Eros and Amy go to White Castle (alright it was Mcdonald's)

Eros' post...Amy is sleeeeeeping

Alright so tonight was the Midnight Sun Run. Up hear, in the land of the midnight sun, the solstice is quite the event. So every year there is a race that starts at 10pm the weekend before the solstice. We here at Upward Bound participate. One of the fun things to do for the MSR (as the cool kids call it up here) is to dress up in some sort of costume and run the 10k. So we, of course decided that our students should all dress up. Each clan had to come up with their own theme of costume and dress up, then we had a contest. My clan was a group of dead runners that got run over by cars. We took some brand new Walmart bought t-shirts and ran over them with a van. It was pretty fun. Then we had the kids put some fake blood on them, tear them up, and write funny things on them. Some of my favorites, "Got Blood?", "Need the number for 911", and "Run or Die". See the picture below of the entire clan. Amy's group were all dressed up as superheroes. I think Amy pushed that one because she just bought a pair of superman underwear from Walmart (what a mecca) and really wanted people to see them. Her pictures are below as well. So we got all dressed up and them each clan got judged. Amy's group came in 3rd, mine came in 2nd, and Ken's group of Rambo's came in first. They did have some good cheers though. His picture is also below. After our contest, we went to the starting line, which was conveniently located about 200 yards from our dorm. Oh yeah, minor detail, the weather for Midnight Sun run, was NOT sunny, it was raining and 55 degrees...very shitty.

The run went very well. I had never run a 10k before and was fairly happy with my time. I was the second one to come in from our group, one of the students was less than a second before me, and Amy came in third. Granted, most of the kids and Resident Mentors walked, but we still kick ass. So then we were sitting around in the cold rain with our wet clothes waiting for people to finish so we could start driving them back to the dorm. Unlike in Chicago, the start and finish are in way different places. So after freezing for about 25 minutes, we found enough people to make our first trip back. Went back, changed and returned to get another group. By this time most of the walkers had finished so loaded up quickly, dropped them off, and came back. This time, the park was almost empty and we figured that the other 3 vans had taken care of everyone else. So Amy and I left with no kids...at this point we looked at each other and decided we needed to go get food. Since there was no Bennigans or Bacino's pizza in the area, we went to McDonald's. It's 12:45 at this point, but since it seems like 8:30 we figured they'd be open. We got to the McD's and saw people in the drive-thru and inside. So we went to the drive-thru and ravenously decided that what we would order. Then we sat there for 8 minutes. I honked the horn of my kick-ass van, nothing. So we drove up and they said they were closed...ouch. I haven't felt dissapointment like that in a long time. It hurt. So we decided that we didn't have time to try the 24 hour McD's the guy told us about because we had to get back to help everyone else.

We returned to the dorm and after making sure everyone went to bed, Ken said that he and Chels were going to Wendy's. We promptly went with them only to find that the drive-thru at Wendy's closes at 1:00, it was 1:13...more pain. So we went to a different McDonald's, again with people in the drive-thru...getting food mind you. We again waited at the order window for about 5 minutes, then we just drove up to the first window where they take your money. There was nobody there, but we waited. After about 3-5 minutes of incessant cursing at the McDonalds' staff who were obviously laughing at our painful hunger and at the fat people in front of us getting food who obviously didn't need it, some guy came to the window and said they were closed. We asked if there was any place open at this time, and he said the Burger King down the street. At this point, it's 1:38am. We go to the Burger King and it's been closed since 10:00. We peeled out of that parking lot, contemplated kicking the guy at McD's ass and then went to the last McDonald's in Fairbanks...thankfully, it was open 24 hours and there was a bit of a line, but we got our food!!! Hallelujah!!! Then, as we were driving home, we picked up Doogie Howser all messed of on Ex...he was all, "Let's go find some chicks", and were like, "No way! That's Doogie Howser!" (Just checking to see if you're paying attention). We returned to the dorm at 2:18am, finished off our food by 2:20am and then we went to bed. If anyone has seen Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, the way the look and feel when they finally get their food...that's who we felt when we got our food. It was the best damn piece of soy/meat/sawdust I've ever had.

So now it's 3:12am, I'm full and tired. It's time for bed. I hope you enjoy the pictures. We had a good night tonight.