricia again. Anyway, afterwards, we hit the road around 1pm.
We headed for Towson, because it’s where Tricia went to school before she decided to get all married & move to California. Though from all the completely nuts stories that she’s told me, it sounds like she crammed more into that one year than I did in all 4 of my years at Marist. I probably could’ve stayed in college for 3 more years & still never caught up to Trish. Yeah. So we illegally parked by the (where else?) theatre/arts building & then walked around campus for a little bit. You know, it’s not a huge campus, but it still seemed so much bigger than Marist. Then again, we had 3 academic buildings (Donnelly, the Steel Plant & the Student Center so do NOT count) so any campus that has more than like 6 buildings total seems bigger to me. (Tangent: When I lived in Upper West Cedar that torturous year, I complained about having to walk 10 minutes to get to class. Claudio would tell me to shut the fuck up bc a short walk for the smart kids at Cornell was like 20 minutes. Related: we also didn’t have tennis courts, the walkway & Jazzman’s back in the day, either).
Yeah, so we drove around, trying to find the spot of Tricia’s favorite Towson story, but she realized that most of the time she walked places, it was at night & she was usually inebriated. In fact, she wasn’t sure she knew how to get anywhere that wasn’t an academic/student center/place where hot lacrosse players practiced during the day. We stayed til about 3pm, then hit the road for New York. As soon as we got onto Rt. 695 (I think…), it started pouring rain. We drove all the way up Rt. 95 in it.
Randy texted me sometime while we were on the Jersey Turnpike & told us that we should come by his house. We’re like, “Sure, why not? Let’s delay going back to the actual world for another 2 hours!” So it’s pouring rain & we get onto the Garden State Parkway. I call to verify directions not once, not twice, but THREE times. I get the “You’re going the right way, leave me the fuck alone until you’re here, I’m busy being a pothead” speal. We drive for about 10 mins before we realize that we’re definitely going the wrong way. In the pouring rain. We finally get to the right exit & call for more directions & he gets us somewhat lost again. He can’t help much bc he doesn’t know street names (seriously?!). Figures that when we start naming places & we’re near a mechanic, he knows where we are. The moral of the story? Princess Cupcake Assface is an idiot.
Yeah, so I’m totally outing Princess right now: Not only does he actually live on a river (“Colleen. It’s Randy. I’m drunk & peeing in the river…” remains my favorite drunk voicemail ever), but it’s RIGHT in his backyard. And there’s a houseboat. With a kitchen, bedroom, 2 flatscreen tvs, shower, etc. Yeah. Pam & Vinny told us they tried to get him to not be so lazy & learn how to sail it so he could take it wherever (Vinny actually sailed it to Marist once, apparently), but the coolness of that was no match for the coolness of Mary Jane. We went to a diner, where they naturally made fun of me (see video) and then Tricia & I finally left for NY. Here’s the video of Tricia’s first visit to a diner in 2 years (they don’t have diners in CA).
My favorite view of the city is from the BQE & I’m glad it stopped raining by the time we crossed the Verazano. It’s such a gorgeous skyline, seriously. I said it then and I’ll say it now: We traveled through the entire southern part of the US & nothing, nothing quite made me feel like I did seeing NYC. Maybe that’s totally dorky, but it’s true. We got home around 11:30pm, completely exhausted. I think I slept til 1pm the next day (Tues, Nov 14), which is crazy bc usually 10:30am is my sleeping late limit. It was so worth it though. If I could do it again, I would in a heartbeat.
Everybody say “Awwww” at Randy’s 2nd grade picture! Can little Randy say, “Colleen wins this round.”?
