Delaware - Part Six

This isn't really going to be Delware-related. So if you were expecting more about Drew's adventures in Delaware, you're going to have to wait at least two blog entries (this one and my next one, which will be about my adventure in Atlantic City).

So the Rangers are in the World Series. I've neglected to talk about it intentionally because the one time I blogged during a game was the 8th inning against the Yankees in game one. That was, of course, the inning where the Rangers collapsed and almost screwed up the whole series.

But with the Rangers down 2 games to 1 (and losing tonight's game 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth), I'm not as worried about superstition. In fact, I stopped worrying about superstition as soon as Kinsler's 5th inning hit in game two somehow had enough backspin to come *back* onto the field in game two. Sometimes some force is against you. Call it God, call it the "sports gods", call it fate, call it anything. Something is against the Rangers in this series.

(Speaking of that, another two bad calls in a row and the Rangers are down in the sixth).

But it isn't the Rangers. I think it's just the DFW area.

Around the time I reached sports consciousness, the Cowboys were hitting their stride. They won three Super Bowls before I turned 12, and they continued to tease us for a couple of years after that. As soon as the Cowboys' dynasty looked dead, I started following the Stars. Two years after I started watching them, they won the Stanley Cup. They were back the year after that, but it seemed like a trend.

The Cowboys had won. Then the Stars took over. And I started waiting for the next team to win something. Would it be the resurgent Mavericks, led by young owner Mark Cuban and German superstar Dirk Nowitzki? Or the Texas Rangers, who had free agent Alex Rodriguez and a bright future? Or my new team, the TCU Horned Frogs. Or would the Cowboys or Stars regain their 90s glory?

Nope. The Mavericks tried to run and gun their way to a title under Don Nelson and failed. Then they reached the Finals under Avery Johnson but collapsed behind bad officiating and questionable focus. A 67-win season the following year was met with a 1st-round exit. Since then, the team hasn't really been close to a title.

The Cowboys struggled for the first half of the decade, and they were brought back into the talk by Bill Parcells. They're frequently discussed as a Super Bowl favorite, but they only have one playoff win since the Millennium. And since they're now 1-6, they're officially dead in the water.

The Stars were strong at the beginning of the 2000s, but they were never able to reach the top of the mountain again. They ran into a hot goalie in 2003 and couldn't get passed the Red Wings a couple of years ago. And recently, they've missed the playoffs.

TCU has had great teams since I arrived on campus in 2002, but they've never been able to get over the hump. Every year, they've had a terrible loss that messed up their chances at reaching their ultimate goal (Southern Miss, SMU, Utah, etc.). Last year, they finally made it to a BCS game, but they choked and lost to Boise State. Their season goes on the line Saturday in a winner-take-all game against Utah.

Which brings me to the Rangers.

The A-Rod signing was a disaster, and the team eventually sunk into debt. Only recently has the team actually found its legs, trying to build the team through pitching and youth. Jon Daniels and Nolan Ryan have done a great job building this team, and they've become a force in the American League. And this season, they captured the hearts of the Metroplex with a run to the World Series...something no one else was expecting this early.

And now down 3-0 in the bottom of the 7th, things are looking grim for the good guys. And, yeah, there's a chance that they'll be back...but I thought the same thing about the Cowboys. And the Stars. And the Mavericks.

The point is that this city hasn't won a championship since 1999. With a team in each of the four major sports, it's almost unheard of. Here's a list of cities that have won championships since 2000, with the city's number of teams in parentheses.

New York (9) - 5

Denver (4) - 1

Detroit (4) - 3

Tampa (3) - 2

Raleigh (1) - 1

Los Angeles (6) - 7

Pittsburgh (3) - 3

Chicago (5) - 2

Phoenix (4) - 1

Miami (4) - 2

Boston (4) - 6

St. Louis (3) - 2

Philadelphia (4) - 1

Baltimore (2) - 1

Indianapolis (2) - 1

New Orleans (2) - 1

San Antonio (1) - 3

Only four cities, outside of Dallas, have four or more teams with no championship since 2000. Atlanta (4), Washington, DC (4), and Minneapolis (4) haven't won recently, and the Bay Area (6 teams in the area) is also title-less...for the next few days.

And it really sucks. Tampa Bay shouldn't have two more titles than Dallas. The Carolina Hurricanes shouldn't have more championships than all of Dallas' teams combined.

And what sucks is that two of the four teams have *never* won. The Rangers and Mavericks have about 70 years of play and nothing to show for it. The Cowboys have their 5 Super Bowls, and Stars have their one Stanley Cup. That's it.

And I don't know what the reason behind the drought is. The American Airlines Center is usually thrown around as cursed, since neither the Stars or Mavs have won since it was built. And while I guess it could affect the Rangers and Cowboys by proximity, I don't think that's the case. Laura Miller's parade route can be blamed for jinxing the Mavs in the 2006 series against the Heat, but it wouldn't necessarily explain any of the other team's failures.

Bad play? Bad coaching? Bad management? Good "real" reasons but not solid superstitions.

I don't know, but it looks bad. With the Rangers' defeat, the face an offseason where they could lose their top two starters and their cleanup hitter. The Cowboys are 1-6 and are still run by a guy who has no idea what he's doing, even if he fires his fatass coach. The Mavs are good but not good enough to win a championship. And the Stars are too inconsistent, even in a wide-open NHL, to do much damage.

So no championship in 2010 and the future doesn't look great either. I don't know what the city did to deserve this kind of sports-related torture, but I wish some gypsy would come through town and lift this curse.

Delaware - Part Five

Quick! When you think of food from this place, what do you think of?

Baltimore?

Crab cakes.

Chicago?

Pizza

Philadelphia?
Cheesesteaks

Kansas City?

Barbecue

Delaware?

Um...Chili's?

I've discovered something. Delaware has no identity. And if it does, it might be "banking" - which is pretty sad because I don't think that's a personality.

In my two weeks here (today is my two-week mark), I've eaten at the following places:

- The hotel - breakfast is free here everyday and dinner is free Monday-Wednesday

- My room - I have a kitchen and have cooked a few times

- The JPM Cafeteria - The food isn't as bad as my companions seem to think it is, but it is "blah."

- The mall - It's close to work and has a few choices. But since most of them are fast food places and I don't eat there, I've eaten Chinese food there each time.

- A ghetto Chinese food restaurant - It's in the ghetto. The place is also kinda ghetto

- Various other chain restaurants

Nothing particularly Mom and Pop and definitely nothing overly "Delaware." The only seafood we've had so far is Red Lobster. From what I can tell, they don't really have it here. And the places that have it apparently suck.

And from what I can tell, that's pretty much the vibe here. As I've said, no one that works here lives here, but no one really has any restaurants to recommend. The only place they recommended was a steak house that was overpriced and pretty "meh." It's hard to come from Texas and appreciate an out-of-town steakhouse, though.

I'd still like to try and find someplace good and local. Maybe I can try the Interwebs. Possibly even the Unterwebs.

But I figured I'd be safe when we spent Sunday in Philadelphia. I returned from my brief trip home, and since Delaware doesn't have an airport, I landed in Philly. Since we wanted to spend a day there anyway, we decided to check it out. My new manager wanted to try a real Philly cheesesteak, and I was okay giving it a shot.

So they picked me up and we headed there. Right across the street from each other are Pat's and Geno's....both "legendary" for their cheesesteaks.

They both have the same system. You order outside, they hand you your sandwich at one window and you order your sides/drinks at a separate window (you also pay separately...and only cash is accepted). The only places to sit are inside.

They also have the same system of ordering. Since they basically only do one thing, it's pretty simple. Want onions? Say "with" or "wit". Don't? Say "without" or "witout".

Then you pick your cheese. American and provolone are offered, but the "true Philly way" is to order it with Cheez Wiz. And that's real and apparently the only way to eat one.

And because I was in Rome, I did what the Romans do. I got a "wit Wiz" at both places. And, honestly, I thought both were overrated. They were fine, and I didn't "not enjoy" them. But it wasn't something I'd go out of my way for. I think Texadelphia and Jersey Mikes actually make a better cheesesteak, and they're both really close to my apartment. Philly? Not so much.

So, overall, the food here just hasn't been all that great. We went to a wing bar near the University of Delaware that isn't bad, and there's a beer here called Yeungling that's pretty good because it doesn't taste like beer. But other than that, it's bland and sometimes expensive (Chili's was $2-4 more per item than back home).

Delaware - Part Four

So when I found out I was coming to Delaware, I knew I was going to need my own entertainment. And so I had a few ideas:

1. I would bring my laptop with some movies. I even considered going out and buying the first season of a show like Modern Family - something I'd never seen before - to keep me going while I was here.

2. Tucker offered to lend me his slingbox so that I could watch local TV (including local sports) on my laptop.

3. If all else failed, I could at least watch shows on Hulu.

Nope. Strike three, I'm out.

1. I didn't bring any DVDs. That's my bad. But because options 2 and 3 exist, I didn't really worry about it.

2. I tried to connect to the Slingbox, but it won't connect. It tells me to try again, and it still doesn't work. I tried it three days in a row...and nothing. I'm not sure if it wasn't set up properly, or maybe the hotel internet just isn't good enough to support it.

Which brings me to...

3. The f-ing hotel internet is terrible. And it actually just became terrible in the last couple of days. It might be that I'm at the end of the complex and far away from wherever the signal comes from. Or maybe there are just a couple hundred people using it at the same time. But I've been trying to watch a show on Hulu for an hour and a half, and I'm only successfully through 15 minutes.

For the first few days, I was able to watch a lot of things. But now it takes about 5 minutes to watch a 30-second clip on youtube.

Luckily, the Rangers have been entertaining me enough for the last couple of days. But when this run ends (positively or negatively), I'm going to want to watch something online. And if this internet doesn't get any better, this trip is going to suck a whole lot more.

But I think it's just that Delaware sucks. I actually get no signal at work. In fact, I actually got a "no service" message on my phone the other day - something that's never happened to me before. You'd think on the "wonderful" East Coast - the greatest place on Earth - that signal reception would be great all over the place.

Oh, Texas...how I miss thee.

Delaware - Part Three

I've never really lived out of a suitcase. The longest time I've ever spent in a hotel was less than a week, and this "trip" is going to be 4-5 times longer than that. I've never been in one long enough to put away my clothes into the hotel closet, and I've definitely never been in one long enough to do laundry. I've also never cooked in a hotel before.

Today, I've done all three.

It's a bit odd that it took me about five days to get everything put away, but I actually took everything out of the bags the first night I was there. I was just using the couch as my chest of drawers...not the actual chest of drawers and closet.

But, since today is my first lazy day since I got here, I decided it was time. I also didn't bring enough undershirts or underwear to go another day without doing laundry, so I took care of that as well.

Remember that the hotel put me at the far end of this complex, and the laundry room is int he middle of it. So I woke up this morning, after I threw all my worn clothes into a bag, and I walked down to the laundry room. Even though we've been to the grocery store and Target, I hadn't bought detergent. Luckily, on my way to the room, I ran into one of my coworkers who kindly lent me some.

At home, I typically do laundry over the course of a Sunday. Today, I didn't really have that kind of time. The walk to and from the laundry room isn't terrible, but it is annoying so I decided to have breakfast while I waited for my first load to wash. I was able to do my second load while I finished up breakfast, and then I set up the dryer.

And that's when I made the mistake. It was a dollar in coins to run the dryer, and I paid for it. My clothes were already inside, and as soon as I inserted the coins, the "in use" light came on. I thought the machine was on (it sounded like it was), and I even touched the side to see if it was vibrating.

Since the dryer takes about 40 minutes, I decided to walk back to my room for a bit. When I came back, I noticed that my clothes were still wet. Very wet. I didn't have that many clothes in there, and it was almost like it hadn't run.

That's because it hadn't. I noticed there was a "push to start" button on the dryer that I hadn't pressed. And since I'd waited so long, my dollar expired. Not exactly my brightest moment.

But it gets better. When I got back to the room to fold my clean clothes, I realized that three socks were missing. I had to go back to the laundry room again to get my three socks back.

So I walked to the laundry room. Ran the washing machine and ate breakfast. Came back to the room to wait for the dryer. Went back to the laundry room, noticed that dryer hadn't even run, and actually set it to dry. Walked back to the room again. Went back to the laundry room to get the dry clothes. Walked back to the room. And, finally, went back to the laundry room to get my three socks before I returned to the room for the final time.

First time wasn't the charm.

After all that walking, I was hungry again. While I forgot to buy detergent at the store, I didn't forget to buy food. I bought some burger patties, and I decided to have one of them for lunch. I pulled out one of the pans, and realized that I didn't have any vegetable oil.

And instead of doing the right thing and just eating something else, I decided to go with it. The meat had its own juices, and I was sure that the pan would be fine.

Wrong.

I knew immediately that there was a problem as the meat stuck to the pan as soon as it hit. And then, as I was passed the point of no return, I struggled with it as the meat cooked. And while the burger cooked and was eaten, the pan is a bit of a mess.

Two pretty dumb mistakes on the same day. But, again, it's my first time.

Delaware - Part Two

Delaware is just about as interesting as you think it is. There's not a whole lot to do here, but there are apparently a lot of reasons to live here. I found out, almost immediately, that Delaware doesn't have a sales tax. Most major chains hike up the prices of food to compensate, but you can find major ways to save money. And according to one of the guys in the office, Delaware is great for retirees.

But what's funny is that the office is that few people actually live in the same city as the office. In fact, most of them don't live in the state. I know one who lives in Philadelphia, and the main boss lives in Maryland. Which is funny because he says his daily drive in takes about 20 minutes.

That's how long mine is.

Tonight is Friday night, but our group isn't really doing much. In fact, most of the natives laughed at the idea of doing anything fun nearby. Apparently the University of Delaware is close, and we can go over there for a bit of the college-type experience.

But, for the most part, our plans for the weekend are out of town. Philadelphia. New York. Maybe Atlantic City.

And I know that most of the country thinks their city is boring. But, usually, it takes more than a couple of days for a visitor to conclude this.

Delaware - Part One

Delaware happened. There was nothing I could do about it, and it was set up before anything could be done. Like I said in a previous post, my biology teacher was willing to work around my schedule, and since that was my primary concern, things worked out as well as they could.

I still had two concerns, though:

1. My flight to Delaware left at 6:35am. My group wanted us to be there at 5am. That meant waking up at or about 4am. Considering I had my last class on the night before, it meant I was going to be going on a ridiculously tiny amount of sleep. That was not okay.

2. "Three weeks...probably less" turned into an entire month. October 12 to November 12. In Delaware. With people I don't really know. Two weeks could be a really nice getaway. Four weeks could be considered punishment.

I've been in Delaware for about two days, and neither of my concerns ended up being that bad. I still have virtually no ability to sleep on a plane, but the people in Delaware had mercy on us upon our arrival and didn't make us work. Which is good because we were basically zombies.

The JPM building is actually pretty nice. There's a pretty cool cafeteria in the building, and there's a bald eagle nest next to one of the buildings. I actually saw one of them (pretty far away but it was still cool).

Today was mostly training. The only interesting thing was eating at Jimmy Buffet's "Cheeseburger in Paradise" restaurant, which was surprisingly good.

My hotel is pretty nice, although they've put me at the far end of the facility. And it's more "motel-style" than hotel-style (where you enter your room from the street) - and I prefer the latter.

But there's a full kitchen, two beds, a living area (complete with fireplace), and two pretty nice TVs. If I have to live in Delaware for a month, I guess this isn't a bad place to do it. I'll try to put up some pictures at some point, either here or Facebook.

So that's it. I'm here and alive and working. Two more days of work before the weekend, but I don't think we have anything big planned. Which should be okay, I think we're all just ready to relax a bit...something we really haven't gotten to do since we got here.

Two more notes, though:

1. The Rangers won last night. Really excited about that. The Rangers were my first love, even before the Cowboys, and even though they broke my heart at a young age, it was still cool to see them win. They're just 4 wins away from the World Series and only 8 wins away from a championship. With only 4 playoff wins for the whole franchise, it's way too early to be thinking about that. But one can hope.

2. The Internet here sucks. I was able to stream shows on Hulu (and it was okay), but I haven't been able to get the Slingbox to work yet. Come on hotel that I'm not paying for...you have to do better.

An Assignment

This might get a bit sappy, but I'm going to do it anyway. I want all of you to do something, and I think it will make us all feel better.

Think of a friend. Not an acquaintance or a coworker or just someone you hang out with. Think of a friend. Someone you would do just about anything for. Someone you quickly call when something good happens and someone you call even more quickly when something bad happens. The person you call when you get tickets to something. The person you think of when you see something really funny, knowing instantly that he or she will find it just as funny.

Think of the person you trust your secrets with. Good, bad, or embarrassing. Think of the person you're willing to be honest with - sometimes even more honest than with yourself. The person you'll be talking to and realize you're spilling your heart out to, whether you intended to or not. Think of the person you would miss the most if you were separated.

I hope each of you has a person like that. And if you do, be thankful. Those types of bonds are unfortunately rare but infinitely priceless. And if you get a chance, let them know that you care.

I'm sure they feel the same way about you.