After I got home from work the next night, Meredith handed me an envelope. I opened it and it contained a piece of paper with a clue on it! A scavenger hunt!
There's not much of a story to tell with rest of the photos. It's pretty much just me getting drunk with my friends. And I ended up getting pretty, pretty drunk - as evidenced by this photo I stole from Dens' Flickr that shows me triple-fisting three different types of drinks, each in a different type of container! (A cup of Scotch, a can of PBR and a bottle of Heineken. Oooof!)
While unpacking we also discovered that we both had matching, tan, corduroy jackets! (Mine used to belong to my grandfather - I don't know what Meredith's excuse is. Hahah).
Ellen was there (but for some reason, I only have pictures she took of me with her dog)! Here's me with Piper (in the only shot where her tongue's NOT sticking out.
Champagne makes me both sleepy AND cranky. Fast forward to this awesome photo Meredith took of me trying to read-away my wine hangover. (I highly recommend the book I'm reading: The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwarz
I understood the basic principle, but was unable to get it to work the first few times I tried. (I've since gotten it down cold!) So I handed the bottle back over to Grizz and let him show off the magic!
...and we teamed up for this incredibly hot photo. (I don't know if you know this, but I'm going to let you in on a huge secret: WE ARE HUGE FUCKING DORKS.)
And Siege snapped a few funny pics of Mer and I goofing around on the beach with his fancy cam. (Thanks for sending these over, Siege!). Here's our impression of that old Coppertone advertisement where a little dog is tugging at a girl's bathing suit.
Armed and dangerous. Usually, I try my hardest to be a "live and let live" kind of guy. But I draw the line at sentients that seek what entomologists call a "blood meal."
What's up, TWELVE YEARS LATER! Jeez! (PS - If you look in the background behind Michelle, you can see Don Hill! Dude's gotta be in his late 50s (at least!) and he's still at his own club every night until closing!)
On the walk out to the van, somehow Matt and I started talking about running which led to an argument about who was faster. We decided to settle that shit on the spot with a parking lot footrace! Ready, set...
Yes! It was one of those rides where you watch a movie in a seat that moves around in synch with the screen and it totally tricks you into thinking that you're moving all over the place. (Shit ruled!)
After the ladies were done flashing their bling, we stopped off to rent one of those little wireless buzzer things that lets you "check into" a ride and not have to wait in line! (You go to a ride, hold us the little beeper thingy to a hot spot, and then the doohickey tells you when to come back to the ride and get on! That way you can roam around the park and go on all the lame rides while you wait for your turn on the big-boy rides!)
And here's me. I'm guessing that you can tell by our faces that the water in the pool wasn't exactly warm. I'd brought along my new waterproof camera (that Meredith got me as a gift for when I go scuba diving) and it allowed me go...
Hey, at least the one button she left me was up top. That way I could cover my chest up (er, sorta) and simultaneously look like a fashionable Hispanic west coast gangbanger. Thanks, Lo!
Oh, that's right. And then at the very end of the song when I dropped to my knees for the final high-note, Lorelei reached up and ripped my shirt open (popping off ALL of the buttons except for one).
Doubling up for the big outro. This was probably one of my most favorite accidental karaoke moments. (In fact, it's probably only eclipsed by the time that Seth and I ended up accidentally karaoking with Tracey Morgan back in 2003!)
When the band got back on stage, they called me up to sing! "Don't Stop" is pretty much one of the best karaoke songs of all time and one of the few times that I actually don't mind that fact that I was pretty much born with a woman's voice. Check out the singer all like "Holy shit, this guy's a eunuch!"
OMG, this photo makes me LOL on so many levels. I love how Grant's covering his mouth. That's because he knows that if he makes so much as a peep, I'll spring awake with the quickness and swat him right in the bean bag. I also love this photo because it looks like I'm dead and I can already envision my own funeral where my friends will be pulling this same exact bullshit next to my open-casket. (And Meredith will probably be the accomplice that takes the photo. Just like she did here!)
...we had an hour before the reception and I wanted to grab a quick nappity-nap to ensure I'd have the juice for what was sure to be a full night of drinking and antics. Grant, Meredith and I all went up to our room and just as I was falling into dreamland...
I thought I was so funny for doing the whole "flex-down while ironing" thing until I looked at the photo later and realized the reason Meredith was laughing so hard was because Grant had managed to brain me in the background.
Hannah and me. Hannah also made her IKAD deput at the Mermaid Parade of 2001, but she doesn't properly show up until later that same night when we had a prom party at Indoorvillage!) A few minutes later, Hannah introduced us to two other girls that were in town from England for the wedding...
Last song of the night! I may not have won the competition, but I definitely went home feeling like a winner! (Cue sitcom audience applause and outro music from Growing Pains).
In my defense, I first used to balls to show off my juggling skills, but the crowd wasn't impressed. It wasn't until I started awkwardly rolling them around on my crotch that the crowd lit up! (Photo by Leo Zacharias)
If, by the time I die, tombstones with embedded video screens are commonplace, someone please make sure that this photo makes it into the cemetery slideshow. Thanks. (Photo by Leo Zacharias)
Claire was the other finalist! For the last round it was announced that our hands were going to be TAPED to one microphone and we'd be singing a duet voted on by the audience! Here's Claire and I getting our hands taped together. Hahaha.
(Photo by Leo Zacharias)
The audience ended up selecting Summer Lovin' from the musical Grease. I didn't know the song well, but I knew it better than most of the other songs that were on the list! (There was stuff like Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong! If the audience had chosen one of those songs, I would've been effed!).
For the first round of competition we were told that we'd be judged on two things: 1) How well we performed our song. 2) How well we incorporated the use of a "prop" that would be given to us halfway through our song! Sure enough, I was about halfway through Gloria and I was handed...
by Barry Schwarz
