Day 7 - 11:00 PM
Silver Spring, MD

Sorry I got behind a day again! It's somewhat difficult when days get busy - with either concerts or socializing, there usually isn't a whole lot of time to sit down and relax.

So yesterday.

Waking up wasn't bad at all, but it wasn't long before we were on the road headed towards central Richmond. We pull up to Virginia Commonwealth University's auditorium - our concert venue - and unload the bus. As clubbers filter in, we kind of just hang around until everyone is there (some were hotel, some were host stays, so we didn't all arrive at the same time). One of the things we were doing was playing 'chill face', a hackeysack game, but the chill version... i.e. we would call each other out for trying too hard because we all felt particularly lazy at that moment.

After we all get settled in and get ready to rehearse, we find out that we're cutting a set from the performance, which means less time standing. victory of the day, without a doubt. We start and stop songs to get a feel for it, and soon we're done rehearsing. A few friends and I walk some blocks down the road to a cuban joint and order lunch, which takes much too long to get to us, but we're able to eat it on the brick wall of a park before we have to head back.

The concert goes, not great, not terrible, but it goes. There's a small reception afterward, and then we head back to the hotel. By the time we get back, it's already 6:30, and a few of us are planning to go to a movie, either Iron Man or the Great Gatsby. The vote wins for Iron man, and we head out to dinner before, which was pretty good, but nothing special. It's a bit of a hassle to find the theatre, which was about a half mile away, but we got in and the movie was pretty stellar. Definitely a recommend.

As we head out of the theatre, we end up walking around the entire mall, probably a solid 3/4 of a mile walking in the middle of the road and running to the other lane whenever there was a car coming. We finally see the lights of the hotel in the distance, and decide to head straight at all costs towards it... well maybe not all costs. We had to dodge a pond, but after that we headed straight. This took us over walls, through some trees, through a muddy wet marsh with chest-high grass, over parking lots, fences, and down 10 foot man made walls, and eventually we made it back. At this point, we all simply headed out separate ways and then hit the sack. The 9AM beat bus was gonna come way too early.