UWC 2012

As the time to fly out to Philadelphia was growing nearer, so were my nerves getting closer to imploding on themselves. I felt anxious all day, but it was made better by the fact that I got to see all my favorite people for the first time in a year. There's Jennifer from Australia:

Bhat (Bhatman):

Ronin (left) and Mike Hu (right):

 GRETCHEN (I love Gretchen) and Mark:

 And Alex, with the most terrifying photobomb ever achieved by my brother, Coty:

And I also made a new friend, Louie...

Only in Indiana. 

Around midday Coty and I thought it would be a good idea to go see a movie. We're both really into folk lore and fairy tale/supernatural-type stories, and Snow White and the Huntsman came out that day. After driving around a nearby town for half an hour, asking people for directions and trying to find free internet for getting Google Map directions, we learned there was no theater in town and we'd have to go to the next town over. It was about 20 minutes away according to my GPS; a town called Bloomington.

So, naturally, it took us two hours to get there, drive through traffic, get lost a few times, and find the movie theater. I swear to the powers the be: my GPS is trying to kill me. And I've essentially given up on using my own sense of direction, so I've learned I have to have people in the car with me to keep me on track unless I want to stop every five minutes to ask for directions from strangers. After watching the movie (which wasn't good or bad, but it was visually beautiful) it took us 30 minutes to get back to Needmore. Also, STAY AWAY from Bloomington and Indiana in general if you don't like confusing traffic. Bloomington was home to the most ill-conceived traffic signs I could possibly imagine.

I'm not even going to attempt to understand this one. 

There are seven - count them, SEVEN stop lights. All facing various nonsensical directions. 

After stalking people all day for photos, driving for three hours, and jamming on the ukulele and going up for open mic to make a fool out of myself, I was exhausted. However, to make the next day easier for Coty and I, we decided to drive to Indianapolis around 11 o'clock and find a hotel instead of sleeping in the car again and having me get on my flights all dirty and nasty. We stopped by a McDonald's on the way for internet and booked a room about 30 minutes from the airport. We stopped, settled in, and woke up early the next morning for my flight...