The tremendous discussion about late-night West Lafayette food got me thinking about one of my favorite late-night dining stories during my four years in God's country. A few of our regular visitors will remember this one; and one of those visitors was there to enjoy it with me. Here's the stage:
It was around 11:00 pm, during finals week, second semester in I believe 1995. My college room-mate and I had been studying and wanted to take a break. The two of us, along with a guy from the third floor (we lived on the fourth at Cary) decided to go make a fountain run. Back then, the fountain had no stainless steel tube running vertically up the middle. This allowed for people to sprint across the man-made geyser or be held by their hands and feet and the water would lift them up as it hit them in the back.
We'd run through it at a full-speed sprint despite the fact that you couldn't see through the two-foot wide cylinder of water. I'm 5'4" and at that time weighed around 120 lbs. My two buddies aren't little and one of them probably was around 250 at the time. On the last run of the night, I put my head down and hit the wall of water, only this time, the water pushed back (or so I thought) and I hit it like a brick wall. I got knocked down to the grate underneath and gathered myself to see what I had actually hit.
It was my buddy, still standing...but bleeding profusely from right around his eye. The top of my head had hit him in the face, and both of us had been running full speed and had no idea the other was coming from the other direction. He needed stitches.
So, we went through the fun game of finding a car to drive to the hospital since none of us owned transportation at the time. We found a car, headed to the emergency room. Later, like two proud parents-to-be, BWA and I waited nervously for our wounded friend to come out of the ER. He finally did...and then we did what we thought was best for all of our collective health: headed to Chauncey for Taco Bell.
Not much else was open that sounded good. And I believe it was around 2:30 am. So we all ordered and sat down. The next booth over, Todd Foster, the guy who IU fans remember for dancing on the "IU" in center court, was enjoying his drunken snack. Todd was wearing a camo trucker's cap (long before those were in style, mind you) that read "Foster's Towing" (we presumed his Dad's business). Our buddy was black and blue and had around 20 black nylon threads above his eye, but he was probably in better shape than Foster. Despite #20's state, he was in good enough shape to talk about what had transpired that evening and offered his condolences to our battered friend...We all went on to get straight A's on our finals the next day.
Tourney Notes
In my imaginary world, Purdue beat WVU last night in convincing fashion and is getting ready for Saturday nights big Elite 8 match-up. Also, Grant and Kramer have been miraculously heeled and Johnson put on 10 lbs. of muscle during the week off...Go Boilers!
How in the Sam Hell does UCLA get two first round-like games? The tournament committee really screwed this year's bracket up. Think about it- You've got a #12 seed still alive (as of last night) from a small conference and no one cares or notices. Why? Because they had played no one to get there- #5 seed Drake and then San Diego. Despite the third round mismatch, UCLA nearly let WKU beat them in the Bruins second scare in two games for this talented, yet motivationally-challenged ball club. Maybe my national champ pick isn't so sound...
Lastly, while it will hurt my bracket, I'm rooting heavily for MSU to beat Memphis tonight. I am not a fan Calipari and have never been a believer in the Tigers this season...Get 'em Sparty!