twitter and the fan

So tonight I tried desperately to win a trivia contest from Green Bay Packers Tight End, Jermichael Finley. And it reminds me of the one of the best nights of my life. While its not a current news story I would like to finally tell the story of last October, me, Ryan Grant, Google and the dog pound of Cleveland OH.

It was a Saturday. Ryan Grant had been tweeting about having extra tickets to the Green Bay/Cleveland game and that he would have some trivia questions to give away the tickets. I immediately set his tweets to go to my phone. Living in Cincy, I don't get to see my team as much as I would like. Hell, living in Wisconsin I didn't get to see my team play live as much as I would have liked. People outside of Wisco really don't get it; it is nearly impossible for people of average incomes without connections to get tickets to Packer games. So I was on edge nearly all day, waiting for whatever challenge Grant could present.

I still have the text message from twitter saved on my phone. Sat. Oct. 24 7:16pm One more set of 3 to give out...if you can tell me who my Runningback coaches were in college and the nfl. I remember searching, giving up, and searching some more. I knew the nfl ones, those were easy. Edgar Bennet is the RB coach of the Packers (actually had his wife's tickets to Lambeau the previous season), I waved to him everytime the showed him on TV. Nothing had changed in the Giants staff, so again, easy to find. What was hard was the ND coaches. In the middle of Grant's ND career, they changed coaches, found new staff announcements easily, but the last one was a killed...

At Oct 24 7:39pm I receieved the BEST text message ever. @jaymelee1 Won..def got all 4 of them 1st. Edgar Bennett, Gerald Ingram, Buzz Preston and Desmond Robinson. Lol.

I was home alone. Jumping up and down. SB came home, I met him at the top of the stairs. Basically screaming, texting everyone I could. I had three tickets and could find no one to take with me. SB had a post wedding bridal event to go to for a mutual friend. Another friend couldn't come because of previous engagements. I was not going to let this chance pass me by though.

Watched USC win their night game that night and quietly went to bed. Woke up early, put on many layers of clothes and drove the four hours north to a city I had never been in to watch my Pack by myself.

I met some people at a gas station who admired my Aaron Rodgers jersey. They showed me their tickets saying we could meet up. I said I didn't know where I was sitting because my tickets we left for me at Will Call by Ryan Grant.

I loved the game. I found my seats, sat down in the family section and could not have been happier. The women next to me also had three tickets and no one wanted to come with her. The men behind us pissed her off cause the swore like three times. She left. But the men were nice to me, grabbed me a beer mid second half and weren't terribly bitter about Derek Anderson's inability to complete a pass. At half time they had two local pee wee football teams play eachother on the field. I was surrounded by the kids' families. And it was amazing to watch.

I had two beers, listened to the Browns fan boo their team, and took a great picture of a group of men who wore Coneheads with the G packer logo on them. I sat in traffic, trying to navigate my way back to the freeway listening to local radio bemoan about their team and how they were worked by the Packers.

I drove back that night. And went to work on time the next morning. Everyone Monday mornings, asks what I did over the weekend. "Oh, I won Packer tickets from Ryan Grant and drove up to Cleveland yesterday". On that day, I felt like the most special girl in the world.