Here's what I've done since last Monday. On that Monday the 13th the only thing of note I did was go to a local wine store for the first time; it is called Wine Regions and while they had more of a selection of wine and hard liquor than beer, the beer they had at least was some nice choices. I got the Einstok Toasted Porter (it's from Iceland, actually; it's good) and the Queen Bohemian Rhapsody Lager. It's from the Czech Republic and it was fine. Tuesday, I returned to Universal CityWalk. I had no worries about being in Orlando after the events of the previous weekend... still, I never felt more glad that they use metal detectors. I had dinner at the Burger King Whopper Bar-that was fine-then saw a movie before having a drink at the NBC Sports Grill & Brew. The movie I saw was 2001's Ali; yes, they were showing it. As I had heard for years, that movie is good rather than great, although Will Smith in the title role was tremendous.
Wednesday, I did nothing so I'll just mention how horrible it was at Walt Disney World at a resort where someone I know used to work at, that a 2 year old boy was dragged into the water and drowned by an alligator. From Friday the 10th to Wednesday the 15th, what a stretch of time for everyone in this area... I mean, just awful. Thursday, I went with someone to the local Chili's restaurant; that went as expected, and our meals were fine. Friday, it was a different sort of day. I originally wasn't planning on seeing another Tampa Bay Rays game until later in the summer. However, the team announced that the game on this day would have all available tickets for only 5 bucks and all the money would go to a victim's fund for you know what massacre; while I haven't done any of the many nice things that people have done in this community to try and help those people (from blood drives to volunteering as translators), giving them a few bucks is the least that I could do. In a rare moment, Tropicana Field will actually be full of people instead of the typical small crowds that they almost always get. That's why I went and saw them play against the San Francisco Giants on this night, in the lower bowl of the stadium on the side.
The drive to Tampa was about the same as usual... meaning there were plenty of dumb people on the highway and rude behavior exhibited. I thought about places to go to before Tropicana Field, and I decided on the International Plaza, a high-end mall on the West side of Tampa. It was largely the same as before. I had a pair of macarons from a nice confectionery there and both were tasty. After that I drove to the stadium and got a decent parking spot. As I've said before, the crowds at Rays games usually don't even fill half of the stadium, so it was quite rare to be at a game which was announced as sold out. Not all the seats were filled but many were and that was a unique experience, along with all the nice ceremonies to pay tribute to the victims in Orlando; everyone who attended got a nice free t-shirt as well. I was glad I went there, even if some people were drunken buffoons and there were also some annoying kids. Both things are not so rare at sporting events, to be honest. The drunk young male who I saw macking on a random woman and embarrassed his friends... he mentioned something about driving his car there; I hope he wasn't being truthful there as he was quite intoxicated and he did not need to be behind the wheel.
As for the game itself, San Francisco won 5-1. Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzija is either pretty good or pretty bad on the mound; on this night he was an All Star, pitching the entire game and it was only a random home run that did not make it a shutout. The Rays aren't as good of a team now as they used to be; looking at the records of both teams, it's no surprise Tampa Bay lost.
Saturday and Sunday I stayed at home. I was OK with that arrangement. Saturday night I had a few more beers, including from Florida's Funky Buddha brewery, Blueberry Cobbler beer. While it does sound odd, it actually did taste good. Sunday, I have to say that Anton Yelchin's death was both unexpected and sad. Cleveland winning the NBA title... I am no fan of LeBron James by any means and I would have preferred Golden State; however, those poor Cleveland sports fans haven't had a major team in their city win a championship since the early 1960's, so it is nice for those people and I can't get too mad about it.
When I return a week from today, I do have some ideas in mind for what I'll be talking about.
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