Only three days?
It feels weird to have a head filled to the brim with things to regurgitate on the blog after only a three day hiatus but I guess that is a good thing.
I left work early Friday since my flight was leaving a bit after 6pm. After reassuring Ali I would be back before she knew it the adventure began. I realized as I was waiting to board that the last time I had flown was December of 2007 when went to Vegas for my 40th. I soon remembered why I don’t ever look forward to air travel.
Air Tran like so many other airlines has adopted the ludicrous policy of charging customers if they want to check bags. I can not describe to you just how much this annoys me. Well this policy has another unwelcome side effect, people trying to carry on shit that they shouldn’t to avoid the additional cost. As we were waiting to board they made the announcement that the flight was fully booked so it was important that your bag fit in the overhead compartment, else it needed to be checked. Well a bunch of people didn’t bother or didn’t care to check exactly what the size requirements are for carry on luggage. As a result they were jamming pieces in that would only fit if they were turned sideways which in turn made them consume the space that three normal size bags would. Of course this resulted in a big cluster f as people that boarded later found the overhead bins by their seats already stuffed with bags from these morons.
During the couple days leading up to Friday I had a few times where I was starting to feel the preliminary symptoms of illness however they thankfully subsided. I knew it would be a minor miracle if I didn’t come down with something as a result of this trip. As I stood in the ramp leading down to the plane I head a little girl maybe 20 feet behind me hacking up a lung. She obviously was ill, I was praying it wasn’t f’ing swine flu. I hurried into the plane, hoping that the little girl would be seated either far in front or far behind me in the plane to minimize my exposure. I sat down in my aisle seat and of course, you know where this is going, the mother and little girl walk right up to my aisle seat and inform me they have the two seats next to me. Cripes.
In my head I was cursing this women for bringing this obviously sick child on the flight. How inconsiderate to contaminate 200 people with her flying flem and spittle. Of course if I stood back from the situation a bit I could gain some perspective. If I suddenly got sick on Friday would I have changed all of my plans as a result, nope. So I really couldn’t blame the woman for anything and I just sat in my seat mentally flinching each time the little girl went into a coughing fit. I resigned myself to the idea that I was DEFINITELY going to get sick now. Almost on cue I started to feel that feeling in my throat again that comes before illness yet I think it was in large part psychosomatic.
Flying sucks when you are a shade under 6′ 4″. Especially when you have long stork legs like I do. 9 times out of 10 I am behind some asshole that never considers who is behind them before they jam the seat back into full reclining position. This time was no different as some older dude threw his seat back and smashed my knees in the process. I immediately pushed back and told the asshole he was on my knees and could he move the seat up? He said nothing and moved the seat maybe an inch up, gee thanks you f’ing inconsiderate prick. I NEVER recline my seat unless I know there is nobody behind me or if it’s a little kid.
So the first leg of my flight was probably the worst leg of them all. I guess it was good to get it out of the way. Our flight was a bit late getting to Atlanta and as a result I walked immediately on to the second flight as they were calling my name to check in. Once again I found myself behind a no-look seat recliner but I was able to change the angle of my knees to minimize the problem.
This is what Troy reads for fun...
My flight into Baltimore got in late, 10:45. I texted Troy to tell him I was on the ground. He said he was just going to park in the loading zone and wait for me. I spotted him easily as I walked into the very brisk northern air where the temps were about half of what I left in Florida. As we made the 75 minute drive back to his place in Lancaster we caught up on things. Although I keep in touch with Troy mostly via email, I hadn’t seen him in person since we took the trip to Vegas together at least four years ago.
When we got back to Lancaster, even though my day had started at 5:30 am we sat downstairs and drank a beer while we chatted some more. Soon we both agreed that we HAD to get to bed since we were running in the 5K the next morning in Lebanon, something that would require us getting up no later than 6am. I hit the sheets after 1 am yet still somehow managed to wake up without an alarm clock less than five hours later.
Troy didn’t sleep well either and was already downstairs by the time I came down a little after 6. I had my normal running shorts and tank top on underneath sweats. I thought there would be a possibility I would lose the sweats once I warmed up. Once my face hit the 34 degree air I knew the sweats would be part of my running attire for that day.
I had signed up online for the race, Troy signed up on race day. The race started at the Lebanon Farmers Market which we got to explore prior to the race. It also served as a warm safe haven until we HAD to go out into the frigid conditions. Eventually we braved the elements for a basic warm up session except at the end of it we were both far from warm. Before the race Troy and I agreed that we would run our own pace. Troy hasn’t been running much lately so there was going to probably be a big pace discrepancy.
This race was timed by Pretzel City Timing the same outfit that timed the race Ali ran. They don’t use electronic timing and instead just pull a strip off your bib as you finish and stick it on a homemade finish board. So after a prayer and some race instructions the race started. I quickly passed a few people and moved into some open space. There weren’t very many runners and it was a dual distance 5k/10k run where the runners split off after running together for a short period of time.
The cold air felt even colder as it was pushed against my face as I ran. Early on in the course there was a long gradual hill that did a good job of slowing down the pace. I knew early on that no PR’s were going to be set by me on this day. The cold temps, hills, shorted sleep and stiff legs all were working against me, even so I plodded along. I had packed my GPS watch but forgot to bring it along to the race so I had no real time feedback on how I was doing. I just basically tried to keep a steady pace and hook on to runners that seemed to be moving along at a decent clip.
A good chunk of the race took place on a trail which was once railroad tracks. I tried to enjoy the scenery as much as I could in between wiping the snot that was running out of my freezing nose. I settled in behind two younger girls for the second half of the race. Initially I had ideas of passing them towards the end but the opposite happened, they accelerated and I had neither the motivation or energy to follow.
One of the last sections of the course before the finish line was up a rather steep section of parking lot, a cruel trick to play on already tired runners. Finally the finish line was in sight and I crossed in an official time of 26:28, more than a minute and a half off the PR I just set 10 days prior. I was fine with it though. The conditions were pretty tough for someone used to running on flat surfaces in 80 degrees. The time was good enough to slot me as the 37th finisher overall out of 110 participants.
After I finished I waited for Troy to come across so I could cheer him on. We were guessing he would do somewhere around 30 minutes. He crossed at about 32 minutes after struggling with the conditions as well. He was really exhausted but at least he never stopped running. After cooling off for a little bit we went inside to a warm auditorium where the refreshments were located, it felt good to get out of the elements.
As we sat listening to the awards I was surprised to hear my name called as the third place finisher in my age group. However there was one problem, it wasn’t my age group. Somehow my age came through as being 39 instead of 41, throwing me into the bracket below. I walked up and told them I was actually 41 and didn’t take my medal. Ironically, if I was scored in my actual age group I wouldn’t have placed anyway. Shortly before we left to walk back to the car a co-worker of my buddy Charlie tracked me down and said hi. She is an avid runner and Charlie told her I was coming up for the event. It was nice of her to introduce herself.
We had a pretty long walk in the cold back to the car as the finish line and starting line were far apart. There was a parade starting which we thought could possibly cause a delay in our exit from Lebanon but thankfully we were able to get around it. We pulled back into Lancaster around 11 both tired but both feeling a sense of accomplishment.
I finally got to meet Troy’s girlfriend of a few years, Melissa as well as her 6 year old little boy named Taylor. It was nice to finally meet Melissa in person. She seemed very nice and Taylor, although a little shy was polite and obviously very much into computer games so I knew we had something in common right off the bat.
Troy suggested that we walk to the Lancaster Farmer’s Market which just happens to be the oldest, longest running farmer’s market in the US. He said they had a place that made good sandwiches there. The location of Troy’s row home is pretty awesome if you like small city living. Most everything you need is within walking distance. Lancaster seems to be a bit of an enigma where small businesses actually exist and in some cases thrive. Almost every storefront we passed along the way was open for business unlike the scores of shuttered strip mall spaces so familiar in Florida.
All four of us went on the walk including Taylor on his scooter. He was having a great time zipping around on the sidewalk. The market itself was very cool, filled with fresh food and people EVERYWHERE. It evidently is an extremely popular Lancaster attraction. After grabbing sandwiches there we walked back to their place and ate lunch.
Troy realized that he never got to give me an official tour of his place, all I had seen was his daughter’s bedroom where I slept and the one bathroom. The row home is quite old, dating back to the early 1900’s featuring classic wooden floors, narrow doorways and big cast iron radiators. However you can tell the prior owners did a real nice job updating the look inside. It had a very cozy feel and like I said before, it’s location is nearly perfect.
Later in the afternoon Melissa was going to run to the grocery store to get us some goodies for tailgating at the football game. While she did that Troy and I once again headed out once again. First we stopped at a local Lancaster brewery to fill up Troys growler with some of their made on the premise beer. The place was very interesting inside as well as being relatively busy. After that we headed to the campus of Franklin & Marshall which is close by. Troy knew they were having some sort of playoff game Saturday so he asked if I wanted to check it out for a bit, sure, why not?
F&M has a small stadium that looks like it could host a high school team just as easily. It’s totally open, no need for a ticket. We just walked up the hill and stood by the fence. When we arrived F&M was down to Wilkes 24-10 mid third quarter, not looking good for the home team. However almost on queue F&M started mounting a furious comeback. After scoring a second touch down to make the score 24-23 with almost 7 minutes left in the game they made a bizarre decision. Instead of kicking the extra point to tie the game they instead decided to go for two. Troy and I scratched our heads at the call, it made no sense in any way. They missed the two point attempt and now trailed 24-23.
As we pondered the decision a fellow bystander joined into the discussion. This was no normal bystander. I later described the guy to Troy as being a cross of three Looney Tunes characters. He had the teeth of Bugs Bunny with only his two front ones showing followed by large gaps on either side. He had a body like Porky Pig and talked like Elmer Fudd. He was very hard to understand as his dialect could best be described as “gurgly”. Regardless, he too had no idea why F&M didn’t kick the field goal.
Well it turned out that it didn’t matter in the end as F&M managed to score another TD with a few seconds remaining to seal the win. The fans in the stands went crazy and Troy and I clapped loudly for the home team, just because they were the home team. It was very cool to take in the game in a spur of the moment manner, even cooler to have it end in such an exciting fashion. While we were there Troy mentioned that it costs $54k per year for students to attend F & M, holy shit!
I told Troy I was cool with just hanging out, watching football and drinking beer Saturday night. We started off on the growler that we had just filled a few hours ago. Originally we had ideas of keeping it for tailgating Sunday but that idea vanished quickly. In no time Troy and had polished that off and moved onto the case of Miller Lite Melissa bought for tailgating. She also was working on dinner which was very good.
We spent the night just drinking and carrying on. Troy is one of the few people that I can just hang with and talk to endlessly, especially when alcohol is involved. We just drank, talked and laughed for most of the night. I miss being able to get together with him to do that on a regular basis.
Well around 11 pm I get a text message from Ali asking me to call her if I was still awake. Oh, oh, this can’t be good. I call her immediately. Ali said the utility room and kitchen had an inch of water covering them. Evidently something in the washing machine left loose, causing the flood. Of course Ali was freaking out. She already knew what to do, get out the shop vac, get out the carpet cleaner and start sucking. I felt badly that it happened while I was 1200 miles away. Ali said she was up until 2am cleaning up, what a mess.
Sunday morning we weren’t in a big rush to leave for the game. Since we drank very heavily Saturday night, doing the same thing on Sunday morning had very little appeal at all. I walked with Troy to some near by donut shop where we grabbed some homemade donuts and a breakfast sandwich. Once again it was quite cold out, I was worried I would be freezing my ass off at the game.
We didn’t leave for the game until 10am. Before I left I thanked Melissa for being a good host and said good bye to Taylor who was mired in the middle of some epic game on Lego.com. It took us about 75 minutes to get to the stadium.
Troy had never been to a Ravens game so he was nearly as clueless as I was as far as where to go. The stadium is just plopped in the middle of an industrial area and does not have a conventional huge parking lot surrounding it. Instead there tons of smaller lots spread all around the place, wherever they could jam one in. Even though it was only 11:15 we obviously were late to the show, the site was mobbed with tailgating fans.
We finally saw a woman still flagging in vehicles to park. It was in a lot under I-95. We pulled up and verified there was still space to park because it sure didn’t look like it. The lot was jammed with cars and people. She said there was still space and then told us it would be $45 to park! Holy shit, that was about double what we expected to pay. Well we had no choice but to fork out the dough, I quickly grabbed my wallet to throw $20 towards the outrageous fee.
So after handing over our ransom the lady directs to follow the guy with a flag ahead. Troy and I had no idea where we were going to go, there looked to be no space anywhere. The flagger takes us down the aisle and turns left, the aisle is filled with tailgaters and also was the location of the porto-pots which were actively being used. Troy had very little room and passed within inches of the port-o-pots. I was just waiting for someone to drunkenly throw the door open and bang into the side of his Camry.
Our flagger seemed to be oblivious to the fact that we had a mob of people blocking the way. The fans were not very happy to see us. We were getting bitched at left and right for arriving “late”. Finally the flagger made another left and we were astonished at what we faced. The 50 foot wide space was completely jammed with people. Not only was it jammed with people, it was jammed with chairs, grills, bean bag games and even two dudes on wheelchairs that had to all be moved to allow us to pass by sheepishly.
Troy inched along as the great sea of humanity parted. Again our flagger pressed on like it was just another day at the park. One guy knocked on Troy’s window. After pausing for a second to think if he actually wanted to roll it down, he does. The guy chastises us for being late “fair weather fans”. Troy mumbled something, waved his hand and rolled up the window, shell shocked at this point. Finally we were directed into our actual parking spot. Holy shit, what a mess.
Troy and I were a bit freaked out and honestly a bit concerned that the angry mob could attack if provoked. We decided to abandon our planned pre-game tailgating party and instead hightail it towards the stadium where instead of enjoying free tailgate food we dropped $20 each on stadium food.
The stadium inside was beautiful, of course most modern football stadiums are. We were mid upper-deck but still had good view of everything. It didn’t feel nearly as high as the 700 level of the Vet.
As game time approached the seats around us filled in totally. It didn’t take long until we spotted the characters around us. In the row in front of us was an older dude with combed back, thin hair. His move was to stand up and point his index fingers in the NUMBER 1 sign while drunkenly waving his outstretched arms.
We spotted an Indian looking guy with a big Ravens purple turbin. I intantly nicknamed him “Haji”
Then there was a guy a few rows down wearing a Joe Flacco jersey that designated himself the official section cheerleader. The moment a play would end he would immediately start hand gesturing for the fans to yell some more.
Speaking of yelling, the Ravens fans were extremely loud. I actually recorded the noise on my Iphone. You can hear a sample here. They would scream like this before every Colts offensive play.
About 5 minutes before half time I thought I would hit the bathroom to beat the rush. During the trip I discovered that Baltimore did not do a good job when it comes to bathroom planning. They are too small. I was astounded when I came out to a line 30 deep out the door. I thought that maybe if I walked to a different area it might be better, nope.
As I was walking towards the other bathroom I passed an older woman walking towards me. As she approached, she held up her hand to her mouth, threw up in it, tossed the puke on the ground and started wiping her face all without breaking stride. Wow, that’s pretty amazing.
There was another funny moment once I finally got into the bathroom. I was second in line to use the urinal. Of course the floor by the urinals is disgusting as it is covered with urine from the thousands of drunks with bad aim. Well the guy in front me of finished up and as he was zipping up somehow managed to drop his cell phone on the floor under the urinals. To make matters worse his battery popped off. So this guy had to pick up his piss soaked cell phone and battery off the disgusting flooor. I offered the guy my condolences on his bad luck as he walked away with his phone still dripping.
The football game itself was a good one although neither Troy or I had any real rooting interest in it. We decided to cheer along with the hometown Ravens fans although somewhat less enthusiastically. In the end the Ravens threw an interception late that doomed the team and they lost. 70,000 disappointed fans started to file out of the stadium.
Troy and I decided there was no point trying to beat the crowd, since we stayed till the end we knew we would be waiting a long time. We just hung out in our seats for awhile. When we did get up we saw there was a log jam at the steps that wasn’t moving at all so we stepped back into the stadium to just hang out and wait. Shortly after that we were accosted by stadium personnel that was shooing all remaing fans towards the concourse. I found this rather annoying, especially since there was literally nowhere to go at the time.
A Ravens season ticket holder was really pissed off. He was yelling “I pay $110 f’ing dollars each for these seats and I get herded out of here like f’ing cattle? Look out there, there is nowhere to f’ing go! I am sick of this bullshit. I am writing a f’ing letter!” I told him I agreed.
On the way back to the car we had to walk over a bridge that had at least a half dozen homeless people sitting on the sidewalk each with their own scribbled cardboard sign asking for help. I didn’t see any of the Ravens fans approach any of them and neither did I but I really felt like I should have. Yea I know that the party line is handing out to homeless only encourages the behavior but wtf, these people are sitting on the sidewalk freezing their asses off. Even if they would use the couple bucks to buy some alcohol to forget their misery for a short period of time, who could blame them? I should have given them something.
Post game tailgate party
Finally we got back to the car and saw nothing but gridlock around us. We decided to have a POST-game tailgate party. It would have been a shame to waste Melissa’s shopping efforts. We had Defenbach’s, sandwiches and even football shaped Little Debbie fudge brownies. It was funny trying to prepare food out of the trunk of a Camry but we made it work.
As we were waiting I pulled out Troy’s deflated football and started tossing it up in the air to myself. A little later a Ravens fan asked if he could check it out. Before you knew it I was involved in a rather lengthy throw and catch session with a few fans. It was pretty much completely dark by the end of it, catching the ball in the poor street lighting was rather tough.
Eventually the traffic started to move so Troy and I decided to make a break for it. We got some general directions from some fans on how to get back on I-95. Once we got on there I used the Iphone GPS to get us to the hotel I booked a room at. We decided it made much more sense for me to get a room by the airport instead of Troy driving me back to Lancaster only to turn around to drive me back to Baltimore early Monday. I found a good rate on a Sleep Inn & Suites through priceline.com.
For some reason I had the idea that this chain was sort of low end. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered the hotel was actually quite nice and on par with any La Quinta we had stayed at. I got a room with two queens in case Troy decided he just wanted to crash there but after hanging out briefly he decided he would drive back home. I could simply use the hotel shuttle to the airport the next day.
I thanked Troy for the brief but very fun visit. We jammed a whole lot of memories into a small period of time, something that we seem to do consistently when we are together. I gave Troy basic directions again via the Iphone to get him back on his way to Lancaster and that was it. I spent the rest of the night trying to watch the Eagles game but I slept through as much as I saw. I was so tired. I was glad to see they won the next morning.
I got out to the airport with plenty of time to spare. My flights back were much better than the flights out. On both flights I had nobody in front of me so I didn’t have to deal with any knee slamming. The funniest incident was during the first leg of the trip. I was in the aisle of the very last row. A young woman came out of the bathroom before we took off, she was in there for awhile. I could tell from her uniform and ID that she was an Airtran stewardess. I could also tell she was not feeling well at all, she looked like death.
I asked her if she didn’t get enough sleep. She said she was so tired but she had to start her shift at noon and was flying to her starting point. I told her I would try to keep quiet so she could sleep. Shortly after we got in the air she excused herself and once again hit the bathroom. I heard everything going on in there, she was obviously throwing up. When she back I asked her if she was hung over, “Big time” she said. I told her I had Advil in my bag if she wanted some. She thanked me but said she would be ok. She dropped the snack table and collapsed onto it for the rest of the flight, desperately trying to get some semblance of sleep. I felt bad for her.
My flight arrived back in Fort Myers a bit early. Ali was waiting in the cell phone lot and picked me up at the terminal door. The warm Florida air felt wonderful after spending the better part of three days feeling chilled to the bone. I filled Ali in on my trip and she told me about her weekend as well, especially the great flood of Saturday night.
Within in 15 minutes of being home I was ripping into home issues. I pulled the dishwasher out to make sure no water got under the kitchen island and then turned my attention to the washing machine. After popping the cover I quickly saw the culprit. The drain hose for the tub was laying on the ground. Instantly I knew it was my fault. When I replaced the snubber one of the many things that was disconnected and reconnected was this hose. Evidently I didn’t pay enough attention when I reattached this hose and it must have slipped off due to vibration. I reattached the house and used a pliers to ensure I had the clamp high enough on the inlet to prevent it from slipping off again.
Ironically Ali was somewhat disappointed that I fixed the washer so easily. She had made up her mind that we were going to buy new front loading washer and dryer as a result of this disaster. I told her if she felt that strongly about it we still could although I suggested that perhaps a better plan due to the impending holiday season would be to put off the purchase and instead target it as something we spend our tax return money on. Ali reluctantly agreed that it would make more sense.
As always it felt weird to go from the north eastern US to SW Florida in a matter of hours. One day you are surrounded by drunken Ravens fans, the next you are surrounded by palm trees and excited black labs. I had a great time this weekend but as always, it’s good to be home. If you want to see the handful of pics I took this weekend go here.
During the trip my Iphone once again was quite handy. As I mentioned before I used it’s GPS functionality several times. It also served as my entertainment on flights. I watched two movies during the trip, Second Skin and Eagle Eye. Eagle Eye was suprisingly good. It’s plot of a supercomputer going crazy has been used several times but I found this latest attempt entertaining. I enjoyed the film all the way through and would give it a B+.
Second Skin is a documentary about MMORPG players, mostly Wow players. It focuses on a core group of hardcore gamers and what makes them tick. Being a 4 year WoW player myself I found the subject matter very interesting but I think even non-mmorpg players would find the film intriguing. You get a deep, dark look into this strange virtual world and the type of person that embraces it. Of course you don’t come away from the film feeling anything positive about an individual that has fallen into a deep addicition with the game but you will have a better understanding what fuels this type of behavior. I’d give the film an A.
The Iphone also helped me out on Saturday night. I typically need some sort of white noise to sleep. Total silence drives me mad. Well Troy’s daughters room had no source of such noise so I turned to my Iphone for aid. Within minutes I had found, downloaded and installed an app for free that did exactly what I needed. I could choose from a bunch of different soundscapes and have them play as long as I wanted. I happily fell asleep listening to the peaceful sound of crickets chirping. I love my Iphone.