Best. Weekend. Ever.

And such a good change of pace. Well, the only bad non-change of pace was Yale losing the game (in triple overtime no less!). Five years in a row we've lost the game. How depressing. But everything else was just stellar. A review, more for my personal records than for public intrigue:

Friday: Got into New Haven around 7 after sneaking out of the office about 90 minutes early to catch my train. I dropped my stuff off at Caleb's room then met Caleb, Lori, Alexandria, Di Franco, Matt Lewis, Marty Rod and Lauren Burke at Neat lounge. I stayed for about 15 minutes and one glass of Pinot Noir and went to the glee club concert. I immediately ran into the '05 crowd, giving massive hugs to Meredith, Reiman and Haninah. The concert was great (I hate to admit it, but the harvard glee club sounded really, really good. Then again, they're all-male: a big bonus to my ears.), and we all went back to the reception for a little while before I was scheduled to meet Caleb at Yorkside. We met up at a very crowded Yorkside (Caleb and Di Franco arrived about 20 minutes late, damn them) and headed to "player Drew's" party in his apartment. BEAUTIFUL apartment. The kind of thing that would cost you 4 grand a month in New York but is probably a quarter of that in New Haven. Good time at the party. Caleb got massively drunk. I hate to say it...but sometimes I like people better when they're drunk. Sometimes I like me better with half a glass of wine slowly filtering through my liver. Here's a sample of drunken dialogue between Caleb and Marty on the way back...Marty's trying to get Caleb to remember some girl:

Marty: Oh, you know...the hot one.
Caleb: Can you be any more specific?
Marty: The one who smoked out of an apple. The hot one.
Caleb: Anything else? Anything about the way she looks?
Marty: Man, she's the one who smoked out of an apple!
Caleb: Right, because I saw her. Because I'm so fucking in touch with the world that anytime someone smokes out of an apple...I KNOW. Because I'm Johnny Fucking Appleseed.

That was about it. Still pretty funny, though.

Saturday: Game time. Woke up around 10:30 to a very unhappy Caleb. Gave him Tylenol. We went to Copper Kitchen, possibly the best place to get breakfast in New Haven. It was crowded as all hell, but the super-efficient waitress got us our eggs and hash relatively quickly. We went to the busses by the gym, and the line pretty much went to Hartford. So we walked the two and a half miles or so to the game. The day was actually pretty nice, and we got there much faster than we would have had we taken the bus. So, good choice, Maggie and Caleb. We found the Branford tailgate and met up with Alexandria, Roxy, Lori, Brad, Haninah and Andrew Korn. After much reuniting and being squashed into small spaces, we went into the game for the beginning of the second quarter. By a couple minutes into the third, Yale was up 21-3. It looked like smooth sailing.

A bunch of us cut out just as the fourth quarter began and Harvard brought the score to 21-16. We drove in Roxy's rented car to Atticus, where I stayed for a few minutes before heading to physics Yorkside. The only one to come reasonably on time was Meredith. Yorkside was packed, and we figured the others would still be at the game, so we just went to Koffee Too and hung out there, meeting everyone else at Yorkside around 5:15. A bunch of those people went to Harry Potter, so Reiman and I hung out a bit before I departed for India Palace. They took forever to seat us and longer to serve us, and our group of 12 had to split up (shocker), but oh did that Indian food hit the spot. And the company couldn't be beat. After Indian, sake bombing (or in my case, hot sake sipping) at Miya's. Good time was had by all. Eric Seymour also joined us at that point, and it was very good to see him. I heard all about the TFAers crazy experiences, and I, of course, asked all the guys whether their kids have crushes on them.
Brad - A couple seem to.
Matt Lewis - No, they're elementary school kids, and his life's goal is to never have a student with a crush on him.
Dave - Yeah, they do. (shocker)
Eric - No, but the captain of the basketball team sometimes touches him inappropriately. ("I was going to buzz the principal's office, because this was the third time he'd come in late without a note, and I go to reach for it and he hugs me. I was like 'WTF? buzz!'")

After Miya's some people went to Rudy's and I went back with a few other people to Caleb's room. They, too, left for Rudy's, so Caleb and I just hung out and chatted, which was great as always. I gave him a backrub I owed him and he desperately needed (what a self-sacrificing girl I am, giving a backrub to an obscenely sexy man...the pictures don't show his general awesomeness). When people came back from Rudy's, they played poker, and Haninah and I chatted on Caleb's bed, as he tried not to flirt with Matt Lewis's girlfriend's friend and instead redirect her onto Brad. It worked. After a while: sleep! And it was good.

Sunday: Woke up to Caleb's alarm, showered, dressed, woke up Alexandria, packed, and went with her and Caleb to Koffee Too for breakfast. Ate with them and the others. Brad drove us to the train station, and Alexandria and I got on the 11:57 to Grand Central, while Caleb waited for his Amtrak to Virginia (where he'll be spending the vacation with Leslie, his girlfriend). Departed from Alexandria at Stanford, where I took the local to Mamaroneck and waited for 35 minutes for a cab. Ah, well. And now I'm relaxing and cursing myself for not bringing the book I have to review for Seed home with me. I wasn't sure I was going to have to review it, and now the reviews are due on Wednesday. Which means I have a book to read tomorrow. Luckily it's shortish and fun. But it's still a book. I kind of miss that kind of pressured work, though. I'm a little excited.

CLARIFICATION (11/24): On the clause "as he tried not to flirt with Matt Lewis's girlfriend's friend and instead redirect her onto Brad. It worked." This is not to imply that this girl was going after Haninah all night and instead he pushed her onto Brad. I believe she was flirting with Brad earlier in the evening at Rudy's as well as before the card game got going. While Brad was playing, she was flirting with Haninah. She was looking for love (in all the...right places?)