A lot of people have been waiting for this one. Well, a few anyway. Due to some site problems though, it's been brewing and stewing and settling in. This weekend contained some hilarity, that's for sure.
Aside from losing my first curling game of the year on Friday (0-1), the majority of the weekend involved driving to Windsor/Michigan to see the U of M Wolverines play the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in a game known as "American Football." So Greg, Clarissa, Taisa, and I drove down on Friday in what Brian Chick's Imaginary Car Magazine calls "the most awkward and least comfortable car in the history of mankind," the PT Cruiser. Since I rented one a couple years ago, I immediately knew that the car was a piece of garbage, but I never had the pleasure of spending an extended period as a passenger, which is about as pleasant as sitting on a rock. And not one of those comfortable rocks either.
Anyway... we made it to Windsor on Friday night and crashed at Tai's family's place after catching up over a beverage. I unpacked all my Michigan clothes, put my cellphone in my luggage, and went to bed.
We were up bright and early to cross the bridge to Detroit, and proceeded north to Ann Arbor. Once we were parked at the pre-tailgate party tailgate party location, Tai's dad cooked some of the best steak I've had, combined with some mimosas. This is not your average Buffalo tailgate party, folks. This is a classy tailgate! After wandering over towards the stadium, we hung around at tailgate camps #2 and #3, where we ate and drank more, which continued for several more hours until the game finally started at 3:30.
Then Michigan WAXED Notre Dame 38-0. Aside from the domination, the highlight of the game was the slow-motion wave that crawled through the crowd of 111,178.
And then the day got interesting...
Phil Collins provided the soundtrack to a severely entertaining ride home. Apparently, I was almost left at the border when I got out to pump gas. I will never hear "In the air tonight" the same way...
Later on that evening, Tai's brother Rob took Greg and me out to a local bar, a short walk from their house. The girls were tuckered out and decided to stay in. So aftera couple hours and several drinks there, we walked through the McDonald's Drive Thru and got some late night burgers (For the record, we HAD to use the drive thru because that was the only part that was open).
So then, the weirdest thing ever happened. As we walked away from McDonald's, Rob said we had two choices to get home. The short way involved cutting through some tall reeds, hopping a fence and then the rest was sidewalks. The long way meant going around all this stuff. So we opted for the short way, and I led the way.
I wandered into the thick reeds, certain that Rob and Greg were following me. I tripped a couple times, but fought through to the other side, which was only about 15-20 feet away. When I reached the other side, I noticed that nobody came out behind me. I could see across to where we had been standing and there was no one there, and nobody answered when I shouted out to them. So that was odd. I figured they gave up on the short way, and walked around the long way. I hopped the fence and headed over to where I figured they were. But of course, they were still nowhere to be found.
I kept walking towards home, certain that I'd run into them at some point. Somewhere in the dark, I missed a turn around Tai's house, and spent a little extra time (45 minutes?) wandering around the neighbourhood, confused by the fact that the street they live on appears and disappears in different parts of the development, but eventually found the house I was looking for. I assumed as I walked up the driveway that Greg and Rob would be there waiting, but when I reached for the front door, it opened before me, and Clarissa was standing there with one of those "where were you? what happened? what the hell?" kinda looks.
Tai's dad was sitting on the couch, just inside the door. At this point, I knew something was up, but hadn't quite figured it out. Clarissa called Greg and said "He's back, we have him." As details filled in, I found out that Tai's mom had driven out to meet Rob and Greg back at the McDonalds, the police were called, and there were sniffing dogs coming in from the next town over. Apparently, they had arrived just as I walked in the front door.
I felt horrible to have caused such drama, and was amazingly embarassed that I had gotten everybody out of bed, including the dogs. Tai's mom assured me that it was much more important that I was safe, and I was, except I didn't have my phone on me so nobody knew that. After much discussion, we still have no idea what happened when I walked into the reeds that made us invisible and deaf to eachother. We concluded that it was probably a rip in the Space-Time Contiuum, and had a good laugh as we passed the same spot the next morning on our way out of town.
As Greg said, "You know it's been a good weekend when you can refer to it by the Police Report Number."
So thank you to Tai's parents, Greg and Rob, Clarissa and Tai, for the search party. I'm sorry it was necessary. Mom and Dad, I'm fine and safe, and I can tell you're shaking your head sadly right now. I'm sure it's much funnier when you hear this story in person.
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