THE DEPARTURE

THE DEPARTURE

Day 5

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Long weekend, and although 2 of us are travelling out today and the other two are leaving tomorrow, we most certainly are not done.  Not after that freaking ending we just saw last night.  We are still talking about it.  (We apologize but for some reason the background of the second half of this post looks really weird on a desktop or laptop. It looks normal when viewed on a phone.  We are working on this).

06:00 – 09:00 – Construction on all of the townhouse complexes being built in EADO.  Just because we are on vacation on Tuesday doesn’t mean that everyone else is.  Of course, we didn’t notice it that much on Monday, but perhaps that is because we were up so much later on Tuesday.

09:12 – Sinickal heads out to Dunkin Donuts.  He is so happy it is the weekday again so he can easily find his morning coffee.

09:45 – Sinickal comes back from Dunkin’ Donuts noting that “Everybody is still abuzz” about the game.  Doug Christie (Corey) says, “Still?”    Sinickal, “What do you mean still?  It was less than 12 hours ago!”

10:52 – Sinickal is talking to Pam on the phone and notes that Syracuse women play in the championship tonight.  [Editor’s Note – they both went to Syracuse].  Pepster remarks that Doug Christie is wearing his Connecticut polo.

12:12 – As we get ready to leave, Sinickal asks Doug Christie what shirt is he actually wearing, Delta?  Doug Christie is flying Southwest.

12:40 – In the car and Buddy Hield is being interviewed on ESPN radio.  Pepster wonders out loud what else does Hield have to do to be acknowledged as the greatest Bahamian basketball player ever.  Doug Christie states that he is not the best Caribbean player ever.   Nobody disputes this – at all (Tim Duncan).  Pepster mentions, “What, are we going to say Ramon Rivas?  Although the two UMASS guards Carmelo Travieso and Edgar Padilla were really good.”  Sinickal says that he “can’t believe you are having this discussion with yourself.”  Tony calls Sinickal a liar; because of course we all believe Pepster had this conversation with himself.

12:57 – Back to Tailgates for their Mexican Wings luncheon. Pepster and Sinickal order actual wings and $2 tacos. 

12:59 – Daniel the bartender is working again.  He must have missed class, and/or his grandmother’s funeral.  He does tell us what happened to Miss Drunky and the others at the bar at the end of the night.  It did not go well for them.

13:01 – Up until this point in time we all though the man bun was the worst hairstyle on a man.  Not anymore.

13:08 – Tony orders the large Guinness, to start off slow.  Daniel says that he might as well get a pitcher, an idea about which Tony sounds enthusiastic.  Daniels says he actual cannot do that because “Texas law forbids serving pitchers to single people.”  Tony says, “That’s OK, I am married.”  He isn’t.

15:25 – While watching the Astros-Yankees game on Tailgates’ patio after finishing lunch, Allison finishes reading yesterday’s blog post as she sends a picture of Christian Laettner to Pepster, via Sinickal. 

15:28 – Pepster texts Allison, “You are dead to me.”

15:41 – Sinickal asks Pepster if he has heard a response from Allison.  Pepster says, “She can’t respond because she is dead”.  [Editor’s Note – She isn’t dead, just dead to Pepster.]

15:49 – Coming back to the outdoor patio from the restroom Pepster steps over a 5 foot cardboard cutout of a Bud Light that has fallen down across the doorway.

15:49:30 – Sinickal states that this “is exactly what we knew would happen”.

15:55 – Sinickal picks up the Bud Light cutout as he goes to the restroom.  It falls down about 30 seconds later.

15:59 – Heading to the car to take Pepster and Doug Christie to the airport and the UPS truck driving in the street emits a horrible burning clutch smell.  Tony says that “it smells like Houston”.

16:01 – Heading to Bush Airport.

16:41 – Drop off Pepster at Bush, now off to Hobby to drop off Doug Christie.

17:30 - Fight traffic to get from IAH to HOU and drop Doug Christie off. And then there were two.

17:37 – Pepster sees a kid (mid-twenties) sitting alone at a table in the airport bar with a Villanova jersey changing his own 8 ½” by 11” bandage over his ribcage.  Must have had a fun night.

18:01 – Pepster is wheels up to Lauderdale.

18:50 - Tony and Sinickal make the decision to try out midtown. We haven’t been over here yet this week.

19:10 - Arrive at Proof, a rooftop bar that looks like a good place to start. Unfortunately, it is closed on Tuesdays.  What is up with Houston?  We start walking, realizing that this isn’t so much a neighborhood, but a bunch of Starbuck’s locations located along high traffic boulevards.

19:10 – Doug Christie is wheels up to DC, back to a place where he will likely no longer be called “Dough Christie”.

19:25 - Arrive at Doghouse Tavern. Small storefront in a strip mall, but they serve beer! Upon entering, Tony thinks he sees same girl from Tailgate earlier. This really scares him.

19:59 - After a quick beer, we move to a place called Midtown Drinkery. Realize that the Women's NCAA Championship game is on. Syracuse already down 14 points to UConn and Sinickal will consider it a victory if the game ends now.

20:01 - The outdoor patio has Beer Pong set up using 5 gallon buckets and a volleyball. At least you don’t have to drink from the buckets

20:18 - We realize that Midtown is a nice area. We probably should have discovered it earlier during the tournament. We don’t believe it would have been significantly better since no teams are staying here, but it would have been different.

21:01 - Earlier when asked if he wanted a beer, Sinickal shouted “YES!”  The bartender is now demanding only enthusiastic orders from Sinickal.

21:06 - The television show Separation Anxiety is on! Again, with no sound. This may be the greatest show on television...we think.  Identical twins are the team today.

21:17 – Pepster is wheels down in Lauderdale.

21:59 - Try to go to a bar called Gaslamp that we heard a lot about. Unfortunately it is closed on Tuesdays. Of course, it is.  We head over to Little Woodrow's Midtown.

22:52 - There is a “debate” going on the other side of the bar between a girl that works at the bar (not working) and some random guy at the bar. He tells her his name is Clarence, and without pause she responds “His real name is Clarence? I bet Clarence parents have a real good marriage…” Well played.

23:00 - Same girl, now talking about another bartender that was late on Monday night because she was having her vajayjay lasered. “It’s third party information. The bar back told me that she told him, So it must be true.”

00:10 - Same girl, now drunk and unable to get a response to a text message, “I'm gonna fuckin’ take myself home.”

00:30 - Early flights tomorrow, so Tony and Sinickal are back at the townhouse.