Monday, I did something out of the ordinary. I went to the Tampa area. Among the things I did, I returned to a restaurant I went to once before this past spring, called Ford's Garage; its name is a long story, but they do have it licensed from Ford. They make some tasty burgers, that is for sure. Being able to build your own burger and having “pretzel bun” being one of the options: pretty dope. I went to a movie, then had a drink at the World of Beer in Brandon. It was only one, as there were too many annoying tools there, and the staff is not exempt from that description. I went to a brand new theatre in Riverview. It's a new group called Xscape; they only have a few locations across the country. They are part of the hot in 2016 idea of auditoriums having leather reclining seats. The groups that own cineplexes are trying all sorts of things to get people to attend, as attendance has dropped in recent years. I blame it on “Hollywood making a lot of bad movies” and “too many rude people acting rudely during screenings” more than the seats and being able to recline while watching a film... streaming and such things as 4K televisions don't help there either, but I guess putting in new seats is about as much as those people can reasonably do to try and fix that problem. As for Xscape in Riverview, it is nice, although there are also nice places closer to me too. Heck, even older places are putting in those leather seats.
Anyhow... what I saw was Arrival. I heard so many positive things about it, I figured it was time to check the film out. Turns out, I do rate it highly myself. I can't go into specifics as that'd result in massive spoilers. I'll just say that the surprises the movie has were well done and not seen by me beforehand, it was filmed well, and the cast is swell, with Amy Adams outstanding. Tuesday, I did not do anything and Wednesday I went to the local Chick-fil-A for dinner (note that this is not necessarily any endorsement for the chain's conservative Christian values) so onto Thursday.
Thursday, I went to a few places. I will mention that I got some German beer bottles from Total Wine & More and also a big can of Kirin Ichiban beer, as it was on sale. I've had several different styles and they typically are interesting... hefeweizen has a banana & clove taste and the appearance is cloudy. It's pretty good. There are variations of that like dunkenweizen (more a roasted malt) and kristalweizen (which is less cloudy), and there are others that vary from a little to a lot. Some I do prefer to others. I probably should drink more things like dunkenweizen or the darker doppelbock. Anyhow, after that I walked around the ritzy Mall at Millenia. I had some mall food for dinner. Friday I did not do anything but Saturday...
Saturday I did something I was not planning on until a few days prior. A big college football conference championship game (for the ACC, specifically) was going to be played in Charlotte but because of the law commonly known as either “The Bathroom Bill” or “The Transgender Act” where people of a different sexuality won't be protected by law, that game went elsewhere, as did plenty of other events originally scheduled for North Carolina. The game moved to Orlando at the stadium I'll always call the Citrus Bowl but technically is “Camping World Stadium”. The ticket brokers must have had a tough time selling tickets, as I was able to find on Seatgeek a fifth row ticket in the end zone for only 20 bucks, which was like 1/3 its original price. The attendance ended up being fine, all things considered.
I ended up parking at a random business on Orange Blossom Trail that was offering up spots. Considering its OBT, it was not a guarantee that my vehicle would be there when I returned, or that it'd be damage-free, but thankfully it was. The game had the sort of nonsense that still makes me “meh” in general on major college football but otherwise it was exciting. Clemson defeated Virginia Tech 42-35 in an expected result. There were more Clemson fans present, that is for sure, although my section happened to have more Tech fans. In the area there for various activities for all fans to participate in, which was nice. I didn't do any of that, though. I did enjoy the view and was thankful that I had no problems where I sat.
Plus, there was an incredible moment. After the game started, some people moseyed in and one of them was a large young man; he was highly intoxicated. I did not notice this due to him smelling like a brewery when I got first whiff of him... nor how he was barely intelligible when he spoke... nor how he was double-fisting large Bud Light cans... nor even his I (heart) BEER hat. No, it was all that + him passing out for most of the second half. No kidding. When literal fireworks went off before the 4th quarter, this was not enough to stir him awake. I know he was not deceased because he was up by the time the game ended. As it was an evening game, who knows how many hours of drinking he did beforehand. I can say that never was a hat and wearer more appropriate than in this case.
Sunday, I did not do a thing. I decided not to go out to see the Bears play, even though they played an even worse team in the San Francisco 49ers. The Bears easily won, but it was in ugly snow and freezing rain weather; beforehand I was expecting it to be among the worst games in NFL history and it may have been. Seeing some highlights at home and knowing that it took until midway into the second quarter for either of the two teams to even complete a pass... I am glad I did not go to a bar or restaurant and see such garbage. When I return a week from today, I do have a few ideas as to what I'll be discussing.
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