Woke up and had breakfast- Amanda made particularly good hashbrowns.

Dad went golfing, Amanda and I went out to Tripps to eat with Chris Reeves for lunch. After that we went by Pup Pup’s house to get a few of my belongings.
Mom got back from her fox hunt trip about the same time as the Duke-NC State game came on. To be honest I, and a lot of other people, were a little nervous about this game, but Duke beat the Wolfpack by 23 points. Jason Revill was planning on coming over, and a little while before the game came on he called to say he was bringing Joel Freeman with him. Joel is a college buddy of mine whom I have probably not seen since Jaime Arnold’s most recent bachelor party. It was good to see him, even if he did nap for a large portion of the second half of the game.

Jason and Joel left after the game and Amanda and I got ready for the Northern High School Class of 1996 10 Year Reunion. We then drove over to Jason’s then headed out to Bay 7. It’s an old tobacco warehouse split up into a bunch of different little places. Some are offices while others, like Bay 7, are wide open spaces. It was a cool area. It’s where the Lucky Strike smokestack and water tower are, and there’s a running body of water with cascades and small waterfalls running next to the walkway between buildings. Unfortunately the scenery didn’t quite make up for the fact that it was dreadfully cold and we had to walk a little distance from the deck where Jason parked his car.

Inside the first person we talked to was a very pregnant Erin Berryman and her husband. John Pearson and Autumn Belk showed up shortly and Kelia and John Pless were there soon too. So was John Fisher and his wife, as well as Todd Buker and his girlfriend. I spent a bit of time talking with Lucy Schenkman (married, one kid), Desmond Hinton (living in Arizona, uncle of three) and Melanie Kolasa. I blew Melanie’s mind by recalling this one time in church when she grabbed my hand and scraped back my cuticles. I forgot to mention Matt Memrick from last night (whom I also talked to tonight). He was there from Gastonia with his girlfriend, Mandy. Chris Reeves showed up after a while. I also talked to Lisa Amin, oh, and Tina and Toby Clayton. Toby was particularly fun to talk to; he was just vibrant. He also said he keeps in touch with Steve Ceci, a real good friend of mine from way back when. Steve apparently slipped on some ice a while back and is having some severe neck problems.
Overall, despite the finger food (which there wasn’t enough of considering what we paid for the place) and the fact that more people I hadn’t talked to in some time came to tonight’s event as opposed to last night’s, I liked the G Loft better. It was smaller and I think it forced a bit more conversation. There was a dance floor though, and John and Kelia took advantage of it. Actually, Todd and his girlfriend did a bit of dancing too and had a dip I just had to compliment them on.

I felt underdressed. The invite said “dressy casual” which Amanda assured me after thorough research at her office was not a style that existed. I wore a button-up shirt under a nice sweater and khakis. Most guys wore jackets. Not all, by any means, but most.

When we left we went out a way that we couldn’t come in, through an upper level door that lead right to the parking lot. I ran out to get Jason’s car then drove it down to pick up him and Amanda, but I let Jason drive on back.

Zach Dotsey
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