All About Miami
All About Miami (and how the Orange Bowl National Championship Game was the funnest thing ever):
On Monday morning I got up at 4:30am in order to go to SFO and catch a nonstop American Airlines flight to Miami. Though the flight wasn't delayed (like, say, all three flights I took on Wednesday), I have to say that American Airlines is the shittiest airline on earth. I slept for 1 hour out of the 5:30 hour flight, and during that one hour they gave out breakfast. After I woke up and realized this, they wouldn't give me any because it was past that time. Then there was the in-flight entertainment... Unlike Jet Blue, which has a 6" LCD TV on Direct TV (30 channels) on every seat, with free headphones, American Airlines had 4 13" TVs spread through the length of the airplane mounted on the ceiling. Then they charged $5(!) for the shittiest headphones I'd ever seen for the one movie and a couple of TV shows they were gonna show. So I passed on their crappy excuse for entertainment. That left me with the new Michael Criton book, State of Fear, to read (it was the only book from an author I knew in the SFO terminal I was in). It turned out the book was one giant piece of propoganda against environmental organizations, those who believe in the greenhouse effect and global warming, etc. Literally, I didn't realize Criton was such a convservative asshole, but the entire thing was made to make tehse orgainzations look like the devil incarnate, ignorant terrorist groups. But he's a good writer, so now I believe that Global Warming is a myth and Sierra Club knowingly finances terrorists.
So anyway, I landed in Miami, where I was greeted by 90 degree weather and SCHAEFER. We spent 45 minutes trying to get a cab in the chaos they called a line, finally got to our hotel in Coral Gables at the Hyatt Regency, met up with Danny (Brian) and headed to our room. We spent the rest of our evening heckling Oklahoma University fans who were in the pool (we had a balcony right above it) and watching the V-Tech vs. Auburn Sugar Bowl game on TV. Around 1am we got hungry so we ate at Denny's, where we met Heidi, a 75 year old German waitress who was entirely unaware that the Orange Bowl was happening in her state, and so we explained to her why it was she had served more USC and OU students in the past hour than in her entire 30 year history with the restaurant.
The next day we got up early, made ourselves look pretty, and took a cab to South Beach, which might just be the best beach in the world. Aside from being around the 10,000 USC/OU fans who were on Ocean Dr, we got to stand in the ocean in 80 degree weather under a sunny, white clouded sky, while it rained. I've never seen anything like that before. Then we visited Versache's house, and ate at "THE CLEAVELANDER", this uber-trendy hotel/restaurant/night club. We ate at a poolside table while a DJ played music and these two really old dancers danced on catwalks above the pool. Danny won a free T-Shirt for knowing who number 17 was on our team (David Booty) when the DJ did abunch of trivia.
After South Beach we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool. We went to the pool because we saw abunch of families playing football in the water, so we wanted to join in, but by the time we got there they were gone, and we ended up playing a 30 minute long imaginary game of catch/3 flies up without a football. I'm glad I have friends who would pretend to toss a ball around in the water for half an hour. Then Schaefer got mad because I wouldn't stop pretending to be a shark, and we ended up going back to the room.
At this time it was 4pm, and the Orange Bowl (oh yeah, the entire point of this trip was going to the Orange Bowl... Hence all the USC vs. OU references, etc) started at 8. We had out tickets, so we figured we'd get a cab at 6 and get to the game an hour early. However, at 4:30, the front desk called and told us that the van limousine service we had signed up for was ready and waiting on us. We're not sure how this got called, but it ended up being a $40 round trip per person, plus the van waited for us. So we decided to just take it, and good thing we did, because it ended up taking 2 and a half hours to get there (because of rush hour traffic/people going to the game), meaning we would have been late had we taken a cab. So we got there about an hour and a half early. WHEW.
Now, the tickets that we were able to get (and thank god, the thing was packed to the max) happened to be in the OU student section (gah!), right behind the endzone, 20 rows back. Instead of sitting there, we went straight to the USC end zone and found 3 OU fans who were willing to trade us seats. We ended up sitting in literally the exact same seats, just opposite side of the field.
So the game started, and we spent the next five hours jumping up and down, screaming at the top of our lungs, ready to pass out with massive headaches, having the best goddamn time of our entire lives. Schaefer had been to the Super Bowl in Miami a couple of years ago at the same stadium, and he said it was nothing compared to this. See, at the Super Bowl, the only people with tickets are the media, celebrities, and corporate pigs, there are no fans. However, at the Orange Bowl, you had 70,000 of the most rabid, die-hard college football fans you will ever find.
All the announcers on ESPN had picked OU to win the game, even though USC was ranked #1. Fuck 'em. We were up 14-7 at the end of the first quarter, and up 38-10 at halftime. It was the most points put up, EVER, by halftime, in national championship history. The final score was 55-19, and all the commentators were saying how they had never seen a more dominant performance by a team in as long as they had lived. In talking to several OU fans, they said they didn't feel bad losing their second straight championship game in a row (whereas we won our second straight championship) because they knew no team could have beaten USC the way they played that night. We went back to the hotel, and passed out.
The next day I woke up at 8am and got to the airport by 9am (6am west coast time) in order to catch the first leg of my THREE leg flight back to SFO. It was delayed. Fortunately, the second flight was delayed too, so I didn't miss my connection in Tampa. Unfortunately, the third leg was not delayed, so when I got to Atlanta, Georgia, I missed my 5:30 EST flight to SFO and had to get on a 8:20 EST flight. Too bad that was delaye duntil 9, so I ended up getting to SFO at 11pm PST, meaning I had been at an airport or on a plane from 6am-11pm, a friendly 17 hours of sitting in cramped, uncomfortable chairs. SO FUCK THE GODDAMN AIRPORT, FUCK AMERICAN AIRLINES, AND FUCK DELTA.
Anyway, I'm home, I'm leaving to go back to LA on Saturday, and I want to go to Sunflower.
Bye.
On Monday morning I got up at 4:30am in order to go to SFO and catch a nonstop American Airlines flight to Miami. Though the flight wasn't delayed (like, say, all three flights I took on Wednesday), I have to say that American Airlines is the shittiest airline on earth. I slept for 1 hour out of the 5:30 hour flight, and during that one hour they gave out breakfast. After I woke up and realized this, they wouldn't give me any because it was past that time. Then there was the in-flight entertainment... Unlike Jet Blue, which has a 6" LCD TV on Direct TV (30 channels) on every seat, with free headphones, American Airlines had 4 13" TVs spread through the length of the airplane mounted on the ceiling. Then they charged $5(!) for the shittiest headphones I'd ever seen for the one movie and a couple of TV shows they were gonna show. So I passed on their crappy excuse for entertainment. That left me with the new Michael Criton book, State of Fear, to read (it was the only book from an author I knew in the SFO terminal I was in). It turned out the book was one giant piece of propoganda against environmental organizations, those who believe in the greenhouse effect and global warming, etc. Literally, I didn't realize Criton was such a convservative asshole, but the entire thing was made to make tehse orgainzations look like the devil incarnate, ignorant terrorist groups. But he's a good writer, so now I believe that Global Warming is a myth and Sierra Club knowingly finances terrorists.
So anyway, I landed in Miami, where I was greeted by 90 degree weather and SCHAEFER. We spent 45 minutes trying to get a cab in the chaos they called a line, finally got to our hotel in Coral Gables at the Hyatt Regency, met up with Danny (Brian) and headed to our room. We spent the rest of our evening heckling Oklahoma University fans who were in the pool (we had a balcony right above it) and watching the V-Tech vs. Auburn Sugar Bowl game on TV. Around 1am we got hungry so we ate at Denny's, where we met Heidi, a 75 year old German waitress who was entirely unaware that the Orange Bowl was happening in her state, and so we explained to her why it was she had served more USC and OU students in the past hour than in her entire 30 year history with the restaurant.
The next day we got up early, made ourselves look pretty, and took a cab to South Beach, which might just be the best beach in the world. Aside from being around the 10,000 USC/OU fans who were on Ocean Dr, we got to stand in the ocean in 80 degree weather under a sunny, white clouded sky, while it rained. I've never seen anything like that before. Then we visited Versache's house, and ate at "THE CLEAVELANDER", this uber-trendy hotel/restaurant/night club. We ate at a poolside table while a DJ played music and these two really old dancers danced on catwalks above the pool. Danny won a free T-Shirt for knowing who number 17 was on our team (David Booty) when the DJ did abunch of trivia.
After South Beach we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool. We went to the pool because we saw abunch of families playing football in the water, so we wanted to join in, but by the time we got there they were gone, and we ended up playing a 30 minute long imaginary game of catch/3 flies up without a football. I'm glad I have friends who would pretend to toss a ball around in the water for half an hour. Then Schaefer got mad because I wouldn't stop pretending to be a shark, and we ended up going back to the room.
At this time it was 4pm, and the Orange Bowl (oh yeah, the entire point of this trip was going to the Orange Bowl... Hence all the USC vs. OU references, etc) started at 8. We had out tickets, so we figured we'd get a cab at 6 and get to the game an hour early. However, at 4:30, the front desk called and told us that the van limousine service we had signed up for was ready and waiting on us. We're not sure how this got called, but it ended up being a $40 round trip per person, plus the van waited for us. So we decided to just take it, and good thing we did, because it ended up taking 2 and a half hours to get there (because of rush hour traffic/people going to the game), meaning we would have been late had we taken a cab. So we got there about an hour and a half early. WHEW.
Now, the tickets that we were able to get (and thank god, the thing was packed to the max) happened to be in the OU student section (gah!), right behind the endzone, 20 rows back. Instead of sitting there, we went straight to the USC end zone and found 3 OU fans who were willing to trade us seats. We ended up sitting in literally the exact same seats, just opposite side of the field.
So the game started, and we spent the next five hours jumping up and down, screaming at the top of our lungs, ready to pass out with massive headaches, having the best goddamn time of our entire lives. Schaefer had been to the Super Bowl in Miami a couple of years ago at the same stadium, and he said it was nothing compared to this. See, at the Super Bowl, the only people with tickets are the media, celebrities, and corporate pigs, there are no fans. However, at the Orange Bowl, you had 70,000 of the most rabid, die-hard college football fans you will ever find.
All the announcers on ESPN had picked OU to win the game, even though USC was ranked #1. Fuck 'em. We were up 14-7 at the end of the first quarter, and up 38-10 at halftime. It was the most points put up, EVER, by halftime, in national championship history. The final score was 55-19, and all the commentators were saying how they had never seen a more dominant performance by a team in as long as they had lived. In talking to several OU fans, they said they didn't feel bad losing their second straight championship game in a row (whereas we won our second straight championship) because they knew no team could have beaten USC the way they played that night. We went back to the hotel, and passed out.
The next day I woke up at 8am and got to the airport by 9am (6am west coast time) in order to catch the first leg of my THREE leg flight back to SFO. It was delayed. Fortunately, the second flight was delayed too, so I didn't miss my connection in Tampa. Unfortunately, the third leg was not delayed, so when I got to Atlanta, Georgia, I missed my 5:30 EST flight to SFO and had to get on a 8:20 EST flight. Too bad that was delaye duntil 9, so I ended up getting to SFO at 11pm PST, meaning I had been at an airport or on a plane from 6am-11pm, a friendly 17 hours of sitting in cramped, uncomfortable chairs. SO FUCK THE GODDAMN AIRPORT, FUCK AMERICAN AIRLINES, AND FUCK DELTA.
Anyway, I'm home, I'm leaving to go back to LA on Saturday, and I want to go to Sunflower.
Bye.