I guess going to sleep at 9:00pm last night was not a good idea. We were up at 3:00am and stayed awake until we hit the hay at 12:00am tonight. But, oh what a packed day we had. We hung out in the room until about 6:00am and then we headed downstairs to take a walk around the casino. We figured out where to go for Affiliate Summit, to get breakfast and where to sign up for the Total Gold RewardsPprogram here at the Rio.
Today Allison and I went to see Jimmy Buffett at Great Woods. This has been something that the two of us have done ever since we started dating. In past years we’ve gone to the show with Allison’s parents and the past few years we’ve been catching up with some friends form work to go to the show. It is all orchestrated by our friend Peter, (but really it is Peter’s girlfriend Betsy who is the organized one). I said that with Peter no one knows how everyone got there but we all eventually make it to where we need to be.
we met at the Stop & Shop in Mansfield to gather the troops, some last minute items and then caravan into the show. We had 10 cars in the caravan and we all got to park near each other which was great. We were parked in the back of the back of the back of GreatWoods. We were in lot 13. Our group unpacked the essentials, grill and 4 tents.
I unpacked our Buffett Bag, this is a bag of tons of things that one should have at Buffett like squirtguns, frisbees, leis, coconut cups, inflatable pools and other fun items. We had a lot of stuff. I also unpacked my Margarita and the Tiki of Death. The Tiki of Death is what has transformed me from mild mannered do everything by the book Drew to TikiDrew. TikiDrew says what he wants. Most of the time it is funny, that is until the Tiki says no more fun now the hurt is on. I tried really hard to pace myself this year. I made a large batch of margaritas and filled the Tiki with it. I used a straw to take little sips of the concoction, I even filled it multiple times with Ice to water it down. Let’s just say that I make things a little strong.
While I was in fun time mode I walked around to other groups and booths, checking out what everyone was doing. I was also on the lookout for 3 hot dog buns. I had brought three hot dogs with me because they were frozen and I needed cold things in the container where the pitcher of margaritas was living. So, I walked around and asked for hot dog buns because I figure that not everyone needed all their hot dog buns because hot dogs come8 to a package whereas buns come 6 to a package so if someone buys one package of hot dogs they have to buy 2 packages of buns to cover all the dogs so there should be about 4 left over. My theory was correct. So I was in fun time mode and went out making friends and collecting hot dog buns.
I returned with the buns and proceeded to eat a smoked turkey leg that I had picked up for the occasion. I love, love, love Turkey Legs at Disney and at King Richard’s fair. this should be the same thing right? Wrong. It was the thing that hit me at the point when I was in fun mood to sick to my stomach mode. That turkey leg put me over the edge.
I went off to the woods to the call of nature and proceeded to spend the next hour and a half returning that turkey leg to the wild. I cannot even think of turkey legs now.
I wandeedd back out of the woods (and I wasn’t in far maybe 5 feet from the closest car). And went to the car and changed because the stump I had been sitting upon was soaking wet. I changed up and was good to go to the concert. Where had the afternoon gone?
Good to go might be pushing it. I was still a little nauseous. I was grumpy because Allison had gotten a call the night before from someone who wanted our last 2 tickets. They were supposed to call me during the show so we could meet and I could give them the tickets and they could give us the money. The call never came, so as we were entering the show I tossed the tickets. I was angry and upset. That and not feeling well made for a super un-fun guy all night. I tried, I really did. I do not like crowds, large crowds make me very uncomfortable. I don’t like being jammed up with other people unable to move freely. So it makes sense that I’d go to concerts in large venues. And there was some jerk smoking a cigar very close to us. the noxious smell of that cigar do not improve my mood and it certainly didn’t improve the nauseous feeling in my gut.
Jimmy was as awesome as ever though. His tour this year was called SummerZcool Which was not pronounced Summer’s Cool but rather Summer School. He was charming, funny and of course rocked it with many great songs. I always love it when he plays one Particular Harbor as well as Southern Cross. Changes in Latitudes of Course was one of the ones played and that was the film highlight of the crowd. I have to say, the crowd was not as rowdy and boisterous as past years. The crowd shots were also pretty tame too. There was one guy in a flamingo suit that looked like he was riding around on a flamingo, that was pretty cool.
All in all we had a great day and I want to thank Mad Gringo for sending me a box of very cool swag that I gave to all my friends at the show. I’ll be posting that later.
As for the title of this, yeah it is time to give up the Tiki and bury TikiDrew. Time to go about enjoying future Jimmy Buffett shows with a much clearer head. Then maybe I’ll remember to take more photos.
Oh and when we got home there was a message from the guy who was supposed to buy the tickets. He had called the home number and not my number as he was supposed to. Ugh.