Saturday
11:06am - Successfully wake up later than the usual 7:00 my body clock is naturally set to during the week. Waking up early is great. Unless of course, you're on a vacation where later nights are the name of the game and no one else is around at sunrise.
12:22pm - Time to get our grub on. We walk over to a hot spot called Lou Mitchell's bakery for breakfast. More like brunch, as we were ready to hammer down one huge meal so that we could just snack pregame. Place is pretty packed, so my expectations began to build. I also had heard that breakfasts in the Midwest cost an arm and a leg, and was curious to see what the damage would be in relation to the quality of the meal. I got the 2 eggs meal, equipped with homefries and toast, then added on a couple pancakes for good measure. The coffee was not as good as Friday morning's, but the meal itself was outstanding. It came in a smoking hot skillet, a pretty cool touch I thought. Side note: The size variations of the 2 eggs you get at different restaurants never ceases to boggle my mind. I understand that eggs come in different sizes, but still...A pair of eggs at this spot was literally 5 times bigger than an IHOP or Dennys. That's a pretty enormous gap between breakfasts, and can be totally confusing when you're trying to order the right amount of grub.
12:58pm - Leave to table to go to the b-room, with every intention of coming back and finishing my monstrous meal. I start to get a weird feeling that the waitress may take away my plate while I'm gone, but shrug it off.
1:06pm - Noooooooooo!!! Always trust your gut, especially in food-related situations. Luckily, I've consumed 6 pounds of breakfast at this point so the 7th was not essential to my satisfaction. I just despise the idea of wasting food, so much so that it has led me to do incredibly "dirty" things in the past i.e. taking complete strangers leftovers off their hands so good food wouldn't end up in the trash can. As much as people rip me for doing things like this, I never once have gotten sick from it, nor do I believe I ever will.
1:29pm - After stiffing the waitress for taking the plate early (just kidding obvi.), we walk out and chat about what a cutie she was, and how its super lame to hit on any chick in a server position while they're on the job. Good chat, and one of a large bunch we had during my time. (I really wish I could make an all-time greatest conversations list. The two ones that easily make the conversation Hall of Fame that I can think of off the top of my head are 1-Me and Robbie's infamous "Cherry coke is the booooooomb. I wish we had invented it" one, and 2-Me, Doran and Scott's "Holy crap, if bugs ever joined forces with each other and revolted against humans we would be absolutely screwed" one a couple weekends ago)
2:00pm - We walk back to the Mercy Home where Tom shows me the kids' place where he works, and I get to meet a couple of them. It's a really nice facility in general for both the staff and the kids, the type of place I could even see myself at in the right circumstances. The kids rag us for sporting our bright orange Flyers shirt jerseys, and tell us we better watch our backs wearing them around the city. At this point, we had no idea what sort of response we would get from Chicago fans who didn't know us.
2:35pm - Cruise around the city for a bit in our Orange, and try to get to a landmark or two covered in Blackhawks stuff so we could deface it, or far more likely take pictures with it wearing our Philly gear. Traffic is getting bad in the city however, and a couple roads are blocked off, so we veto that option and return back to the pad to get a few down hours before we entered the madness at the United Center. While in Tom's neck of the woods, we get heckled for our orange attire by a cop and a paramedic in succession. Yeeeeeesss.
3:30pm - Watch some of the lacrosse final four and veg out with Tommy's roomies before catching our cab to the arena. The calm before the storm, exactly the mental preparation needed before going into enemy territory in Game 1 of a championship series rocking the away team's colors.
5:50pm - We catch our cab, which was only a 7 dollar ride, and get out at the United Center. Entering a sea of Red and Black, I get a serious adrenaline rush and start walking like I'm in a posture contest. I put on a fierce scowl, which in reality probably looked like a constipated face, but in my mind...I looked like I had more intent to kill than Liam Neeson in Taken.
6:15pm - I had so many people tell me going in to "be careful" and "don't wear your jersey" and all this nonsense. Bottom line is that other than the consistent (yet ultimately underwhelming) heckling, no one even seemed like a remote threat. We chatted it up with some diehard Hawks fans on the way to the standing room section, and got a solid picture with the ice in the background. Upon arriving at what would end up being "our" standing room for the game, we met a really nice couple sitting in front of us and some other standing room people, a group of Hawks fans our age and a couple Philly fans, who ended up being our go-to guys for high-fives, man hugs, and mostly an awkward combination of the two at the same time.
7:20pm - The United Center game introductions were incredible, and the arena was rocking. It's so strange when your will for something is directly opposed to the hopes and dreams of 22,000 people, and you're all in the same building. The other really crazy thing was after a Flyers goal, hearing nothing but the shouts of the road team's fans sprinkled intermittently throughout the crowd, echoing in the arena. There were so many other things that stood out during my time watching the game. Too many to mention, and I fear too many to even remember. I suppose I will just have to do it again the next time a Philly team makes a Championship Finals.
10:30pm - We left the arena disappointed with the outcome, but absolutely thrilled with the experience. I didn't diary the game, because everyone who would read this either knows how it went down, or would be bored with the details. We both agree it's the most fun we've ever had at a loss, and also agree that we are totally confused about Chicago fans. They were incredibly friendly and showed great hospitality, but on the flip side I felt like there was no question which city needed/needs to win more. There's a reason Philly is the greatest sports city in the country, and even though once in awhile we have a drunken idiot draw negative publicity our way, the majority of fans are upstanding citizens who are extremely passionate about their squads who don't draw the positive acclaim they're due.
10:42pm - Getting back to Tom's place, we excitedly tell of our time at the game to whatever roomates would listen, while refueling with food and brew. A few team members hit the hay, and it's me, Tom and two of his roomates, Megan and Erin. We play some pong, and put the Ry-pod on music detail. One of my favorite things ever is handing my Ipod to someone who has never seen it, and watching them scroll through the selection and eventually put on a tune or a playlist. I don't know why it's so exciting to me, but it is.
12:01am - The fantastic four as I referred to us (and by that I mean "never-ever referred to us as until this particular sentence"), ventured to a little dive that reminded me of a bunch of places in Philly I've been to over the years. We chatted there for a good while, then headed back to the homefront.
7:20am - Finally crashed on a couch in the living room area after essentially pulling an all-nighter chatting it up with Megan, whose hand I will ask for in marriage if I ever venture out to the Midwest again. I alluded to great conversation earlier, and I must say this was a theme throughout the trip, one that enhanced the entire experience.
On a "ridiculously cheesy yet totally true" note: There are sooo many dynamic people out there. It's crazy to think that while you are blessed with some people in your lives for long periods of time, others just make a brief appearance, leave a mark, and you never see them again. I feel totally undeserving of all the wonderful people who give me joy as mere passerbys, let alone the ones that contribute to the awe-inspiring love I feel on a regular basis. It was an absolutely overwhelming feeling that hit me on the flight home, and one that I felt tied into my trip to a certain extent. (More on my blessed self in a future serious/religious blog, always a reader favorite haha)
10:30am - Sunday Morning was relaxed. We walked around a bit and got lunch at bar&grill that was a stone's throw away from the Mercy home. Watched the Phils offense continue to sputter against the Marlins and reflected on the time I spent in the Windy City. Eventually Tom dropped me at the airport, we hugged it out, and I was on my way. The weekend there was really difficult to put into a couple blog posts, just too many little things and quirky details words wouldn't adequately explain.
See ya in a few weeks peeps!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment