I was kidnapped.
Friday, around 2:00 my insanely sick girlfriend comes to my work. She was up until around 5:45am the night before with crazy stomach pains and her body rejecting all that was inside of her. We have since decided it was a wicked case of food poisoning.
SO, she shows up about 2:00 on Friday and says, “It is time to go.”
“Go where?”
She says, “It is surprise.”
“But I have to work.” says I.
She says, “Oh, no, it’s fine, Joe already knows, this has been planned for about two months.”
A surprise kidnapping! How fun!
Our first stop was about an hour away to pick up The Boys, also known as Brian and Justin.
We get on the road, to destinations unknown, to me anyway, and continue to travel 5 hours or so to Raleigh, NC. We arrive at the Red Roof in and get settled for the night.
I am still unsure as to why I have been kidnapped and taken to far away lands. (other than I was told that this was my birthday surprise gift – which my birthday isn’t until September, but early gifts are always welcome) I do have a suspicion as to what is up, but I am still unsure. Not to mention, Justin kept dropping hints that we were heading to Washington D.C. (later I found out that Justin actually made up fake maps and laid them around the hotel room hoping I would pick them up. It was not to be.)
The next morning we wake up, go and eat some Reeeeed Robin (hummmmm), which was awesome, and then proceeded down the road. We ended up a Duke University. I. LOVE. DUKE. BASKETBALL. OMG. That campus is beautiful!!! The chapel is amazing! I didn’t get to see the inside of it due to a wedding. Boooo...but Google had some good shots!
We leave Duke and head to the grocery story, Harris Teeter, which is like not heard of in the South…I had no idea what it was, but they have beer and that is all that matters. We load up on some beer and start down the road again. This time we end up at Booth Amphitheatre. OH SNAP.
How much do you love Collective Soul, Blue’s Traveler and Live? ALOT, right?!? ME TOO!
Collective Soul has got to be my favorite band IN THE WORLD. Live is like a very close second and Blues Traveler is just one great jam band and that boy can play some harmonica!
Let me do a count down of how many times I have seen Collective Soul: 6
How about Blues Traveler? 2
How about Live? 3
My girl had planned this weekend for me with such great care! I can’t think of a better gift than to go to see those bands for my birthday! Not to mention the great company!
My Captors and I tailgated for a few hours before the concerts started, getting a nice concert buzz on before we had to spend $6 a beer on the inside.
I vigorously sang back-up for Collective Soul
And found out what my next tattoo is going to look like
All in all, it was heaven!
I am just going to go a head and issue a MULLET ALERT here, because the following pictures may be hideous to some viewers.
Please see Exhibit “A”
This has got to be the BEST mullet I have EVER seen…and I have seen some good mullets!
It was so good I had to get in the picture with it! Notice how I barely fit in the picture because of its greatness!
This picture isn’t of a mullet, but it is in the awesome hair category, so I include it anyway.
Now I am going to issue a REDNECK ADVISORY. I don’t know if it was because we were in North Carolina or if this woman was under the impression that she looked like one of the Olympic Volleyball girls, either way it was just a sad, sad choice.
I know it is kind of a dark picture, believe me, your retinas will thank me later, but this woman has pulled her shirt behind her head and is prancing around the concert in her sports bra.
For whatever reason we didn’t get any picture of Blue’s Traveler, but sexy lead singer of Live, Ed Kowalczyk, we did capture. What a hot specimen of man. Oh yeah, and he sings good too.
On the way home we stopped at this lovely spot called South of the Border. Ohmyjeez. Seriously, I don’t know if I have ever been so underwhelmed in my life. There are billboards for hundreds of miles out advertising for this place and from the what the billboards say you would think this is going to be the outlet mall of the century, complete with great food and entertainment. Think again my amigos, think again.
It isn’t often that one can say that they have travelled atop a giant sombrero, but now I can.
The series of picture to follow next need no explanation, but please know they were all taken at South of the Border. (click for larger pictures)
I do, however, want to show you some of the graffiti we observed atop the hat.
First of all, expect these to be the kind of people that bring a writing utensil up on a giant sombrero in anticipation of writing upon said sombrero. Tards.
The first piece is actually quite good. I think the artistry is relevant to the subject matter and the lines are quite nice..
The second piece is a love letter written between Laura and Ronald.
If you can’t read the writing this is what it says:
Ronald, I heart you sooooooo much! Love, Laura 6/14/08
Laura, you made me the happiest man alive the day you said “YES” I love you! With all my heart, Ronald.
I don’t know Laura or Ronald, but PUKE. And secondly to that, I really, really hope that the proposal didn’t go down on top of that sombrero. ‘Tis quite nasty up there.
In other graffiti:
To See God, Look (Arrow Up)
We got more bounce in California 6/28/08
This may be true my literary genius, but we in the South can spell BOUNCE on the first try. I also have no idea what having bounce has to do with anything…perhaps I am out of the loop.
This is a picture of North Carolina.
This is South Carolina
And that my people, was my kidnapping adventure! I cannot thank my captors enough! I had SO MUCH FUN and as always, Edward was appreciative that I showed up, once again, to assist him in his music.
Thank you guys SO MUCH for such a great time and the wonderful gift of your careful planning, wonderful company and thoughtful ways! I love you!
