A 66¢ Toothbrush, and THE GIANT KEY!

Mar 27, 2004 · 5 minute read

Thursday night then. Pizza and Friends with Leigh, Joe, and Laura. Plus lots of sweets and chocolate and crisps (including the Crisp of Champions, Pickled Onion Monster Munch. Unfortunately, Leigh and Laura were not impressed. Joe, on the other hand, wants me to set up an import business so he can have a steady supply). Then Stacie came by, and her, myself and Laura went off to Durham so meet up with Stacie’s friends, Audrey and Tracey.

It was the first time I'd ever been on the Duke campus; I didn't really mean to have the UNC t-shirt on, it just happened that way. Laura informs me that it was lucky that I had my shirt buttoned up, or there could have been trouble.

Anyway, we met up with Stacie's friends, and headed off into downtown Durham to go to a bar. But wait! First, we had to go to the Center (just this once) for Documentary Studies, as Laura is applying for a position there over the summer. And the deadline was Friday morning, so it had to be delivered that night.

Unfortunately, we didn't know exactly where that was. Tracey did her best to give us directions, but we disappeared down many dark alleys and eventually had to resort to calling one of Tracey's friends and getting directions from them. Interesting conversations in the car, including finding out what a British accent is good for in America via a funny slip of the tongue.

After we had dropped off Laura's application, we went off to the bar, and stayed there for a couple of hours (a bit beyond Stacie's initial estimate of half-an-hour so she could get back and finish her paper). The tripping and pushing that occurred on the way in should have been a sign of things to come, but no-one pays attention to these warning signs until it's too late. We left around midnight.

Then Laura jumped on the bonnet.

Admittedly, the car wasn't moving at the time. That time at least.

So, we were going home. Until Laura remembered that I hadn't been to a Waffle House yet. And that the best time to go to a Waffle House was late at night. Stacie phoned Srav, who wanted to come. Srav also wanted to bring somebody else, and went off to find him. We drove around Chapel Hill until we heard back from her.

There's a Scottish castle in Chapel Hill. Not exactly sure why, but I've seen it. It's a castle, and it's made of imported Scottish stone. We may have been squinting our eyes to create interesting patterns on our retinas at this point as well. The sad thing is, none of us were drunk…

I remembered the House With The Giant Key. We went off in search, driving around dimly-lit country roads, looking like we were casing the area. As we went further and further, the lights became fewer and fewer, until we were driving around in darkness.

As we turned a corner, Stacie mentioned to Laura that this looked like a creepy street, and Laura agreed. And then, from the back of the car:

"THERE'S THE KEY!"

I didn't mean to shout quite so hard; I was just pleased to find it. I scared the life out of Stacie and Laura 8-)., and we spent five minutes outside the house just cracking up.

We picked up Srav, and after some more bonnet action (this time with movement), we took her to see the Giant Key. She was impressed. Well, okay, to be more truthful, she was scared for her life, as the three of us were still acting particularly nutty (traffic lights are really cool for that sort of thing. Especially LCD ones). And then! The Waffle House!

Waffles are like pancakes, but they have dents in them. They taste good with maple syrup, as you'd might expect. Waffle House jukeboxes have special Waffle-themed songs, several of which we played, to the consternation of the rest of the people in the restaurant. We laughed at the strange personal ads in the alternative newspaper, and were warned to drive home safely by our waitress, who was convinced that we had been using substances of some sort before coming in (lies!).

It was now about 3:28am. We know this because Laura called Collin, waking him up, to tell him about the Giant Key. And insisting she was sober. We went back to Chapel Hill, but Kavi was asleep (as you'd might expect, really), and at the time, I didn't have a key to the apartment. Oh dear. Laura let me sleep on her surprisingly comfortable couch (it was probably comfortable last night as well, but I don't remember, to be honest).

The next morning - new problems! Still nobody answering at Kavi's apartment. So I couldn't change my clothes. Or have a shower. Or brush my teeth. It was a bit of a disaster. Laura dropped me off in Carrboro on her way into college, and I bought a travel-sized portion of toothpaste along with a toothbrush, and brushed my teeth in the Carr Mill toilets. Oh yes.

There is more to Friday. But really, I need to find out more details before I go on. My memory is sadly faulty in certain areas…