Bonehead Move of the Week

So there I am, driving from Bowling Green Ohio to Toledo Ohio to see a Toledo MudHens game. It's only about a 25 minute drive to the game so I hopped in the car and took off for the evening. I was by myself, because the guys at the house were too busy playing Halo.. Cool!! I arrived at the ballpark, anxious to get in and sign up for a credit card. I pulled into the parking lot, shot the bull with the guy who was supposed to take my money, and then realized that I forgot my wallet in Bowling Green. There went that idea... Drove back to Bowling Green ticked off at myself and watched Halo for the rest of the night.. Cool!! I swear, I have no idea how I'm going to survive this trip..

Cleveland Rocks

Visited Case Western Reserve earlier this week, and had a great time in Cleveland. The chapter consists of many athletes and mostly football players. When going to a wings place for a rush event with them, I made the mistake of sitting next to two of the offensive lineman. They ordered 4 buckets of 48 wings for the five of us. I cashed out after about 15 and continued to watch one guy eat 78. The chapter dropped 800 bucks at this restaurant. They also took me to the Indians/Yankees game. Jacobs Field is great, and kept waiting for Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn to come out of the bullpen so I could yell "Give him the heater Ricky". I think Griff and I have seen Major League about 300 times a piece. Case Western Reserve is a really neat campus, and is in a very cool part of campus.

Bengals/Patriots @ The First Time Drinker In Front of Me

Went to the Bengals/Patriots game last Saturday, and saw the defending champs get smoked. It always seems like wherever I go, I always get stuck behind the first time drinkers. I bought tickets on ebay and Jesse and I had 14th row seats. Well the five people in front of me just happened to be the only fans that stood the whole game.. One of the girls was quite intoxicated if you couldn't tell by the title of this blog. Throughout the game, I found out a lot about her life, that I really could have done without. This girl claims to be a tomboy, just spent $185 on birth control measures, enjoys dropping f-bombs, has a kid and doesn't know who the dad is, and enjoys having her underwear come up to her 4th vertebrate. One of the cheerleaders sang the National Anthem, and must have been a remix, because I had no idea what she was talking about. Good times by all though.

My Football Schedule for the Semester

One of the many great things about this job, is the opportunity to travel and see many parts of the nation. One of my main goals for this semester is to see as many sporting events as possible. I have Saturday's off, and almost every weekend I'll be going to a football game somewhere I've never been. Here is a list of my games for the semester, and also some random places that I will be visiting.

August 21 - Bengals/Patriots @ Cincinnati
August 28 - Miami of Ohio/Indiana St. (Home of Larry Bird) @ Oxford
September 4 - Michigan/Miami of Ohio @ The Big House in Ann Arbor
September 11 - Ohio St./Marshall @ The Horse Shoe in Columbus
September 17 - Boston College/UCONN @ Boston
September 18 - Harvard/Holy Cross @ Harvard
October 2- Cincinnati/UAB @ Cincinnati
October 9 - ISU/ Texas A&M @ Ames(Yeah buddy)
October 16 - Pitt/BC @ Pitt
October 23 - Penn State/Iowa @ Happy Valley PA, Go Lions!
October 30 - Syracuse/UCONN @ Syracuse
November 6 - Syracuse/Pitt @ Syracuse
November 20 - Harvard/Yale @ Harvard
November 27 - ISU/Missouri @ Ames (Yeah Buddy)
December 5 - Colts/Titans @ Indianapolis
December 19 - Broncos/Chiefs @ KC

This is my football schedule.... Should be fun.. As you can see, my money that I will be making will go primarily towards football tickets.... Why not?

Visit from Tillie

Tillie came to visit from the 12-16. I tried to show her what Ohio has to offer, and we had a blast. I picked her up from the grand old Dayton airport Thursday afternoon, and made her come to a Dayton Dragons baseball game with me so I could get the bobblehead and Dragons T-shirt (also paid for by some credit card company, and some made up person from Johnson, Iowa). The Dragons are the Reds AA team, and are owned partly by Magic Johnson and Archie Griffin. It's a really cool little stadium in Dayon, and if I ever become homeless, I will move to Dayon, because I could watch those games for free from the right field fence. We passed about 3 homeless guys with chairs. They're not stupid. We got into the stadium, and were looking for the seats WC 2&3 in the outfield. I asked one of the ushers and he told us that we had wheelchair seats. Just my luck. So I made friends with a guy in a wheelchair during the came, and showed him that we could just duck under the plexiglass in front of us, if a ball came our way. He laughed, and Tillie just shook her head at me. On Friday, I showed Tillie around Phi Delt Headquarters and Oxford. The campus here is beautiful, and I think she really liked the campus. We went out for a little bit on Friday and I took her to have her first Skyline Chili experience. The chain is huge in Ohio, and has great food. On Saturday we went down to Cincinnati, walked around for a little bit, and then went to a Reds game. It was an awesome game, and we saw the Reds hit back to back homeruns twice. On Monday, her last day, we drove to the outlet malls close to Columbus, and hung out there before her flight left. We had a blast this weekend. She will be moving to Allendale Michigan on Wednesday to go to school at Grand Valley State University. Just about as random as me moving to Oxford.

The Road to the Little League World Series

So my love for the game of baseball took me to Indianapolis last Monday with Tim to see the qualifying game for the Little League World Series. Tim's old team from Kentucky was taking on some scrub team from Indiana. I was shocked when I got to the ballpark, because it didn't cost anything to get in, there were no places to sign up for a credit card and a shirt, and I had to serve myself at the concession stand. The game was on ESPN, which was pretty cool, and we saw one heck of a game. We started the game out in center field, until about 20 punk high school kids from the Indiana town came barging in with no shirts on and painted up. I really hope I wasn't as cocky as these kids in high school, and if I was I apologize. Of course I was in the middle between loud-mouthed Kentuckian Tim and these 20 punk kids from Indiana. One of the guys asked me:

Punk Kid: Are you from Kentucky?
Steve: No, I'm from Iowa.
Punk Kid: What the hell are you doing here then?
Steve: Good question.
Steve: Put a shirt on (and the conversation ended there)

So we moved to left field, and this drunk guy came and talked to me. This is the guy that every town has that follows his team, and drinks a lot before the game. This guy wore me out, and talked to me like I was from Kentucky and had a clue who these kids were. So to play along, I told him that the center fielder was my brother. That was a mistake, because he then said.

Old Drunk Guy: Oh, so your parents are Matt and Kathy?
Steve: Yes sir.
Old Drunk Guy: I thought you were over fighting in the war.
Steve: (Hestitates) Umm... I'm not really the center fielder's brother.
Old Drunk Guy: Oh, well are you from Kentucky?
Steve: No, I'm from Iowa.
Old Drunk Guy: Then what the hell are you doing here?
Steve: Good question. (I then left)

So we went to the grandstands, and sat behind the players moms, because we knew we would get on tv. We did, and I sat by myself so I didn't have to explain why I was at the game again. The kid who pitched for Kentucky, threw a no-hitter and struck out 17 batters. Pretty impressive knowing that he only faced 19 batters. I joined along in the K-E-N-T-U-C-K-Y chant, but I think everyone knew that I wasn't from Kentucky when it came to the N. I yelled N like any of us Iowegians would say, but everyone from Kentucky yelled what sounded like Anne. Crazy accents over there in Kentucky. So everyone knew I was the outcast again.

Columbus Clippers/Cleveland Trip

Last Saturday, the guys and I decided to jump in Ric's car and make the journey up to Cleveland. Cleveland is about 4 hours away, and we didn't leave until about 6 at night. We went up there to see Joe Wechsler, who was a consultant for Phi Delts last year. His girlfriend lives up there and he was in town visiting. The next day, we journeyed back to Oxford, but on the way back we stopped in Columbus to check out a Clippers game. The Columbus Clippers are the New York Yankees Triple A ball club. Knowing this, I thought we would pull up to this immaculate minor league ballpark. I was definitely wrong. I assumed that since they were a part of the Yankees organization, they would have a top-notch ballpark. The ballpark was one of the worst I've seen, but I didn't care, because I got to see a doubleheader for $7 and it was Nolan Ryan bobblehead day. Yes, my collection of bobbleheads began here, and I'm up to 3 already: Nolan Ryan, Joe Morgan, and the Dayton Dragons mascot. The team was pretty good, and sitting in the heat after being up until 4 in the morning the night before, was even better. The great thing about those games is people watching, and the crappy venue brought out all those people who you just love to see in ripped jean shorts, wife beaters, and have eaten nothing but fast food for years. Good stuff! I checked the ballpark off my list, and added a Columbus Clippers t-shirt to my collection, after signing up for a credit card. I hope the person who lives at 412 Lakeview Dr., Johnson IA, 50015 doesn't care that they are receiving a new card in the mail.

Dave Matthews Concert

Saw Dave Matthews for the first time this month in Cincinnati. Cincinnati has a really cool concert venue called Riverbend. It's a part indoor, part outdoor(grass) area that brings in some very good concerts. We went down to the Dave concert as a group, because it was a reward for all of our hard work at our Leadership College. For a first time Dave goer, the experience was awesome, and my god, people like to smoke weed at those concerts. Guster opened for Dave, and then Dave played for a good 2 and a half hours. Good stuff. We sat next to a bunch of hippies which was pretty entertaining. They all had long skirts on, and were definitely on cloud 12. They were having fun though.