It all started on Thursday (because we had off work on Friday). I headed home and changed out of my suit as quick as possible and threw on some jeans, t-shirt and grabbed my new Thunder jacket (thank you, Marek - X-mas) and headed downtown for a night out with my friends from OKC LOYAL Class V.
We all met at Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse for some yummy appetizers and happy hour drinks and then headed across the street for Downtown OKC Inc.'s "Downtown in December" Chesapeake snow-tubing at the Brick. This event has been going on for years and I had never been (which almost makes me an anti-Oklahoma Citian but I'm not).
Despite the long line of eager tubers of all ages, it was a blast. When you are with a group like that where anyone can learn how to have a good time no matter the circumstances, every get-together is a good time. After our tube-a-palooza ended we all went over to JJ's Alley because we had some time to kill. Marek, Jordan Satarawala and I went to grab a Peach Wave Yogurt first and then joined everyone for about 30 min at JJ's before we all hopped in our cars and headed over to the Speakeasy for some live music and dancing. Good good times.
The next day (New Year's Eve), was not anyone slower-paced. After waking up (I slept in so late that I embarrassed to tell you when I actually got dressed) I met some family and friends at Quail Springs to see the movie "Little Fockers". I really didn't have high expectations due to the pathetic "Fockers" sequel but this movie brought me back to the original movie, "Meet the Parents". It was great and I found myself laughing out loud at numerous scenes (the old guy behind me that continued to laugh all by himself even when jokes weren't being said made the movie even more enjoyable).
After the movie, I headed home to change into my Thunder gear and headed to the Hawks/Thunder game. While the game was close for practically all 48 minutes, Thunder pulled off the victory. Like lighting, I rushed over to interview the interim coach for the Hawks and then jogged (literally) back to the media room to transcribe and head across the street to the NYE Freakout Show being performed by the Flaming Lips!!
The show was incredible. It's definitely one of those "you just have to be there" moments...
When the first-part of the show ended, I stuck around for a little while longer to hear a few songs from their 1999 album "Soft Bulletin" and ended up getting home at 2 a.m.
The 2 a.m. bedtime might sound early on a New Year's Eve to some of you (and entirely too late for the rest of you) but I HAD to go to bed...so that I could wake up 4.5 hrs later and enjoy a 12hr.
Dad picked me up at 6:50 a.m. and after a Sonic pitstop and a bacon, egg and cheese toaster, we hit the road, destination = unknown. We had a 16hr drive to Green Bay but we knew we were going to have to stop somewhere before that to watch the Sooners dominate the Fiesta Bowl, that place ended up being Dubuque, Iowa 12 hrs away...about six hours into the trip I realized that the only footwear I brought happened to be the slippers I was wearing in the car...#CaseyFail (Dad had an extra pair...#DadWin) When we asked the hotel attendant where to watch the game, she suggested "The Ground Round"
Waking up 7:30 a.m. and out the door at 8 a.m. meant we reached Green Bay around noon. Green Bay = cold...no no no...Green Bay = frigid...that's about right.
Whie we were pregame tailgating we met up with Mayor Schmidt and he gave us some pregame field passes to walk around during warm-ups...SWEET
Packers needed the win in order to clinch the playoffs and win they did, against the arch rival Chicago Bears. 10-3. Having the Packers win made the trip definitely worth it.
We jumped back in the car and started back towards home and decided to drive for four hours and make it back to the Dubuque hotel we stayed at the first time through Dubuque, Fairfield Inn. Hotel, bed, sleep.
Waking up the next morning we hopped in the car at an early 7:45 a.m. knowing we had at least a 12hr ride back. When were driving through Dyersville, Iowa we made the last-second decision to go to the Field of Dreams house/baseball field (backstory - in 2005, my dad and I visited the field in the summer and played catch in the outfield all by ourselves. The people who owned the property were locking up the souvenir shop and just told us to lock the gate when we left). We arrived at the house yet it looked nothing like it did 5 years earlier...it was covered in snow and no corn field (already harvested). Since we were there alone, again, we got out and ran the bases, I went up onto the porch and took some photos and more videos...very, very cool. I recommend every fan of the movie do this at least once.
Long weekend. over.
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