Bringing the Drama

Sunday morning I woke up with a lot of nervous energy. The Saints playing in the Super Bowl was finally going to happen later in the day. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I watched some soccer, the SB pregame, and I played around on the internet. I had taken care of some grad school stuff on Saturday, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting anything done Sunday morning. Things were moving so slowly, much like the last two weeks since Garrett Hartley’s kick split the uprights to beat the Vikings.

Finally, it was time to leave for my friend Melanie’s house. On the way there, I had a frightening thought the game started an hour earlier than I thought, and we’d miss the teams running onto the field. Thankfully this was not the case. We arrived with our High Life and appetites in plenty of time to see the team introductions, crisis averted. I honestly didn’t know that many people at the party other than the people I came with and the hosts. We all had one thing in common, we were all Who Dats. The setup was having the game projected outside onto a screen hung on the side of the house. Best setup to watch a Super Bowl ever! We all had camping chairs and blankets to keep warm.

Once the game started, it didn’t feel like watching a Super Bowl, it felt like watching a Saints game. That may not make sense, but it was the first time seeing MY team in the Super Bowl, so after the initial shock wore off of the teams running onto the field, and seeing the end zone painted black and gold, it was just like the other 18 games I had watched so far this year. The first half was so nerve-wracking. Peyton Manning seemed to be able to work the ball down the field, and he was making some PERFECT throws. A lot of people I read or saw talk about the game kept building up Manning as this unbeatable Superman of a QB. I knew he was good, but not that much better than Warner or Favre, who the Saints had beaten. The 4th and 1 at the goal line that the Saints did not convert made me really nervous, because the Colts could have come down and made it 13-3 or worse 17-3. Fortunately the defense was able to hold, and the Saints made up for the missed opportunity with another FG. I was encouraged at the half that it was 10-6 Colts, esp considering how sluggish the Saints offense looked, but how they had started to break out of their shell at the end of the first half. Still though, Manning didn’t seem to be too rattled.

After watching the two remaining members of The Who struggle through halftime, the 2nd half was set to begin. Everyone was back in their seats when the onside kick happened. Seriously, an onside kick in the Super Bowl! WHAT?!? The Saints TD that came after made me start thinking “this might actually happen, the Saints might do this.” The rest of the game until the famous INT was a blur. I remember Stover missing the FG (honestly, never thought he was going to make it and wondered why the Colts went for the kick). I was so happy for Jeremy Shockey to get a TD. I follow him on Twitter, and I watched his interview at Media Day. He gets a bum rap IMO, so I was glad he was able to make a big play in the Super Bowl. Lance Moore’s 2 point conversion was good when we watched the replay. I’m glad Sean Payton heard us screaming to challenge it. We also noticed Peyton Manning looking frustrated on the sideline, so maybe the Saints weren’t sacking him or getting INTs, but they were still getting to him in other ways. Advantage Saints!

So here we go, Saints leading by 7 and the Colts have the ball. I thought at worst, they tie the game and we go to OT. What I wanted though was to finally get a turnover and put the game away. I had been yelling for a turnover hoping it would actually happen….and then, it did. Pandemonium ensued when the play happened. I had not been sitting down since the TD to go ahead 24-17, and I started hollering, and I could not yell loud enough. I could not jump around enough. There was so much emotion that I could not express it all. People hugged, cried, and high fived. It was crazy. Fireworks went off in the distance. Two people from a party across the street ended up coming to our party. When the final whistle blew, more fireworks went off, a nearby church was ringing its bells, and the party across the street moved to our party, including their keg. I remember thinking “this moment is perfect.”

I got a phone call from my friend Jim, who I work with. He’s not from NOLA, yet he was excited for everything that had happened. I thought that was cool. I was yelling into the phone. The excitement was just incredible. I talked to my friend Jacob by phone and realized while talking to him, that the Saints, a team I love, a team my family loves, and a team my friends love, won a title. It’s the greatest sporting event ever, in the history of our lives. Nothing could ever top this. I told people it didn’t feel real, like in Back to the Future II, Marty sees that ad for “Cubs Win World Series”. That’s how it felt almost when we saw the headline on the news “Saints Win Super Bowl”.

I might have slept 3 hours on Monday night. I stayed up late watching every video I could, then woke up at 4 am and watched more video and Sportscenter over and over. I ventured out to get a paper at 6 am. It’s incredible. It actually happened. I’ll never forget Sunday night. I’ll never forget that feeling I had when Porter made the INT. The flood of emotion in that moment was incredible. The Saints are Super Bowl Champions! WHO DAT!

After Deke and Bobby went back inside to broadcast on the radio, they announced anyone wanting to enter the Best Dressed or Hairy Legs contest, please come to the right of the stage. I had to fight my way over to the right of the stage. It was still ridiculously packed. I got to the stairs and had the lady see me so she’d pick me out of this throng of guys in dresses.
Once I got on stage, everything seemed a little disorganized. There were about 20 other guys on stage with me, but they didn’t really divide us between the two contests. I pulled my socks down so people would see why I should win. They had people go to the front of the stage because I think they were judging by crowd reaction. One of the ladies in charge looked at me and my legs and told me I’d be a finalist. Guys would go to the front of the stage, then step back. Slowly but surely they were eliminated. They hadn’t asked me to go to the front yet, so I thought the hairy legs competition would be coming up. I was going to stay up there until they asked me to leave.

Finally I got motioned to go to the front to show off my wares. I did, and my friends in the crowd had summoned help from people around them to cheer for me. Unfortunately, I did not make the finals of the Best Dressed, but I was still staying up there until they told me to leave. One of the ladies came up to me and told me she had something inside for me, and to stay up there. They announced the winner of Best Dressed, and the lady came up to me again, and said “follow me inside, we’re going to put you on the radio.” I motioned out to my friends about the greatness that was happening.

The lady told me to grab her hand and stay close. It was still crazy packed. We made our way through the crowd, and since I was with the radio lady, I got past the security guard. They had me wait near the table that was being used for the broadcast. I thought they would eventually give us microphones or something, and ask us a couple of questions.

I was going to thank my dad for the hairy legs. Sadly though, I never got the chance. They took my name, and the name of the guy who won Best Dressed, and said them over the air, so that was cool. My parents heard it. When they said my name, I turned and waved to the people in the restaurant. It was all kinds of awesome. The lady gave me a bag full of stuff from one of the local Saints shops. I wanted the plaque that the other guy got, it even had Hairy Legs on it. I think they only got one plaque though, and it did say Best In Show, so he got that.

We left the restaurant and got a picture at the Andrew Jackson statue to add to my collection. Then we made our way to Fleurty Girl, where I met THE Fleurty Girl. She asked to get a picture with me, and then she tweeted it! She’s like a real celebrity with all the local and national interviews from the cease and desist selling WHO DAT shirts thing. (or so I have learned this week) My sister was able to buy a shirt she’s been wanting. Afterward we went and ate at this BBQ place called Squeal where they had the most amazing corn grits I’ve ever had.

I have told this story over and over since Sunday. I keep thinking how incredible it all was. I was expecting a lot of guys to show up and march and all, but the amount that did blew my mind. The amount of people who turned up to watch was just awesome. The crowd was so happy. Everyone was having such a great time. I’m so glad I did it. I can’t wait till Sunday. WHO DAT!

(I divided the story into 2 parts, both parts will be posted today. Part II later this afternoon)

Last week, Bobby Hebert announced that there would actually be a Dress Parade to honor the late Buddy D and celebrate the Saints going to the Super Bowl. Later on in the week, I called my friend Jacob, who’s probably one of the only friends I have on the same level with the Saints. I asked him if he wanted to do the parade. I thought it’d be fun. We agreed. He called me Saturday, and we nailed down more plans and particulars. It was on.

Saturday night, I went to the local Goodwill to get a dress. I went through the entire rack of dresses and found two black dresses. They were pretty much the same style, so I was just going to try them both on and go with the one that fit the best. The tags were ripped off, so I had no idea what size the dresses were. It was obvious one fit better than the other, so I bought it. When I went up to the counter, the lady said “you must be going to a party”, to which I said “no, I’m going to be in the Dress Parade tomorrow.” The people around the counter laughed and encouraged me to have a good time. The dress was $5.43 total, not bad. I stopped off at the store and got a 12 pack of High Life cans, because I knew we’d need beer and I thought we’d get in trouble for having bottles. I was going to use a couple of the reusable shopping bags to split the beer between me and Jacob.

The next morning I went to early church and listened to another boring sermon. On my way home I stopped off at Academy and got some black soccer socks. I got home and threw on my dress. Since it was going to be cold, I put on my long sleeve compression shirt that I wear for running, and some compression shorts. Then I put on a long underwear shirt on and some boxers. I did not want to have to wear a coat or anything, I wanted to show off the dress!

We got downtown about 11:35 or so, and parked across the street from the Holiday Inn. We were having to wait for Jacob, and I had to go to the bathroom, so we walked across the street to the hotel. I walked into the waiting room type area, and walked past three guys who were just wearing long skirts over pants. LOSERS! That’s when I knew I had done the right thing, and the apprehension I was feeling disappeared. They saw me with everything on and I could tell from the look on their faces that they wished they had gone all out like I had. Yeah, I was working it. My sister nicknamed me Sassy Sally.

We walked over to the Dome to meet up with Jacob. There were so many guys out there, and more impressive was the number of people who came to watch.

We walked down the street doing the Who Dat! Chant, chanting Buddy D, Black and Gold Super Bowl, etc. It was amazing. The first block or so I must have said “this is awesome” 20 times. Everyone was laughing and yelling and waving. There were tons of people on both sides of the street taking video and/or pictures. It was crazy. Some of the guys took the dress wearing a little too far IMO. One guy readily admitted he was wearing a thong underneath. One guy took our picture, and then tells me “if you’d have shaved this morning, I’d be turned on”. I told him “I’m glad I didn’t!” The guys in makeup were also kind of weird.

When we made the turn onto Carondelet, there were still tons of people. It was almost as if the amount of people increased. I high fived a girl for wearing a Scott Fujita jersey. This one guy was filming and says “this is going on youtube”, so I got in the camera shot and yelled “What up! Youtube! Who Dat!” I have no idea if it’s actually anywhere yet, but I’m in a video somewhere for sure.

When we got to the Quarter, it almost became single file because of all the people on the sidewalks. These guys in front of us were just walking in jerseys and jeans, and I spoke loudly that they shouldn’t be in the parade. I don’t think they heard me. But really, we’re in dresses and you’re not, get out of our parade! Most importantly, we made it to the stage at the end of the parade and we had not run out of beer. Also, I wasn’t sure exactly where we were going, all I knew was we were following Bobby Hebert.

I knew there was going to be a hairy legs contest, so I didn’t wear stockings. I wanted to be able to enter the contest. The stage was set up in the street, and it was packed. We were in front of the stage, but it was just wall to wall people. I kept yelling for Bobby Hebert to come out, because he was our leader for the day, and I wanted to see him. I had not seen him all day. I booed a guy who was dancing on stage with a Mic Ultra. Finally, Bobby came out, and he appeared to feel very good. He said some pro Saints stuff, about how awesome it was that we all came out, that the Saints were going to the SB, life is awesome, whatever. Deke, his radio co-hort, was also there, but he didn’t have a dress. In fact, he was wearing a Bobby Hebert jersey. I think Deke’s an idiot, and his costume was just stupid. Fine, maybe you’re not man enough to wear a dress, but for crying out loud, do you have to wear the jersey of your radio partner like that? LAME!

(the exciting conclusion in part II)

Because I’ve suffered from severe writers’ block lately but I still want to document the awesome things that happened over the weekend of my triumphant return to Nashville after a 2 year absence, you get the incomplete sentences of the awesome and not so awesome:

- shared plane with inappropriate singer
- lady’s excitement over inappropriate singer
- beer shopping
- trip to recycling collection place
- Dagny!
- well, now don’t you feel horrible for parking where kids in wheelchairs are coming out?
- 2 for 1 High Life
- seeing friends from across the room in the Ryman, feeling like a rock star
- realizing God still chases after me, no matter how unintentionally I seem to run from Him
- sleeping late
- ridiculous federal job app
- meeting blog friend Mandy
- making it to Fido for the first time ever
- Miles!
- Jack White’s house!
- eating sushi for the 2nd time ever
- interesting shop talk
- Hank/Hank Jr mugs
- Jack White’s record studio/shop was closed
- picture of me with Andrew Jackson statue
- Grimey’s with drunk Santa and ‘drunk’ elf
- Saints/Cowboys!
- “chicken/taco/really good whatever it is officially called” soup
- Missed FG! Craziness!
- Saints sadness
- awesome sermon at church
- leading the youth group boys to a gift wrapping championship
- blue coast burrito
- 5 NFL games at once
- free airport wifi
- home

Last night’s Clemson game hurt. I haven’t been that upset after a game since last year’s Bama game. It just hurt to watch GT on the last drive, and it hurt for Clemson to fail on 4th and 1 with 30 seconds remaining. It hurt for CJ Spiller to have such an amazing game and be named MVP, but to lose in the end in excruciatingly painful fashion. Yuck. However, today somewhat made up for it and made me feel a little better.

Tonight was my project team’s final presentation. I caught up on watching class videos before the Saints game this morning, to make sure nothing was talked about in a lecture that would be useful for the presentation, and also to catch up because I was two lecture videos behind. Once the Saints game started, I took a break.

The Saints game didn’t exactly start off that well. The offense was being frustrated by the Redskins D, and the Saints D was not able to get much pressure on Jason Campbell. Weird stuff was happening, like this TD near the end of the first half. Seriously, when have you seen something like that happen? (linky link) A rough transcript of the play from me as the play happened, then as the play was reviewed and confirmed on the field: “oh come on, he didn’t intercept it! It hit the ground! Go Meachem! GO MEACHEM! TOUCHDOWN! No, he did intercept it! He wasn’t down! That is a touchdown!….YES! YES! WHO DAT!”

At halftime I went back to watching video, and had the audio of the game going on in the background. At the beginning of the 4th quarter I went back to watching the game. What happened at the end is still unexplainable to me. The Redskins were driving up 30-23, and got inside the 10 yard line. They went to kick the FG with 2 min to play, and I thought the Saints were dead to rights. The only way they could win now would be to block the FG. I thought this was how it was going to end, and they would have to hope the Vikings would lose tonight to maintain being #1 overall in the NFC. The dream was over. Then it happened. The Redskins missed a 23 yard FG! The Saints took over with no timeouts, and ended up scoring a TD with a little over a minute to play to tie the game at 30. WHAT? They got an INT, then had a chance to win with a 58 yard FG, but missed, and the game went to overtime. The Redskins won the toss, got the ball first, but then there was a fumble and the Saints recovered. They went down and kicked an 18 yard FG and won the game in overtime 33-30. I still cannot believe how it all ended.

Then I had to come down off the high of seeing such a miraculous finish and concentrate on my team’s final presentation. We had met as a team on Wednesday last week to do a rehearsal, and I tripped over my words. It was crazy and very embarrassing. This evening before the meeting, I wrote out what I would say for each slide I was supposed to talk, so I wouldn’t mess anything up. We all logged in for the meeting and the professor joined in shortly after. We did our thing and everything came out great. I was really happy with everything. I had asked our mentor a couple of weeks ago to be really picky with our presentation, because I wanted to make sure we’d be prepared for any questions our professor could think of. I think his questions prepared us for tonight, and we were able to answer our prof’s questions with flying colors. All that is left for me in that class is the final and then I’ll be done, and based on how well I did on the midterm, I feel good about that.

I woke up this morning and the morning talk radio guy was taking calls from people giving their predictions. I didn’t like the host doing that, because really, most people were just spouting off with homer type predictions. Some guy calls up and says “Saints 45, Patriots 14″. I laughed to myself and said “what an idiot”. I mean, I thought the Saints would win, but not by more than a couple of TDs at the most. I thought it’d be a close game, and in the back of my mind thought the Saints might lose.

Work today was rough. I kept thinking about the game. A couple of friends at work who were going to the game left early in the afternoon. I told them to yell loud enough for themselves and me. I on the other hand, was going to do exactly what I did the last MNF game, go to the gym, go to the store, and get home in time for kickoff. I’m a little superstitious about things if you don’t already know.

Sidebar: at the gym apparently now I can be looked at as a regular. This guy asked me in the locker room if I had been going to the gym for a while, and how did I like it. He was apparently shopping gyms. I told him I go to that particular gym because it’s conveniently located to where I used to carpool from, and I just kind of kept going. Then I found a way out of the conversation because I had a football game to watch.

The stop at the store nearly produced everything I went for but I did not find any mascarpone. I didn’t know if it’d be with the fancy cheeses (was going to take too long to look) or with stuff like cream cheese (I didn’t see it). Reason being I have found my next baking goal for this weekend, this Tiramisu cake. I might even make the Bobby Flay biscuits again to use up the buttermilk I bought to make the Coffee Cake.

I got home at 7:28 for a 7:30 kickoff. The game started off as expected, it was back and forth. On my way home I heard Reggie Bush and Jabari Greer were going to be inactive, which I was not excited about. I thought Reggie was going to play a huge part tonight, but I guess his knee is still bothering him. The Saints’ secondary has been banged up, and now we’re going to be relying on backups, including two guys who before two weeks ago were not even playing football. In this game though, those guys stepped up. My aunt’s favorite Saint was/is Mike McKenzie, who played for the Saints until last year. He was one of the guys just recently signed, in fact, signed last week. He made some HUGE plays including a game changing INT. Awesome. Then Drew Brees was just a surgeon out there, dissecting the Patriots at every turn. Did you see the ridiculously accurate throws? I mean, really, they were insane. I was pretty much in disbelief when it was 24-10 at halftime, and then when they answered the Patriots TD with one of their own to make it 31-17. Unbelievable.

Final score, Saints 38, Patriots 17. Maybe that dude who had called the radio station this morning knew something I didn’t. Or maybe he had more confidence than I did. Either way, the Saints are 11-0. WHO DAT!

The past couple of months I’ve been anticipating seeing Switchfoot again. They came out with their new record earlier this month, and had scheduled some dates for November. When I saw the dates initially I did a double take. They were scheduled to play the Parish Room at the HOB in NOLA. The Parish is pretty tiny, and is usually reserved for lesser known bands. Switchfoot sold out the big room at the HOB in 2007 when I saw them. Then I read that they were purposely scheduling small venues because they were planning on playing their entire new record at each show. This concept is good if the record’s good, but if it sucks, then it’s not good. I was willing to take the chance because when I saw them in 2007 I came away a lot more impressed than I thought I would be. They were GREAT live. Because of this fact I was able to recruit my sister to come along.

Neko Case had scheduled a show in NOLA the same night, but unlike the Dead Weather/Andrew Bird double I was able to pull off, the two shows were going to be overlapping each other. I had to choose between the two, and my friend Brandi was able to validate my desire to see Switchfoot in a small venue, as opposed to seeing Neko Case, someone who I like, but doesn’t trump an alternative like this one. I bought the tickets for Switchfoot the night I went down to the HOB to see Dead Weather and stuck them in the cabinet door where I usually keep my concert tickets. The anticipation built as I heard songs from the new album. This show was going to be good. I was more excited to see Switchfoot than Swell Season or Pete Yorn.

We went downtown on Saturday and parked the car. The doors opened at 8 pm, and the show was sold out, so we got there about 7:35 or so. It was kind of a mistake because it seemed the entire crowd had showed up by then. There was some confusion as to what line was for Switchfoot and what line was for Stephen Marley, but things were figured out quickly. There was also a 40 something year old guy behind us who was by himself and REALLY excited about the show. I thought that was odd. The doors finally opened about 8:10 and we walked upstairs. The place we stood actually wasn’t as far back as I thought we could get, but man, Switchfoot has a lot of tall fans. It was like a line of tall people across the entire room. After getting our spot, I walked over to the merch table to ask about a vinyl copy of the new album. They didn’t have any. NO VINYL! I don’t understand how bands can show up unprepared like that. People want to give you money for vinyl copies of your album. If you’re going to sell it on your site, you should bring it to the show too! I walked back to our spot and we waited.

Switchfoot came out about 9:05 or so. Where we were standing, we could only really see the heads and shoulders of the band. I tried to make sure I could always see the lead singer, Jon Foreman, because really the lead singer is the most important part of a band. They played the new album in order, and it was awesome. I had only heard Mess of Me and The Sound before the show, so every other song was new to me. I loved the opening song’s lyrics “it’s no accident we’re here tonight, we are once in a lifetime.” there was plenty of guitar to go with the lyrics. YES! I know that lyric maybe isn’t that great, but I can explain later this week why now I like those lyrics for rock songs now. And Mess of Me was ridiculous. I liked hearing the stories before the songs, like how Your Love Is A Song is the third song in a trilogy, and how John M Perkins’ daughter was in attendance before The Sound. Early on some kid up front had a sign that said “Do you love me enough to let me play bass on Bullet?” The band saw it and acknowledged that they did love him enough and he had 6 songs to get ready. Now this kid was getting his wish, I hope he doesn’t suck.

Anyway, each song was great. I loved every minute of it. Then it came time for the bass playing fan to get up on stage for Bullet Soul. His name was Brandon, and the band was going to let him come in after the guitar solo. The solo comes and then Tim Foreman (the bass player) hands him the bass, then the band goes back to the solo. The dude was pretty good, the bass was deep and plodding. Not to say Tim was bad, but the kid had skills. I’m sure that was cool for him to do, and I felt happy for him.

This next part is too awesome for me to remember which song this was. So we’re all packed in there wall to wall, and during the song Jon Foreman takes the mic and starts walking back through the middle of the crowd. He was coming right by us! So I bumped my sister for her to touch him. She declines, and he walked past us. People are snapping pictures and patting him on the back, so on his way back I reached out and patted him on the back. I touched him! I touched a rock star! It was really cool. I mean, I know it’s not that cool in the grand scheme of things, but it was part of a great night, and I’m glad I did it. No regrets.

Once they finished playing Hello Hurricane, they went right into the older songs. I was really hoping for Awakening, but they decided not to grace us with it on Saturday night. Awakening is on my running mix, and during the HALF MARATHON it came on 2nd or something, right when I was having to get over the fact that I had 12.5 miles to run and I was really frustrated at all the slow people. It is one of my favorite songs. Anyway, they didn’t play it, but they did play Dare You To Move, among others, so I was okay with no Awakening. NEXT TIME THOUGH SWITCHFOOT! They played about 2 hours, and it was awesome. Seeing them in such a small place (they said NOLA was the smallest venue on the tour, and it almost didn’t happen because it was too small, but they pushed through) was amazing. Word.

So last night I met up with my mom to go to the Hornets game, and then right after that, Jacob to go see Pete Yorn. I ended up being able to go as Jacob’s +1 (ie FREE) since our other friend Jacob had to bail. After the game, which the Hornets WON, I made my way down to Republic. I hadn’t been there since seeing Death Cab 3 years ago. I was able to find a parking spot a block away, it was a snap. I walked up about 9:45 and didn’t see Jacob. I did see the tour bus and stood on the sidewalk with the smokers. Some people really should look in the mirror when they smoke to make sure they don’t look completely awkward. This one guy looked very awkward with a cig in his mouth. Not only is he slowly killing himself but he looks like a dumbass doing it.

As I was standing there waiting for Jacob, Pete Yorn got off his tour bus and was talking to a couple of people. I texted Jacob to coax him to hurry up, and luckily we met up a few minutes before PY started. We obviously had missed the opener, who happened to be GIVING AWAY his EP at the merch table. If you’re giving away your EP, it probably sucks. The fact that they were being given away played a factor later in the evening.

The way Republic is set up now, is they have couches near the back, about ¾ of the way back between the stage and the merch table area. People had been sitting in them, so when the show started they stood up. Of course people stood up right in front of where we were standing, so we booed them. One of the guys turned around and Jacob then noticed the guy’s friend had an Iggy Pop shirt, and said we were just kidding, which we were, for the most part. The dude in the Iggy Pop shirt apparently is dating a rather tall girl, so of course she came over to stand with him. Then they started dancing and making out, which was weird. They were standing in front of the couches though, so it wasn’t a big deal view wise. PY must have this crazy dancing/PDA vibe, because there were a few people doing this. Later on in the show all of those people were standing in front of the couch, with Jacob and I standing behind it. During a song a few minutes later, the guy in the black shirt who had turned around, reaches over to his friend in the IP shirt, who is dancing with his chick, and tickles his underarm. Jacob and I looked at each other and telepathically exclaimed WTF? We laughed at what had just happened. I would never tickle a male friend’s underarm and don’t understand the logic behind doing it in a public setting.

We weren’t really paying attention to the songs that were not on musicforthemorningafter, so when PY was playing a new song, we went in search for High Life. There were plenty of people drinking it, and as connoisseurs of the HL, we figured there must be a special. There was a special, it was $2, but when we went to the bar they were out! OUT OF HIGH LIFE! I wanted to give the bartender $3 for a HL and they were out. It was a complete travesty, esp when we were offered Bud Light instead for $4 (not including tip). We declined and went back to standing behind the couch. Then I realized that the other bar on the other side of the room may still have HL. We walked over, because PY was playing another new song, and the other bar did have HL. We toasted on our way back to our spot. The night was going so well!

Upon returning to our spot, some idiot decided he wanted to get a better view of the stage, so he’s standing on the back of the couch, above everyone. I think he was intrigued with the drummer doing something in front of the drum kit. Problem was, he kept standing on the back of the couch and blocking our view. We yelled at him to get off, but he probably didn’t hear us. The next thing I know one of the opener’s free EP’s hits the dude in the back, causing him to turn around, and get off the couch. He looked around as if he didn’t know who threw it, and seemed to ask his friend “what just hit me?” Jacob and I laughed as we judged them, and clinked our bottles of High Life.

The show itself was alright, but like the time I saw PY in 2003, it just wasn’t GREAT. I mean, he comes out and plays his songs, but they’re not that much different than the album really, and he doesn’t talk a lot. The band was good though, and there was a guy whose job it was to only play tambourine. He had a majestic beard, and we both thought he reminded us of David Bazan. When the band came out for the encore, I yelled for Burrito. It got a reaction from some of the people in the crowd, and a group behind me got really excited, but they didn’t yell Burrito too. I yelled it again but then PY started Crystal Village or something. It’s a fine song, but not Burrito. PY did play my favorite song, On Your Side, and played seven songs off musicforthemorningafter, which was fine by Jacob and I.

At the end of the night, we got a picture with the DB look-a-like. I’ll post the picture when I get it emailed to me. We stayed around to try to get a picture with Pete Yorn, but after 15 or 20 minutes, it didn’t seem worth it anymore with it being almost midnight on a Tuesday, so we left. I got home about 12:35. It was surely a late night, but a great night. Word.

Sometimes at work the way things happen I feel like I’m in a cartoon. Things that happen would make a great comic strip. The other day was one of those times. Useful story acronyms: In The Room That I Was In (ITRTIWI), Lady Running The Meeting (LRTM).

Tuesday at work I had to go to a training class. I will have to go to the same training class again because of what happened. About 2 pm, I went down to the conference room for the meeting. It was going to be a teleconference with video, so basically a lady was going to be showing a video on her computer that we could all see. Everyone starts tying into the telecon and there are so many people talking at once. I was in a room of probably 50 or 60 people, but the commotion on the phone was crazy. The LRTM was taking roll of people who were online, so someone ITRTIWI told her “we have attendance sheets we can send you”. Other people are saying their name and spelling them out for her. One guy had two R’s in his name, so he says “Larry, L-A-R-R-Y.” The way he said the R’s sounded like a pirate. Some coworkers and I started laughing at the pirate tied in to the telecon. Then someone asks him to repeat it, so he does it again. More hilarity ensues. Then after all this has played out, the LRTM then drops this bomb, “oh, I can’t get the meeting software working, so everyone will just have to listen to the audio from the video.” WHAT? Then someone ITRTIWI figured out how to access the video. I think the LRTM had emailed them a link or something. THE VIDEO WAS ON A WEBSITE! It was a 60 Minutes video on cbsnews.com! So instead of just telling everyone “hey, everyone load up this webpage and we’ll all hit play at the same time”, there was mass confusion and people couldn’t figure out how to get the meeting software to work. Next thing I know, someone leading the meeting ITRTIWI says “why doesn’t everyone connect to us, and we can broadcast the video?” Great idea, so everyone tries to connect to us. I tried to suggest telling everyone the web address, but I was drowned in the cacophony of the moment. There is still a lot of talking on the telecon, people asking where they’re from and stuff. One lady was from Palo Alto. WHY? Then just when you think things will finally get rolling and we’ll watch this video on cyber crime or something, someone trips over the power cord and shuts the computer down, which shut the online meeting down, which threw EVERYONE online into panic. It was decided that the meeting would have to be rescheduled for another day when things did not go so horribly wrong. I’m not sure about the people on the telecon. At least I signed the attendance sheet.

John Mayer did a video for the song Heartbreak Warfare using something called augmented reality. I tried it out last night and it was cool. I am one of the very few people in the country without a printer at home, so I drew the heart using a pen and a black Sharpie. It worked though on my 2nd attempt, because the first time I drew the heart too big. My 2nd attempt was about 2″x2″. If you have a printer, you may want to skip this step. So if you have a webcam, check it out. The song is great too. I really like the smoothness of it.

If you aren’t able to work it, I found a video on youtube someone made with the video and it should give you an idea of how the AR works. The fingers and stuff on the side, that’s the person’s fingers. When you activate your webcam, it’s kind of like a window, so when you match up the heart on the paper to the heart on the screen, the video starts up. The heart on the paper acts as an anchor for the animation. So when you move the heart, the animation moves, when you twist it, the animation twists. Got all that? It’ll makes sense once you see it in action.