Keep it steady now

4 times flying out of Tampa since starting school there, 4 times blogging about it in the airport.

My weekend to visit old friends and my old city has come to a close. In a word, it was phenomenal.

I concocted the idea to visit Tampa one cold fall night in my UW dorm room. I don't remember the exact circumstances, but I was sitting alone in there, feeling bummed about something (who knows what, it could have been anything last semester), so I thought to myself, "why not visit my old friends in Tampa?" I found some pretty good deals online for my trip on a whim, and was all set to go on my own. I presented the idea to my parents sometime that weekend, and the prices were good enough that they suggested that the whole family go there for vacation in January.

This saved me the 150 or so dollar cost that I would have incurred flying down there on my own dime, so the idea was fairly appealing to me. I love when daydreams become reality.

I have made no secret about my continuing love for the city of Tampa. The weather is great, the bay is beautiful, the people are friendly and the girls are pretty (and not repulsed by me). During my first semester at UW, I frequently questioned my decision to return home from USF. I was actually turning a profit by going to school, getting awesome grades, living in a city I loved with a great climate. and, for part of it, dating. The reasons I came home are still in place, but those other intangibles have clearly gotten worse. UW-Madison is not cheap. My UW GPA is terrible. Madison is cold as hell...isn't, and the single college girls are, on the whole, less interesting and more superficial.

But I mean, UW's a better school? And that's ultimately what matters, I guess. I still have to convince myself that it's worth it, but I keep trying.

So fast forward however many weeks ago that this idea was born, and here I am giving the recap post.

Our trip began on Thursday the 7th with an afternoon Milwaukee to Tampa flight. We didn't do much outside of travel that day, but we did get dinner at one of my favorite Tampa restaurants. That was a theme for the trip. We ate so much and so well, it will practically take another semester of inconsistent college eating to lose the extra weight gained from all the amazing southern cooking. Oh man.

Friday was the first chance to see any friends. After switching rooms due to ants (Weird.), my parents took Evan and I to the apartment of John and Cameron. John was a high school friend of Maggie's, but I hung out with him much more than Maggie did as the school year wore on. He met his girlfriend Cameron during while Maggie and I were dating and they've now got a nice place together. They're both about 4-5 years older than I am, but I loved hanging out with them while I was at USF.

This was Evan's first time meeting them and they seemed to hit it off pretty well. I caught up with them, they served us chicken-fried steak and potatoes (I am a fan) for dinner and we went bowling. Eventually they took us back to the hotel and there ended friday's festivities.

Saturday was an absolute BLAST. After a lunch at Chick-fil-A (which might be my favorite fast food meal, and something that I had to introduce to Evan on this trip), my parents dropped Evan and I off at USF's campus. It still feels like home, ya know.

At campus I got to see Kelli and Jenna, who are both RAs now and one of my old roommates, Drew. They're all still high-quality folks.

We had made designs to go to a women's basketball game (which is something I had only done once while attending USF, but no other sports had home games that weekend) that night, so we met up with John and Cameron who took us from campus to James' apartment.

James was one of my 3 roommates and was probably the one I spent the most time with. I liked all of my roommates but James and I had sports fandom in common. He, John and I established a soccer fan culture at USF that I hope continues once we leave, and the three of us were always sure to never miss a USF football game, screaming in the stands at home or screaming at John's TV away. And after Maggie and I broke up, smoking cigars behind the dorm with James did something to keep me sane.

The funny thing about that last part is that Maggie and James are dating now. I'm a fan of this, as they're both good people and it's that much easier to stay in touch with each of them if they're dating. I can't help but chuckle a bit at it though. Don't read anything into that, it just...strikes me I guess.

Maggie was over at James' place when we got there, so Evan got to meet her for the first time. Pleasantries were exchanged and they grilled some pregame burgers. It was good to see Maggie again, and nice to see her more as an old friend and not as much as an ex-girlfriend.

After dinner we went to the game. My old USF ID (which also got us 10% discounts at a few restaurants on the trip) got me into the game for free, and Evan got in free as a guest of the group of us students. Free sporting events for students is a sweet deal.

Because a lot of the student body hadn't returned to campus yet (classes started monday), and because USF students are less than enthusiastic about basketball (both women's and men's), there was hardly anyone there. As a result, we basically got to control the cheers of the student section.

John pretty much already does his share of cheer management at most USF sporting events, considering he was recently distinguished for having attended the most sporting events of ANY student last semester, which, if continued through the rest of the year, will be rewarded with on-field passes to our game against the Florida Gators next year. Which would be incredible.

As we watched our team get disassembled by #25-ranked Georgetown pretty much right out of the gate, we got to at least have fun with the cheering. We stood in the front row of the student section and it was pretty clear that whatever we yelled would be heard by everyone on the court. It's hilarious to get reactions to the things you yelled from D-1 athletes during a televised game.

Evan and I were even able to bring back some of our cheers from Lakeside days, like "ole!" after 3-pointers and the progression of "We want a basket!" into things that kind of rhyme with it, like "Paper or plastic!" and "Monks are monastic!" However, unlike Lakeside, the other USF fans appreciated the off-the-wall cheering. You'd be amazed the at the dirty looks that you could get from supporting your team in high school. I guess we disrupted their texting or something.

We got on TV and the arena screen quite a few times too. The game was only televised in the state of Florida, but we could see from the press monitor that the camera was relying on us for crowd shots. Celebrity USF fans, I tell ya, and Evan never even went to school there.

Sometime early in the game, an arena promotions guy was milling around, looking for people to participate in one of those halftime on-court entertainment games. My aforementioned friend Kelli suggested that Evan and I volunteer, and we got picked to do it. Basically, the game we did on the court consisted of us starting at half-court, taking a layup, and racing back to half-court with the slowest person getting eliminated. The prize was a 25-dollar iTunes giftcard (and adulation, of course).

Given that Evan and I were 2 of the 4 people chosen for the game, odds of a Samanas victory were pretty good. Evan and I made our first two rounds of layups with ease and the other two players were cut, leaving it to an all-Samanas final round (which is pretty legit, because we can just share the music). During the final round, the Bulls mascot did me a solid by harassing Evan's path to the basket, and I came away the victor of the night. Talk about sibling rivalry coming to a boil. I was originally just worried about not tripping or airballing a layup (is that possible?).

Oh, and I caught a shirt too. I just have to get as much free stuff from USF as possible, I guess.

Evan and I made further fools of ourselves by loudly complimenting the shoes of one of the dance team members (the joke is that they all have the same shoes, see), which led to her cracking up during the routine. We added her on Facebook then, obviously.

The game ended heavily in the favor of the visiting Hoyas and we eventually bid everyone goodbye. Back to the hotel, and there ended Saturday.

Sunday was spent mostly with the family. We went to service at Northdale, the WELS church I attended weekly while I was living in Tampa. It was really good to see everyone from the church who helped me with the transition, including the family who gave me a ride to church and Bible study every Sunday. Being held accountable for going to church every week was really key for me in my first year away from home.

After church we drove the half-hour across the bay to St. Petersburg for grouper sandwiches at The Hurricane, something that we have done almost every time we've visited the area. You can't turn down fresh Florida seafood when all you can get in Wisconsin is frozen cod.

When we got back to the hotel we settled in to watch the Packers playoff game. I'm too disappointed to say much more about that one. I still love ya, Aaron Rodgers.

Once we had dinner, we were too exhausted to do a whole lot more. We watched a little TV and I fell asleep hours before I usually do.

And here we are, Monday, the last day of the trip. We did a little shopping by the airport (5 dollars for a new official Buccaneers hat? Deal!) and prepared to take off. Which is where I started this post. In the obviously completely sweet Tampa airport.

Like one of the previous "Bruised" posts, I've actually written most of this in the plane. The 893 from Tampa to Milwaukee remains a great flight. On the plane, we got to watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico right before we reached the Florida Panhandle. Breathtaking! I won't gush about it as much as I have in past posts, but it's absolutely gorgeous.

So that's where I am now. We'll probably be landing within the next half hour, and I'll have a week or so to shake off the renewed wanderlust for Tampa Bay before I start up again at UW.

My livelihood is in Madison, my family is in Lake Mills, and sometimes my heart is in Tampa. In time I'll figure out the balance of the three.