Adventures in Jacksonville

Well, it all began with the 930pm joyride to LAX on a Prime Shuttle in the middle of a thunderstorm.  I was scared outta my wits!  But apparently God wasn't mad at LA County because RIGHT at the border of LA and The OC the storm stopped.  Kinda funny really, but what the heck did the OC do.... THIS time?

I'll spare you the gory details of taking a red eye outta LAX to Jacksonville, FL via Houston, TX (still IMHO one of the coolest airports ever) as well as how the intervening hours between arriving and checking into our hotel were spent, suffice to say, the best laid plans of mice and men are def "aft gang agly!"

Eventually throughout the afternoon and into the evening the gang all arrived and me and my hubs (Clive), Coffee and her hubs (Earl) and Patty and her boyfriend (Nate) all got into the hotel and fast asleep for the big game day!

Remarkably, we weren't overly late!  That's been known to happen when I'm part of a group.  The weather was completely miserable (hey, I'm from SUNNY California!  We don't cotton to no 50 degree weather with rain and going out in it and stuff!) but we braved it with hoodies and hot dogs and beer.  We got to see the warm up and what a FINE warm up it was too!  (YUM - footy shorts on gorgeous Bunnies...)  There was a helicopter arrival on the big screen at one point which we found out later was Greg Norman arriving "in style" apparently.

Peter was ALL OVER the field.  You'd think he was THE MAN or something! (LOL)  Then we saw some of the "Core" guys, Dean, Nigel, Roy, David and a few others who I haven't managed to put names to faces yet.  We also saw JT and Dr Alcott.  (It's always so cool to see him, knowing the role he played in helping bring Jimmy to the screen.)  They also did a lot of exhibition type stuff out on the field getting the Yanks ready for watching REAL MEN play a REAL GAME.  (No, I DON'T like football.)  Plays were explained as the players showed how to do whatever the announcer was describing.  Then the "Zen of Rugby League" video was played and it's wicked cool for helping to explain the game as well.  Tell ya what though, I learned more watching this game than I have listening or watching them with commentary.

Then Russell arrived!  It was SO AWESOME to see him right there (we were sitting on the side where the Bunnies came onto the field and Russell came in the same way) and so happy to be there.  He is always so generous anyway but it makes it doubly cool when you can see he really wants to be there too.  He waved to everyone in the stands and picked out a few familiar faces to wave to as well and gave a peace sign to the crowd as he does.  I got a shot of that purely by accident!  I'll post pix when we get home this week!

The presentations were totally cool and I'm sure well-covered by the press.  Poor Keith though definitely lost his jacket for about an hour as part of the "cause".  They needed his jacket for part of the presentation.  Seeing Russell sit on one of the bikes the OCC guys presented and rev it up is always good entertainment in my book!

Then it was game time and all the players were introduced with bits of info about them which was cool, if a bit mystifying to those of us who don't really know everyone that well because the faces weren't shown on the big monitor.  Maybe next year that could be an addition.  But it gave us a good chance to scope out everything that was going on around us as well as watch Russell and JT and a few others being interviewed over near our neck of the stands.  Then the game started and let me just go on record as saying, I LOVE RUGBY.  I've been watching it on and off since high school and it's so awesome to have a team this wonderful to root for now.  AND it's sooooo much better than football.  There's no stupid time outs every five seconds, the men playing are actual guys not padded to unrecognizable shapes and the ref shouts out stuff that lets you know what's going on.  All in all a wicked awesome game!

Sadly the Bunnies were at nil by the end of the first half so after half time I went for a much needed break and so of course that's when they scored BIG time.  I got to see the third and fourth tries at least!  All in all it was a FUN damn game and event overall despite the weather!  There were a few more presentations at the end, the players all swapped shirts (I'd love to find out the story behind that tradition!) and then it was time to mooooooove along.

The party at Mavericks was one thing:  LOUD.  Can't really say it was fun-fun, but it turned out VERY cool.

We decided to leave around 630pm because it was getting fairly obvious that the festivities weren't turning out as planned.  So we exited and walked around to the top of the escalators and of course our Patty got fascinated by the fishies so I went to take another much needed break and as I'm returning to the top of the escalators, Clive's at the top urging me to "get up here!" and I'm all... "Okaaaay..." and there's Dean Widders being held hostage... er... kindly standing there having been asked to wait for me by Patty.  So we got his autograph and spoke for a wee bit and we're all grinning and chuffed we got to meet Mr SSFCtv!

Now the part I didn't tell you was that we were fairly convinced Russell wasn't coming.  BUT when I was returning up the escalator, I saw Keith and I was all, "Hmm..." and THEN after Dean left I saw a security guy, a cop and a couple who I realized later must be Sue & Howie hanging there with their camera.  So again I go "Hmm..." and now hubs is also going "Hmm..." and sure enough, here comes the wee crowd and in the middle Mr Crowe hisself!  So having been bolstered by two wodkatonix earlier, I stepped up to the plate and put out my hand and as I'd been practically shouted at to do by several mates, I said, "Hi, Russell, it's me, Darrin," and he smiled back, shook my hand and said, "Hi, Darrin," which pretty much shut down several synapses from firing in my brain anymore and I hope I was smiling and not standing there like a complete idiot.

So, naturally we now wanna stay so the boys went off to bond and have more beer at a quieter venue as we braved the noise of Mavericks once again.  Well, we had time for another drink and a couple of smokes and then we decided, well, he's just gonna party with the lads for awhile so why don't we head back out and find our wonderful other halfs and head on out for dinner.

But our timing Saturday night was craaaaaazy perfect.  We walked back to the top of the escalator and there he was AGAIN, this time leaving.  Determined to get at least ONE of the "Shy Twins" to step up THIS time, I pulled Coffee and pushed her to where he would be once the wee crowd got moving and then dragged Patty to stand next to me where we got to see Coff have her moment.  YAY!!!!  I'll let her tell her story.

So after Coff got her moment and he's walking past us again, I called out, "Thank you, Russell!" and he turned to me with his peace sign, but then his normal grin turned into a VERY nice smile and I got a two-fingered wave.  That had me ridiculously giddy!

So now the boys arrive back and they all need to "take a break".  So we go downstairs but guess where Russell's just exiting from?!  So we tell them "You'll just have to WAIT!"  That was wicked funny.  Anyway, he signed some more autographs and did a few pix and then he really left the building.

Of course now the three of us girls are giggling giddily and the guys are just happy we're happy.  We do love our other halfs SO MUCH!

A great day all in all!