In an attempt to relieve our boredness and find something to do in a college campus on a Friday night that did not involve either partying or drinking, Shawn, Matthews, and I found ourselves off into a little adventure off-campus. Off in Shawn's Mobile, the Sebring, we were on I-26 for the 15-minute drive to what is known to Lexington County-ers as the bustling retail center of Columbia--Harbison Boulevard. Pretty much everything from the Columbiana Center (an 800,000-sq. ft. mall) to stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Old Navy, Best Buy, A.C. Moore, and such can be found in this area along with restaurants like Monterrey's, Olive Garden, Chili's, and Bonefish Grill (where Shawn took me last week for our first official "dinner date" ever! Ki-yoot!)
For the night's little trip, we landed ourselves at good ol' Barnes and Nobles and the ever-faithful-and-always-loyal-that-it-never-lets-me-down WAL-MART!
See, Barnes and Nobles is pretty much Matthew's haven next to an actual library. The man is inspiring when it comes to his passion for reading. He puts all of us to shame when he flashes through a thick book (and remembers pretty much all the details of the story and not just the plot), while we struggle through a single E.B. White essay. He reads The State, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and such daily. I, on the other hand, struggle through actually reading the entire Daily Gamecock. So, anyways, Barnes and Nobles it was, and the three of us roamed around the place for an hour and a half or so. Matthews was pretty much in his own world and strolled about for the perfect book purchase--he never leaves any bookstore he steps into empty-handed. Shawn went through his typical fave topic aisles and then found himself staring off into the ginormously thick CPA Exam Prep books--talk about a very daunting idea to think about on a Friday night. As for me, I picked up some random book, and well was zoned out the entire time in it. I loooove B&N because you can just sit there all day long, if you wish, and just read. I used to feel bad about this because in any bookstore back home in the Philippines, you simply touch a magazine or a newspaper and browse through it, it better mean that you are buying it! Signs that read, "You flip through it, you pay for it," were usually found staring you in the face at every aisle, but not at B&N. The complementary Starbucks is also there for everyone's pleasure, and I didn't skimp on that either--a grande caramel macchiato. I figured I wasn't exactly purchasing the book, but I still had to somehow compensate for the pleasure I got out of reading it so why not buy into the corporate world of coffee, which I know somehow its profits are to benefit B&N down the line. It was a pretty nice time until the boys found a little pocketsize book of good ol' Kama Sutra that sent us all laughing out the door. Seriously, who reads those books? (Disclaimer: None of us actually did any reading of the book. Curiosity got the best of the boys, and a peek at the first page practically had us going that there was no need to go through the rest of it!)
As for Wal-Mart, there was no real agenda or shopping list to check off. We really just needed something to do to kill time. From one aisle to the next, the three of us looked at gadgets, pressed little thumbs to activate toys, opened musical greeting cards, and well...found me some basketball shorts from the little boys' section. At the end of our roaming about, each of us had something in tow, but lines were so ridiculously long and the patience of the boys were just not there...so it was just me who stood in line to pay for my size L, red, BOYS' shorts! You would think that since I only had one thing in my hand that some of the people in front of me who had 20 billion things in their carts would let me get in front of them...but of course, who am I kidding? The boys simply waited for me in the little arcade where, as I was told, the air hockey puck was chewed off. Talk about sketchy! Anyways, when I finally made it out of the line...back to the Sebring it was.
Then, Matthews was PRETTY RAVENOUS, and a little side trip to Wendy's was much needed. A disappointing "Biggie Size" didn't quite satisfy him, but we did finally make it back to Maxcy where we capped off the long night with an hour and a half nap, which has now left me up...at 3AM...by myself...in the dark! Nothing like a well-spent Friday night with great friends on a random trip to anywhere and nowhere.
So, here's to yet another Friday night...looking forward to the rest of this weekend. World Night is here tomorrow night, and I am performing with the Fil-Am Student Association. If for some chance you are in town near campus, come check the night's program out. There will be lots of international food, dances, fashion shows, and such, and it's only $5 for USC students and $6 for others. I've heard lots of great raves from past shows...so I'm sure tonight will be just as great if not better!
Well, guys, I'm going to try and force myself some shut-eye for I know tomorrow will be a pretty long day...I'll catch y'all later on the flipside, future Gamecocks!
