Nick Hwang

This past weekend was about the craziest days I’ve had in a long time.

College Regionals was in Tulsa, Oklahoma this weekend. Half the team was driving in a van; the other half had bought separate plane tickets. 2 left in the morning, I had a flight at 3:15pm, another at 4:50, and a group of 7 was supposed to leave at 5:30 - all of them stopping in Dallas before heading to Tulsa.

Friday
I arrived at Baton Rouge Regional Airport around 2:30pm, checked in, and decided to shut my eyes until it was time to board. When I awoke, my flight was delayed because of storms and tornadoes in Texas for an hour.

The group of 7 that had their flights to Dallas were cancelled. They would have to drive to Tulsa to make it in time for Regionals. Alex and I were the only 2 of the original ‘flyers’ with active flights. Because of the delays on the weather, both our planes were going to depart at the same time. Right before we got on board, we found out our connecting flight from Dallas to Tulsa was cancelled. After some thought, we decided we would rent a car and drive from Dallas to Tulsa- a 5 hour drive.

**Additional hours spent: 3

After we arrived at Dallas, we wanted to make sure our return flights would still be good since we lost our Tulsa-to-Dallas flight. I found out I had accidentally booked my return flight for May 29, instead of May 1. The internet booking interface automatically switches months, if you depart the last days on the month. I hadn’t noticed and clicked the first Monday after what I assumed was the 28th of ‘April’. To make the day correction, it would cost $327. Instead, I booked a new one-way flight back to Baton Rouge for $180.

**Additional money spent: $180

After getting my new ticket booked, Alex (Tubgirl) and I went to rent a car. Both of us are under 25, so there would be an extra charge per day. A one-way rental is pretty much double a regular rental. Originally, we thought we would rent to car from Friday to Sunday (3 days)- $530. But then realized we should just rent it until we got into Tulsa and ride in the Van, rented mini van, or 3rd car (which the 1st group in Tulsa had rented) - $180.

**Hours +2 (5 total)
**Money + $180 ($360 total)

Luckily there was a Rand McNally kiosk in the rental center that gave us not-so descriptive directions to our hotel. We took the wrong turn about 3 times. Alex and I got some food at Wendy’s. The drive was awful. The storm that was the reason for our disaster was still slowing us down. It poured the entire time I drove. The rain just sat on the roads and as I drove by, 18-wheelers would throw so much in the air, it basically blinded me for the 3-4 seconds it took to pass them.

**Hours +5.5 (11.5 total)
** + $8 ($368 total)

Saturday
After our games, we went back to the airport to return the car.

** + $30 ($398 total)

We proposed a credit card roulette for dinner, but no one agreed.

** + $17 ($415 total)

Sunday
All the original flyers got their flights straightened out and arranged to fly back. The drivers started back to Baton Rouge right after the tournament. We went to Pancho’s Mexican Buffet after the tournament.
At Pancho’s, we played credit card roulette, where the losing credit card (the last one in the hat) pays for everyone else. Luckily, I wasn’t last.

** ($415 total)

On the way back to the hotel, which was right next to Tulsa Airport, we saw people standing outside, while an older man and young woman brawled on the front lawn. It was almost out of COPS- random people brawling outside. Tulsa was a weird city.

The hotel was pretty far from the rest of the town we turned in all of our rented cars. When dinner rolled around, we went to the airport looking for food, but nothing was open. We ended up eating at the bar in the hotel and played poker for shot at sleeping on a bed.

The entire time after the tournament, we had 10 people to fit into a minivan with 7 seats. Every time we left the van and came back, we had to roshambo for seats, laps, and sides, which took about 20 minutes every time.

** +$12 ($427 total)

Monday
We went to bed at 3am, after playing poker for bed spots. I got up at 5:30 to go to the airport. The rest of the trip went smoothly.

** +$5 ($429 total)

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My flight home at the start of Winterbreak from Baton Rouge had just enough passengers for each to have their own row. Now, both flights on the way back, Tampa to Atlanta, Atlanta to Baton Rouge have been packed. I didn’t have much breakfast so I’ve been pounding the airline peanuts and a couple packs of trailmix. Maybe if Delta offered candy bars or Steak dinners, they could pull themselves out of bankruptcy.

The break has been good for me. I almost had too much free time. Unlike most of my friends who only had about half my break, I spent an entire month off. It was long enough for me to consider taking a semester off sometime in the future, reconsider, and consider again. Since graduating high school in 2000, I’ve only taken 2 summers off and have otherwise taken class.

This past week I went back to Gainesville to visit friends and hang out with some old Ultimate buddies. The ultimate Frisbee community in Baton Rouge is completely lacking, with the majority of players being in college, and still yet, they are only 18 serious college guys. My old team, UFUCT hosted their annual tournament, Florida Winter Classic. LSU brought 10 guys, which is an abysmally low number, consider most college teams have 20+, and you need seven on the field at once. Substituting was horrific. We pretty much ran ourselves to death. And we lost all the games we should have won, always leading in the beginning.

I spent a lot of time with Tiffany- a tenant in my parent’s condo, sister of a friend from UF. We spent a lot of time talking and getting to know each other, but in the last couple days, several things (which I won’t get into) happened, causing me to question 1. my self-proclaimed ‘great judge of character’, 2. my ideals in datable females, 3. whether to trust any female for the rest of my life. Now all of a sudden, it seems like I’m supposed to act like last week was last year. At any rate, I’m returning to Baton Rouge with the same rule of ‘not getting attached to anything in Baton Rouge that would change any decisions on getting a Ph. D’ renewed.

I did not get to spend as much time with my friends as I had planned. We did get to dance our freaking faces off at UC on Monday. And that’s about it. Every other plan fell apart. I had lunch and dinner with quite a few people though. Stog, Xuan, Tiffany, Heather, Minkoff. April and I saw Brokeback Mountain, which is good sad movie. Jake Gylenhall on Leno, said it’s more about what they don’t say.

Tomorrow is the first day of class. And I have yet to get books or materials. I haven’t paid my power bill this month, and I’m hoping it’ll be one when I get back.

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