Do you ever have one of those days where you wish you could make someones life easier or wave that magic wand and take all the pain and crap out of their lives? Ah perfection! Look! Ta-da and you are happy! yeah...it doesnt ever really work that way...what is the biggest bummer is when someone you care about is having a shitty time of it and they are 821 miles away....(according to mapquest)...now Im sure I could drive 13 hours to visit someone, give them a hug and say "its gonna be OK mate" but in the real world...I cant drive 13 hours to visit and try to distract someone from their life. It is a total wicked pisser.
Mail me!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
work etc..
So once again today we are at 50% staff. As far as I know, people
may or may not have called in...who knows....its all loosy goosy
around here. A co-worker said that around here, in his opinion, when
they don't expect anything of you at all, and you do even the
slightest thing right, you are praised like the next coming of christ,
if you are a decent or exceptional worker and you make one mistake,
its pretty much the end of the world and you should never expect
praise for being a good employee. I wonder if this is true
everywhere...it pretty much has been in my estimation from my work
experience...The thing I just can't figure out is how to get in the
ivory tower of employees where you can be a complete fuckoff and still
keep your job...Based on my work experience I would say its not a
lock to me a female or a minority, although it certainly helps...In
the few jobs I have had the people that have taken full advantage of
the system have been some form of "minority" grouping (whether that
means race or creed or color or sex)...
first job ever at M&I Bank, a chick that worked there had 4 kids
(by 4 different baby daddies) and liked to drink...hard...at least 2
times a week (if not more) she "couldnt come in, my kids are sick, my
kids dont have a babysitter, my kids got up late." It started my
hatred for people who use their kids as an excuse for their own shitty
behaviour. My 2nd real job at GE...1 guy who used his kid (who didnt
even live with him full time) as a almost DAILY excuse for his
lateness, sickness, leaving earlyness...His son had more missed
busses, trips to the hospital and mysterious Monday Morning/Friday
Afternoon sicknesses than anyone I have ever met. He said (and I am
quoting here) "let them try and fire me, I will have my attorney slap
a law suit on them for racial discrimination so fast it will make your
head spin." as far as I know, he still works there...and still pulls
the same shit....
Then there was the college age girl who would (loudly) proclaim
about her intentions to drink herself floating on Thursday nites (and
thus would be "sick" on fridays) and would also detail at length the
raves and parties she would attend over the weekend (thus mysteriously
would be sick Mondays) and pulled this shit weekly for at least a
year...Then she changed her work hours so she would (supposedly) leave
at 6pm, however, when her boss left around 4:40, she would just leave
around 5pm and get paid for the extra hour...(we didnt punch a clock
there). They did end up firing her, but it wasnt for shit like that.
No it was because there was an all company meeting that we had to
attend and she didnt show up for it, and claimed she was at work
during that time, but her boss was calling her work phone every 10 min
for about 2 hours and she never picked up the line...she just wasnt
sober enough to talk her way outta that one...
The job I had after GE wasnt so bad as far as people pulling this
crap...my boss (at the time) had a really low tolerance for bull shit
like this and ended up firing a lot of people while i was there...I
think the year I was there at least 3-5 people were canned...For a
company that only has 20 or so employees, thats alot. I wouldnt say
there werent people there that bitched about special treatment for
certain employees, but when those employees are related to other
employees...well, lets just say, you dont fire your kid....
I want to be the person that can willingly use my kids as an
excuse for staying home and staying in bed. I want to call in sick
and then go to Disneyworld for the weekend. I want to lie to my boss
about my mysterious alcoholic illnessess, even though I'm not an
alcoholic....I want to smoke 2 packs a day and wonder why I have
mysterious bronchial infections, and stomach pains...but wait, I have
kids to feed and bills to pay...crap...The main question I always have
with co-workers that treat their job as a vacation spot (come and go
as you please) is how do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle when
you arent getting paid for being here?
Bah.
Mail me!
may or may not have called in...who knows....its all loosy goosy
around here. A co-worker said that around here, in his opinion, when
they don't expect anything of you at all, and you do even the
slightest thing right, you are praised like the next coming of christ,
if you are a decent or exceptional worker and you make one mistake,
its pretty much the end of the world and you should never expect
praise for being a good employee. I wonder if this is true
everywhere...it pretty much has been in my estimation from my work
experience...The thing I just can't figure out is how to get in the
ivory tower of employees where you can be a complete fuckoff and still
keep your job...Based on my work experience I would say its not a
lock to me a female or a minority, although it certainly helps...In
the few jobs I have had the people that have taken full advantage of
the system have been some form of "minority" grouping (whether that
means race or creed or color or sex)...
first job ever at M&I Bank, a chick that worked there had 4 kids
(by 4 different baby daddies) and liked to drink...hard...at least 2
times a week (if not more) she "couldnt come in, my kids are sick, my
kids dont have a babysitter, my kids got up late." It started my
hatred for people who use their kids as an excuse for their own shitty
behaviour. My 2nd real job at GE...1 guy who used his kid (who didnt
even live with him full time) as a almost DAILY excuse for his
lateness, sickness, leaving earlyness...His son had more missed
busses, trips to the hospital and mysterious Monday Morning/Friday
Afternoon sicknesses than anyone I have ever met. He said (and I am
quoting here) "let them try and fire me, I will have my attorney slap
a law suit on them for racial discrimination so fast it will make your
head spin." as far as I know, he still works there...and still pulls
the same shit....
Then there was the college age girl who would (loudly) proclaim
about her intentions to drink herself floating on Thursday nites (and
thus would be "sick" on fridays) and would also detail at length the
raves and parties she would attend over the weekend (thus mysteriously
would be sick Mondays) and pulled this shit weekly for at least a
year...Then she changed her work hours so she would (supposedly) leave
at 6pm, however, when her boss left around 4:40, she would just leave
around 5pm and get paid for the extra hour...(we didnt punch a clock
there). They did end up firing her, but it wasnt for shit like that.
No it was because there was an all company meeting that we had to
attend and she didnt show up for it, and claimed she was at work
during that time, but her boss was calling her work phone every 10 min
for about 2 hours and she never picked up the line...she just wasnt
sober enough to talk her way outta that one...
The job I had after GE wasnt so bad as far as people pulling this
crap...my boss (at the time) had a really low tolerance for bull shit
like this and ended up firing a lot of people while i was there...I
think the year I was there at least 3-5 people were canned...For a
company that only has 20 or so employees, thats alot. I wouldnt say
there werent people there that bitched about special treatment for
certain employees, but when those employees are related to other
employees...well, lets just say, you dont fire your kid....
I want to be the person that can willingly use my kids as an
excuse for staying home and staying in bed. I want to call in sick
and then go to Disneyworld for the weekend. I want to lie to my boss
about my mysterious alcoholic illnessess, even though I'm not an
alcoholic....I want to smoke 2 packs a day and wonder why I have
mysterious bronchial infections, and stomach pains...but wait, I have
kids to feed and bills to pay...crap...The main question I always have
with co-workers that treat their job as a vacation spot (come and go
as you please) is how do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle when
you arent getting paid for being here?
Bah.
Mail me!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
freaking work, i tell ya...
So today marks the 2 week mark that one of my co-workers has been sick. (let me clarify) sick=i can not come to work but i am well enough to not be at home during the day when work calls and i am well enough to go to the bars at night and i am well enough to go to a rock concert, but i am so very ill that I can not come to work....then another coworker decides whats good for the goose is good for the gander and SHE is not coming to work either...(cause my tummy hurts, wait a minute, i need to go smoke another cigarette...) so its basically me and my 'Mo Tom here doing the work for the department. Its so unbelieveably frustrating and argggg!!!
the sad part is for coworker #1 they cant really do anything...I mean, how do you fire or repremand someone who is "fighting" cancer? Isnt cancer just the free pass? I mean, they did fire 2 pregnant people here and got away with that....I always thought pregnancy was the free pass to acting like an ass at work....I guess not....cancer must just be the lucky card here, I dunno..
Im feeling a bit better today....Dale was sick last night (convieniently when we have 18 loads of laundry to fold and dishes and shit to do...) so nothing got accomplished...Owen had a 101.8 fever at school, now seems fine? As daycare said "we know something was wrong because he didnt want to eat.."
Fuck..How can I already be having a lousy week when its only Tuesday?
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the sad part is for coworker #1 they cant really do anything...I mean, how do you fire or repremand someone who is "fighting" cancer? Isnt cancer just the free pass? I mean, they did fire 2 pregnant people here and got away with that....I always thought pregnancy was the free pass to acting like an ass at work....I guess not....cancer must just be the lucky card here, I dunno..
Im feeling a bit better today....Dale was sick last night (convieniently when we have 18 loads of laundry to fold and dishes and shit to do...) so nothing got accomplished...Owen had a 101.8 fever at school, now seems fine? As daycare said "we know something was wrong because he didnt want to eat.."
Fuck..How can I already be having a lousy week when its only Tuesday?
Mail me!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
I have had a hard weekend.
First the kids have been insane this weekend...
Then last night we got about 18 inches of snow...heavy, wet, annoying snow...which was then covered by sleet, melted a bit, then pounded by rain/sleet and then more snow...I'd like to say Thank you to our neighbors KT and Roy who let Dale use their snowblower....If they hadnt we would be still shoveling...our power went out for about 2 hours (ever tried to keep 3 kids occupied for two hours in the dark?), I had to shovel my way out (again) when the plow came through 30 sec before I left to go scrounge food..(shoveling wet slush=super dooper fun (not))....the kids spent most of the afternoon in a state of mental collapse (we didnt have boots=no outside time for sad kids...)..one of my friends is having a pisser of a weekend so I'm bummed for him...and to cap it all off, Malinda decided to puke apple crisp chips, apple slices and grape juice all over my nice off white carpeting....picking up chunks of vomit apples sucks. I now have a headache and a backache and the only thing keeping me going is the fact that tonite is the Oscars & BSG.
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Then last night we got about 18 inches of snow...heavy, wet, annoying snow...which was then covered by sleet, melted a bit, then pounded by rain/sleet and then more snow...I'd like to say Thank you to our neighbors KT and Roy who let Dale use their snowblower....If they hadnt we would be still shoveling...our power went out for about 2 hours (ever tried to keep 3 kids occupied for two hours in the dark?), I had to shovel my way out (again) when the plow came through 30 sec before I left to go scrounge food..(shoveling wet slush=super dooper fun (not))....the kids spent most of the afternoon in a state of mental collapse (we didnt have boots=no outside time for sad kids...)..one of my friends is having a pisser of a weekend so I'm bummed for him...and to cap it all off, Malinda decided to puke apple crisp chips, apple slices and grape juice all over my nice off white carpeting....picking up chunks of vomit apples sucks. I now have a headache and a backache and the only thing keeping me going is the fact that tonite is the Oscars & BSG.Mail me!
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
sorry about this week
I have been busy and not much time for posting about the week. I suck. This week has been short due to vacation Monday...The wedding in DC was nice...Bryce and Carla should be in Amsterdam by now for their honeymoon...have fun in the red light dist. my dears!
The kids have been pretty good this week, for this I am greatful. As for me? I am pretty close (maybe 1-2 nights of 1-2 hours)....of finishing my cross stitch...that should be good...I was going to write a long missive tonite and then i called Ryan and got sidetracked so if you want to know whats been going on with him, call him and check in.
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
sad times
Darwin Wept
Excerpted from the New York Times, February 19, 2007:The American Civil Liberties Union, the People for the American Way Foundation and a partner from a large Manhattan law firm stood beside the student, Matthew LaClair, as he and his family threatened to sue the Kearny Board of Education if their complaints are not resolved. Last fall, Matthew, 16, taped the teacher, David Paszkiewicz, telling students in a history class that if they do not believe that Jesus died for their sins, they “belong in hell.”
On the recordings, which Matthew made surreptitiously starting in September, Mr. Paszkiewicz is heard telling the class that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah’s ark and that there is no scientific basis for evolution or the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
Since Matthew turned over the tapes to school officials, his family and supporters said, he has been the target of harassment and a death threat from fellow students and “retaliation” by school officials who have treated him, not the teacher, as the problem. The retaliation, they say, includes the district’s policy banning students from recording what is said in class without a teacher’s permission and officials’ refusal to punish students who have harassed Matthew.
Matthew and his parents, Paul and Debra LaClair, are demanding an apology to Matthew and public correction of some of Mr. Paszkiewicz’s statements in class.
For his part, Matthew said he recognized that “there are going to be a lot of consequences” at school from the Monday news conference. He said he had already felt hostility from students after the school switched his history class from Mr. Paszkiewicz to another teacher.
The district would not disclose what action it had taken against Mr. Paszkiewicz, who is teaching the same course to a different group of students. He has taught in the district for 14 years.
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Could I be more depressed, yet happy?
So I believe I have chronicaled here my adventures with myspace and me connecting online with someone I went to high school with 12 years ago who admitted he had a crush on me back in the day. That made me feel awesome for about a week. Its always nice to know that someone found you pretty and a good ego boost no matter how you look at it. Now, that same thing that made me happy and boosted for a week has turned the corner into a real bummer. Now as I type this I can almost hear someone saying in their head the same thing they say when they hear that Britney Spears says she drinks, parties, and shows her mommy hole to us all, because she is sooooo sad. "Oh boo-fucking hoo poor you and your crappy problems." And I do realize that this "I am so pretty everyone loves me" problem is really stupid and you have complete freedom to kick me next time you see me...anyways..
I have turned the corner from feeling very happy and blushy, to being sad....I'm not sad because I bemoan my lost youth or anything, I have no desire to go redo high school and correct mistakes ala Peggy Sue Got Married (because if Hollywood has taught us nothing its that, that never works anyways, you always end up where you were anyways)..but this week yet another guy I went to high school with mentioned something to the effect that "I know you are married now but I would have followed you anywhere." Well Damn.
Now this person (vs the 1st person) dated my (then) best friend for a time, and I never was the girl to mack on her friends' men after the fact, so never really considered him in "that way"..but damn. The depressing part of this is that I feel like the worlds biggest fucking moron ever because during this time period in high school I was beyond wrapped up in my (then) boyfriend (not Dale) for pretty much the entirety of my 3 years in high school (and some of freaking middle school) and I coulda so hit the town with either of these guys and been OK with that decision. I (much like someone else around here) coulda been the #1 lovegirl in my particular postal district. I feel like Janenne Garafolio in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, "THAT'S Sandy Frink? What the fuck was I thinking?" ( I was hung up like a picture on THAT guy? What the fuck was I thinking?) It's only depressing in the way that you start thinking "what the hell else did I miss out on?" Once you start thinking like that, you are totally sunk
The positive part of my whole unhealthy union with THAT guy was that as a direct result of my major league temper tantrum circa 1994, I started dating Dale and have pretty much been with him since that point. Shows that from all shit piles, a diamond can be found I suppose.
Now I am wondering with each new "I totally remember going to high school with that guy, lets send a friend request" am I gonna get some form of this letter back (aww too bad you were so hung up on whatshisdickface, i worshiped your size 9 feet and now I own a mansion and a yacht) from people?
Either way its been fun to catch up with people I havent seen or thought about in years and check in how howzit going. If you believe the media Myspace is nothing but pederasts and underage girls bitching about other underage girls. For me, its my own personal "if you were in 11th grade right now you'd be hittin' it up style" site. I think I should get dale to get a page so he can find out how many girls LOOOOOVED him when he was in high school? That would totally be interesting.
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
disgusting cuteness
while watching pirates of the carribean with the kids...during the sword fight with will and cap'n jack Owen was overheard to yell at the TV "no! no! stop it! you are naughty, naughty! stop, stop it!" beyond precious.
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Saturday, February 10, 2007
the arms race...
So the theme tonite is the cold war...and who do ya like America or Russia...I am finding myself in the position of being Switzerland and being neutral...I am Sweden, Paraguay,
Lichtenstein, Monaco, Andorra. I am Turkey, Nepal, Afghanistan, Yemen, Bhutan, Spain, Portugal, Ireland..who the hell wants to be Bhutan? It hard being neutral because generally in a war, everyone wants you to, needs to you, take a side. It is pretty much validation for the "right" ness of their position, regardless of reality.
Lichtenstein, Monaco, Andorra. I am Turkey, Nepal, Afghanistan, Yemen, Bhutan, Spain, Portugal, Ireland..who the hell wants to be Bhutan? It hard being neutral because generally in a war, everyone wants you to, needs to you, take a side. It is pretty much validation for the "right" ness of their position, regardless of reality.
It's hard to be a neutral party because you want to please everyone and end up pleasing no one. In the wars it's always the neutral party that gets fuck-ee-fuckeed...Look at WWII, we bomb Japan and Germany back to the stone age and now we love 'um, we help rebuild their countries, we make them into leading superpowers....Switzerland is a big ass joke, a punchline...I need to be Iceland..
Anyways tonites post only resonates with two people...I am sending a shout out to my two pals who are having 99 problems (thanks Jay-Z) and quite possibly the worst night on record. Im trying to be supportive and helpful to both sides and after all that I have this sinking suspicion that I may have made it worse by trying to make it better, that I may end up being the scapegoat somehow and losing 1 or both friends, and thus the misery transferrence would be complete.
Plus its equally as hard when you are trying to help via IM'ing. I find my sarcasm doesnt translate well via type...I mean, shit , you dont want a "of course you should toss him off the Tallahatchee Bridge" to be taken seriously do ya? Cripes. I find that I am now gonna have problems sleeping because my brain is going to 11. Call, me if you need me you guys.
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Thursday, February 08, 2007
GUESS WHO HAS A NEW HAIR DO?!
I LOST MY MIND AND SAID TO JULIE "CAN YOU GIVE ME BANGS?" HAVE I GONE MENTAL? I HAVENT HAD BANGS SINCE 6TH GRADE!
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Sunday, February 04, 2007
rain sucks
so the forcast for today is rain rain and more freaking rain...right now i am watching rain pour into the pool, its maybe 68 degrees outside and wet wet wet....hmmm selling my tickets for 5k doesnt sound like too bad an idea now concidering we have a large flat screen TV in our hotel room..(its not HD but beggars cant be choosers). ugg, i so dont want to go sit outside in the rain all day and all night. Plus this hotel is almost 95% full of bears fans...i am getting death stares as i sit here in my peyton manning jersey. well wish me luck on this incredibly cold and rainy day.
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Mail me!
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Superbowl day 2
So today is day 2 in Miami...Today we ate breakfast downstairs (38 bucks..what a ripoff...) and then and there i decided that we just cant spend that much money on semi-crappy food. Went and sat by the pool...the sun then peeked out and that was excellent...78 and sunny with an excellent breeze. We took the train and a bus to the stadium (located on Dan Marino Parkway) and went to the NFL Experience. This is a pretty neat event but really i think its geared towards kids aged 8-12. They have a lot of kids workshop type things...Dale and I did try to kick an extra point in the "kick, pass, block" tent...(For the record, Dale was about this close to getting in through, me? I kicked it directly into the arms of the guy shagging balls)...they have a TON of workshops...The coolest one was a bunch of kids doing QB camp with VINCE YOUNG helping them on their footwork.
As I said to Dale, wont this just Fuck these kids for getting QB coached for the rest of their lives? "IM sorry coach, I just cant do that. You see NFL Rookie of theYear Vince Young said that the pro's do it this way." It was nice watching him help the kids. There was also a booth where 4 NFL Player (Clinton Portis, Steven Jackson and 2 DEF guys who i didnt know) would call and talk to your friends for you on your cellphone....! As we stood in line and I called Ryan (cause who else would I call to talk to football players) but then we were told, yeah you gotta have a sprint phone. Bastards...so sorry Ryan, no Clinton Portis for you...I suck as a friend.
We picked up some swag, a picture of dale and I with tiki barber....mini footballs, pencils, magnets, two landyards for our tickets tomorrow...we also got to sit down and let a NFL Ref 9and I dont know his name, but he works with Ed Hochulis crew, talk about what a Ref sees and how they make calls. He had tape of calls that they had to review using instant replay and was having the audience try and make the call based on the 6 seconds or whatever of the play...It was pretty interesting hearing what they look for, how they make decisions, and how the NFL grades them. The coolest thing he said was that in most games when they are under the hood they dont get to see all the angles that the viewer at home sees....he also explained that certain games have more cameras than others...reg season non nationwide games, 6 cameras, national games (sunday nite) about 10, monday night football around 12-14 and superbowl upwards of 24...
It was also cool to hear him and see him show you how they decide if a catch is a "catch" vs incomplete pass, force outs, the tuck rule, fumbles etc.. I got some cool film of him explaining what each 7 man crew does in a game. Post that at home.
The other cool part (besides free doritos and milk) was that the stadium is right next to a super walmart. This means that wife (me) said to husband (dale) hey, why dont we go BUY food vs spending another 100 bucks eating tomorrow.. We hit Walmart and they were selling the exact same crap the stadium was selling except like 50% or more cheeper. I got a long sleeve grey superbowl shirt (more on that later), dale got a bright orange shirt with "one game, one dream" in SPANISH (my idea as irony for white guy winning NFL Latino) and we each got one NFL jersey. I got Manning he got Urlacher (in homage to Dylan not being here with us). Plus food for tonite (noodle bowls, and chips and salsa + a 2 ltr of orange) and breakfast (instant oatmeal) for tomorrow. We figure that the 15 bucks we spent on food was way better than the 200.00 we would have had to spend here at "Gouge um Central" (ie the hotel). So we had dinner in bed watching ESPN classic football on TV.
Back to the walmart, we bailed (and if we wouldnt have went into the garden center to see Tony Siragoosa, Moose and 2 other fox annoucers-we woulda made an earlier bus)...the bus we did catch was over 57 min late (i called the bus co to check) and thus we missed our 4:10 train...the next train after that was 6:10...by this time (4ish) it went from sunny to cold and windy and thank god i bought the long sleeve shirt! I also had a book so the 3 hours we sat outside waiting for various busses and trains was not all wasted.
Miami makes me sad as all we seem to see as we are traveling is run down auto repair, auto salvage, scrap yards, horrible small crappy houses in really poor neighborhoods, or row after row of unidentifiable buildings with tons of graffiti on them. We also seemed to encounter alot of mentally unstable people...like the kid on the bus who tried to explain to Dale that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg saw him play football one time and he would be playing in the superbowl tomorrow because he was gonna get there with Snoop Doggs help. And the guy who was waiting for a train and kept hitting himself in the head and shooting imaginary "J's" and then hitting imaginary baseballs. Sad.
We also met some really nice people. The guy in the Wilson (official maker of NFL balls) tent who remarked "Green Bay Packers huh?" (me) "yes, Im from wisconsin" (him) "You're wearing that hat to try and get in a flight with a Bears fan arent you?" (me) "yes, yes I am."...the checkout lady at Walmart was super nice and chatty, and the nice cop (and there are about 7000000 cops out everywhere) who got out of her car to stop all traffic so dale and i could cross the street and get to our hotel (there are no cross walks anywhere!)..
Tomorrow is Game day. I think in the morning we may just sit by the pool, relax and eat oatmeal. The game is at 6:30 so i think we may get to the stadium around 3ish? I cant wait to see Billy Joel and Prince.
Mail me!
As I said to Dale, wont this just Fuck these kids for getting QB coached for the rest of their lives? "IM sorry coach, I just cant do that. You see NFL Rookie of theYear Vince Young said that the pro's do it this way." It was nice watching him help the kids. There was also a booth where 4 NFL Player (Clinton Portis, Steven Jackson and 2 DEF guys who i didnt know) would call and talk to your friends for you on your cellphone....! As we stood in line and I called Ryan (cause who else would I call to talk to football players) but then we were told, yeah you gotta have a sprint phone. Bastards...so sorry Ryan, no Clinton Portis for you...I suck as a friend.
We picked up some swag, a picture of dale and I with tiki barber....mini footballs, pencils, magnets, two landyards for our tickets tomorrow...we also got to sit down and let a NFL Ref 9and I dont know his name, but he works with Ed Hochulis crew, talk about what a Ref sees and how they make calls. He had tape of calls that they had to review using instant replay and was having the audience try and make the call based on the 6 seconds or whatever of the play...It was pretty interesting hearing what they look for, how they make decisions, and how the NFL grades them. The coolest thing he said was that in most games when they are under the hood they dont get to see all the angles that the viewer at home sees....he also explained that certain games have more cameras than others...reg season non nationwide games, 6 cameras, national games (sunday nite) about 10, monday night football around 12-14 and superbowl upwards of 24...
It was also cool to hear him and see him show you how they decide if a catch is a "catch" vs incomplete pass, force outs, the tuck rule, fumbles etc.. I got some cool film of him explaining what each 7 man crew does in a game. Post that at home.
The other cool part (besides free doritos and milk) was that the stadium is right next to a super walmart. This means that wife (me) said to husband (dale) hey, why dont we go BUY food vs spending another 100 bucks eating tomorrow.. We hit Walmart and they were selling the exact same crap the stadium was selling except like 50% or more cheeper. I got a long sleeve grey superbowl shirt (more on that later), dale got a bright orange shirt with "one game, one dream" in SPANISH (my idea as irony for white guy winning NFL Latino) and we each got one NFL jersey. I got Manning he got Urlacher (in homage to Dylan not being here with us). Plus food for tonite (noodle bowls, and chips and salsa + a 2 ltr of orange) and breakfast (instant oatmeal) for tomorrow. We figure that the 15 bucks we spent on food was way better than the 200.00 we would have had to spend here at "Gouge um Central" (ie the hotel). So we had dinner in bed watching ESPN classic football on TV.
Back to the walmart, we bailed (and if we wouldnt have went into the garden center to see Tony Siragoosa, Moose and 2 other fox annoucers-we woulda made an earlier bus)...the bus we did catch was over 57 min late (i called the bus co to check) and thus we missed our 4:10 train...the next train after that was 6:10...by this time (4ish) it went from sunny to cold and windy and thank god i bought the long sleeve shirt! I also had a book so the 3 hours we sat outside waiting for various busses and trains was not all wasted.
Miami makes me sad as all we seem to see as we are traveling is run down auto repair, auto salvage, scrap yards, horrible small crappy houses in really poor neighborhoods, or row after row of unidentifiable buildings with tons of graffiti on them. We also seemed to encounter alot of mentally unstable people...like the kid on the bus who tried to explain to Dale that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg saw him play football one time and he would be playing in the superbowl tomorrow because he was gonna get there with Snoop Doggs help. And the guy who was waiting for a train and kept hitting himself in the head and shooting imaginary "J's" and then hitting imaginary baseballs. Sad.
We also met some really nice people. The guy in the Wilson (official maker of NFL balls) tent who remarked "Green Bay Packers huh?" (me) "yes, Im from wisconsin" (him) "You're wearing that hat to try and get in a flight with a Bears fan arent you?" (me) "yes, yes I am."...the checkout lady at Walmart was super nice and chatty, and the nice cop (and there are about 7000000 cops out everywhere) who got out of her car to stop all traffic so dale and i could cross the street and get to our hotel (there are no cross walks anywhere!)..
Tomorrow is Game day. I think in the morning we may just sit by the pool, relax and eat oatmeal. The game is at 6:30 so i think we may get to the stadium around 3ish? I cant wait to see Billy Joel and Prince.
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Friday, February 02, 2007
Ah MIami! Day One.
For those who wonder: I am down in Miami...At home it is 7 above 0, here it is a cool and crisp 88 degrees :) The flight was uneventful (watched Battlestar on the ipod and was groggy due to the drugs...Checked in the beautiful Wyndham Miami Airport Hotel...ate dinner, bought two drinks at the bar (total cost 23.00 for the drinks..insane) and plan on snuggling down with Dale in our massive King Size, comfy sheets and comforter bed to celebrate our 5th anniversary (today) by watching TV and falling asleep as I am a bit jet lagged. Tomorrow we have our NFL Experience tickets....plan on being at the stadium all day...or at least part. We also have the option to head to Dolphin Mall, South Beach or (my preference) sitting by the pool next to the Tiki Bar (if I see the mighty beach house Tiki God Ill let you all know.) Right now I am buzzing on my 95% Grey Goose 2% Cranberry and 3% ice drink and Dale is sitting next to me trying to map out how we even get to the stadium using light rail and bus. watch for us on TV, we are on the Colts side of the field one section off the end zone (sec 407, row 1) we're wearing our packer hats! The crazy thing about our hotel is right behind me is an authorized NFL dealer hawking NFL merch. They had at least one booth at every airport (even detroit) with superbowl stuff..
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