Monday, March 14, 2016

College Basketball, Bad Hair, Triple 9 & Ford's Garage

Here's a recap of what I've done since last Monday; thankfully this past week was more interesting than the one I had before. Let me mention right away that I'll be kinder and gentler so I won't rail against all the atrocious traffic I dealt with in the preceding 7 days; just note that it was even worse than usual. Some people I know had health scares in recent times (don't worry, everyone is fine now) and it makes me realize that doing my usual complaining about that just doesn't seem right.

On Monday the 7th, I got a much-needed haircut. That was a typical experience, except for a moment that was hilarious to me. As I was getting rid of all the hair I had, a young boy was doing the same; his mom was around and from her talking I know (but sadly did not see) that the son got a haircut with a LIGHTNING BOLT design on the side. I can't speak for any of my family but I am quite confident in saying that if I asked for such a thing when I was a youngster way back when, my mom would have shot that down in 0.2 seconds! Really, a lot of hairstyles these days puzzle me, but I don't want to sound like an old man on his porch so let me move on.

Tuesday, I had free time so I went to the Tampa area, a place I hadn't been to in months. I felt like doing something different. I ended up in Brandon. First I went to the nice mall there. I walked around and it was largely the same as usual; I did not purchase anything there but it was still nice to walk around. I then went to a restaurant that I heard someone I know mention online once. It has a few locations across Florida, but I was at Ford's Garage. There's a backstory as to its name; I won't get into it but they are authorized to use the Ford name, as it was named after Henry Ford. They are known for their burgers... this suited me rather well so I had my “almost always” of a burger & fries. The former was with Kobe beef, aged sharp cheddar and a pretzel bun. It was pretty tasty. After that I went to a Muvico (the Muvico Starlight 20 on the northeast side of Tampa, to be exact) to see a movie, as I hadn't been to a Muvico since like '08. That particular place was nice. At a screening where I was the only person in attendance, I saw Triple 9. That was fine, although with the people involved it should have been better.

Wednesday, the only thing I did was return to Winter Garden Village; I got some random items from Target, purchased some PS3 games from Gamestop (they had a 4 games for 20 dollars deal. I got 5 in total, including all 3 Dead Space games, as I hear the first two are incredible), and I likely made my last visit to Planet Smoothie... until they get some new limited edition flavors, that is. The last time I was there I had the Orange Push Up, which was really good. This time, I had the PBJ; yes, it did taste like a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and it was also good. I did not do anything on Thursday so let me talk about Friday. I realized that I hadn't been inside of the giant arena in Orlando (the Amway Center) since the UFC on Fox show in late April of 2014. It's a nice building so I figured it was about time I returned there, and that's what I did on this night to see two American Athletic Conference college basketball tournament games. It's in downtown Orlando but the only thing I did when it came to walking the area was going around before the pair of games started and I looked to see if anything was new. More often than not, it's the place I remembered it being. Going on at the same time was the Orlando City SC game at home against the Chicago Fire. Sometime later this year I'll go to an OCSC contest at the Citrus Bowl. Anyhow, a party was going on and plenty of supporters were around. They have shuttles from there to the stadium but I'd rather just walk the mile there and mile back than worry about any shuttles.

The two games I saw were Tulane vs. Houston and Tulsa vs. Memphis. Tulane and Memphis won in upsets, and I was surprised at how easily Memphis won by. Houston couldn't make a free throw to save their lives and Tulsa fell apart in the second half so that's why those teams lost. Both games, they were sparsely attended (as I expected) so I was happy to pay for a ticket and try to help them out. Them can be the conference or the Amway Center. The ticket I paid for wasn't the lower bowl but I got moved down there; I sat in the corner and I was happy with the seat I got. After the two games (I ate in the building beforehand) it was nearing midnight and I was tired so I just headed straight home. I don't think it'll be long before I go back and see if the downtown Orlando nightlife is the same as it was before...

Saturday and Sunday I was happy to stay in and do nothing. When I return a week from today, I have some ideas when it comes for activities to do.

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