Clearwater Excursions. (1304 Memoir)

In life, I think when things don't go as planned, it creates the most grand opportunity for something awesome to take place. In February of 2009, I was introduced to 5 of the most awesome people to ever come into my life. I'm going to start with my roommate first, Ross was from Dallas, hated the Cowboys, and kept me updated with the music. It was pretty funny finding out Ross was going to be my roommate because while we were in line for our background checks, he was the loudest most sociable fucker in the room! I mean he spoke to every person who looked at him! Luckily, me and him got along just fine throughout The Program. Oh the program I am speaking of is the Disney College Program...probably one of those few blessings in my life that I was not expecting by any means. Then their was the cocky and too cool Galwyn or Galweezy as I called him. Galwyn was a running back from Kentucky who actually played REAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL (Western Kentucky University)...none of that semi-pro bullshit. Then you had Damon, from Pittsburgh, who made you laugh every time he opened up his mouth or gave his point of view simply because of the way he would say shit. I came into the program with those three guys, on that rainy February day in Orlando, FL. Once we got to the apartment we were all assigned to, we walk in the apartment and see this white dude sitting at the dining room table with headphones on and sweater vest singing Anthony Hamilton sounding like a Black dude. I was a bit weirded out and amazed at the same time because he sang those Anthony Hamilton songs damn near perfect! His name was Jim, he was Chicago...and he could be a bit of a shopaholic at times, and hot head as well. Jim got up from the dining room table, went in his room, and announced "hey! They're here man!" and through the doorway comes another white dude wearing swim trunks with the look of exhaustion and misery on his face.(I emphasize "white dude" because this was my first time living away from home, and my very first time rooming with people of a different color, it was new to me." This was Ryan, he was from Upstate New York and there was never a dull moment with this guy. A simple trip to the grocery store or outlet mall was damn near an X-Games event; dude was too fucking cool and new EVERYBODY! And of course you have me, the guy who hopped of the plane still intoxicated from the previous weekends "going away party" festivities. His name was Foster, and he was always on joke time. Together we were simply 1304...which is, if you haven't guessed by now, or are too fucking slow...our apartment number (Tattoo pending). We were pretty much like brothers, in a dysfunctional sense...we were all from different upbringings, different social environments, and very very different as far as personalities go, but we made it work somehow and ended up making it through 6 months of craziness without killing each other. Now Jim, Galwyn, and I were basically thick as thieves (we called ourselves "The Rat Pack" I was Dean Martin, Galwyn was Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim was Frank Sinatra), anything we did was usually done together. Ross & Damon would usually join but their work schedules were either too busy or they just had other shit to do, or they just did not want to hang with us. There were sometimes we had little disagreements that turned to very tense and huge arguments, but that was bound to happen when you group six of the most insane people together for six months. I remember one day, Galwyn and Jim came to me with the idea for us to go to Clearwater Beach for a day and just see the sites and get away from Disney for a bit. When I say the Disney life can be a bit overwhelming I am not understating it, seeing that damn mouse some days can be nerve-wrecking. The Orlando/Kissimmee area is just FLOODED with Disney paraphernalia everywhere you go! I was on-board with the whole notion of getting away for at least a day, it was just which day which was the issue. I was only off on Tuesdays for class, and Wednesdays just because that is how my schedule was built. It was a Thursday night, and I was just getting back to 1304, I was miserable and tired as hell! Jim, Galwyn, and Ryan damn near attacked me as soon as I got in the door and insisted that we hit the road that night and head to Clearwater, get a room, stay a night, and hang out the whole day. I was not going for it at all...I had to work the next day and I did not want to call out AGAIN! I had called out at least once or twice every month just because Jim & Galwyn were always up to something awesome while I was working. But peer pressure is a motherfucker!...Especially when it came from Jim, Galwyn, and myself, we are so awesome at convincing people to go against their will. Oh I have countless stories and examples that I will save for another post. I ran in my room and grabbed shit that I thought I need for the trip, I have always been a person that OVER PACKS for small trips...I ended up packing a duffel bag with like five different outfits and 3 pairs of shoes. I walked out of the room with this big ass bag full of shit and got clowned immediately! I went back and just packed a book bag of shit instead. We got in the truck (her name was Jenny...Forrest Gump inspired...that was our movie!) and thought of how the hell all of us were going to fit in the truck. It was Chevy Blazer...and literally..the cool thing about it was that it had no back windshield over the trunk. Jenny was the most reliable piece of anything we had at 1304, Galwyn was to awesome for giving us rides in that damn truck. Anywhere we needed to go, he took us, and hardly asked for gas money. Jenny had her maintenance issues at times but shit she was a soldier and lasted all 6 months we were down there nonetheless. We had to go to another apartment complex to pick up Galwyn's co-workers and Jim, Ryan, and my newly acquired friends Egypt and Kayla from Vista Way. Down at Disney if you lived at Vista Way, you were almost guaranteed a party at least once or twice a week. Vista way had actually been listed in Playboy Magazine as being one of the easiest places to get laid in America. Egypt was Brooklyn born but lived in South Carolina and was spoiled rotten! Kayla was from Wisconsin and loved her steaks rare...which I always found strange as hell, we always went back and forth on the issue. We all packed up inside of that truck and headed right across the street to the gas station. Luckily the gas station had a 7-Eleven attached to it. So I decided to get my ass up and go get some food. Jim looked at me like I was crazy because I was going to mess up how everyone had gotten comfortable. It was obvious that me and Jim were being assholes towards each other and we were both irritable at the time. I went in 7-Eleven, came back pissed off because that sorry ass 7-Eleven didn't have shit that I wanted to eat! I got in the truck and went the hell to sleep with my iPod playing! Ryan was laying in the bed of the trunk surrounded by our bags n stuff, which was totally illegal...but hey that is how 1304 gets down! About two or three hours later, I wake up and see Galwyn, Jim, and Ryan standing outside of the truck looking confused and frustrated as hell...I also see flashing lights...and my first thought was "oh shit! we got pulled over because Ryan was in the trunk!" All of a sudden I see Galwyn drop some sort of tool from his hand and walk away frustrated. I got out to see what's going on, and then Jim tells me that the tire had come loose while they were driving, he said that the truck had started to rattle while we were making our way down the highway. It turns out, that the tire was only hanging on by ONE lug nut and was close to falling off while we were driving. I do not even want to begin to think about what could have happened if that last little lug nut would have come off, but thank God that it didn't. Being 1304, we made comedy of the situation and took a shitload of pictures and did crazy shit while we were alongside the shoulder. I remember Ryan actually decided to change his pants while we were on the shoulder. We waited for the AAA people to show up with the tow truck, before they showed up Jim & I ran across this 8 lane highway to go ask the night time construction crew if they were willing to help us or lend us some tools. They gave us some tools, but they didn't work. They came over to help us once they were done laying the pavement, and that didn't help either. We were pretty much fucked until AAA got there. When the AAA guy got there, it did not help us knowing that only two people could ride with the guy to the nearest mechanic, but we had two-hundred twenty-five miles for spare. Luckily there was a mechanic about a quarter-mile behind us. We told Egypt and Kayla to ride in the tow-truck (because that is what gentlemen do) and we would meet them there since it was only a short walk. We crossed the highway again, and walked up this steep ass hill, then we started walking through this creepy ass neighborhood that was reminiscent of old slave land where they traditionally lynched people, I'm just saying...the Confederate flags hanging in the windows of some of the homes were pretty convincing and creepy. Ryan decided to scare us shitless by secretly picking up a small rock and heaving it at a stop sign making all of us run like we had never run before. Galwyn was carrying the GPS so we knew where we were going exactly. We reached our destination, and it was nothing like we expected. Th mechanic was self-employed, so his work was done out of his home...and he did not open for another 3 whole hours. I don't know what it was, but waiting in that damn neighborhood until sunrise did not seem possible for my peace of mind. We talked it over with the girls and asked if they felt comfortable staying there...they sad "HELL NO!" to that notion. So we talked to the tow-truck driver and told him we wanted to go to Meineke to get the shit fixed...he told us the closest one was 8 miles away. We told him that we did not mind the walk at all, this was definitely desperation talking. He told us that it was going to be a LONG 8 MILES of walking. The tow-truck driver scratched his head, took a deep breath, and said "I'm not suppose to do this, but I wanna help you guys out. I'll tell ya what...get in the Blazer, keep your heads down, and I'll take you guys to Tampa to the Meineke."

We all looked at each other like we were little kids who finally made the height to ride the big kid roller coasters. Me, Jim, Galwyn, and Ryan hopped in that damn truck, ducked our heads and made our way to Tampa Bay to get the car fixed. It was the most bumpy ride ever! But it was an awesome experience. We were riding in a truck that was on a tow-truck! How many people do you know that can say they have done that?! We got to Meineke, dropped the truck off in the parking lot, and went across the street to one of the most cool looking McDonald's I had ever been too. We ate, we laughed and joked about what we had just been through, and took small naps inside of this McDonald's. When we woke up, we went to Meineke, played jokes on whoever fell asleep, got new Lug Nuts, and headed to Clearwater Beach where there were dolphins in the water and pelicans scooping up their food out of the water a few feet from where we were swimming. I had never had an experience like this in my life. After we were done at the beach, we went to a restaurant that caught all of our attention since it was based on our favorite movie at the time FORREST GUMP the restaurant was BubbaGump Shrimp Co. I felt so bad for Ryan and Kayla..their skin was damn near as red as the sauce they served with the shrimp. Jim was beginning to feel the burn as well, but not as bad as Kayla and Ryan were. Egypt and Galwyn were even beginning to feel their skin itch and I found this incredibly weird because I had never know of any brown-skinned or dark-skinned people to get sun burns. But, I guess there is a first time for everything as they say.The ride back to Orlando seemed like it took an eternity because everyone was so uncomfortable being sun burnt and all. I think I was the only one who wasn't really feeling anything. My skin felt dry, but not really burnt. We got home finally around, two in the morning and we were exhausted...Ross & Damon were in their rooms sleep. Jim and Ryan went to their rooms walking slowly as possible to prevent their skin from burning, and Galwyn passed out in his bed. I was on the couch watching TV and talking on the phone when I heard Jim & Ryan calling for me asking me to run to Walgreen's to buy them some day Aloe for their skin...they said I could buy whatever the hell I wanted out of the twenty dollars they had given me, as long as I made the trip for them...I went and got myself an Arizona out of the deal. I came back and Jim, Galwyn, and Ryan treated that Aloe like it was crack for the skin! The next couple of days we told this story like were were warriors of some sort who had just made an amazing voyage...to this day...this story is still one we love to tell to people around us and each other as well.