reunion blurb and lafayette for purdue fall open

had the family reunion for my grandma's side
got lots of reading done
bought an old metal pipe at the auction (and had a cousin tell me to make sure it wasn't used for its intended purpose)
the next weekend was the purdue fall open
i went to bed fairly early (before 2...) after going to 9 irish and watching a band play (good times) and then hanging out with adrienne a bit after she got off work
got up Really early (8am) so i could get over to the co-rec in time
got all registered, but went to put in my contacts so i didn't have a chance to warm up before they announced pools
did awful in my pools (lost to the 3 easiest guys, including one who i fence every week and have never lost to, but beat one of the top 10 in the tournament) finally started to get into the swing of things after that
for my DEs though, i had to fence chad from the bloomington club (who i fence every week) and then jeremy (from the bloomington club, who beats me every time we fence) so that wasn't terribly exciting
then saber started and i didn't far a whole lot better
i did ok, but i lost to a beginner that i Really shouldn't have, and another guy from our pool withdrew, so i ended up lower in the pools than i would have liked
my first DE was against a newer guy who i beat fairly quickly, but then i had to face steve andrews (who is better than me, but who i should still put up a better fight against than i usually do) and he beat me so that sucked
then i helped direct a foil pool before getting a shower
all in all, not an 'on' day for fencing
but my beer pong later that night was Great, so apparently that was my 'weapon' of the day...
after that adrienne got off work so i picked her up and we went out to the fort and lay out under the stars for a bit so that was cool and then i went to bed, got up, and drove back

lafayette and mara's wedding

drove up to lafayette
hung out a bit with nick and adrienne
sat morning got up butt-early and drove an additional 2.5 hours up to south bend for mara's wedding
ended up getting there late
slid into a pew and watched the rest of the ceremony
called josh but he was out of town
strolled around campus reading my book and generally wasting time
beautiful campus, but all the statues and overwhelming religiocity of it turned me off
went to the reception and sat next to frankie (who i hadn't really hung out with before other than when the group of them were doing hw together and i swung by) and some people mara works with
i knew the bride, her sister, the maid of honor, and frankie, so it was a little weird for me, but i made the most of it
tried to dance (the best part!) but they had a bunch of the 'special' dances and then a few really bad songs, and then a crapload of slow songs (yeah, not exactly gonna slow dance by myself) then a few decent songs so i got out there (whoo!) and then... horror of horrors, the hokey pokey, macarana, electric slide, and chicken dance (no group dancing!) a couple more decent songs, and then back to a huge block of slow songs (which frustrated me, but that's what the majority of the people came on the floor for, so the dj was trying to play what people wanted)
then adrienne called because she had been a little north of there in michigan for a cousin's wedding reception (but i don't think the wedding was that day) and she was heading down through south bend on the way back
i met up with her and we wandered down grape st looking for some food (but it was pretty late so we settled on arby's) and then headed back
i was leading and tired and a little lost, so when i saw the sign for the highway i wanted about 2 blocks before a major road, i assumed that was the road i wanted, but that road was a one-way in the wrong direction, so we had to quickly turn around and continue down the road (crazy drivers)
eventually we got going and we made it about 2 miles out of lafayette on 25, when there were some flashing lights ahead
i pulled up behind a car stopped in the road and saw 3 fire trucks, 2 ambulances (one of which drove away as we arrived) and a tow truck all with flashing lights blocking the road
a group of firefighters (at least 7) were standing around an electric pole where you could jsut barely catch glimpses of a car wrapped around it (opposite side of the road from us)
so after sitting there for about 15 minutes, i pulled out my phone, brought up google maps (hells yeah google maps on my phone!!) found an alternate route that added about 12 miles, and got us back to lafayette at about 3 in the AM
very tired
so by the time i got up sunday i didn't do a whole lot before driving back home

labor day weekend in lafayette

after getting a slow start heading up to lafayette this weekend (went to the hot carls concert and headed up sat afternoon instead) i still spent the normal amount of time up there because i had monday off

not much terribly stand out happened, lots of hanging out, sitting around, bar visits, movie watching

monday nick cooked up some brawts, chicken, and corn on the cob (he asked me how we should cook them, and since i had never tried it that way, i told him we should jsut toss them on the grill directly and let them cook in the husk, turned out Excellent), john came over and we all ate and watched a movie

the hot carls - sauce party

went up to the players pub for the 'sauce party' last night
they played their normal excellent show, but they were also selling hot sauce and cds
i walked over to kroger to pick up some markers and had them all sign the cd i got
they had taped a mic to the ceiling and played in a circle around it and then burned the result to CD-Rs
the sound is rough, editing almost non-existant, and it is fantastic :)

more fencing and drinking with a legend and lafayette

started up fencing classes again
i went to a rolling format for the lessons so that it stays flexible for when i move and also so i don't have to turn people away in the middle of a lesson set
the first hour i'm giving my 'intermediate' guys some drills and the like to do while i pay close attention to the 'beginners' then i send the beginners home and concentrate on the intermediates and we do a little free fencing at the end
going this route and also having accumulated a little equipment means i've been able to drop the initial cost from 150$ to 40$ and then have them pay per lesson instead of paying for the whole block up front
hopefully that means i should be able to draw more people in and include them in the class
it also looks like i should have someone to at least supervise drills and handle the equipment if i leave so the club can survive without my constant presence (awesome) and i could jsut come in on saturdays every once in a while and offer formal lessons then

went to lafayette
met at jake's with nick and the legendary 'drunken joe'
the man of countless exaggerated stories with even better truths behind them
we had a grand ol time hanging out drinking and chatting and i am honored to have been permitted to join him at a bar :)
i spent a lot of the rest of the time hanging out with adrienne, (had really bad service at logan's which didn't go over well) watched a couple movies with nick, and ended up leaving Really late (9pm) sunday
then tuesday morning i was REALLY dumb (i've decided i have some kind of as-yet-undiagnosed mental disorder) and got up at 5:30 am to watch the lunar eclipse
it was kinda nice sitting on the roof and watching, but really... i do love my sleep

short visit

didn't do much
went in to work for awhile
sunday went to bloomington and met up with brittany at panara for a few hours
plus some strolling around border's

visiting and counting crows/collective soul/live concert

went to lafayette
hung out with nick
saw adrienne
went on a 'date' to see the simpsons movie
went to indy saturday for the counting crows, collective soul, live 'rock and roll triple play' concert
pretty sweet
i wish i had seen collective soul play at 4th St Live in Louisville before, but i really couldn't
great shows from everyone and i definitely hope to see collective soul play again
after the concert we went to the bars for a while and i danced while nick chatted up some girl

nick and i drove down separately so we could leave his car at the airport for the return drive after doing some work in D.C. for work so we dropped it off and hit a mcdonald's in lebanon before getting back to his place and crashing

sunday there was more visiting and whatnot before he headed out and i went on home