ever have one of those nights?
traditions amongst my friends are many and deep.
last night i set out to partake in one of said traditions taking advantage of the fact that i was in kansas city. my freshman year in college, i joined up with a group of guys who would meet every sunday night at a local bar and grill to enjoy "nickle wings." this carried on for the entirety of my college career and despite the fact that half of us found better wings at another place and splintered off, it remained a center piece for my circle of friends in lawrence.
after college, we went our separate ways. but, a few of us still managed to get together occasionally at a new place in k.c. the wings are now a quarter each, but we get our money's worth by playing lots of ntn trivia. the absolute best circumstances existed when wings night coincided with a particular sports event. baseball and football games aside, it was never more fun than when during a college basketball game; particularly a KANSAS basketball game. i've watched my share of regular season and march madness games at one or another of these establishments over the past several years. and last night was going to be one of those nights. ku was playing st. joseph's AND it happen to be wings night AND i happen to be in k.c. the stars were aligning.
after spending the entire day making 25 copies of a 17 minute video for work, one at a time, i was looking forward to sitting down to an hour and a half of trivia followed by the ku/st. joe's game at 9pm. it was going to be a great night.
i called everyone i could think of to join my friend dave and i. so far, we were the only ones. i arrived a little before dave and got our table and our "playmakers." dave showed and we promptly order the standard: 18 medium wings, side of sauce and drinks. then the trivia game began. we talked about who was coming and we quickly realized that no one else was.
"i couldn't get a hold of jason." i said.
dave replied, "he has a new cell phone number. here, i'll give it to you"
what we realized later was that the simple act of opening up his cell phone to get me the new number changed the course of our evening. he called jason to confirm it was indeed his new number, and our wings arrived. i started in on them while he talked to our friend. then i heard dave have the following conversation:
"i gotta go, i have another call. hello? yeah. in kansas city, why? really? are you serious? for free?! uh, sure."
with a piping hot wing hanging from my mouth, i knew exactly what had just happened.
"just my buddy and me." dave continued. he looked at me. "what time is it?"
to myself, i thought, "time to eat the heck out of these wings and get outta here."
the correct answer was 7:40pm. an hour and 20 minutes 'til tip-off. we had just scored free tickets to the ku game.
five minutes later, we had polished off all but four of the wings and were paying the check. despite the curses from our waitress, and the fact that i had correctly answered the first 5 trivia questions...we logged out and jumped in our cars.
during the 25 or so mile trek west to lawrence, i don't remember much. a lot of channel surfing finally landed me on a special live release party for the new u2 album. i listened to all of the new tracks and commentary from this amazing band, and almost forgot where i was going.
5 or 6 songs later, i was in lawrence. we parked and walked. even though it was raining and 38 degrees, there was no pain. i was going back to allen fieldhouse for the first time in 3 years. we walked in just in time for the alma matter and "rock chalk" chant. the players were introduced and, in front of 16,000 screaming fans, the jayhawks proceeded to thump the hawks 91-51. it was great. not necessarily a nail-biter, but great.
during the game, the rain turned to snow. we walked back toward our cars up daisy hill, past ellsworth hall, the dorm i lived in my freshman year. suddenly, i felt as though i was headed back to the room to celebrate with friends until early in the morning. i felt like i was back in college, a place that is very, very special to me. nothing could ruin this nostalgic moment for me. not the fact that i was wearing clogs and my socks were wet. not the fact that i was more than likely not making it back to k.c. that night. not even the infamous "daisy clipper" that pelted us in the face as we crested the hill between the dorms. no, in fact, nothing could ruin this night.
so we decided that i was staying at dave's. and we ran by dillons and picked up some blue belle ice cream and sat in his hot tub as the snow continued to fall
dave later realized that his phone was on vibrate and neither of us would have heard it ring in his coat at the bar. so, thanks to my friend, jason, for changing his phone number and granting me an amazing night.
last night i set out to partake in one of said traditions taking advantage of the fact that i was in kansas city. my freshman year in college, i joined up with a group of guys who would meet every sunday night at a local bar and grill to enjoy "nickle wings." this carried on for the entirety of my college career and despite the fact that half of us found better wings at another place and splintered off, it remained a center piece for my circle of friends in lawrence.
after college, we went our separate ways. but, a few of us still managed to get together occasionally at a new place in k.c. the wings are now a quarter each, but we get our money's worth by playing lots of ntn trivia. the absolute best circumstances existed when wings night coincided with a particular sports event. baseball and football games aside, it was never more fun than when during a college basketball game; particularly a KANSAS basketball game. i've watched my share of regular season and march madness games at one or another of these establishments over the past several years. and last night was going to be one of those nights. ku was playing st. joseph's AND it happen to be wings night AND i happen to be in k.c. the stars were aligning.
after spending the entire day making 25 copies of a 17 minute video for work, one at a time, i was looking forward to sitting down to an hour and a half of trivia followed by the ku/st. joe's game at 9pm. it was going to be a great night.
i called everyone i could think of to join my friend dave and i. so far, we were the only ones. i arrived a little before dave and got our table and our "playmakers." dave showed and we promptly order the standard: 18 medium wings, side of sauce and drinks. then the trivia game began. we talked about who was coming and we quickly realized that no one else was.
"i couldn't get a hold of jason." i said.
dave replied, "he has a new cell phone number. here, i'll give it to you"
what we realized later was that the simple act of opening up his cell phone to get me the new number changed the course of our evening. he called jason to confirm it was indeed his new number, and our wings arrived. i started in on them while he talked to our friend. then i heard dave have the following conversation:
"i gotta go, i have another call. hello? yeah. in kansas city, why? really? are you serious? for free?! uh, sure."
with a piping hot wing hanging from my mouth, i knew exactly what had just happened.
"just my buddy and me." dave continued. he looked at me. "what time is it?"
to myself, i thought, "time to eat the heck out of these wings and get outta here."
the correct answer was 7:40pm. an hour and 20 minutes 'til tip-off. we had just scored free tickets to the ku game.
five minutes later, we had polished off all but four of the wings and were paying the check. despite the curses from our waitress, and the fact that i had correctly answered the first 5 trivia questions...we logged out and jumped in our cars.
during the 25 or so mile trek west to lawrence, i don't remember much. a lot of channel surfing finally landed me on a special live release party for the new u2 album. i listened to all of the new tracks and commentary from this amazing band, and almost forgot where i was going.
5 or 6 songs later, i was in lawrence. we parked and walked. even though it was raining and 38 degrees, there was no pain. i was going back to allen fieldhouse for the first time in 3 years. we walked in just in time for the alma matter and "rock chalk" chant. the players were introduced and, in front of 16,000 screaming fans, the jayhawks proceeded to thump the hawks 91-51. it was great. not necessarily a nail-biter, but great.
during the game, the rain turned to snow. we walked back toward our cars up daisy hill, past ellsworth hall, the dorm i lived in my freshman year. suddenly, i felt as though i was headed back to the room to celebrate with friends until early in the morning. i felt like i was back in college, a place that is very, very special to me. nothing could ruin this nostalgic moment for me. not the fact that i was wearing clogs and my socks were wet. not the fact that i was more than likely not making it back to k.c. that night. not even the infamous "daisy clipper" that pelted us in the face as we crested the hill between the dorms. no, in fact, nothing could ruin this night.
so we decided that i was staying at dave's. and we ran by dillons and picked up some blue belle ice cream and sat in his hot tub as the snow continued to fall
dave later realized that his phone was on vibrate and neither of us would have heard it ring in his coat at the bar. so, thanks to my friend, jason, for changing his phone number and granting me an amazing night.
posted by cade at 11:21 AM
2 Comments:
I recall many a winter braving the frigid daisy clipper, as we trudged our way to Mrs. E's for breakfast. You would eat Lucky Charms and I would eat piles of eggs and drink non-fat milk. Then we'd steal some cafe trays for sledding. Good times. Am thankful for you man.
ah...lucky charms. along with, mountain dew, cheez-its, and that one, fateful "gumby damnit" the official food of my freshman year. how did i not die?
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