The Last Exit

It’s late. I’ve finished all my work. I have an 8:30 class tomorrow, but…no! I feel possessed to write another blog entry. Why, you ask (or maybe you don’t). Well, I guess it’s been a while since I last posted and it’s depressing to open the blog and see an entry about not being in college. So, here I go:

Friday was an important day for me…it was the opening of “The Last Kiss” starring Zach Braff and Rachel Bilson (both Jewish), a movie I had been anxiously anticipating. Luckily, one of my new friends, Samantha, was also anxiously anticipating this movie. So, we decided that, no matter where it was playing, we would go see the movie together on Saturday. I say “no matter where” because Sam brought a car. Some background: She’s from El Paso, Texas and is big on George Bush (but I forgive).

I found a “nearby” theater in Durham, NC (same city as Duke) that was 20 minutes away and playing the movie at 7:55. I printed off directions from Map Quest and decided I’d navigate. Now anyone who knows me, who I assume are people reading this, knows I have a terrible sense of direction. Fun ensues! We headed out at 7:25 leaving “ample” time in case we got lost…and of course we got lost. It was already 7:55 when we got back on the right highway and I was freaking out because I can’t miss the beginning of a movie…never ever! By some miracle we got to the theater at 8:05 just as the previews were ending.

The movie was great, by the way—Funny, but also very dark and realistic. However, the fun only continued once we got back on the road to head home. We were about 10 minutes away from Duke when we went to the wrong exit on a freeway split. We figured that we’d be able to get back onto the freeway if we just kept driving and driving and driving.

Sam asked if there were trees near me back home. I answered, “Of course.” She then proceeded to tell me that she’s nervous driving here because everything looks the same because of all the trees. Where she lives you can see for miles—no trees, just tumble weeds. This obviously made me very comfortable driving in a car with her.

After driving and getting nowhere, we pulled into a bar as it was closing. I asked politely how do I get back to Duke. The waitress laughed at me and said, “You’re in Cary, NC—30 minutes away.” I felt like I was on Lost and she was an Other (Matthew will get that reference). I got directions back and after 30 minutes we actually arrived back to Duke. However, it was already 11:30. That’s right, a 20-minute drive turned into a 1 ½ hour drive. It was some nice, if not very tense, bonding and we learned our way around North Carolina. So, anything for a good movie, right? Thankfully, we never ended up in Chapel Hill (Home of UNC)—that really would have sucked!