A weekend of firsts

AJ came to visit from Rennes, where he is studying abroad, this weekend. As he was my first expected guest, I did by best to plan a bro-tastic weekend. After picking him up from the airport on Friday, we proceeded to head into Madrid central where we did a walking tour of the city while stopping at various restaurants for a beer and some tapas. We ended our tour in a younger district of Madrid at a bar with actual pitchers of beer (and the only one I have found in this country with such an amenity) and for only four euro. What happened next may be worthy of considering the greatest mystery of all time, on par with the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, who shot Kennedy and what the hell is going on in Lost…

We awoke the next morning to a weird smell. After some discussion, we figured out that the third couch, which neither of us slept on, had been used as a toilet. I will lay out the facts as we know them and you the reader can be judge, jury and executioner.

- I sleep on an ‘L’ couch, AJ on the other coach across the room. The scene of the crime was the part of the ‘L’ that I do not use as my bed.
- The puddle was coming from the cushion, the type of mess that would have been left if someone had peed in their sleep, not if they stood to use the couch as a bathroom. There was no trickle from the puddle, no drunk guy would pee a perfect puddle sans trickle. Fact.
- At some point I remember waking up a seeing a liquid under my laptop (which I had on the couch because we originally going to skype people before we both just passed out). I picked the computer up, dried it off and didn’t think twice about it.
- There was pee at the very base of my bed, in the corner by my feet.
- AJ has a history, peed his sheets in his first week in France
- Both of our boxers were completely dry and did not smell
- AJ’s socks were soaked and on the floor between the two couches
- The floor was completely dry everywhere

There is enough evidence to probably point the finger at either of us but at the same time acquit us as well. The family has a cat, which frequents my living area. After thinking about this for a solid 48 hours (and everyone has seen enough crappy reality TV to know all crimes are solved in the first 48), I have come to the conclusion that the cat did it. It is the only thing that makes sense. Why was there no pee on the laptop? Why is there no trickle? However those are the facts, and I think ultimately this case will end unsolved.

And that was only the first night! The next day we had tickets for a Real Madrid game at the famed Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. After a gluttonous visit to a Mexican restaurant, we headed to the park to meet up with some friends of mine who were joining us. Two years ago, when studying abroad, Nat, Matt, and I came to Madrid to attend a Bruce Springsteen concert. Before the concert, Matt and I rented a rowboat on Retiro Lake and proceeded with the pre-game….AJ and I continued the tradition. The game was incredibly cool and the stadium was impressive to say the least; however, Madrid’s performance was only a spot more than mediocre as the heavily favored home side edged out the bottom-dwelling team from Santander. In short, epic weekend, that’s about all that can be said.