Okay bitches, it's getting to be that time of year again. You know what I am talking about, State Wrestling 2004. It is still up in the air whether or not I am going to be there this year after the empty feeling I had last year. Let's start off with a little history on the subject.
I have been attending state wrestling since 1998 with the original Nick Summy. We have never had a smooth sailing trip to get there either. The first year I found myself sitting in Nick's room feverishly cranking out network cables at a dollar a piece to be able to afford the trip. The first road block occurred when Nick's mother was on the phone with the Savery and they said they lost the reservation. We were about to hit the roof, we were a week out and you can't find a room anywhere in the Des Moines area on that short of notice. It also proved to be a blessing because they were able to upgrade us to a mini suite for the same price, and this set the pace for the years to come. It was also this year that I got my first case of the denial. I stayed there for a while after the events were over staring at the empty mats, hoping if I wait just ten more minutes they would put up a new set of brackets and start everything over again. It is a tradition to start plans in September but wind up sitting at the Total Experience hashing out figures and expected paychecks on a napkin in January. We have been known to take someone's five dollar tip only to replace it with a one. This was our biggest problem in 1999.
State wrestling 2000 almost came to a screeching halt when it was determined that I would not be able to attend, we had upgraded to a suite with a spa that year, and without my funding the room would not be affordable, a replacement was found at the last minute so Nick and crew went without me. When I got home I hopped on line to check the day's results only to find out if I left right then I would make it in time for the second session, so I got in my truck and hauled ass west. That weekend was a wild one involving a Brazilian foreign exchange student, a club called Bugsy's and a girl named Lex. I ended finding new living arrangements on my return. I thought we pushed the limit when we upgraded to the Presidential Suite in 2001. Once again we had money troubles when McLeodUSA double paid me and then cancelled the check after I cashed it. That was a hard $600 hit. But that was minor considering what were about to encounter. After standing in line for nearly an hour and a half we had our first run in with Wendy Fickel. She informed us that we needed a 21 year old to check in. When we produced one, she had to make a last ditch effort to keep us out telling us Nick's Platinum VISA with a $25,000 limit couldn't cover the room. After calling Citibank and finding out she didn't even attempt to runt he card we punked that birch again and found our way to the room. We gave state wrestling partying a new name breaking a lot of things in the hotel, breaking the bed, and the cigarette burns all over the place. We had girls stay in the room every night that we had no clue who they were or how they got there. You couldn't go anywhere on the skywalk that year without hearing about room 800 at the Savery. We got nightly calls from Wendy Fickel, but we kept that ho in check. Then there was Turkey Valley , these guys learned how to party that weekend after they found their way into our room and never really found their way out. All this led to the two hour ride of silence, everyone was so strung out you couldn't so much as look at some else without causing a mass blow up.
In 2002 Nick did not attend because I was stuck in my MOS school with no way out.
Read Josh's 2003 recap of events here