Stamped: May 15th, 2007 | Toggle Similar
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This story was on my mind and since I wish I could still go on spring break I'll share it here for some chuckles.

The only time you can feel good about going to Panama City Beach, Florida for spring break is when you're 18 or younger.

For my freshman year spring break I went down with five girls from my hall and one random friend of a friend. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach and our first afternoon there we met a fraternity of guys from Michigan State. It was a hilarious and fun time which included me seeing my roommate flash the cashier at a KFC, one of my party being arrested for scaling the balconies of our hotel, and another of my party getting freaked out because she saw cops and dumping $100s of dollars of alcohol down the toilet after calling her mother to consult for advice on the matter.

The week after our Panama City spring break of debauchery, I had a second spring break on accident.

My best friend Donovan and I were both at the University of Georgia together. Our friend Jim from high school was in college in Columbus, a city near the Georgia-Alabama border, about three hours from where we were at UGA. Jim lived in an apartment in Columbus and was having a party and wanted us to come down. Two girls from my hall, Stacy and Skye decided to come along too. So the four of us piled into Donovan's red '85 GTI and headed to Columbus.

We got there and it became apparent that everyone at the party had huge drug and alcohol problems. This was a time before I discovered that illicit world of "Real Partying". At this point I was 18 and had only been really drunk once in my life and still didn't know that real people did indeed use cocaine. The four of us made the best of it and since Columbus was so far and we were all tipsy and tired, we spent the night.

The next morning I awoke to,

"Brandy, get up. Hey, BRANDY! What do you think about Panama City today?"

I opened my eyes to see Donovan and Skye above me. Donovan continued, "It's only 3 hours from here. It's Saturday, we can drive down and go to the beach. Jim wants to come too."

"It'll be fun," Skye chimed in.

"I only have $40," Stacy pipes up.

An hour later we were loading Jim's guitar and a suitcase full of towels into the back of the car and our foursome turned into a party of five.

We got to Panama City fine. We stopped by a Kmart when we got into town and stepped out in the finest Kathy Ireland's swimwear line had to offer. Then we went to Taco Bell to regroup. We found that between us we had Skye's Discover card and about $65 in cash.

"We're just going to the beach so we won't spend any money," I said.

The beach behind the famed Club La Vela was the destination. This was one of the only spots we hadn't been to the week before. Stacy had been with me in PC and we were reliving wonderful moments.

We spent all day at the beach. I got maybe five free t-shirts, three frisbees and a million lighters from all the credit card promotion tents all over the place. The coast was crawling with wasted underage hot people in very little clothing, looking to have [safe?] relations. It was like heaven.

The beach started to clear out around five because the club closed from like 5 to 8 for cleanup before the night crowd. My crew started packing up and then Donovan asked,

"Brandy, where are the keys?"

"I don't know–I haven't had them. You don't see them?"

Blank stare.

The keys were gone. We looked for forever but it was useless.

We made our way back to the car which was now alone in the empty parking lot. Jim and Donovan worked on trying to jimmy the car lock while Stacy and I found a payphone and called the first locksmith we came across, Mr. Pop-A-Lock. Once Mr. Pop-A-Lock was on his way, Stacy remembered that her friend Monica was on spring break in Panama City this week.

"Let's call her mom and find out where she's staying."

So Stacy calls Monica's mom in Atlanta and somehow comes away with the number for the hotel her friend is staying at. Monica's mom informed us that Monica wasn't even supposed to be arriving until that night. But we called the hotel anyway and left about ten urgent messages for Monica for when she finally checked in.

Mr. Pop-A-Lock showed up and it turns out his name was Jamie. Jamie made us a new key which we charged on Skye's Discover card and even played a few tunes on Jim's guitar.

"I remember when me and my friends used to do stuff like this," he reminisced after finishing up "Dust In The Wind."

Monica drove up just as Mr. Pop A Lock was leaving. She didn't even ask questions. She just laughed and told us to follow her back to her hotel.

You'd think that since we were down to about $30 now, we would have gone back to the hotel, chilled and woken up early in the morning to be on our way.

But we were 18. So naturally as soon as we got back to the hotel, Stacy and I raided Monica's makeup box and within half an hour we were cruising the strip. I left Donovan, Skye and Jim in the hotel hot tub with $15 for a pizza.

I remember next to nothing about going out that night. But I do remember thinking–I have a film history exam on Monday and I haven't been to class in three weeks.

The next morning, we left bright and early to head to Columbus to drop Jim off and then back to Athens. We were tired and hungry but determined to make it back. It was raining and gross out and no one was in the mood to be in a car with only AM radio on a good day.

An hour into the drive, Donovan goes to make a left turn into a gas station and another car hit us as he pulled out of the turn light. The right front headlight popped out of the GTI and the front bumper fell off. We all looked at each other and started laughing. Donovan just hopped out of the car, retrieved the broken pieces and then tossed them into my lap when he got back in. We pulled into the gas station and the guy that hit us rushes over, apologizing profusely. He totally thought it was his fault even though in actuality, he had the right of way and Donovan never yielded on the turn.

Numbers and insurances exchanged, we all piled back into the car which was now missing a headlight and a bumper.

We were going home.

I got a C+ on my film exam the next day which I thought was fantastic considering I guessed on every single answer.

Last 5 posts by Brandy

• Hell House - November 9th, 2007
• 36 going on 11 - October 9th, 2007
• College was a good time. - September 25th, 2007
• I'm the easiet girl ever to break up with - September 18th, 2007
• Christmas Lights - August 28th, 2007