THUMBS DOWN:
- To me. At some point, I have to realize I'm not 23 anymore. Getting a little tipsy on Friday night, going to bed at 2am, waking up at 5, spending the entire day on my feet at the golf course, then going to Katie and Alfonso's place and drinking until 4am is just not gonna cut it. That's a 23-hour day, let's get serious. In the moment, I can usually hang, which gives me false confidence that it will be no problem, and then I'm hungover for three days afterwards. Then, the next time I find myself in a similar situation, all I remember is how I could totally handle it the last time, and I gloss over the being hungover for days afterward part.
- To Team USA's performance on Sunday (to clarify, I wasn't there; we only attended in person on Saturday). I don't really feel like breaking it down and rehashing it all, or going into detail on how much blame to put on Davis Love III (choosing Furyk for the team, sitting Mickelson and Bradley on Saturday afternoon, etc.) or any of that stuff. The whole day just sucked. As awesome as the '99 comeback at Brookline was, I had never even considered what being on the other side felt like. Now I know. Felt as bad as a KU tournament loss or something.
- To people in the crowd who yell something they think is funny immediately after a golfer hits his shot. "You da man" and "Get in the hole" are so 1997. "Baba booey" or "Bang biscuit" are irrelevant and don't even make sense (Gangel, before you correct me-- I know that "bang biscuit" is from the DP show-- but he doesn't yell it for golf shots, does he?) And if it's anything longer than like five words, then nobody is listening anymore. This isn't to say that people yelling things at golf tournaments isn't funny (see below) but just not in the two-second timeframe right after the shot is struck. Come up with something original, at least.
THUMBS UP:
- To the atmosphere at the Ryder Cup. Just phenomenal. Like I described before the weekend, the ability to clap and cheer for European missed putts or bad shots, and chanting "USA! USA!"....you just can't put a price on that. We paid a scalper $150 for our tickets, and I easily would've paid double that and felt like we got a steal.
- To random celebrity sightings. First there's a buzz that rolls through the crowd as people see/hear that the celeb is coming, then the celeb actually walks by, and you can actually FEEL their presence. It's wild. Tiger, Michael Jordan, guys like that...there's really nothing you can do besides just stare at them the whole time they're in your area. It would've been the same way for Michael Phelps, but then we realized he was strolling around with a couple of Dirties, so it kinda took away from his aura a little bit. Then he led everyone in a rousing, fist-pumping chant of "USA! USA!" and it was all cool. Goosebumps restored.
(One of the funniest moments of the day...shortly after Phelps and the rest of the people following that group walked through, and the crowd was starting to die down...all of a sudden some random guy comes straggling through the walkway, and someone in the crowd yells "Hey everyone, look! It's THAT GUY!" And the entire crowd explodes and starts chanting "That Guy! That Guy!" Probably the best moment of that dude's life.)
- To Jud and CK's cooking. We had a little watch party on Sunday with Jud, CK, Katie, Alfonso, Chelsey, and Mike and they laid out a spread for us. Pork tenderloin, mac & cheese, sliders, rice, etc....whenever the man and the woman in the relationship both enjoy cooking, you know you're going to be in good shape. Unfortunately, this is never a joy that Teens will ever know. My contribution to hosting any dinner party will either be a) paying money to have food catered or delivered; or b) a party platter of bagel bites, pizza rolls, and bite-sized Hot Pockets.
***************
Overall, it was a phenomenal trip. Big ups to all who participated. (That includes you, American Airlines. You really stepped your game up when I needed you the most). The thing that kinda sucks about it is that my first Ryder Cup experience will forever be associated with the biggest collapse in Team USA history. Definitely tarnishes telling the story about how I attended the Ryder Cup in person. It's like, how many Buffalo Bills fans do you hear bragging about being at the Super Bowl, you know? Or how many people are excited to break out the photo album from their honeymoon to Pearl City, Hawaii in December 1941? Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. But you get it.
