VIP for a day

Friday we had a 'mystery' outing at work. Basically, we were allowed to dress in casual clothes (a first, I think), and we were going to be out of the office all day doing something fun. No one knew what it was until we got on the busses and arrived at the first location.

We started to figure it out once we were close to the river on Highway 40. We stopped here



and filed off the busses to the exclusive behind-home-plate-season-ticket-holders entrance, then went into the Cardinals Club. This is the restaurant/bar that is only available to these certain ticket holders (and I'm sure a few other VIPs) who pay $14K per ticket. Ouch.

We got to order drinks (yes, at 10:30 in the morning), then split into groups of three for a short tour of the stadium. We got to go on the field, and see the dugouts, as well as the press area. Pretty cool. Then we got to eat at the Club. The food was good, but the bathrooms were most impressive. They were all tile, with classical music playing in the background. There was a basket full of sunscreen, mints, hairspray, body spray, band aids, you name it, it was in there. It's nice to see how the other half lives - or not so nice, maybe. It makes the bathrooms in the rest of the stadium look like crap.

Then we filed back into the busses and drove to the middle of nowhere in Illinois - to the Tri City Speedway. It's a big old dirt track. I've never heard of it before, and neither had anyone else I told about this day. Anyway, we piled onto the bleachers (beer in hand) and the owner announced that he leased these


for three years - a BMW convertible and a Hummer H3. They're going to draw names, and each month a different person will get to drive one of the cars. Pretty cool. There's around 80 of us, I'd guess, so chances are good everyone will get to drive one. We were there for a short 20 minutes (thankfully, it was a toasty 90 degrees that day) then piled back on the busses for our last stop.

I had it figured out when we got close to Lafayette Square, as the owner had said we were going somewhere for dessert. We stopped in front of



and got out. Everyone packed onto the back porch for unlimited drinks of any kind and dessert. It was a blast. I'd never been here (we'd tried, but the wait was an hour - no thanks), and the martinis were okay - not as good as I'd expected. But the desserts were pretty darn good. Free drinks + heat make for an interesting day, that's for sure.

I was pretty impressed with the day. We had been guessing for a month or so about where we'd be going, and I'm pretty sure no one even came close to this. If I ever complain about my company again, just slap me across the head.

Then we went to my in-laws house to celebrate Father's Day on Saturday. I remembered why I so don't want to live in the country (aka the boonies, farmtown, middle of nowhere, the sticks). The bugs. Man, it's awful. There's no keeping them out of your house, no matter how solid it is. I went into the bedroom to go to bed, and almost walked face first into a spider web as wide as the room with a big old spider attached. I promptly freaked out, then ran to get Q so he could get rid of it. His bro-in-law had been in that room all evening, too, playing video games, and definitely would have ran into this had it been there. That fucker build the web quick.

And Q swears he had a cricket crawling on his neck in the middle of the night. NASTY. There are daddy long legs in the corners, and moths on the ceiling. You just have to get used to it. No amount of insecticide will get rid of everything. It's impossible. Q remembers finding scorpions in his room, as well as snakes. And there have been snakes in the garage too. Even if the weather is so much nicer (way less humidity), and the breeze is sweeter, and the stars are brighter, there's no way I could live there during the summer. Never.