& that's the way life goes

There is so much I want to say and I feel like I’m stumbling over the words in my head. There are pictures!

The background:
In 2005 C and I moved to Florida, Tampa Bay area, after I graduated college. Well C moved first and I followed after I finished my classes a couple months later. It was a toss up between there and Arizona and a job offer for C came from Gulf Coast Harley. It was a big move, I had never lived away from home, not because I didn’t have a choice but because I was comfortable and my mom was sick. I chose to stay close to home. By the time I graduated my life was a lot different than when I started and I just need a change, a big change. We lived in Tarpon Springs (C found the apartment and let’s just say I refused to live there long) while we found a condo that moved us farther north to Holiday. By that time C had quit Gulf Coast because of the primadonnas and we were both working Clearwater. I still miss driving to work together.

I HATED my job (ok jobs I had a couple) in Clearwater. This one in particular was by far the worst place I’ve ever worked with a passive aggressive boss and a dickhead of a boss’ boss. It was awful trust me. I only survived because of the time when I wasn’t working. We didn’t have the money for Center Ice to get the Red Wings games and it was the season right after the lockout so C was dying to watch hockey. We got into the Lightning who had just won the Stanley Cup in 2004. We bought a mini season pass and we were beyond impressed by the St. Pete Times Forum. Just thinking about it now makes me miss it. That is saying a lot because my memories of living in Florida are quite jaded.

So before Stevie Y became the GM for the Tampa Bay Lightning I was a fan. And because of the way I roll I had a favorite player, Vinny Lecavalier. When we moved back to Michigan I kept tabs on Vinny’s career and we caught all the TB Lightning games on Versus. I’ve seen TB play Detroit every year since 2005-06 season with the exception of the 2006-07 season because they never met in the regular season.

2005-06 Season (December 17, 2005) – Tampa
2006-07 Season – No matchup Because Bettman is complete idiot
2007-08 Season (November 29. 2007) – Detroit
2008-09 Season (November 13, 2008) – Tampa
2009-10 Season (December 17, 2009) – Detroit
2010-11 season (February 11, 2011) – Tampa

We are Hockey Town – and apparently, as of this year, – Tampa Bay is Hockey Paradise

Since I’ve bored you with a ton of text and background let’s get to the good part, I guess that should have come first. C is totally cool when it comes to my hockey boyfriends and he definitely proved himself last week. So as tradition goes we flew to Tampa for the Wings vs Lightning game. Thursday morning we thought we may be able to catch the morning skate but talks with the security guy proved that was a no go. So we found some steps and sipped our coffee while we waited to watch the players go in. I know it sounds stalkerish and this is definitely not what I normally do. In fact, I was kind of embarrassed while we were sitting up there.

We saw Guy Boucher walk in – well C did I didn’t know who the head coach was.

Then Dwayne Roloson

And then the security guy we had chatted with came up to us and politely told us we couldn’t sit up there any longer. I think he felt bad, he kind of beat around the bush when telling us to leave and finished up with letting us know when the players would come out of the morning skate to sign autographs. You think Boucher didn’t appreciate us out there?

We walked over to where the gate was and in a red Ferrari Vinny LeCavalier pulled up next to us waiting for a car to leave the parking lot. C yelled his name and Vinny looked confused and then drove into the parking lot. We decided it was a good idea to go change because even though it was only 8:30 in the morning I needed a tank top.

By the time we got back to the St Pete Times Forum there were already other people waiting for the players to drive out of the lot. Honestly, most of them were Wings fans.

Lecavalier was one of the last players to come out. He was waiting on his Ferrari that was getting detailed. When he came out he signed a couple autographs and then mine and I asked for a picture, he didn’t hear me so C called him over. It was pretty anticlimactic but I definitely couldn’t stop smiling.

I got 10 autographs:

Lecavalier
Moore
Bergenhiem – he was so cool he didn’t even drive his car over and get out he just asked if anyone wanted him to sign something. I was the first and I didn’t even know his name, he helped me find it.
Gagne
Purcell
St. Louis
Kubina
Lundin
Ellis
Roloson

I missed Smaby because I didn’t know who he was and couldn’t get my program open in time. Stamkos drove by with his dad in the passenger seat of his convertible and promised after the game.

I love the Detroit Red Wings and they are my number one team, my favorite player is Datsyuk and I am from Detroit, but while standing with the other Wings fans the majority rule was that the Wings are really hard to get to sign autographs. Most of the fans had their jerseys and Wings memorabilia. Instead of coming over they stood by their buses for a good 30 minutes. I know they were away from home but I heard they are even worse here. And if that’s true, that’s just sad. They have such an awesome fan base and the ticket prices for the aging Joe Louis arena are substantially higher than ticket prices in Tampa.

a few Wings standing around while fans yell their names and wave jerseys

My next post is about the game…

I’m sorry how is it that I left on Wednesday when it was 50 degrees in Michigan and came back on Saturday, only to have it become a snowpocalypse complete with thundersnow. Why?!

I left this…

For 6-10in of snow and a possible ice storm to follow.

I want to share one of the most exciting days of my life but I’m still basking in it myself. What a great mini vacation!

Remember that time on twitter when I said, “I’M GOING TO DUBLIN’ and then I never said anything more about it?  Yeah, it still doesn’t seem real.  Mostly because it’s in less than 3 months and we are going to Tampa in a couple weeks so I feel like I can’t get excited about IRELAND until Tampa is over.

There is no way that I’m not going to start planning for Ireland now though, mind you.  If I waited until after I got back from Tampa I’d only have little over a month before I left!  If you’ve ever been to Dublin, Galway or Cork I’d love to hear the places you think I should check out, what I should pack, or  any traveling tips for my first trip out of the country!

Well I’ve been to Canada and Mexico…really it’s my first trip to Europe and leaving the continent!

I also need to figure out what to do about a phone (I have a Verizon Droid and I don’t think it will work out of the country) and whether to haul my laptop or not.  Decisions, decisions.  We are only bringing our backpacks we used when we went camping in Hawaii a couple years ago.  I wonder if they would be too big to qualify as carryons?

Because of the flights I booked, for good or bad, we have a layover in Paris on the way there and in Amsterdam on the way back. I’m bummed because it’s a longer travel time but it’s also a little exciting because I can say I had my feet in Paris and Amsterdam, even if I was only in the airport, right?

I’m also trying to decide if we should travel across the country by bus or buy a pass for the train. Suggestions? Advice?  Anything is appreciated!

I’m so excited about this adventure and I’m trying not to think about the money part of it.  Rarely do people say, man I wish I wouldn’t have taken that trip.

If you haven’t already heard on twitter, facebook, email, etc…Living Social’s deal of the day is a $20 Amazon Giftcard for $10.  Who doesn’t need this?!

Also in Good Deal news.  I booked a pretty awesome airfare to Tampa last month but I hadn’t found a hotel room yet.  See C and I have attended the Red Wings vs Tampa Bay Lightening since we lived in Tampa in 2005.  With the changes in the schedule the Wings only see the Lightening once a year and they alternate venues.  In 2008, we vactioned in Clearwater so we could go to the Wings game at the St. Pete Times Forum and last year we attended the game at the Joe.

he better be back and playing by February!

<3

i used to like McCarty - He does commentary on VS sometimes now

So it’s not really a surprise that when we saw on the schedule that the Wings play Tampa in February in Tampa that we would go.  But we didn’t want to rent a car because it can get expensive and we lived in the area so we don’t need to see the sights.  Instead, we decided to stay in the city near the Port of Tampa where all the museums, the Florida Aquarium and a lot of night life resides.

Did you know staying in the city at a hotel within a 2 mile radius of the St. Pete Times Forum is frickin expensive?  Even on hotels.com the cheapest I could find a hotel was $175 a night.  No bueno, when you are trying to plan a relatively cheap weekend trip.  I had narrowed it down to a choice of 3 hotels that are in the area we wanted to stay.  I decided to be adventurous and use Priceline’s deal negotiator.  With  Chris’ advice I started really low.  I bid $40 higher than my starting and decided to give it a rest when I kept getting No Deal.  Last night just for funsies C and I tried it again.  Our first bid was accepted and at a hotel that was in my 3 choices!  I might have let out a scream of joy.

Sunshine and warmth in a month is real now!  Sometimes you just have to hold out and you will score with cheaper prices!

Have you gotten any good deals lately?

I hate to say that Fall is officially here, but dang, it’s chilly out there.  The only good thing about it is that I am now constantly wearing the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever owned.  It’s like walking barefoot, for realz.  (I’m not in any way being compensated for saying that, but if Sanuk wants to give me a free pair, I’d be all for that)

I might have gotten caught taken a picture of my feet on my desk…

I feel like I’ve had so much going on lately and no time to talk about all the fun I’ve been having.

Eminem/Jay-Z

Even though there was drama concerning the douchebags sitting next to us I had an amazing time with Jenni, Mal and Jessica.  So much so that I was thinking about the concert for days after.  Thoughts of how hot Eminem is and just the general amazingness

Holla

Drake, 50 Cent, D12, Trick Trick and some others showed up. I might have been a little hysterical when Dr Dre made a surprise visit. I may or may not have hurt Jenni by grabbing onto her arm, screaming and jumping up and down. I’m not too proud to admit it.

Wedding

A friend of my friends, that are more like my sisters, got married. We didn’t stay all that long because we were getting up at 4:30am the next morning to start our long Labor Day weekend.

The LONG weekend up north

We got up at 4:30am and drove up to the cottage. I slept a little bit while C drank all of my coffee. We spent the majority of the weekend inside because it was chilly. I finished two books, we got some little projects done, watched Scrubs and Definitely, Maybe. We did enjoy the sun when it did come out periodically by taking walks on the beach. We also got one big project done on Tuesday, our last day up there. It was sunny but WINDY.

Besides all that I spent the rest of the days eating everything in sight. We bought the best food to take up there. Our dogs were their usual pathetic selves and after the first day or two Scooby was suicidal.