just when i thought i'd done it all...

being actively single for a while, i've gone on all sorts of dates. but this morning i was able to check two more off of my dating bucket list:

1. the super early morning date
2. the implosion date (*the kind where we go to watch an implosion. i've had plenty of evenings that have imploded....)

college station was imploding the old plaza hotel (one of the tallest buildings in our flat, mountainless town) at 6:30 this morning, and while i hate getting up early, this seemed justifiable. and if i could bring along a pretty girl, all the better. thankfully, summer was up for the idea, although i was a little crestfallen when she said she couldn't go out for kolaches afterwards because she had to work. we were still getting to watch a building collapse, so i can't argue much.

getting up at 5:30 A.M. rots no matter how you look at it, but i was still showered and ready in time. we made sure to park close to the exit and walk the extra distance, since we knew the traffic would be a nightmare getting out. i wasn't sure how many people would show up for this; summer estimated 3,000 but i thought it looked closer to 5,000. either way, it was pretty cool to see so many people excited for this.

the blast was supposed to happen at 6:30 but came about ten minutes later. we saw a flash from a few stories on one end of the building and (what seemed like) a second or two later, the boom hit. that thing was loud. then from left to right, the building neatly crumbled into itself, with the stair column (?) remaining falling last.

the whole thing lasted only a few seconds but it was the show we wanted. and even though we parked as close to the exit as we could, it still took us 15 minutes to get out.

but it was totally worth it.

a few hours later, i counted 17 different videos of the implosion on youtube.

but this one on vimeo is the best.