Dude Room Weekend

Dude Room Reunion Weekend Recap

The first weekend in September marked the first time the five of us had all been together since the 2003-2004 school year ended, when four of us moved out and got married. What had started as Greg's wife surprising him with a trip to hang out with us had taken nearly two years to plan and had fallen apart last year because of late scheduling conflicts. But with non-refundable plane tickets and football tickets for all of us (and with the blessings of our good wives), we were on our way back to where we had had some of our best times.

Thursday Night

Trevor's plan was running an hour or so late but it didn't matter as he arrived just minutes after Carter. Awkward man hugs were exchange at the rental car counter and we left the airport in search of Trevor's parent's house. Before we go any further here, a huge thanks to the Weeds for their hospitality. Each of us had our own room with a queen size bed, memory foam pillows and a view that you pay big money for in a nice hotel. Oh, and a minivan gassed and ready to go to take us wherever we needed to. Then there was the fridge and cupboards full of dude room staples like Tootie Fruities, ice cream and various other goodies. This weekend doesn't go off as smoothly as comfortably as it did without the Mom and Dad Weed.

We got to the house around 11:45 and sat around the kitchen talking for a while, catching up on things. Trevor and I learned about the dental industry and the differences between a private office and a corporate-run office, Trevor introduced us to So. Cal terms like "skeezy jerk-bag" and we began to catch each other up on our various families, kids and other friends. Some of it discussion was of a spiritual/religious nature, some humorous and some it dealing with real-life, working-class, we're-not-22-year-old-single-college-students-anymore stuff. It kept going until about 2:30am, at which point we had to call it a night. Carter was meeting his grandpa for breakfast at 7 the next morning and then picking Greg up at the airport and Trevor and I were going to go for a run.

Friday Morning Run

My original plan had been to run 15 miles on Friday morning. As Carter, Trevor and I were up hanging out later and later into early Friday morning though, that number dropped to 10 miles at about 1am. At 2am it dropped to 8 miles. And after 4 hours of sleep and 3 miles of hills, the number dropped again to 6 miles. It was a good run though. We ran east towards the mountains and at the end of the road continued on the trails for a bit before turning around. I will give Utah this: running in the morning sun is awesome. The mountains to the east, the valley to the west and a crispness to the air that you don't get in more humid places. Even after stopping at the top of a hill to compose myself (and determine if everything inside my stomach wanted to be on the outside or not), we made it back to the house in time to get ready to go meet Carter and Greg at the golf course.

Golf

Carter had picked Greg up at the airport Friday morning and were already at the course in a golf cart by the time Trevor and I arrived. We hustled to the first tee and before allowing Greg to tee off, presented a few non-awards for the day. For the 4th place finisher (read: last), a Han Solo t-shirt which the recipient would be required to wear the remainder of the day. Also, instead of a Closest to the Pin contest on the Par-3 7th hole, we held a Furthest from the Pin contest. The winner (read: loser) would wear a pair of University of Utah flip flops in shame the rest of the day. Trevor and I had bought these items on the way over and as we were discussing which size of flip flops to buy, we decided we should have Greg in mind (sorry, Greg). More on these contests in a minute. 

 The first hole was pretty ugly. If I remember correctly two of us put our tee shots in the water. And after one hole 4 or 5 balls had been lost. Not a good pace, given that we had only (only) brought 36 balls total. For four of us. For 9 holes. This is how awesome we are at golf.

Golfing was great. The weather was perfect (though Greg, Carter and I would be lathering sunblock and aloe on ourselves the rest of the weekend), the course was nice, green and challenging for our level and it wasn't very busy so we could take our time and have fun with it. Greg hit some really good drives (but the balls always seemed to disappear by the time we got up to where we thought they were) but had some tough luck on some putts that lipped out. Trevor didn't seem to like us on a few holes and decided to play adjacent fairways instead. Carter was perhaps our most consistent putter.

And then came the Par-3 7th hole. 

We pulled the flip flops out of the cart, reminded everyone of the shame that would come to them and their posterity should they wear anything with UofU on them and made sure everyone understood the rules. I was up first. with a 7-iron in my hand and a slight downhill to the green 157 yards away I took a whack at the ball. And dribbled it about 30 yards, just past the red tees. Crap.

Greg, Trevor and Carter all needed a minute to change strategy and all three were VERY careful just to get the club on the ball and knock it down towards the hole. Greg may have had the 2nd best shot of the day with his drive and ran it onto the green past the hold by 15 or 20 feet. Trevor played last, and after talking some trash about me having to wear the UofU flip flops, dribbled his own ball down the hill...about 35 yards. So close. But the UofU sandals were mine and I tried to wear them with pride. I managed to do so, but not with any pride.

Before teeing off on the 9th and final hole we tallied the scores. Carter trailed Trevor by 3 strokes for 3rd place. It didn't look good for Carter. But funny things happen. Like Trevor promptly hitting his drive to the right and into the same water he put his tee shot in on the first hole. Rather than take a drop, he decided to tee off again...and hit it in the water a second time. Another one stroke penalty. Taking a drop this time, he prepared to hit his 5th shot while Carter teed off. Carter hit a good approach shot that got him on the green, maybe 30 feet away. Meanwhile, Trevor was off the green on the fringe. His first put was woefully short, leaving him a 2nd put that was just too long to make. Carter's put meanwhile, stopped about 8 feet from the cup. Trevor putted out on his 3rd attempt and that left Carter with the final shot of the day. Make the putt and beat Trevor by 1 stroke. Miss the putt and he'd be forced to make the next one just to tie. Pressure, for sure. This is how it unfolded...

Pizza Pie Cafe

After golf it was off to the Pizza Pie Cafe, where we captured post-game analysis of Carter's putt and presented Trevor with his non-award. We also may have binged on pizza and pasta, but let the record reflect that we each ate at least one large plate of salad. I think Trevor even had some broccoli on his plate.




 

Boating

After a much needed hour or so of nap time we headed off to meet Greg's cousin who was willing to take us out on a boat to do some water skiing and wake boarding at Utah Lake. On the way Greg went way back into his playlist to find some gems, including Aaron Carter's "Internet Girl." Pre-Facebook and social media, this song sounds like something on the Disney Channel. 10 years later? Kind of creepy.

The water was fairly warm, though there were pockets of cold water here and there. Carter seemed to find every one of them. After getting out away from the docks Garrett killed the motor and asked what we wanted to do first. Feeling the thrill of being back in Utah Lake after swimming my half-ironman swim leg in it two weeks prior, I jumped out of my seat and dove off of the back of the boat into the water. I think it took everyone else by surprise a little bit, but the water felt great and being out in the middle of a lake swimming freely is somewhat liberating.

After swimming around for a few minutes I was the first one up on the water skis. I was a little hesitant because my last attempt two summers ago did not go so well. But the skis were much wider than pairs I have previously tried and getting up on the water was no problem.

Trevor, Carter and Greg also then took a turn on the skis and everyone got up on the water and did their thing without any trouble.

Wake boarding was next and Trevor made it look easy. He bounced around on the water, jumping over wake as he swung from side to side. Unfortunately on one of these passes the front of the board hit the water...which was followed by Trevor's face hitting the water.

Carter did well on the wake board also, as did Greg. Getting Greg up on the water took some time and effort though. For what seemed like and extended time there was a wall of water in front of Greg as he was being pulled up. We couldn't see him, but we assumed he was still on his feet and not being dragged.

About this time the wind really started to pick up. There was a storm off to the west of us that we had been watching and though we never got the rain, the wind created some choppy water. I put the surfboard in the water take a try at that, but because of the choppiness was never able to get up on it.

We started in towards the docks after a few hours but before getting there Garrett asked if we wanted to blow up the tube and let him punish us in it for a bit. I think all of us were feeling our age in our muscles already so we politely declined and returned to shore.

It was great to have Garrett take us out. It's not an activity that we otherwise would have been able to do because of the costs involved but it was a good time relaxing out on the water.

Cafe Rio

We left the lake and headed back to the Weed's. As we pulled up we saw Rich waiting for us. Rich had some family events arise earlier in the week that he needed to attend to, so he joined us as soon as he could Friday night. Awkward man hugs were again exchanged and we decided that Cafe Rio would be our choice of dinner. We got the food to go and headed back to the house, where Greg and Trevor had been eying the guitars.

Friday Night Hangout

It's one thing to rehash a funny story or experience with people who were there and already know it. We pull this off well. But give us an audience who hasn't heard the stories? Shock and awe, as Trevor would say. Back at the house we were joined by Carter's sister who was in town visiting) and she made for a perfect audience: she listened, laughed at the appropriate times and didn't give off any "you-guys-know-these-things-happened-10-years-ago-right?" vibes. The infamous talent show (the one that nearly got me fired from my job in the locker room) was the star of the evening as it tends to be. But there were others.

Greg and Trevor eventually gravitated toward the guitars in the family room and started into a rendition of Cannon Center Girl. If you don't know what that is, here's the quick rundown: 2001-Trevor eyes pretty girl in cafeteria (Cannon Center). Trevor (and Greg?) writes song for pretty girl. Trevor and Greg perform song for pretty girl at ward talent show. Trevor goes on date with pretty girl. And that's pretty much how the story ends, with the song being the best and longest-lasting legacy of the whole thing. We all agreed that if the one and only public performance of this song would have been in the days of YouTube and Facebook, it would have gone viral. As it was, there were hundreds of downloads of the song on Napster (back when Napster was Napster) by BYU students and it was not uncommon to hear people talk about it while walking around campus. 

After so much time, the rendition here is a little rough, but who hasn't forgotten the words to a classic every so often. It's not like it was in front of tens of thousands and broadcast over the airwaves to tens of millions, right?
 

Later in the evening we broke out the Tootie Fruities and ice cream as we watched BYU women's soccer team beat Utah in the final minutes on TV (though, still wearing the flip flops, I was a little confused as to who I was supposed to be cheering for) before calling it a night at a respectable 1am.

Cannon Center Breakfast

While there were a few activities on our agenda that were scrapped along the way, breakfast at the Cannon Center was not one of them. Even if we walked in three minutes before breakfast closed. A few of us wondered if we should come back in an hour for lunch. Trevor's response? "We've got three minutes. Plenty of time." So we paid, ran in, swiped a tray and a bunch of plates and enjoyed awesome biscuits and gravy, semi-cold scrambled eggs, rubbery ham, and a sausage/blueberry/pancake on a stick thing made to resemble a corn dog. And Cereal. Lots and lots of cereal. Let the record also reflect that we each served ourselves a bowl of fresh fruit. 

Once we had our food Carter and I looked for somewhere to sit. It wasn't hard, the place wasn't that full, but as we walked towards a table on the outskirts near a big window Trevor called us back and said we had to sit where all the action was. And so we sat at the middle table in an area surrounded by (mostly) 18 year-old girls who had probably been at BYU less than a week. Awkward perhaps. For them. We didn't care. I mentioned to Greg that I was expecting Trevor to get up on a chair and make a declaration of some sort and that we should be ready to duck under the table. Greg didn't disagree. 

Marriott Center Visit

After breakfast we walked up to the Marriott Center. Greg had gotten a call the previous evening about some pickup games that were going to take place with current BYU players as well as some former players and a few recruits.

As we walked around the building looking for an unlocked door, out walks Greg uncle, Dave...or Coach Rose as he is known to many, the men's basketball coach. He apparently didn't know we were coming, but Greg introduced us all, told him we had been roommates 10 years prior and that we were in town for the weekend. He talked to us for a minute as another guy walked up and shook his hand.

"This guy went to school here too, but never graduated," Coach Rose said as he put his arm around this guy. Coach Rose briefly told him who we all were, after which this guy says, putting out his hand, "Hi, I'm Jimmer."

Yeah, we know who you are. I applaud Greg for not fainting on the spot. 

Pretty cool. Seems like a solid guy. The most striking thing about him though is that he could be one of us. While you can certainly see he's in pretty good shape and keeps himself fit, he's not a very big guy. He looks like one of us. Except that none of us are former NCAA players of the year who are currently under contract as an NBA player.

We went in, still not sure where to go or if we would be asked any questions. But once in the arena we just walked in like we were supposed to be there and sat courtside watching these pickup games go one for a few hours while relaxing, talking to each other, Greg's parents who were there and various people who were also there to watch. 

After watching basketball we hit the Wilkensen Center, including a new hangout spot called The Wall, and the bookstore where we got our official game day shirts. Trevor was disappointed to see they had taken down the pictures of Miss BYU from the 70's and 80's and replaced them with random student pictures with cliché quotes. Greg ran into someone he knew seemingly every 10 feet. 

Return to Park Place

Another activity that would not be scrapped for any reason was a trip back to a place where it all started: The Park Place. Rich was again waiting for us there, standing by the sign, waving us in. We weren't quite sure what we were going to do when we got to the door with an "8" on it, but we had talked about knocking on the door and introducing ourselves. While the rest of us looked around, Trevor went up to the door and knocked. Here's how it went:

T: Hi, my name's Trevor. My dudes here and I lived in this apartment 10 years ago and are back for the first time since then.

Park Place #8 Tenant: Come on in. 

And so like that we were let in. And it looked exactly the same. And it smelled exactly the same. And there were even two girls sitting on the couch, like there were pretty much all times of the day when we were there. The current tenants of Park Place #8 played it way cool. They let us tell our story of when we refused a clean check by barricading our door with all of the construction garbage they had left in front of our places for months. And about how three of us had met our future wives in three of the other Park Place units.

And then I saw it. Hanging in the far corner of the room. Right where I had left it 10 years ago...

Yes. My mini-disco ball remains. Seemingly untouched and unmoved. Legacy. 

They were kind enough to take a picture of us inside and then another outside on the bench, where we had taken the same picture 10 years and 1 week ago. I'd say we're still a pretty good looking bunch. 

South Campus Tour

Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we moved along and drove around the south campus area recalling old apartments and houses of friends, girls dated, where Trevor lit a pumpkin on fire and anything else that jumped out at us. We eventually made our way down to the old Provo Tabernacle/New Provo Temple to see its progress. It's pretty impressive to see a brick shell sitting atop stilts with a bit of newly poured concrete foundation.

After a bit it was time to head up to BYU's cathedral, Lavell Edwards Stadium, for the football game against Texas.

It had been an awesome weekend to that point. We had laughed, had fun, ran into various friends and relatives along the way and were now headed to the premier event of the weekend. It had been a great weekend to that point. But the Dude Room has always measured itself in terms of how epic something is. The weekend was about to become epic.

Football Game

We wanted to be inside the stadium by around 4pm for a 5pm kickoff so we could watch some of the warmups. After parking north of the stadium and beginning to walk back we could see some threatening clouds over the lake where we had been the previous day. We didn't think much of it as the storm had passed us the day before. It was a warm and sunny day and we were clad in our shorts, t-shirts and sandles (and Trevor in his TOMS). We passed a fruit stand, bought a bag of fruit and continued on our way into the stadium. We got up to our seats right about 4pm, at which point we snapped a picture and then looked south again, over the top of the stadium. The clouds that were visible looked like something out of an end-of-the-world movie. And they were moving quickly in our direction.

A few minutes later the first gust of wind hit and it was a big one. The sun disappeared, the wind got stronger and then the rain started. We all started back down the stairs back to the covered (sort of) concourse area, but I had to stay out in the storm. I had to see it and experience it. The winds got so strong that I had to grab a railing in order to keep from falling over and the rain, horizontal at this point as incredible. I figured it will be the closest I ever get to feeling what it's like to be in a hurricane and I wasn't going to go run for cover so fast.

Also not running for cover, or even leaving their seats, were those in the BYU student section. A new policy this year grants student section seating as first come first serve, so those in the first few rows had been standing in line for who knows how long before even being let into the stadium and they were not about to leave their seats because of a little (a lot) of rain and wind. Their enthusiasm was awesome. As the storm started they started cheering. And every time the violence of the storm increased, when there was a new, stronger wind gust or microburst of rain they got louder or the crack of thunder overhead, they got louder. After a few minutes of this the few BYU players who were on the field retreated to the locker room, prompting even louder yelling and screaming as they passed by the students. At that point I retreated to the concourse also, having had a goosebump experience. Here's a video shot by someone near where I was standing. The students start to really get excited around the 1:45 mark and go until about the 3:55 mark. The video is edited, they were yelling and screaming for the better part of 25 minutes or so, but it gives a good idea of how quickly the storm came in and how strong it was. It was later reported that approximately 3/4" of rain had fallen in 15 minutes. But the rain continued for an hour or more. 

The problem with the storm was not the rain or wind but the lightening. It was right on top of the stadium and it lasted a long time. Per some NCAA rule, there can't be any lightening within a certain distance for something like a half hour before resuming the game (or warm-ups) in the same spot. There was still 55 minutes left on the pre-game clock when things were suspended, so as long as there was lightening going on, we were at least 90 minutes or more from the game starting.

Needless to say, the concourse area was crazy. The fan shop was one big mass of humanity, as seemingly no one had come dressed for a downpour. That said, only on BYU's campus would people have been so friendly and accommodating to one another. I can't imagine the chaos that would have ensued had people been tailgating and drinking alcohol for multiple hours beforehand. Cheerleaders and the Cougarette's dance squad was deployed to the concourse to lead people in the fight song. Where we were standing there wasn't much support for that sort of thing...well, except from the 5 of us. Eventually I found ponchos on sale, bought 5 of them and we all met back up, wet, hungry and still with no timetable for the game to start. So we decided to head back down towards campus to find some food.

After eating at Costa Vida, and hearing that the kickoff was scheduled in 20 minutes we "game-walked" back to the stadium, our pace getting quicker as we approached. After crossing the last street and being behind a police barricade we broke into a run and got to our seats just as Texas kicked off, 3 hours and one freak storm later.

The game itself was great. We pounded Texas. Just dominated them. Punched them in the face. Beat them down. Whatever you want to use to describe how bad it was, that was it. We had said throughout the day that we just wanted to see a good game. We just wanted something to cheer about. We got plenty of that. A dominant 40-21 win where nearly everything went right (except for when BYU's quarterback tried to throw the ball).

Coming to an End

With the conclusion of the game came the conclusion of the weekend. We snapped a final picture and said goodbye to Greg who was staying in town to see his grandparents.

The other four of us made our way back to the Weeds where we indulged in more ice cream and Tootie Fruities while watching a replay of the game we had just been at.

Carter and I left early the next morning to catch our flights, Trevor left later Sunday night and Rich headed home on Tuesday. And that was that.

It was a full 48 hours for sure. I, for one, could not keep up the pace of busy days, late nights, little sleep and lots of sugary, greasy, oily, fatty processed food for much longer than that. But it was worth it. As we gathered together again after 10 years it was as if no time had passed at all. We're a little older, we don't recover from slamming into the water quite as quickly, we don't operate as well on four hours of sleep, we have responsibilities as husbands, fathers and employees and we've grown up a little. But I think what makes our bond special is that we know each other so well that we can just be ourselves when we hang out together. The experiences that we had together as 18 year-old freshmen living in the dorms and as 21 year-olds returning home from missions in search of direction, the highs as well as the lows, the spiritual and (at times) the irreverent, created a support and a trust among us that is lasting. For all of the other humorous, fun and silly things we have done, that is the true legacy of the Dude Room.