I shall tell you an epic tale...

...of a friday evening voyage to Lawrence.
We open with this gal almost not even taking the trip until her friend Jon D. convinced her otherwise.
The evening quickly took a sharp turn as her ex-boyfriend she hadn't seen since senior year ended up going to the show with them. Very weird to meet again, they both thought, but actually quite nice to catch up after all this time.
She headed to the show with a gang of Garden friends, including Jon Urban, Jennifer Drees, and Joe Wesley. At the Granada they met up with other GCians, including (but not limited to) Jon D., Lane, Jacob, Ashley, and Bret, who she also hadn't spoken to in quite some time. The first band they watched was Rookie of the Year, with whom you can never go wrong. The set was short, but great. And they played Blue Roses :)
Next was Quietdrive, who none (of her party) had listened to, but all very much enjoyed. And last was Mest . That's right. Upontherooftops-topdownseatback-whatsthedillio-listened to everyday of freshman year-Mest. It was a phenomenal show with the crew dominating the front couple of rows dancing and singing like it was going out of style. SO freaking fun.
After the show, she went back to Jon's for a bit where she received a text from Autumn saying that their piece they had adjudicated earlier in the day was selected to be in WinterDance. This kicked her performance count up to 3 pieces in the recital, and proved to be a very exciting text indeed.
After getting directions to get home and to get around the construction on her usual exit, she commenced ta jigglin. Long driving story short, she called Josh Sauer after 25 minutes of being lost trying to get out of Lawrence. When she thought she had it, she thanked him and hung up only to realize that she did not have any where near "it". And then commenced ta cryin; because you see, friends, it was getting later and later and all she wanted to do was get home to bed. A couple wrong turns again and more crying later, she made it to I-70 West. That last piece was the trickiest to pull off.
She thought to stop and get a drink to keep her awake on the drive home. So at the Hardees rest stop our weary soldier picked up a Sierra Mist and learned from the cashier that Wade Bowen and his band were also in the neighborhood. Not wanting to miss out on a fantastic opportunity that only 2 am in a rest stop could present, she picked up the latest issue of Country Weekly (which he was featured in) and headed over to say hello to the boys. They all signed her magazine, were super friendly, and turned that ugly wee hour of the morning-wish she was home-frown upside down! See!

On the way home Chicken Fried came on the radio, and the evening would go down in books as one of the greatest evenings of her junior year in college.