WAHOO for Boston!
Oh my, what a trip. Here's how it went…
7:30 am at The Assembly Hall, waiting on Kevin to arrive. This is how every one of my away trips has started. When the long awaited drummer arrives, we take off. Nothing too interesting happened on the way to Indy, so I won't bore you with the details. At the airport, our plane was late… The Col. takes this opportunity to give the band the CBS theme, laced with pieces of IOI. We rehearsed this by singing…hahaha! I haven't done that since high school. 
This is where random quote #1 comes in. Rosemary and Flounder were talking about finding some way to smoke without getting off the bus. Flounder says something along the lines of "I'd smoke in the bathroom if there was a window, if I could bear the smell for 5 minutes." Amy chimes in with the I-don't-know-what-you-are-talking-about-but-I-want-to-be-in-on-it "what?". Flounder responds "We were talking about you in bed." And I say "If he could only stand the smell for 5 minutes." Good times.
So while in Boston, we checked into our hotel and decided to go somewhere for food. First off, the public transportation system in Boston sucks. The token machines are broken, and to pay the driver involves placing a dollar bill somewhere close to the driver's seat. Most of our group of 9 (minus me) didn't get charged by the driver. We make it to Government Center and "de-train". (I figure if leaving a plane is de-planeing then leaving a train is de-training) We start walking toward the wharves and find a statue of Samuel Adams. Now with all of us in college and of age, we decided to have our pictures taken with his statue.
We ate on the long wharf at a restaurant called The Sail Loft. AWESOME Clam Chowda! I am never eating clam chowder again. Best stuff ever! After we ate, Joe Graham Flounder and I walked back to the hotel. We, minus Joe, went swimming. The pool in our hotel is salt water.
And then there was a game, the reason for the trip. On the way to the Fleet Center, Pat Somebody-or-other was on the microphone of the bus… and he was a little plastered. This created some entertainment that is explained in the “Quotes” section. We won, obviously. It was a really fun game to watch. The Alabama band was good, but we were better, more tasteful, I would say. They played marching stuff and one dynamic…loud. There was one drunken fan that kept heckling the band…honestly, who heckles the band… You'll hear more about him later. He comes back into the story.
We get back to the hotel and Doug, Mike and I decide to walk into Cambridge and go to a bar. We ended up at a place called Porter's Pub a block from the Fleet Center. We had a couple beers and the "good luck" shot – the redheaded slut. We headed back to the hotel and went to bed. It was like 4 in the morning.
…End day 1…
Saturday started late and I only got about an hour or two of sleep because Teddy snored so damn loud. Anyway, we walked the freedom trail, backwards. It ends at the Bunker Hill monument. We climbed up all 294 stairs to the top to get a view of Boston, too bad it was hazy. We this time is Rosemary, Flounder, Pam, Amy and me. After that climb with our legs feeling like Jell-O, we walked to the USS Constitution. What a cool boat! Flounder and I walked around the deck and admired all the knots. We all decided it would be cool to take the tour of the ship. How cool would it be to sail on that boat! We walked more of the trail and went to Paul Revere's house. What a neat place. Shortly after that walk through, we stopped at the Union Oyster House for linner. I had the char-grilled swordfish…mmmm…soooo good, and of course…more Clam Chowda. We finished the trail and walked to Cheer's.
Cheer’s was the start of a very interesting evening. I tried one of the locally brewed beers, Harpoon. It tasted a lot like Upland Dragonfly from here in Bloomington. We all were watching the Arizona Gonzaga game as well as having a few shots. Our bartender was awesome. His name was Mike and he was a native Bostonian. He had the coolest accent and everything. After the Gonzaga game ended (after double overtime, and a new beer for each overtime), we headed back to our hotel. I’ve been told by Pam that I was quite the entertainment on the train. I never lost my balance, but I was talking about random stuff and making everyone around me laugh.
Back at the hotel, we all decided to go down to the hot tub. I remember all of this. It was good times, but nothing interesting happened, so I will spare you the boring details. After that, I went back to my room (Graham and I had switched keys somehow, so we both went up to the room to try keys) and changed into dry clothes to head to Flounder’s room. I was tasked with getting ice from the ice machine. I took the bucket and started heading down the hallway when I came to Meridith’s room. I stopped by there for a little bit to chill. While I was in there, Mere and Graham both kept throwing coins into my ice bucket. I would have kept them had I been sober, but I kept throwing them back at them until I finally turned the bucket over and didn’t allow them to throw anything into it. After I got the ice and went back to Flounder’s room, I ended up going back to my room shortly. When I laid down, apparently I called Beth on my cell. She says that I passed out four times while talking to her. I remember none of this.
…End day 2…
Sunday, a day full of fun and travel. I woke up with a bad hangover, the effects of which I felt throughout the game. While searching for breakfast in the mall, I get a call from Beth making sure I’m awake. This is when I find out that I called her the night before. Anyway, got on the bus, headed to the Fleet Center, and…you guessed it…Pat, the drunken trustee was on the microphone again. This time he was doing interviews with the people as they entered the bus. What a random stoner… The game sucked from about the 5 minutes to go mark in the first half, on. The team was playing like they wanted it, but they just fell short. The trip back to the airport was entertaining. We voted Flounder our Bus Emperor, changed Teddy’s name, and took away Chris’ ability to speak all by using Robert’s Rules of Order. We’re such dorks… Anyway, we get to the airport and get on the plane and head home. That’s about the end of the story.
Here’s why I think we lost the game. I was walking around my hallway at 12:30 and see half of the basketball team still awake and running around the halls of the hotel. If they would have had enough sleep, they would have been able to play with more intensity and desire. Plus, Pittsburgh is a really quiet team that can do some damage. I’m still winning the Support Staff pool. No bets, just a pool for bragging rights.
Quotes:
“Kyle Hornsby, get into bed. I want to go to Minnesota.” – Shelley
"It would be the oppression trail. The freedom trail backwards." – Graham
“Serve it up!” – Everyone mocking Pat, the trustee.
“I nominate Flounder for Bus Emperor” – Me
“Melvin Vanttool” – Teddy’s new name.
“They’re so serious about dropping the ‘r’ in words that they left it off the Budweiser billboard.” – Pat, the drunken trustee, commenting on a Budweiser billboard spelled “Busweise”.
“Alabama was in the confederacy, which means we’ve already beat them once.” – You guessed it…Pat, the drunken trustee.
“Anycrap” – Chris
Quote of the trip “We’re counting our national championships, now fuck off!” – The Colonel when answering the drunken fan’s question, “Why are you so quiet?”
Mac fund – $293.58 No change since last post.
This post is three pages long in Microsoft Word.
Serve it up for Boston yo!
tm
