So I feel that it has been just enough time that I haven't posted something so that you might be excited that I am back, but you haven't given up on me completely. Now if that is or isn't the case I will never know, but I like to live in the land of the wool being pulled over my eyes so as the Joker would say... Here. We. Go.
I feel that maybe this whole experiment that I have been doing with this blog has been a little bit flat lately. I didn't feel the punch or the inspiration in it that I had felt earlier. So I decided to give it some time and like magic I found a topic that I wanted to discuss.
I was putting my desk together in Cloud City this weekend and dealing with the overall pain in the ass that comes with moving and readjusting your life the way that you want it. And when I was done with the process and I looked around at my books on the shelves in my desk, records set up under my nightstand, pictures of friends and family set up in my window, computer on my desk, and record player beside it waiting for the next bit of vinyl and I got this overwhelming feeling of actually being an adult.
So as an adult I have finally found something to write about. I want to write about my friends. I want to write about my friends and all of there awesomeness. I think that my friends are all legends and for the moment I am interested in telling these stories. So whenever I am struck by something I'm going to get on here and write it down.
The first person on my list is none other than JOHN CODY MERRILL. I know that's not his name or even how it is spelled but to tell you the truth that is another story that we will have to get into on another day. Today I want to talk about my Favorite CODY "Mad Dog" MERRELL story. The story that I would say pretty much makes him a legend.
Now if you know Cody and have ever seen him play baseball you probably know just how intense this man is. The type of intensity that can be matched by no one and the only kind of guy that you want on your team. And that my friends is exactly where this story starts. Because only a man of this kind of intensity could be involved in a story this legendary.
It starts with a road trip. We had been in college for years now and Cody had been playing down at Texas State for almost as long. We hadn't made the trip for whatever reason, but somehow the stars alined and we decided to make that six and a half hour road trip to the golden city of San Marcos, Texas. And since that trip this city have been referred to by a different name by all of those who took the journey. We like to call it San Marvelous.
We of course call it that because that is exactly the kind of time we had while we were down there. I don't want to go into the whole trip, because that is a different blog entirely. But what I will say is that this trip brought us TKE TKERSON, a 1000 dollar bag of money on the river, A group of grown men sitting on a bench pissing down a hill because they were too drunk to get up, and a Don Powers passed out on the toilet of a public bathroom. This is the only city until about three years ago that continued to beat me, as in every time I went down there I couldn't make it pass the first night.
The story that I am about to tell you is all about the first night of the first time I ever made it down to the wonderful town of San Marcos.... As we rolled into the city from our long 6 hour drive Me, Cory, Don, and Cooper (the usual suspects) already felt the vibe of a place that we had never quite been before. A place were there is no classes on Friday, and students walked around campus in board shorts and bikinis like it was no big deal. Everyone seemed to have no were to go and nothing to do but lay out in the sun or find the closes body of water to float in with a beer in their hand. I must admit at that very moment that we first pulled into town I have the distinct feeling that if I died at that exact point in my life that is exactly what heaven or my heaven would have been like. I even believe that there was some misguided soul in that very car that said, "This is where pussy comes to get fucked!" I know pretty graphic, who's the asshole that said that? That would in fact be me. What can I say, I am a silver tongue devil.
I know at this point I'm getting a little long winded but you know but you know but bare with me just a little longer because I want to give this story it's due, and more importantly I want to give CODY his.
That first day was kind of a blur when we got into town, but I do know that there was quite a bit of drinking involved. Now that night we headed out to take on "The Square". If you are familiar with college campuses then you know all about the area of the college designated for bars and college students to go out and get wasted. OU has "Campus Corner", Texas has "6th street", OSU has... well who really give a shit what OSU has.(O-State Burn) And Texas State, well they have "The Square".
Anyway, so we all go out to The Square and let the games begin. I don't know if you out there reading this know this or not. I mean I'm sure that you probably do, but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway. My group of friends, when we all get together, we don't ever take things slow. There is only one speed that we like to go and it's with the pedal all the way to the floor. It's the reason I spent my last visit throwing up for six hours at a tailgate in a santa suite. But really and truly I don't think I would have it any other way.
Our night and this really and truly begins when we all made it to this wonderful bar that they call Nephews. Everyone around that I was with called it Phews for short. I always wondered what the college life was, and if in fact I was getting the full experience. And within about 5 minutes of being inside of Nephews I knew that I was not.
For starters it was an all out party. And the next thing is that if I'm not mistaken it was 3 dollar you call it all night. That's right folks I was drinking Goose and Juice or Jack and Coke or whatever else was there for just 3 dollars. To say that we all got a little sideways would be a vase understatement. I was having the time of my life and I'm pretty sure that everyone there was right with me.
Now the crazy and great thing about Texas State at the time was that all the bars closed at well if I'm not mistaken it was Midnight. Now this may sound crazy, I actually thought so myself, but the great thing about the bars closing at midnight is that you can go out and tie on a serious buzz and then after the bars close when your are good and sauced you leave and then it's house party time. Which I must say is so very awesome.
Now I really haven't mentioned him that much until this point but one JOHN CODY MERRILL had been our tour guide to this awesome night and at the time he had a long flowing head of blonde hair that just so happened to be in a bandana on this very night. I also must say that at this time in pop culture the movie Wedding Crashers was still very relevant. And if you know the movie then you know the montage scene where the song Shout is playing and they are popping champagne and hopping in and out of bed with women.
And at this point in time at the end of the night Nephews would play this song an epic farewell to all the patrons of the bar for the night. Cody had told us about this and how awesome that it was. What he didn't tell us is that fact that what we were all about to see was a legendary event that I haven't seen since and to be honest I doubt will ever happen again.
Even now looking back writing about it event I still cant quite believe that it all happened or that I was even there. I kind of feel like it was a moment out of a movie or even a dream to be quite honest. The song came on and everyone in the bar absolutely went nuts. There was beer going everywhere and people were jumping up and down with total joy. Like if this was their last day, last hour, last song on earth they would be completely happy.
And as beer was spewing everywhere and we were all jumping up and down I rolled my damn ankle. And let me tell you it hurt like a son of a bitch, but I couldn't stop jumping up and down and enjoying myself. And as the song comes to an end and the music turns down who do I see but none other than CODY MERRELL standing on a table and he begins to lead the entire bar in the school fight song. And as he yelled out, "EAT EM UUUUPPPP!" the rest of the bar yells back, "CATS!!!!!!" and then came the chant. "EAT EM UP, EAT EM UP!!!" and the rest of the bar yelled back "GO CATS GO!!!". and this went on for a little bit and as I stood there in amazement as one of my best friends lead an entire bar in a chant I thought to myself that there was no way that this moment could get any better.
Then the chant was over and the music kicked back on and I saw something that I thought was only reserved for rockstars. And maybe it is and maybe just maybe my friend Cody Merrell is a rockstar. Because at that moment I saw Cody Merrell jump off of the table that he was standing on and into the crowd were he crowd surf and when he was finally dropped down on the floor he game the most awesome head bang that I have ever seen in my life. His blonde hair was going everywhere and in that moment I knew that this guy. This guy that I called a friend, a teammate, even a brother... Well this guy, this guy that I'm talking about, this guy Cody Merrell, well he is in fact a LEGEND.
For Cody: a Man's Man
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