"Got any alcohol?"

June 16, 2013

 

Today is Father’s Day! When Graham and I returned home, the rest of the family was dressed up and heading off to church. I wished D a Happy Father’s Day and thanked Mrs. Richard and the boys for their generosity. After seeing them off, I packed up my belongings and prepared to leave while Graham got ready for work.

Final sunset in Louisiana- Covington, LA (photo cred to Graham!)

 

Louisiana has been good to me. Absolutely everyone I encountered throughout my stay, boys and girls, young and old, have been incredible individuals. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming and the people I had the pleasure of meeting usually had an outgoing and unique personality, which I loved. Mrs. Richard and her family made me feel completely at home and I truly don’t think I could have had a more enjoyable time. Graham and I said our goodbyes, which was actually a little bit sad after spending so much time together the past few days. We made plans to see each other again since he’ll be attending school at Charleston which happens to be fairly close to where I’ll be living.

I drove for a few hours before I arrived in Alabama at Orange Beach. Initially I planned to make a pit stop in Gulf Shores, but somewhere along the way I missed it and ended up at Orange Beach instead, which was more than okay with me! I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was sit my little bum on the beach and take a sandy nap. I made a phone call to my dad before I went out in the water to wish him a Happy Father’s Day and see how his day had been going. This was the first Father’s Day I spent away from my dad and I didn’t like it one bit! I am the ultimate daddy’s girl, and I missed being able to join my family for breakfast before church, the big Lebanese kibbe dinner, and gift giving over dessert, but being able to hear his voice made the day a little bit easier.

I took a relaxing nap on the beach for a couple hours, and when I woke, I snatched up my camera and headed down the shoreline for a photo stroll. I took some pictures of the tide coming in and of children frolicking in the water before heading back to the car to find my phone. I needed to check the status of the location I was supposed to be staying at for the evening. Chris, a guy from Pensacola, had accepted my request to Couch Surf at his place for the night. I notified Chris that I would be heading that way shortly and needed his address. While waiting for a reply, I whipped out a spoon and went to town on a can of Bush’s Baked Beans for dinner.

Finally, I received a text back from Chris saying, “Well, we’re at the beach now and no offense, but I wanna meet up with u first because u don’t have any references on your Couch Surfers profile. Hah sorry!” This made me laugh, but I completely understood where he was coming from and agreed to meet at Surf Burger, a local beach bar where he and his friend were hanging out. When I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a young, gangly black man walking close by and I heard him shout, “Hey there baby!” as he approached my car. In my head I was thinking, “I literally JUST pulled up, how does this always happen to me?” I cracked my passenger side window just a tad and heard what he had to say. Our conversation went a little like this:

Gangly Stranger: Hey, you got any money?
Me: Sorry, I don’t carry any cash.
Gangly Stranger: What bout some change?
Me: Nope, I just had to use it to pay the toll.
Gangly Stranger: Oh… What’s yo name? You’s a pretty baby.
Me: Well thank you, my name’s Rainy. (No way was I going to tell homeboy my real name!) What’s yours?
Gangly Stranger: I’m Demarcus.
Me: Nice to meet you.
Demarcus: Nice to meet you too. (Long pause…) You got any alcohol?
Me: *laughing* No, sorry, no alcohol.
Demarcus: Oh… You got a boyfriend?
Me: *still laughing* Nope, no boyfriend.
Demarcus: Oh. (Long pause…) Well uh, you uh… Yea, well. You, you have a good night.
Me: Okay, you too!
Demarcus: (Still standing awkwardly at my window.) Okay. Well, good night.
Me: ...good night Demarcus.
After that stimulating conversation, I walked toward Surf Burger and dialed Chris on the phone. As soon as I opened the door, I saw the back of a boy wearing an American flag bandanna to hold back his long brown locks. He was scrambling to pick up his phone, but before he could answer, I walked up behind him and said hello. Chris and Abner, one of Chris’ roommates, introduced themselves, and we immediately found ourselves engulfed in conversation full of excitement over my arrival. Chris told me that Ben, the Couch Surfer who had just left a few hours before I showed up, was also from Texas! What a coincidence!

Chris had such a high, positive energy and I knew already that this was going to be an awesome time. He was the ultimate surfer dude, with long, curly brown hair, tanned skin, and an awesome bro twang to his talk. Abner also had long curly hair and once he told me that he and 3 of the other 4 roommates were lifeguards, the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together. I was surprised to find out that Chris had 4 roommates, but Iwas excited to head back to the house and meet them. When we were walking out of Surf Burger, Chris shared with me that he thought I wasn’t going to be who I said I was when I arrived and told me how he was sketching that I would be a guy or bring crazy people with me! I hadn’t yet realized the importance of references on Couch Surfers, but it was beginning to make more sense to me after talking with an experienced surfer. Chris and Abner both rode their crotch rockets to the beach bar so I hopped in my Jeep and tried to keep up.

When I walked in the house, I was welcomed by Ryan, another roommate, and his girlfriend, doing intense P90X squats; today was leg day folks! I was then introduced to the other two roommates, AJ and Luis (who both also had long hair). All of the guys were super chill and absolutely hilarious. After chatting for a few moments, Chris, AJ, Luis, and I decided to go to a bar downtown called Hop Jacks for half price drafts. I wish I could remember the name of the first beer I tried, but there were easily over 100 options and all of them had funky names. All I know is that my beer tasted like a blueberry explosion and it was absolutely delicious and I sipped on it as the boys told me an endless amount of entertaining stories. One would swear the stories from these boys were made up due to the infinite outlandish and hilarious details, but each of them would vouch for the other and I was thoroughly entertained the entire night. They kept pushing for me to share some of my stories, but after hearing tales of bartending in Brazil, hiking mountains with bears, and surf swells in Hawaii, I couldn’t think of a single instance that would even come close to comparing with the things they have done!

We started on our journey home after a few more beers and along the way the boys recognized we were passing an area called “The Bluffs.” When they asked if I wanted to check it out, I jumped on the opportunity. It was close to 1 in the morning, but as long as they were down to explore, I didn’t care. We walked down a long wooden pathway before hopping the railing and finding a large, broken down tree trunk to pop a squat on. The 4 of us sat there for several minutes while digging our toes in the sand and continuing to tell stories.

We wound up slightly lost on the way back to the car since it was practically pitch dark. “We came from that way, no?” I asked the boys as I pointed into the dark abyss. Instead of answering my question, each of them echoed, “We came from that way, no?” followed by a round of chuckles. Okay, I was confused. Apparently when I said that, I sounded like I was Minnesotan. Wonder where that accent came from? Oh well, I didn’t notice it! We finally made it back to the car and picked up where we left of on the way home.

Once we arrived to the house, the other 2 boys were asleep. I was pretty beat as well, but instead of hitting the hay, the boys clicked on an episode of Game of Thrones, one of the houses favorite show. After starting off strong, the boys eventually passed out and retired to their rooms one by one until no one was left but little old me to sleep in the living room.

At 4 A.M. all was quiet and I dozed off into a much needed deep sleep.