The Time I Went Blind

As a result of finally accepting a job where I can fully function as a normal member of society and develop a regular routine, I finally have the luxury of enjoying the weekends and holidays to myself. With this weekend being Memorial Day Weekend, it seems that a vast amount of people travel eastbound and head towards the marvelous A.O. It is quite possible that I will join this overwhelming group of people at some point during the weekend and participate in some social activities in the lovely city famously known as Ocean City. Ocean City, Maryland that is, because in my near 24 years of life, I have yet to find something lovely to ever come out of New Jersey.

If I do eventually decide to venture eastwards, it will be the first time since late last August, where I have had the opportunity to visit Ocean City, and hopefully this trip will surpass the last one. While, there was nothing I truly regret from the last trip, it was a bit lackluster, something that trips to Ocean City should never be, and also featured a rather painful and frightening moment, that I hopefully will not face again in the near future or ever, for that matter.

For most of last summer, Bo Brooks owned my life, so taking a few days off for rest and relaxation, was somewhat of an obstacle. Working 6 days a week, will do that too a person. To make matters worse, Bo Brooks also owned the life of my roommate, as he too fell victim to this 6 night a week lifestyle. Nevertheless, after some distinct finagling, Creech and I managed to have consecutive days off. With this in mind, we packed into Jacquie's car and were soon on our way and as one can quite possibly imagine, throw Creech, Jacquie, and I into a situation where we will be together for a period of over several hours, and you should pretty much assume that alcohol is within arm's reach. Add in the fact that Smedium was manning the steering wheel and this is almost as much of a sure thing as betting on the team that J expects to lose. I don't exactly remember what kind of adult beverages were in the car, but lets just say the four of us never went thirsty, Kayta was with us as well.

After several hours of driving, we found ourselves at the home of some kid who found means of employment by dressing up in pirate's outfits and enjoyed taking shot after shot of cheap Kentucky bourbon. There was also an ugly little dog in the house, that resembled a rat. After several rounds of the cheap Kentucky bourbon, we were all on our way to a fine establishment whose sole source of income relies on serving their patrons alcohol. Shortly upon my arrival to this fine establishment, I was having quite a splendid time, Creech approached me and said we were leaving to go to a party. Supposedly, he ran into these two skeezers from high school and they lived right down the street and had a couple kegs. I liked the idea, so I decided to part ways with this establishment, and hop a cab. However, when the cab reached it's final destination, we also stopped at a 7-11 for munchies, I was somewhat confused. The final destination of the cab brought us to the same house with the dog that resembled a rat, and the guy who makes money because he dresses like a pirate. At this point Creech began to explain to me how he couldn't be alone for more than a moment and needed someone to pass out with or something like that, I stopped listening after a matter of seconds. To be honest, I should have known better, it was only month's before that he told me Booboo was having a wild rager, when in reality he just wanted to watch the Hills. Either way, I was quite disappointed that my one chance to visit an Ocean City bar ended so abruptly.

The next day had all the potential to be a classic. Once again, we knew that Smedium would be driving, so once again, the four of us had a car stocked full of fun. We were also going to Seacrets, and as everyone knows quite well, there are few places, that offer the luxuries of Seacrets. After finding a spot where the five of us could enjoy some of the finer aspects of daytime drinking, I was sent off to check out, the price of jet ski rentals. Now, this is where things started to go downhill. Somehow, and to this day I'm still quite confused to how this exactly happened, on the walk to the jet ski booth I developed a rather fierce eye irritation. Within seconds, my vision became blurry, my eyes became more bloodshot than those of Ricky Williams, and I began stumbling all over Seacrets. With the guidance of a reggae superstar, I was directed to the bathroom, where I spent the next several hours washing my eyes out with water to try and cease the irritation. Now, I think it is safe to assume, that the majority of people who read this blog have never had the experience that one gets when they are forced to spend hours rinsing out their eyes with tap water in an overcrowded public bathroom. I even had multiple conversations with the bar manager, assuring him that I was alright and did not require medical assistance. This task eventually became quite bothersome and I just decided to man up and live with the flaw. I soon found out that walking blind is far from easy as it took me nearly twenty minutes to re-locate my posse. I kind of found a new spot in my heart for Hellen Keller that day. Once I returned, the four of them all found this to be quite amusing. In all seriousness, I could have mistaken Kayta for Creech, and that alone should show you the seriousness of my problem, because Kayta is far better looking than Creech ever will be, but despite my struggles and constant pain, I remained the center of attention and the focus of everyone's entertainment. The rest of the afternoon, I spent walking back and forth between the bathroom and our seat, rinsing my eyes repeatedly. My vision did not return to 100% till we were almost back in Baltimore and to this day, I still do not know what caused this sudden retina irritation, but I gravely hope it will never occur again.

As for the likelihood, of me returning to Seacret's that's a given. I will be spending four days at the beach in mid July, and I don't know whether I should be more scared than excited, because with the cast of people I will be traveling with, excessive drama and trouble seems likely to follow. As for this weekend, who knows, I tend to not make plans and just go with the flow and if that flow directs me towards the great A.O. , so be it. I just know one thing for sure, if it does direct me that way, I will most definitely being hangin ten and ready to shred some killer waves.