$4,500 of Fun
Music right now: Summer Breeze - Seals & Croft
Weird weather here, with sparse blowing snow that barely stays on the ground, clear skies, and cold temperatures.
So, to WrestleMania. Turns out, last minute, they wanted to take separate cars, so now I was on the hook for 200+ miles I hadn't budgeted for. Luckily when I got home, I was graciously lent some gas money, given the recent hikes in price. The construction I feared on I-94 was about 7 miles long, but there were no workers out, and little slow down.
On my way home I was thinking of calling Ken about his precious folder. He kept going on about how everything was planned in this folder, and even went so far as to (jokingly) include the times we'd be "talking about how fun" said events were after we did them. It had our tickets, directions to and from everything, seating charts, the whole nine yards. So naturally, I didn't call him thinking I'd be chewed out for suggesting he'd forget something so vital, and he forgets it - 2 hours away from home. I mean, I was double checking I brought the shirts I wanted to wear on certain days, and my belt, and toothbrush. You'd figure something so huge would be double and triple checked. Luckily our first event was the "Condemned" premiere, which he had printed-out internet tickets for. And of course, Wescott's printer was failing us, with the nearest printers at least 10 minutes in the opposite direction from Detroit. We found out at the door people were just walking in and taking seats, so we didn't even need those. And of course, we cut it close, leaving only an hour to negotiate 50 miles of road we hadn't yet seen the construction on. The stars aligned and we got there in 45 minutes after the printer decided to come alive, and we had a great time.
Second day was similarly cut close. We found our way to the Borders where Mick Foley was signing his new book. We were among the last of 500 people to get wristbands, and hence, guaranteed autographs. We also found out you needed to buy the book to get things signed - you couldn't just bring Mick memorabilia for him to autograph. So there was $24 I hadn't planned on (the thing was cheaper at Meijer & Wal*Mart too). Most of the fun there was jawing with each other and some cool fans in line. Meeting Mick was okay, but by the time we got there, he was rushed into just signing the book we were forced to buy, and not being able to personalize or anything. Wescott was wearing his Randy Orton basketball jersey this day, so he and Mick had a nice dialog, with John snapping back that it was on clearance because Mick beat him or something like that.
So we went to Ford Field for Axxcess, hoping upon hope that it'd be something resembling the cool ones of days gone by and not the sparse booths-only setup of the one at SNME at Cobo. Of course, we got the latter. We waited in a line for an hour to get pictures with title belts, which we did, and I turned one into an icon. Ken joked that the pictures make me a former WWE & ECW champion. They all turned out fun in their own way. We then went to the call-a-match booth, and found out they were equipped with only 1 headset after a 30 minute wait in line. Luckily we managed to share it, and talked with a guy in line who was in-house security for WCW who took the WCW Bruise Cruise, was a Detroit native who went to WM III, and got drunk with Jim Duggan and Chris Jericho. Everybody in line loved the Jason/John/Ken schtick too, so it all worked out.
With that line taking forever, and the ancient computer burning our DVD, we ran to the parking garage to change into a bit more formal clothes for the Hall of Fame. I give my personal rundown here. We were on the floor for "Condemned" so we didn't know how steep and far up our balcony seats were going to be. Luckily it didn't take away from the fine speeches. Plus, my camera was on fire. I'll post those pictures sometime in the next few weeks.
I could probably go on and on about WM, but suffice to say, it was pretty decent. $40 parking blew, as did our seats. We paid $100 expecting to get risers, not floor. You can see the ring from 20 rows back on the floor, but if you get just ONE person taller than you who tilts a certain way or a dumbass kid who stands on his seat to hold up his John Cena sign while not on camera during Money in the Bank (ARGH), you're stuck with the Titantron. Luckily every fan around us was cool and made the night something special, when we started chants like "SAME OLD SHIT" for John Cena and participated in "BOOOO. YAY! BOOOO. YAY!"
So counting all the food, all the parking, all the merchandise we purchased as a trio (i.e. we all bought programs, Mick's book, etc.) WrestleMania cost in the neighborhood of $800. Parking alone was $57 total for the weekend. Gas was something around $60. I'd do it all over again. In fact, if you're a true fan, I recommend the HoF above anything else. WM may not always deliver, and your seat might not be the best, but you don't need a good seat to hear great road stories at the Hall.
On my way home to come back on Monday, where I had planned to putt-putt and whatever with my brother, my car finally died. All WrestleMania weekend it was downshifting poorly, and on Saturday night even made grinding sounds like a blender crushing ice when in park. The thing just slowed down gradually on the freeway Monday. 65...60...55...you'd press the gas, get revving, and slow down even more. I pulled over hoping to start it just once more so I could get it to an exit, but no such luck. A cop came by and took me and my bags to a gas station, where I was able to get my brother to come get me. Putting in an older transmission to replace the broken one had a price tag of $2,200 and a whole new one was $3,700. Needless to say - no more Taurus. I could probably do a post the length of my WrestleMania recap to eulogize the Taurus. What a fun car.
In any event, I was pleased to find I had a job offer in my Gmail box when I came home. I had to turn it down because it meant moving to California on April 9th and basically throwing away the last two months of this semester. But I "have a contact" for lack of a better term, and it was such a pleasant turn around after losing my poor car.
Today we critiqued the station imaging project in Audio Production. Mine got a resounding reaction, and I was pleased. Again, for broadcast majors, you'd think more of them would know in the back of their heads what these IDs should sound like. You don't go "the latest hits" and then slowly fade in a 15 second clip. You GO GO GO. Some people did really clever stuff with "Simpsons" drops and funny catch phrases and cool effects. But the people who missed the mark on this one REALLY missed it.
My dad's about 60 miles away from here with my car, getting all of my crap out of it. We have some vague ideas of what to do. All I can say now is that they'll be picking me up rather than me driving home in May. This weekend I have a project or two to work on, and then the final project, the demo tape, for Audio to look forward to.
Weird weather here, with sparse blowing snow that barely stays on the ground, clear skies, and cold temperatures.
So, to WrestleMania. Turns out, last minute, they wanted to take separate cars, so now I was on the hook for 200+ miles I hadn't budgeted for. Luckily when I got home, I was graciously lent some gas money, given the recent hikes in price. The construction I feared on I-94 was about 7 miles long, but there were no workers out, and little slow down.
On my way home I was thinking of calling Ken about his precious folder. He kept going on about how everything was planned in this folder, and even went so far as to (jokingly) include the times we'd be "talking about how fun" said events were after we did them. It had our tickets, directions to and from everything, seating charts, the whole nine yards. So naturally, I didn't call him thinking I'd be chewed out for suggesting he'd forget something so vital, and he forgets it - 2 hours away from home. I mean, I was double checking I brought the shirts I wanted to wear on certain days, and my belt, and toothbrush. You'd figure something so huge would be double and triple checked. Luckily our first event was the "Condemned" premiere, which he had printed-out internet tickets for. And of course, Wescott's printer was failing us, with the nearest printers at least 10 minutes in the opposite direction from Detroit. We found out at the door people were just walking in and taking seats, so we didn't even need those. And of course, we cut it close, leaving only an hour to negotiate 50 miles of road we hadn't yet seen the construction on. The stars aligned and we got there in 45 minutes after the printer decided to come alive, and we had a great time.
Second day was similarly cut close. We found our way to the Borders where Mick Foley was signing his new book. We were among the last of 500 people to get wristbands, and hence, guaranteed autographs. We also found out you needed to buy the book to get things signed - you couldn't just bring Mick memorabilia for him to autograph. So there was $24 I hadn't planned on (the thing was cheaper at Meijer & Wal*Mart too). Most of the fun there was jawing with each other and some cool fans in line. Meeting Mick was okay, but by the time we got there, he was rushed into just signing the book we were forced to buy, and not being able to personalize or anything. Wescott was wearing his Randy Orton basketball jersey this day, so he and Mick had a nice dialog, with John snapping back that it was on clearance because Mick beat him or something like that.
So we went to Ford Field for Axxcess, hoping upon hope that it'd be something resembling the cool ones of days gone by and not the sparse booths-only setup of the one at SNME at Cobo. Of course, we got the latter. We waited in a line for an hour to get pictures with title belts, which we did, and I turned one into an icon. Ken joked that the pictures make me a former WWE & ECW champion. They all turned out fun in their own way. We then went to the call-a-match booth, and found out they were equipped with only 1 headset after a 30 minute wait in line. Luckily we managed to share it, and talked with a guy in line who was in-house security for WCW who took the WCW Bruise Cruise, was a Detroit native who went to WM III, and got drunk with Jim Duggan and Chris Jericho. Everybody in line loved the Jason/John/Ken schtick too, so it all worked out.
With that line taking forever, and the ancient computer burning our DVD, we ran to the parking garage to change into a bit more formal clothes for the Hall of Fame. I give my personal rundown here. We were on the floor for "Condemned" so we didn't know how steep and far up our balcony seats were going to be. Luckily it didn't take away from the fine speeches. Plus, my camera was on fire. I'll post those pictures sometime in the next few weeks.
I could probably go on and on about WM, but suffice to say, it was pretty decent. $40 parking blew, as did our seats. We paid $100 expecting to get risers, not floor. You can see the ring from 20 rows back on the floor, but if you get just ONE person taller than you who tilts a certain way or a dumbass kid who stands on his seat to hold up his John Cena sign while not on camera during Money in the Bank (ARGH), you're stuck with the Titantron. Luckily every fan around us was cool and made the night something special, when we started chants like "SAME OLD SHIT" for John Cena and participated in "BOOOO. YAY! BOOOO. YAY!"
So counting all the food, all the parking, all the merchandise we purchased as a trio (i.e. we all bought programs, Mick's book, etc.) WrestleMania cost in the neighborhood of $800. Parking alone was $57 total for the weekend. Gas was something around $60. I'd do it all over again. In fact, if you're a true fan, I recommend the HoF above anything else. WM may not always deliver, and your seat might not be the best, but you don't need a good seat to hear great road stories at the Hall.
On my way home to come back on Monday, where I had planned to putt-putt and whatever with my brother, my car finally died. All WrestleMania weekend it was downshifting poorly, and on Saturday night even made grinding sounds like a blender crushing ice when in park. The thing just slowed down gradually on the freeway Monday. 65...60...55...you'd press the gas, get revving, and slow down even more. I pulled over hoping to start it just once more so I could get it to an exit, but no such luck. A cop came by and took me and my bags to a gas station, where I was able to get my brother to come get me. Putting in an older transmission to replace the broken one had a price tag of $2,200 and a whole new one was $3,700. Needless to say - no more Taurus. I could probably do a post the length of my WrestleMania recap to eulogize the Taurus. What a fun car.
In any event, I was pleased to find I had a job offer in my Gmail box when I came home. I had to turn it down because it meant moving to California on April 9th and basically throwing away the last two months of this semester. But I "have a contact" for lack of a better term, and it was such a pleasant turn around after losing my poor car.
Today we critiqued the station imaging project in Audio Production. Mine got a resounding reaction, and I was pleased. Again, for broadcast majors, you'd think more of them would know in the back of their heads what these IDs should sound like. You don't go "the latest hits" and then slowly fade in a 15 second clip. You GO GO GO. Some people did really clever stuff with "Simpsons" drops and funny catch phrases and cool effects. But the people who missed the mark on this one REALLY missed it.
My dad's about 60 miles away from here with my car, getting all of my crap out of it. We have some vague ideas of what to do. All I can say now is that they'll be picking me up rather than me driving home in May. This weekend I have a project or two to work on, and then the final project, the demo tape, for Audio to look forward to.