IN WHICH we Depart our Home to Travel Blissfully along the Streets and Roads of America on our Way to Uncasville, Connecticut, Dine at the Table of the Burger King, I Spend the Night on a very Comfortable Couch, AND - in the Meantime - Game 2 is Played.

Our trip down was very pleasant and rather uneventful.  We went down through Lowville, where we stopped and had lunch at a deserted Burger King, where the only other customer was a middle-aged woman who seemed to know all the employees personally, and smiled at me knowingly after I mistakenly filled my king-size cup with soda water, rather than the Sprite I had been aiming for.  "A beautiful day, isn't it?," she said a few seconds later.  Yes.  A beautiful day it was.

Traffic was light until we got into the Springfield-Hartford corridor, but my grandmother - who claimed at the beginning of the ride to be a notoriously difficult passenger - only worried aloud one time.  Once we got in the car-pool lane, it was smooth sailing until the front door in Connecticut, only six hours after we'd left (and that with the thirty minute stop to eat!).

We were met by my aunt Su, uncle Bud, their two sons Brian and Sean, and their dog Tasha, whose eyes emit a constant liquid discharge that runs down her face, and will become important later in the story.  We sat down to a very tasty dinner - all but Tasha, who stood behind my chair and whined, her face marred by the twin tracks of doggie tears, her noise stopped only by her mad rush toward the bread crumbs I swept off my pants and onto the floor.

After dinner, we watched the new Star Trek on tape, and I went down to the basement, where I'd be sleeping.  It was a bit cold, but it had a TV and an extraordinarily comfortable couch that I had slept on during my last visit.  I sat down and watched the Yankees obliterate the Mariners in Game 2, catching parts of "ER" in between batters.  Yes, everything was looking great for our trip on Saturday.  I would be leaving the house in the afternoon, driving my grandmother's car to Mike's house, and we would head down to the Bronx to watch the Yankees go up 3 games to 0, and take a commanding lead over the 116-regular-season-win, but no-results-when-it-counts-most Mariners.

That night, I slept the sleep of the just.  All the weekend awaited.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Round FOUR

NHS Speech

"My View" Editorial

The October Surprise
|  Round 1 |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |
|  11  |  12  |  Final Bell  |

Journey to Jersey II
|  Intro  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |

Journey to Jersey I
|  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |   6  |  7  |  8  |
|  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |
|  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |

An Epic Saga
|  Act  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |

Christian Rock Email

Freshman Room Draw
|  Part One  |  Two  |
|  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |