Chewing The Cud

Do you have a secret no one knows? Skeletons in the closet? Done or thought something you think no one else would understand? Is it killing you holding the secret in? Perhaps you need to share it, even if it is in an anonymous fashion.

PostSecret is a collection of secrets that have been created on postcards and sent to the site. No real commentary on the submissions, just presenting them in their original and unaltered format. Quite a flashlight into the deeper, darker elements of humanity. Word of caution: This site may evoke a host of emotions - be prepared mentally.

Sushi is good… For those of you who are not so thrilled at the thought of fresh fish wrapped with rice and seaweed, may I suggest you try Miso on Meramac. Now, I know what you’re thinking after visiting the site - “Why ASP?”. Certainly we would hope they would have better sense. In their defense, I think they spend a lot of time on sushi and are not current about their web options. That aside, it is a good two hours later and I still can taste the wonderful food prepared for us as we sat there.

I challenge any sushi-hater to go there with an open mind and try it out. In fact, let me know and I’ll go with you. Do bring your pocketbook though; its not cheap to convince you that sushi is wonderful.

Want to name your baby a unique name? Although I have no idea where the statistics and such are being drawn from, this is a nifty site that will tell you the usage of a host of names over the years.

Apparently the name Dick really hit its highmark in the 1930’s. It’s good to see James is going strong!

Lewis arrived at my house around 6:00 pm and we left for the dome. Our plan: Sell our tickets for a butt load of money and watch the game with a big group of fans outside the stadium. Unfortunately, we were a couple hours late for the big spenders. We did get a $408 offer but decided it would be a better decision to watch the game instead of taking a $92 hit for nothing. So in we went.

Having seats in the 2nd furthest section of the stadium, we decided that the first level was a much more pleasurable vantage point. With that in mind, we cruised the aisleways, looking for open seats. Along the way, we met two nice couples who had some tremendous seats. In talking, we discovered the seats in front of them belonged to some diehard Louisville fans and they thought these fans probably would not show up for the game. Awesome, we now had seats in Row T, just off center court! Before we took our seats though, Vince Vaughn passed us by. Lewis, seeing him first, gave him a high-five and received Vince’s hand in his and a wink. We brushed shoulders with Vince Vaughn! That was pretty sweet. Two minutes later, Tim Robbins passed by us too. At this point, the couples pointed out the booth that Michael Jordan, Dean Smith, Charles Barkley, and Carmelo Anthony, among others, were sitting in.

So we took our seats in row T, hopeful, praying that no one whould show with tickets for those seats. Up until two minutes before gametime, we were okay. We had one scare, but apparently the guy was hard of seeing and thought Row T was O…go figure. Sadly, the duo was ousted when the four ticket holders showed up to claim their seats. Undaunted, we continued about the first level, stopping along the aisleways to watch the game before being ushered on by the staff.

At half time, we found some seats behind the basket where we could see the entire court fairly well. While waiting for the second half to begin, I was perusing the fans walking around, looking for other celebrities. I almost did not recognize the first guy who passed by about four seats away from me - Jay Z. He and his humongous bodyguard, that is. We also saw Tony Banks, Tubby Smith, Hubie Brown, the Marquette coach, the UConn coach, Lil Wayne, and Ciara, among others.

While Illinois didn’t pull off the victory, I was very happy with how the game turned out. We had a great view the whole time, had fun with the fans, finding celebrities, and watching two talented basketball teams battle it out for a national championship. I am definitely putting in my reservation for the 2006 Final Four in Indy!

So there we were, watching the men’s final four teams practicing on Friday before the showdown Saturday. I was on my way to meet some friends in the upper deck and saying good by to some friends who were taking off, one of which was Lewis Howes. As we are chatting, he mentions wanting to come down after the games on Saturday and see if we can get a ticket off of a losing team’s fan for the championship game. “Sounds like a plan” I said, and so we made a verbal agreement to do just that.

The next day, we actually did go down there. With about 10 minutes left in the second half of the UNC - State game, we departed my house for downtown. Getting to the dome with about 2 minutes left in the game, we find at least 300 people with the same intentions as ours, and this was just at one of the four main exits for the dome. To top it all off, there were people there ready to spend $1000 per ticket! Undaunted, we took up a position near the door and held up two fingers. The fans that had attended the game must have felt like cattle, being herded by huge lines of people wanting to buy their tickets. Some took it graciously; others were down right nasty.

Perhaps 45 minutes into our plan, I began to feel hopeless as it seemed no one with a ticket was batting an eyelash at the people offerring thousands for their tickets. It was then that Lewis called me over to talk with a guy who apparently was selling two tickets. The interesting thing about how this guy had slipped by everyone else was how he worded his sales pitch. “I have two tickets for $600, but they will just get you in the doors.” Most hopefuls passed him off as a scam, saying they wanted seats. Lewis, however, followed up with the guy and foud out that the tickets were pretty much the farthest seats from the court. We figured we could always seat hop and walk along the aisleways so all we needed were tickets to get in the doors. Lewis then negotioated him down from $600 to $500 for the pair of tickets. At this point, I went scurrying off to find an ATM and withdrawl the $250 needed for my ticket.

Dear City of St. Louis,
Please put ATMs on every corner.

So I spent the better part of two hours searching for an ATM that wasn’t out of money. Meanwhile, Lewis was chatting with the guy, all the while being bombarded by other hopeful buyers offering 7 and 8 hundred dollars for the pair or tickets. Our guy was awesome; he simply told everyone he had already sold the tickets to Lewis for $500 and wasn’t considering any other offers!!

Once I located an ATM, I found that there were about 60 people on line for it. This was unacceptable. It was here I realized the college education I had just finished was going to pay off. I likened this line to the lunch line on Sundays after church. How many times did I slide in the front and start talking to someone there, thus making it seem they had been saving my spot? Countless times, that how many! Only this time, I knew no one. Well, about 6 people from the front was this small group of women, all in their mid-20’s and attractive. That’s where I made my entrance.
I stood next to the tallest of the three and stood and faced the ATM. She turned and asked if I was waiting for the ATM. I said, “Yes”. She then pointed out to me that the line started on the other side of the street. I said, “Interesting.” So then asked if I was going to cut all of those people. I replied, “Well, I was hoping to come up here, talk to you like we knew each other and those behind would simply see that you were holding my spot for me. Obviously I’d let you go first.” So she said okay and we continued chatting about where we lived and what we did.
Almost got away with it too. The fella behind these ladies saw what happend and asked one of the other women what was going on. Not being privy to my conversation with the tall girl, she told him I was cutting. I was bigger than this guy but stll didn’t want a scene, so I stepped behind the tall girl to talk to this gentleman. Turns out he was very cool! I explained to him that I need the cash quickly to get tickets for the game and was hoping we could be friends for a few minutes until we had used the ATM. Without missing a beat, he put his arm around me and started laughing, and we talked about basketball. Turns out he was an Arizona faithful and was brought to tears with Illinois’ win in the regional finals.
So after this guy gets his money, I start getting mine. Turns out I can only withdraw $200 per day. Drat!! I have maybe $10 in cash in my wallet. Needless to say, I booked it the five or so city blocks back to the dome where Lewis was still hanging out with the guy. Explaining the situation, Lewis says he can get $50 more out of his account to cover me. So the three of us start walking to find an ATM in a less busy section of town. Along the way, we find out this guy sells tickets like this for a living. He had bought two tickets for $2750 and sold each one for $3000 a piece! He also told us a story of how he snuck into this year’s Superbowl. We finally find an ATM and Lewis gets the extra money. Cash and tickets are exchanged and now Lewis and I are going to the game tonight!

The plan is to see if we can’t resell these suckers for $1000 a piece or so, and if not, hey, we’re going to the championship game!