"SHE'S GOT BRAIDS!"

April 7, 2008

We had a really busy weekend. The crew split up, one group heading north, the other heading south. Darius, Collin, Jason, and 13th crew member Martin Suiza flew to New Brunswick, New Jersey. Logan, Ben, Sam, Harmon, and Andrew drove to Savannah. All of us had a blast...

In New Jersey, Darius and the crew were keynote speakers at a Neighbors, Inc. conference. Unfortunately, their plane was delayed for several hours on Friday, and they didn’t get to their hotel rooms until well after midnight. Nevetheless, they stayed awake watching TV and eating pizza until 5:00 AM...and STILL made it to breakfast at 8:30 the next morning.

The folks at Neighbours, Inc. really rolled out the red carpet for DGW! Aside from flying everyone there (including D’s mom, Jamie), they provided first-class lodging, great meals, and one of the best audiences ever for a screening of DARIUS GOES WEST. After the Q&A, Darius got a standing ovation, and we sold out of the 35 DVDs we’d brought with us in 20 minutes (then kicked ourselves for not packing more)! Everyone at the conference was super-friendly and so accommodating. Special thanks to Verna, Patti, and Anne for inviting us there and making us feel so welcome.

On Saturday night, we went out to dinner for sushi (no wasabi for Big Daddy)! Earlier that day, some women Jamie had met took her out to get her hair done, and guess what? SHE HAS BRAIDS! Check out the pictures of her new "do" in our gallery. More New Jersey pictures will be added later.

Savannah was equally amazing. At the last minute, we convinced Andrew to come with us. Thirteenth crew members Lynn Massey joined the fun, as did Annie Timmins.We also invited three of Eve Carson’s closest friends: Anna and Tim from UNC-Chapel Hill, and Amble (who is Sam’s older brother) from Athens. We rented a cottage at Tybee Island and decided to treat it as a "heal and chill" weekend.

Right as we pulled into Savannah, we stopped at a McDonald’s for lunch, then discovered we had a flat tire. The spare was also flat! Fortunately, there was a tire store two doors down, so we were back on the road in no time.

On Saturday night, we drove downtown to do a Q&A at the Hyatt, which was part of the Southern States Communication Association Conference, spearheaded by Athens’ own, Jerry Hale. The crowd was small, but they were so enthusiastic...plus they bought a ton of DVDs! Right after the Q&A, we went across the street to watch the Final Four basketball game. We were all bummed when UNC lost. The rest of the night was a lot of fun, though, especially our extremely competitive game of "Trivial Pursuit." The weather was great on Sunday, so we hung around and worked on our tans (see beach pictures and more in our gallery). Special thanks to Marty Johnston, who paid for Logan’s airline ticket to Savannah and treated us all to lunch on Sunday!

All in all, it was an amazing weekend for DGW, and we raised almost $1,000 for Charley’s Fund.

KNOW ABOUT IT!