One final Dad's Weekend

Wow....11 days since my last post. I have only one thing to say about that....Dad's Weekend. The annual fathers visit down to campus with my son. The fourth and final Dad's Weekend for me and all I can say is....thank-you Andrew for graduating in four years, I can't take another weekend like this.

Leading up to the weekend Aimee was laying down the law. I was to NOT get sick while on campus. Not sick as in drink 12 beers, take 6 shots, have a Wendy's Happy Meal come back out the same way it went in......I know too much information.

I'm talking sick as in come back with a stuffed up head, hacking cough, let's see if it can turn into bronchitus...sick.

Each weekend I would come home and be sick for about a week. Something about drinking, talking loudly and cold weather does this to me. I was 3 - 3 leading into the '09 version. I was warned.

But it's his senior year. I couldn't pass up the last weekend.. And my brother wanted to go down as well. This was going to be a fun trip.

Rob and I drove down on Saturday under clear and cold skies. We agreed that one evening was enough for the two of us. We enjoyed leaving the snow behind, but the cold temperatures stuck with us. We never saw the thermometer rise above 30 degrees.

Once on campus we settled in at Andrew's house and introduced his 4 housemates to Rob. I had already met most of them before. Two other dad's were visiting as well so we have a pretty full house. We went uptown for a couple of drink and conversation before heading to dinner. We needed a good food base before the main activities of the evening.

After dinner we dropped off the car and let the guys decide where we would be heading for the night. Bars? House Parties? Always a large selection around campus. So first off we hit a house party hosted by two of Andrew's housemates from last year. Loud music and beer pong was on tap. For the dad's this usually means we stand around with a beer in our hands while we watch the festivities. A couple of "guests" were ejected, quite enthusiastically, after proving they couldn't hold their beer. I don't think the one felt the send off, but I'm sure he was sore the next morning.

From there we joined some female friends at one of the bars uptown. We watched the end of the Cavs game and played some of the video bar games. After a final drink we started to make our way down the street to another bar.

We wandered around a bit looking for a place that wasn't too crowded. This is when we noticed that we had our beer blankets on. You know...that warm feeling you get from drinking. That is when you let your guard down to the cold outside. We finally made our way to Courtside for our last round of drinks.

We actually found a table to sit at and enjoy the last of the evening before heading back to the house. As we made our way back to the house Andrew ordered some pizza, I was hungry. At 3AM the pizza arrived and I managed to get something in my stomach before finally going to bed. After 6.5 hours of sleep I was up for the day. We got our stuff together, had something to eat and finally headed back home. Most of the guys in the house were pretty lethargic and we had things to do.

My brother and I had a great time during our 24 hour road trip. I have to thank Andrew, Matt, Mike, Yutz, Whitney, Mallory and Shelly for a great evening. We had a great time.

So what was the outcome of the weekend. I'm sick. 4 -4 baby. Perfect record if I can be proud of that. It has made for a somewhat miserable week. Hopefully it won't become anything serious. I think I'm getting better. This "forced" downtime from training will hopefully fuel me up for the next few months.

But you know what? I wouldn't trade it for anything. The time spent with my brother, my son and his friends is priceless.