I had been house sitting for a friend and working all weekend, and I finally made it back to my house around 11:00 Sunday morning. My gym doesn't open until noon, so I was just sitting around doing laundry awaiting the 12:00 hour. Suddenly, I had this great revelation that I should just throw my shit in the car and get the fuck out of Memphis. My two options: Starkville and Nashville. I send a few texts out to friends: I have the next two days off. Should I come to town? I had already made up my mind that I was leaving regardless. 3 minutes later. No texts back. Fuck this, I'm calling Jimmy.
"Hello?" Jimmy drags out. I can tell he's extremely hungover.
"Hey! I have two days off. Should I come to Starkville? I want to come. I'm just gonna come." I excitedly shoot back at him.
"Ummmm, I went to sleep at 4 this morning and am on my way back from a wedding in Natchez..." I can tell that he has no intentions of drinking or being fun tonight, so I keep on pushing.
"But, you NEVER see me. When will I ever have two days off in a row again? Never. Never. Never. It's now or never. Don't you want to see your best friend?" I know this will work.
"Fuck, Meredith. Just come on. Rockbottom is supposed to be open." Bingo.
"Ok, cool. See you in three hours."
As soon as I get off the phone with Jimmy, I call my mom to tell her how excited I am that I'm actually doing something for myself. Well, I'll be damned if she isn't on her way to Starkville too. This is going to be a shit show, I thought. After calling a few more friends to let them know the good news, I get gas and start flying down 55.
Fast forward two hours when I make it through Winona, and I'm on the home stretch. My friend J. H. starts a group text between a couple of us and we begin shooting ideas for the night back and forth. The one idea that everyone can agree on is riding the Refuge. For those of you who were not lucky enough to spend 4+ years at Mississippi State, the Noxubee County Wildlife Refuge is a bunch of gravel roads interconnected over three counties that takes you through the woods, to people's deer camps, across lakes, and to an area that has absolutely no cell phone service. Alright, so this is our tentative plan. I realize that I have to shower and wash off last night's dinner service at work, but none of my friends are at home or actually live in Starkville. Well, fuck. I start calling MSU's President's wife to see if I can shower at the President's mansion....no answer. Thinking, thinking, thinking....Holy shit. My sorority house. How fucking funny would it be if I busted up in the sorority house and braved the communal showers from college. I shoot the group a text, "Give me an hour. Going to the sorority house to shower. Not a fucking joke. Move over bitches. I'm back."
I send a few Facebook messages to current members of my sorority to get the house code. I pull up, park in the alum spot, grab my bag, and bust up in the house. With out even introducing myself, I look at a group of the girls and say, "Do any of yall live in the house? I need to borrow a towel and some shampoo." They all nervously look around like who the fuck is this girl? No one offers, so finally I say, "I'm an alum. I need to take a shower." Well, that worked like a charm, and I didn't even have to tell them what a badass I was in college. The next thing I know, the President of the chapter is ushering me upstairs with a towel and all of her toiletries. As I'm showering and getting dressed in the bathroom and girls are coming in and out giving me weird glances, I think to myself, "This is about to be one ridiculously, fucked up night and these girls have probably never even experienced half of what is about to take place. Poor things. Worried about their reputation. How sweet."
Alright, now this is where you have to keep up. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail or I would be writing for the next two hours.
Post sorority house shower:
3:41 PM
"You at Staggerin yet?" text from J.H.
J.H. and I start drinking at Staggerin in the Cotton District around 4:00. I begin with a Bud Light and a shot of Fireball while he just grabs a beer. We talk about him moving across the country next week, my job, my flowers I should plant in the pots outside of my house, and opening a restaurant.
4:45 PMJimmy finally shows up and joins us. He immediately starts complaining about how strong his whiskey and sprite is while J.H. and I are going beer for beer.
5:40 PM
We all decide its time to make a move. Rockbottom actually did not open, so we start thinking of the only places open on Sundays in Starkville. We choose the Veranda because they have $2 mimosas, bloody marys, and domestics. You can't fucking beat that.
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Drinking and eating at the Veranda. 2 manmosas down and countless beers and cigs. We try convincing my mom to come join us at the Veranda, but she had already had a bottle of wine and wasn't planning on leaving. So, this is the point in the night when J.H. and I are trying to get some other friends to join us because Jimmy was going to puss out and go back home. Well, that wasn't going to fucking happen. J.H. and I convinced him to go on a refuge ride. You know, just a short hour-two hour loop. After a lot of convincing, deciding to take J.H.'s car because we cant smoke in mine and Jimmy was in his mom's car, rock-paper-scissoring for shotgun, picking up a 30 pack of PBR and three packs of cigs, we were well on our way to one of the most epic nights I've ever had. And trust me, I hate the word epic, but there is no better way to describe it.
8:30 PM- 5:00 AM
 |
| The Refuge |
- Listening to and belting out all old school rap that we knew every word to
- Taking three videos of us shot gunning beers. We got really good at propping the phone up on the front of J.H.'s car with the headlights on us.
- Drinking from some magical spring water that came out of a PVC pipe. It is here that we took two more videos: one of Jimmy reading the history of the miracle spring water in his best impression of an 1800's voice and one of Jimmy lip synching to Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You
- Stopping in the middle of the road countless times to pee
- Having heart to hearts about things that happened in college and things that have happened post college and telling each other how much we love each other and that we will always keep in touch and be friends and we each other's kids aunts and uncles
- Randomly stopping and having dance parties in the road or by lakes
- Taking ridiculous snap chats that won't send due to the lack of cell phone reception
- Ending up in Louisville, changing drivers, and heading back to Starkville
- Cheers-ing to being 25 and 26
At this point, we have exhausted our 30 pack of PBR's, but we remember that Jimmy had brought along a pint of Canadian Mist. We swing by McDonalds, grab three sprites, and stupidly pull into a parking spot to mix our drinks. But then, I have an amazing idea! Why don't we go wake up my mom! Of course! Why hadn't we thought of this earlier? She would love to see us at 5:00 am on a Monday morning after we had been drinking for 10+ hours. I quickly give her a wake up call to find out where she is....
5:30 AM
Well, we make it to the President's Guest House in front of Eckie's Pond on campus. We wake up my mom, she's running around with no pants on which is very, very normal of her, open a bottle of wine, Jimmy plays every song he knows on the piano, J.H. and I swing dance as my mother laughs at us and can't believe how we are acting in our mid-twenties, we accidentally lock ourselves all out of the house while smoking cigs and watching the sun come up over Eckie's Pond, and we credit card the door since that is our most essential skill from college.
7:00 AM
"My head spins every time I try to lay down." Text I send to Jimmy from the other room.
7:30 AM
I pass out. Jimmy and J.H. head home.
12:30 PM
I am woken up by a conversation between my mother and a friend about finding the missing plane in the Indian Ocean and how Jimmy was acting like Liberati on the piano.
So, basically, my mother is super proud of my behavior at the age of 26 and my friends are better than yours.
XOXO,
Merekat
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