We arrived at about 1:30 PM for the meet and greet scheduled for 2 PM. We got a good place in line and headed on in. It was cute to see some fans so excited. There was a nice intimate setting, so one could actually have a dialogue with the band and not feel rushed. We got in, I told Chibi I was the guy that freaked last year and told her the album was Thriller caliber, she remembered! She signed my CD, signed Ana’s iPod, we took some pics, and I told her to visit Trash and Vaudeville. Finally, being a geek, told them I’d be honored if they’d follow me on Twitter. It was really awesome! The other band members liked my shirt, we chatted about wrestling for a moment. Only M2J would talk to The Birthday Massacre about wrestling, I know.
So, after the previous mentioned debacle getting to Texas, we finally arrived the morning of April 3rd. After getting our rental car, a PT Cruiser, we headed out to Stafford to check in to our room. Doing some research led me to select the La Quinta. It was a nice little place, 2 star hotel, but received exceptional reviews. The lady at the desk greeted us, “How ya’ll doin’?” Oh yeah, we had arrived. Surrounding us was an IHOP, Hooters and some Konichiwa place. We checked in and I almost immediately crashed. I stayed awake the entire night in Atlanta and had to take a break. It was roughly noon and we had planned to attend a charity event with wrestlers appearing, one of which was Jake Roberts. We discovered that there were two events taking place back to back, and Jake’s portion would take place from 4-7 PM, giving me a chance to sleep a little while longer. First, we ordered pizza. It was horrible. See the picture below for a glimpse of what a horror that was. Then I crashed finally. Sean managed to revive me at about 5:30. I quickly showered and we headed out to catch the tail end of the event. We got to the convention right as the wrestlers were packing up. We ran to meet Jake, and meet him we did. I apologized for holding him up and he told me (playfully) to take my shirt and stick it up my ass. Then we posed for the picture Jake requested that we not grab his ass. Then Sean showed him his Halloween costume to see his response. Jake quickly responded “You’re a sick bastard.” After walking away, I was overjoyed with how unique of an experience it was to have your childhood hero tell you off. I called my dad and told him immediately. Then we went back to the hotel, chilled a little bit more and tried to make dinner plans with Dennis (who was also in Houston). We told him we wanted to try Hooters, which was near an IHOP off of whatever the highway was, I think 59. Chance would have it that he would end up at another Hooters right next to a different IHOP right down the road. We just ate at our respective Hooters. It was decent food, everyone was cheering watching a basketball game. The waitresses were all super hot. My waitress touched my shoulder and I fainted. Then, I ventured somewhere that I never thought I would be again, to Austin. Why was I venturing there? I was going to see someone whom I never thought I would see again, Holly.
We arrived at Holly’s at about 1 AM. She started a barbecue as a small shindig for us and it snowballed into a huge party. I met a ton of people and saw a few people who I hadn’t seen in 9 years. I couldn’t believe how much time passed. Sean and I took over the music and Holly, Logan (her boyfriend), Sean and myself all caught up and chatted for a long time. Holly was an awesome host, she even got a six pack of Becks, since everyone else in Texas drinks Bud Light. We had a blast talking again. It was really a trip, I really never thought I’d be crossing paths with Holly ever again realistically. Thankfully, the WWE held Wrestlemania at a venue geographically desirable to do so. Sean and I hung out till around 6 AM or so and headed back to Houston. We arrived back at the hotel around 9 AM or so, I was ready for bed.
I woke up mid-day and just wanted to lounge and catch my breath. We really hadn’t taken a break since we got there. We ordered more pizza. We know, we know… we wanted to go out and get like, meat, steak, hamburgers, but it was Texas and we were lazy. We wanted to order and all we could find were more pizza places and Chinese. We opted to try pizza from a different place one more time… This is what resulted…
We watched the WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony on USA and then coordinated an evening out with Dennis and his friend Kevin. We got started at about 12:30 on our way out, and Kevin informed us that in Texas, last call was 2 AM. For a group of NY boys, this wasn’t cool. We then hit traffic and discovered that Texans don’t handle accidents like NYers. The whole highway was shut down. People just got out of their car, talked and hung out with each other. We got to downtown Houston at about 1:30. We didn’t really have time to do anything so we just drove around and just scope out the city. It was a quaint little place, felt like Tribeca. We then got some grub from Whataburger and called it a night.
The next morning we woke up and headed to Waffle House. On the menu, under hash browns, it gave the options of “smothered” or “covered.” Dennis remarked that the lyrics of that Bloodhound Gang song now made more sense. What a catch! I had grits for the first time. They were good. I told the server that I didn’t want pulp in my orange juice, he replied, “What’s that?” We had a long conversation about wrestling with most of the employees and some customers. We grabbed some beer at a gas station. I sensed Moon Pies when I walked in, and found them, and Sean got me the entire thing. Then it was time for Wrestlemania.
Although it was hard to see the ring from out seats, despite them being close, being there is just amazing. The production is second to none. There were quite a few surprises, some were good, some were bad. The entire crowd was on the edge of their seats for Undertaker Vs. Shawn Michaels. The Hardy match was excellent. John Cena having Edge and Big Show on his back, if even for just a second, was a great sight. I think everyone in the arena was expecting Randy Orton to win the title, but he didn’t. The only let down of the night (other than Mickey Rourke not doing the Ram Jam) was Triple H winning.
We bounced, got back to our hotel and Sean and I hit up a diner. I had a huge burger which was excellent and a carmel cheesecake dessert which was outstanding. We got some sleep and sadly, the next morning was the time for us to depart. We checked out got on the plane and got back to Atlanta. After a slight delay, we got to NY, took a cab home, and IMMEDIATELY WENT TO ROSA’S. Seriously, we didn’t wait, we went to the car and got real pizza. We returned to my apartment and watched Raw. This traveling thing is fun, I want to do it more.
I sit here in the Atlanta Airport at 4 AM telling this story.
Upon arriving for our 5:35 departure from LGA (flight 288) we were told that there were delays going to Atlanta (which was the original plan) and that there would be a 12 hour layover and our flight to Houston would depart at 8:30 AM. Shaniqua was very unsympathetic and didn’t seem to care what we were told previously by other employees, or what our boarding passes (which had been printed moments before) said. The plane continued to be delayed. Several members of our party checked online, called airtran customer service and one person (Jade) spoke to Chantell, who said everything was fine, despite the delay, we would be heading to Atlanta and then Houston on the same flight (as planned). Another employee (a gate agent) relayed the same info.
We waited on the runway for a very long time, in addition to the delay. We finally took off around 10, for a flight that was scheduled to leave at 5:35. We arrived in Atlanta at about 12:20. We were then informed that the flight to Houston, Texas was indeed in the morning. We were again greeted by a bitchy woman who cleverly hid her nametag with a scarf. We snapped a picture, however.
She was very controlling and impatient with us, as if we were doing something wrong. She wasn’t able to help us very much and sent us to customer service. We then spoke to Keith and Barbara, both who also didn’t offer us any help. They gave us a telephone number for customer care and told us to try them in the morning. We were offered a voucher for a DISCOUNT at a hotel. In other words, we’re sorry we stranded you in a city you didn’t intend on staying in, spend more money. By the time we got to the hotel, we would have about 4 hours before we would simply have to leave, it was a slap in the face.
Having plenty of time to kill, we chilled out for a while (Sean, Jade, and myself) and ate, chatted, and then they slept. I reformatted my Mac for some reason, and then tethered my iPhone again to us as a modem instead of paying their nonsense Wifi fee. I googled “Airtran sucks” and surprise surprise, quite a lot of stories that matched my own. This is the most unprofessional airline ever. If you have ever been fired from a job, fly airtran and you’ll feel like a Fortune 500 CEO.
I’m done for now, hopefully the next post I have is more happy news.
Formerly a static page, evolution has made it a ...b-b-blog! I will leave stuff on here from now on and post links to arbitrary pages. Most of this stuff will be editorials about how I feel. Most of them are explicit, and you should be prepared for some language problems before you read...
