Mikey Does Dallas - The Night From Hell
Mar 13, 2009 12:35:07 GMT -5
Post by Mikey on Mar 13, 2009 12:35:07 GMT -5
still getting used to this huge metropolis thing. I'm used to Atlanta - everything you need in Atlanta is like within 10 blocks of each other. Dallas is sprawl.
So me and the girlfriend got lost heading toward Fort Worth yesterday meeting up with a couple of online friends for lunch. Twice. Her iPhone gave us bad directions. Twice. I should've known better though than to go with the phone than to follow my instincts. I'm an excellentdriver navigator. But once we got there, it was nice to see a couple of the people (Annie and Damon) that really helped me get thru all the divorce shit over the past four years. So the problems for the day are over, right? Wrong.
Annie's in town from Boise for a work convention and was looking for something to do last night, so, having an extra ticket, we invited her to the Stars/Canes game with us. Problem is, she's coming in from DFW and we're coming in from northeast of town and logistics just don't work at all. So she's gotta catch the rail in from the airport and we're catching it elsewhere to get to downtown. And while we're at lunch, I forget to give her the extra ticket. So - if one of us gets there early, we have to wait for the other one. So we're trying to time it right. And keep in mind, I've NEVER done public transportation before.
We get to the rail station, and we're waiting for the train, and she realizes that we've left the backpack of stuff we brought to help keep the girls occupied. So I run back to the car and grab it - only to miss the 5:40. No biggie - we've built in extra time to try to catch pregame warmups (but not quite knowing if we can even do that because of Annie's ticket.) The 5:57 is early, but that's good. We get on, take off... and before we get to the first stop, she looks at me and asks, "You got the tickets?"
...............
So we get off at the first stop, wait 5 minutes and catch the next one going back. Go back to the car again, get the tickets, come back and wait. Oh, and the whole time - 38 degrees and drizzle. Miserable weather. FINALLY catch the 6:07 going to downtown, but this one doesn't go all the way to the American Airlines Center. So at the final stop, we have to get off and catch the NEXT one that DOES go. So we do, Annie's waiting for us, we get there, and we're in early enough to catch the last 5 minutes of warmups. The kids think that's cool.
The oldest wants a Stars shirt - which we couldn't find at a couple of stores earlier in the day - so we stopped in the very cool fan shop and picked him up one on sale, and headed up to the 300's to our seats. We were three rows from the top, not much unlike the seats my brother and I had at the Dean Dome three years ago when he stood up and hit his head on the roof. But great view nevertheless, I'd never watched a hockey game up top, and it's cool being able to see the play develop a little better with the wide angle. Carolina gets outplayed for 40 minutes, decided to turn the jets on in the third, but Marty Turco is a hoss and manages hold them off, and Dallas wins 3-2. Annie was a HUGE help with the kiddos, and me and the oldest got in some bonding time while we cheered our respective teams. Sav had a good time alternating between cheering and playing with the others.
Then it gets fun... We take our time getting out , so we don't have to fight the crowds. Get to the bottom, hit the bathrooms, and we're turned around - not knowing where we came in so we can exit to the train station. And sure enough we step out of the wrong one. And when I say "step," I mean take three steps out of the arena and realize we're on the wrong side. So we go right back in and ask the usher lady if the DART is on the other side. She says it is, but that sine we "left the building," we can't come back in.
It's 37, it's drizzling, we've got three kids, and we can't walk back thru the arena to the other side. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS??
What were we going to do? Start a riot? Loot the place? Pull guns out from under our hockey sweaters and hold up the concession vendors?? (I hope the lady's car wouldn't start and she was stranded in that shit last night.) So we walk all the way around, have the station in our sights... and the last train leaves. We're told this by a police officer pulling up as we're walking. She tells us the last train at Victory Station leaves 20 minutes after the game, though everything online said 30 minutes. So now we have to walk BACK to the arena and catch a cab (again, a first for me) to the first station, West End, that is still running. So we pay $13 to go like three blocks - and would've paid it again given the circumstances - wait in the cold and rain again, FINALLY catch the Red Line back to the turnpike where we got on, and finally drove into the garage at about 11:30, 90 minutes after the game ended.
The upside: well, not much. The girlfriend texted Solly for the gist of the train ride after he gave me shit about it being the worst night in Dallas since the day Kennedy flew into Love Field and us making JFK jokes for the first part of the ride. AND - the first logistical and mental challenge for me and the girlfriend (with the kids in tow, to boot) and I think we passed with flying colors. We all slept WAY late this morning. I'm never taking the kids back o the AAC again though after that debacle.
Rant over.
So me and the girlfriend got lost heading toward Fort Worth yesterday meeting up with a couple of online friends for lunch. Twice. Her iPhone gave us bad directions. Twice. I should've known better though than to go with the phone than to follow my instincts. I'm an excellent
Annie's in town from Boise for a work convention and was looking for something to do last night, so, having an extra ticket, we invited her to the Stars/Canes game with us. Problem is, she's coming in from DFW and we're coming in from northeast of town and logistics just don't work at all. So she's gotta catch the rail in from the airport and we're catching it elsewhere to get to downtown. And while we're at lunch, I forget to give her the extra ticket. So - if one of us gets there early, we have to wait for the other one. So we're trying to time it right. And keep in mind, I've NEVER done public transportation before.
We get to the rail station, and we're waiting for the train, and she realizes that we've left the backpack of stuff we brought to help keep the girls occupied. So I run back to the car and grab it - only to miss the 5:40. No biggie - we've built in extra time to try to catch pregame warmups (but not quite knowing if we can even do that because of Annie's ticket.) The 5:57 is early, but that's good. We get on, take off... and before we get to the first stop, she looks at me and asks, "You got the tickets?"
...............
So we get off at the first stop, wait 5 minutes and catch the next one going back. Go back to the car again, get the tickets, come back and wait. Oh, and the whole time - 38 degrees and drizzle. Miserable weather. FINALLY catch the 6:07 going to downtown, but this one doesn't go all the way to the American Airlines Center. So at the final stop, we have to get off and catch the NEXT one that DOES go. So we do, Annie's waiting for us, we get there, and we're in early enough to catch the last 5 minutes of warmups. The kids think that's cool.
The oldest wants a Stars shirt - which we couldn't find at a couple of stores earlier in the day - so we stopped in the very cool fan shop and picked him up one on sale, and headed up to the 300's to our seats. We were three rows from the top, not much unlike the seats my brother and I had at the Dean Dome three years ago when he stood up and hit his head on the roof. But great view nevertheless, I'd never watched a hockey game up top, and it's cool being able to see the play develop a little better with the wide angle. Carolina gets outplayed for 40 minutes, decided to turn the jets on in the third, but Marty Turco is a hoss and manages hold them off, and Dallas wins 3-2. Annie was a HUGE help with the kiddos, and me and the oldest got in some bonding time while we cheered our respective teams. Sav had a good time alternating between cheering and playing with the others.
Then it gets fun... We take our time getting out , so we don't have to fight the crowds. Get to the bottom, hit the bathrooms, and we're turned around - not knowing where we came in so we can exit to the train station. And sure enough we step out of the wrong one. And when I say "step," I mean take three steps out of the arena and realize we're on the wrong side. So we go right back in and ask the usher lady if the DART is on the other side. She says it is, but that sine we "left the building," we can't come back in.
It's 37, it's drizzling, we've got three kids, and we can't walk back thru the arena to the other side. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS??
What were we going to do? Start a riot? Loot the place? Pull guns out from under our hockey sweaters and hold up the concession vendors?? (I hope the lady's car wouldn't start and she was stranded in that shit last night.) So we walk all the way around, have the station in our sights... and the last train leaves. We're told this by a police officer pulling up as we're walking. She tells us the last train at Victory Station leaves 20 minutes after the game, though everything online said 30 minutes. So now we have to walk BACK to the arena and catch a cab (again, a first for me) to the first station, West End, that is still running. So we pay $13 to go like three blocks - and would've paid it again given the circumstances - wait in the cold and rain again, FINALLY catch the Red Line back to the turnpike where we got on, and finally drove into the garage at about 11:30, 90 minutes after the game ended.
The upside: well, not much. The girlfriend texted Solly for the gist of the train ride after he gave me shit about it being the worst night in Dallas since the day Kennedy flew into Love Field and us making JFK jokes for the first part of the ride. AND - the first logistical and mental challenge for me and the girlfriend (with the kids in tow, to boot) and I think we passed with flying colors. We all slept WAY late this morning. I'm never taking the kids back o the AAC again though after that debacle.
Rant over.
