Finals, Formals, and Miss Hawaiian Tropic

This weekend started out just like any other--one eleven o'clock class and a whole lot of free time. Around lunch I get a phone call from an old high school friend turned sorority Vice-President, Emma Anne McCain. One of the pledges needed a date to the Alpha Gamma Delta formal and she was hoping that I would be willing to go. Always ready to try new things, I was more than pleased to don my dress slacks and tie. I had several hours to get ready, so I lazily swapped between T.V., facebook, and getting prepared. I met my date at Tutwiler around eight-thirty and we boarded one of the four charter buses that was to take us to Zydaco, a bar that the sorority had rented out for the whole night. I noticed a slight problem as we began to climb aboard the bus--there were about fifty people who did not have a seat. We sat and waited patiently and not so patiently for around an hour until the cabs and limos could arrive to chauffeur the remainder of the people to Birmingham. The formal lasted until two and we finally arrived back at the University around three thirty in the morning. At ten thirty A.M. the same morning I bolted upright to a squawking alarm clock--I had a date and work in the city and only half an hour to get ready, so one long shower and five ibuprofen later I was speeding at 140 mph toward the great and more familiar city of Birmingham. I arrived just in time to spend an amazing hour with Anna before I had to drag myself to work. Although I love everything about my job, I was in an extremely anti-productive mood--I just wanted to sit in my dorm and play xbox. However, there was something different about the atmosphere at work that day. As I walked through the door all of my co-workers were smiling at me as though they had some extraordinary news. As I approached the back of the store there stood Blake--my ex-girlfriend, still-bestfriend, and figurative sister. She had something draped across her shoulder that I could not quite make out at a distance--due in part of my refusal to wear glasses. Walking closer I realized that she was wearing the Miss Hawaiian Tropic sash and then it hit me like an eighteen wheeler truck! She had competed last night in the finals and won!!! My best friend and companion was the new Miss Hawaiian Tropic for the state of Alabama!