Thinking about the flood, and the time period directly afterwards that was a "Golden Era" in my life, got me thinking about other Golden Eras- times in my life that I look back on very fondly for whatever reason (mostly drinking, sports, or Star Wars.) Without further ado:
April 1999- June 1999: No particular reason, sophomore year of high school was just kinda awesome. My classes were cakewalks, I had recently purchased my first car, and my biological father Chris Dudley led the New York Knicks to the NBA Finals as an 8 seed. Plus the day that Star Wars Episode I came out in theaters remains one of the top 10 most fun days of my life, and probably deserves its own post at some point. Long story short: a bunch of us ditched out of school to wait in line all day, and we ended up throwing an impromptu party on the Midco 10 front lawn. How a group of 25 sixteen-year-olds drinking, smoking, grilling burgers, and generally causing a ruckus didn't get busted is beyond me.
June 2001- September 2001: The entire year starting from here until Summer of 2002 was probably the best year of my life, but I split it into three distinct sections. This stretch was great because Ike and Jake became the first of our friends to move out and get their own apartment, so naturally we got drunk over there around 75 days in a row until we moved into the dorms. I also took my first real road trip, going out to Seattle and Portland for about a week. It was nothing short of magical. On the drive home I got my first taste of Red Bull, and subsequently drove straight from Portland all the way to Bismarck, until a large breakfast at a diner almost put me to sleep at the wheel and derailed my dream of driving the whole way by myself.
September 2001- May 2002: freshman year of college. So many shenanigans. So many girls. So many beers. So many laughs. Despite the fact that we incorporated drinking into almost every aspect of our life during this era (kickball in the quad, writing papers, night classes, morning classes on occasion- holla at me Kos) my only regret is that we didn't drink more.
May 2002- August 2002: the beginning of the Culligan Manor Era. No need to elaborate further.
October 2004: pretty simple- the Red Sox ran through the playoffs and I experienced "my" first championship, which was every bit as awesome as I imagined it growing up. It would've been a little better if they would've waited until Game 5 in St. Louis, so Dunph and I would've been in attendance, but watching them clinch in a riverboat casino in Sioux City (and subsequently learning how to play craps and losing all my ticket money, food money, merchandise money, and a couple hundo extra to boot) was pretty awesome too.
March 2005- June 2005: first, Noles, Fundy, Paul and I took a fantastic road trip to Chicago, Lousiville, and Indianapolis- which I could absolutely write a book about. You want to talk about running the gamut of emotions: The night at Howl at the Moon in L'ville (which included Schne and JV) is one of my top 5 greatest nights of my life; and yet, just three nights later, I was sleeping on a bridge in Indianapolis after KU lost to Bucknell and I had the girl I was dancing with at a club stolen away from me by none other than Ron Artest.
Besides that road trip, I took a trip to Augusta and went to The Masters with Bergman, and even though I have two disposable cameras worth of pictures, I still have to convince myself I was actually there. I don't like to throw around the term "breakthaking" very often, but it was breathtaking.
During this era, there seemed to be a fantastic run of parties, maybe because a lot of my friends were graduating (at least the ones who actually decided to graduate in four years) and people were going balls-out before they moved on. I also had an unprecedented run with gettin' some strange (earmuffs Alex) which I also attributed to the impending graduation. Knowing that you will be moving out of town in a matter of months is nature's best afrodisiac, and I took full advantage.
I also accomplished one of my lifelong dreams by drinking for 24 hours straight on Springfest, from 6 am to 6 am, with only a 19 minute nap and a few makeout sessions in between (20 minute naps were against the rules, and the guy who sat behind me in World Geography class wouldn't let me go further than 2nd base- what a tease.) The last Star Wars movie also came out, which not only gives me a warm feeling inside, but eliminates any possible cool-guy credibility that this paragraph might have given me at the beginning.
March 2008- May 2008: Obviously. I also included May, however, because of my first Kentucky Derby trip and the Las Vegas trip, which were both shitshows for the ages.
