I had such a good weekend the other week that I feel like I had better write about it.
When I arrived at Virginia Tech in 1995, I didn't know a single person. I moved in two weeks before most of the students so I could try out for the marching band, but I didn't even make it through the first round of cuts, so I didn't have time to make any band friends.
I was painfully shy at that time, and when my dorm had the first big social event after the rest of the students moved in, I was standing alone under a tree, wishing I had somebody to talk to. There was a group of kids from Northern Virginia talking nearby, and I will never forget that Jenny D. looked right at me, and said, "You can come stand with us if you want." It's funny how easy it can be to make friends for life.
That group, with Justin, Bobby, and Adam contained some of my best friends through all of college, and was the core through which I met almost all of my college friends. In a few years, Justin, Bobby, and I, together with a variety of others would live together in a townhouse that we called The Good Gizzat (jiz'-aht). It was a special place to all of us, and a lot of my favorite memories happened there, or with those people, and the people who claimed honorary membership.
One really unique feature of living at the Gizzat was that Bobby volunteered to do all of the grocery shopping for the house, and cook dinner at least three nights a week with the stipulation that we all had to eat together around the dining room table. We did that for three years. I don't know if I appreciated it as much then as I do now. Besides getting home cooked food most nights, we spent time together almost every day, even when we were all busy. It made us feel more like a family. I felt more at home there than anyplace I've been since.
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| Dinner at the Gizzat during my regrettable shirtless phase |
I'm not much of an initiator, and I would probably never see any of those guys anymore, except that Justin is a natural born organizer. He has planned almost every Gizzat event we've ever had, including all the ski trips we used to do. Years ago, he and Adam started planning regular golf weekends in Blacksburg with Bobby, Adam, honorary Gizzat member Paul, and myself. Since I got hurt, they've been coming here instead.
The Gizzat weekend this year was May 28th to the 31st. Even though Justin recently moved to the Raleigh area, and bought a house 20 minutes down the road from me, I still don't see him much. A job and 2 kids will do that. Bobby and Adam drove down from the D.C. area. Bobby has 5(!?) kids now so I don't know how he ever gets to leave home. Paul moved to Texas a few years ago, so he can't really come anymore, but we did patch him in on Skype to say 'hi' and get an extremely detailed walking tour of his house.
We did a bunch of fun stuff over the weekend. My favorite was dinner at the Angus Barn. It's a fancy local steak restaurant, and sort of a local landmark. I have wanted to go since I moved to the area in 2000, but had never had the right occasion. The waiter recommended something called The Tomahawk Chop, so we got two of them to split 4 ways. It's a 42 oz. rib-eye that comes with the entire 18-inch rib bone. It was easily the best steak I have ever had. It had a ridiculous amount of marbling, and was perfectly seasoned. Plus there was enough of it for all of us to really injure ourselves.
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| Not pictured: pain |
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| Take me out |
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| Uno! |
I had more fun than I've had since the Gizzat weekend last year. I hope one day I feel good enough to travel up to Blacksburg to do a proper Gizzat weekend. I know my friends would like to see the campus, and eat at The Home Place, among other things. I would like to do those things too, but as much as I love Blacksburg (and I really do), it took me a long time to realize the most important thing about it was always that it was where my friends were, and wherever we're together, that's a pretty special place too.
