You ever have a short period of time in which everything seems to click into place and go right? Where the balance of blah to awesome tips so hard you can’t really even process it all until everything has evened again. Think about it as if your brain was a POW for a thousand days and then got released directly into a Disney World devoid of other customers. But a brain with arms and legs. That’s tall enough to get on the cool rides. Whatever. Irrelevant.

I started Saturday with my son. We ate breakfast and lunch, played with toys, had a really nice morning. His mom came and picked him up and I immediately went to David’s to get the awesome started. I played a little GTA 4 for the first time (tractor trailer + pylon = getting thrown out a window) and found that it was developmentally breathtaking. Running around an open environment randomly punching strangers in the face has never been so epic.

Time was running short, so we booked it back to my place where we proceeded to suit up for the night’s festivities. Now it’s not commonplace (I would find out later) to wear a suit for what we had planned for the night, but I had made a decision earlier in the week to be Awesome and that was part of the plan. We then went to TGIFridays, an establishment I’d not been to since Napoleon Dynamite was still in the theaters, and felt superior and elitist in our suits amongst the throng of jeans-and-t-shirt-clad customers. The waitress was more smiley than waitresses tend to be. Our food came out promptly and was delicious. The Power of the Suit.

The trip up to DC was amusing and fun. We didn’t get lost at all, meaning the hour of Getting Lost Time I’d built in to the trip kind of went to waste. But it allowed us to find a parking garage, wander around a bit, and for David to go to the bathroom three to nine times. While typically annoying, David’s marble-sized bladder would wind up saving the night. But I’m not there yet.

We went into the Warner for The Kids In The Hall show. I plopped down six bucks for two sodas and we eventually made our way in. The tickets for this show were a present from Mom, so she went all out…the seats were in the fifth row. As we were led to the front of the theatre in our suits, we put on our best Awesome faces and could barely fit in our seats because we were swollen with pride. The picture to the right is from our seats. Had I felt such an urge over the course of the evening, I could thrown my drink cup and clocked a Kid. I probably could have spat. I think even a sneeze could have carried its shotgun blast of spittle onto the performers. We were close.

I’ll let him tell the story of his lack of subtlety, but David’s version of a whisper is like a normal person’s version of an inside voice…it still carries. So when he has amusing or stupid observations to make about people, the potential for being overheard is high. I’ve created a facial expression that means “Wow. Shut up.” that he receives more than anyone I’ve ever known. All I’ll say is that the gentlemen in front of us were neither Harold nor Kumar.

The impact of everything didn’t hit me until the Kids were on stage performing. I thought “Holy crap…I could sneeze all over Kevin McDonald right now.” The show was, of course, hilarious. We enjoyed it, as did those around us (especially the lady behind us who loudly let us know several times that she loves Kevin). The encore was a thing of brilliance. The Awesomometer ranneth over.

As the crowd began to clear out David announced, as is his way, that he needed to go to the bathroom. Looking back into the Warner lobby and seeing the wall of people between us and the bathrooms, I suggested we just be on our way. We’d made it about a block on the way to the parking garage when I saw a Barnes & Noble that was open another 15 minutes in which he should relieve himself (I suggested finding a bathroom inside, not just the main alcove). I waited outside.

I looked around, taking in the sights of a DC street corner on a Saturday night when I realized that right next to me was a large black bus with very few windows. David came out of the bathroom and I suggested we hang out there for a while and that the bus might be the Kids’ tour bus. We waited and it was entirely worth it.

Kevin McDonald and Bruce McCullough were the first to come out. Kevin wasn’t feeling well, so we introduced ourselves briefly. Bruce was a little chattier. I asked if they were having fun touring again and he said was a lot of fun and a lot of work. He also said we looked like Scientologists in our suits. They eventually moved on so Kevin could get some rest.

Next, Dave Foley crossed the street further up, so I played it cool and let him get all the way before screaming “DAVE!” and running over (through traffic). We talked to him for a bit and he made his way to the bus. He was genuinely friendly and seemed like he was in a great mood even after an exhausting, hilarious show.

Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson came out the same time, both seeming preoccupied and not wanting to chat much. They posed for a picture with a couple other people (I didn’t have my camera and it was too dark for the iPhone camera to be effective), shook our hands, and made their way to the bus. We started heading back to the parking garage when I got a text from Mom asking me to let Dave know that she loves him and has always loved him. I looked up and noticed that Dave was back on our side of the street, so I said “Hey, Dave” and read him the text. He asked me to tell her it was mutual, which I did. I heard a distant sound that was either brakes screaming or a delighted squeal heard from 3,000 miles away.

We headed back home, nerded up beyond belief. David sent a text message to several thousand dozen people letting them know that we’d hung out with the Kids and got increasingly frustrated on the drive home that no one was replying. I made rational suggestions, proposing that maybe sending several thousand dozen text messages at once takes some time. He wouldn’t listen to reason.

Back at David’s we got out the lawn chairs (the lawn in this case being the alley next to the apartment) and sat outside. The weather was gorgeous, the breeze was cooling and near-constant. We began to come down from our Show High and relaxation settled in. An amazing night.

The next day we saw Iron Man and played video games and some other awesome stuff happened. But that’s a lot to go into. I’ve already written a novella about Saturday, so no need to inflict Sunday on you. Suffice it to say I need to get a new Awesomometer because mine blew up all over the place.

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Filed under: Dork Stuff, General