I’m all over my Crohn’s attack but it messed with my sleep cycle. After sleeping all weekend last night, I couldn’t get to sleep, so I ended up sleeping until noon. On the bright side I did get to watch the middle part of one of my favorite Classic Doctor Who serials, The Hand of Fear. I couldn’t make it till the last 15 minutes which made it special. But now I know that Pluto TV has it. I’ll have to start checking them out again. I thought I had seen all the Classic Doctor they had in their rotation. The bad part is that I slept until after noon. That meant missing Gord’s Gold on Folk Music Notebook. I’m the titular Gord. My piece today was on Sam Baker.
Even though I still had Crohn’s after-effects last night I decided to go to the Jets – Pats game at Met Life Stadium. It’s in Jersey but takes no longer to get to than Citi Field even though it’s one subway and two NJ Transit Trains. While I’ve been to Met Life before this was my first time arriving by myself. It’s as if they designed it to be as difficult to navigate as possible. While the gate I needed was right by the gate I needed and the station has exits right there, they don’t let you use them. Instead I had to walk to the far end of the station, every step in the opposite direction I needed. Then came the matter of finding my gate. My ticket said, to enter at the Bud Light Gate. When you get off the train there are no signs indicating where the gates are. If it’s not the one gate in sight you are on your own. I asked one of the few stadium workers around where it was, and he told me. That’s when I discovered that I had been walking away from where I wanted to be until I was out of the station. I get to the right gate and there’s an escalator up to the first level. My seat was on the third. You would expect that the next escalator would be right there. You’d be wrong. It was nowhere in sight. I picked a direction to walk, there were no signs. I walked the wrong way. I asked someone where the escalator was and finally found it. It could not be seen from the promenade. There was no sign indicating where it was. At least the escalator to the third level was in the same area as the one to the second. This makes Citi Field look easy to navigate. Both exhibit contempt for people on the upper level.
Because of those difficulties I missed the kickoff. I was on the escalator when it happened. I finally reached my seat a few plays into the game. A few plays in which the Pats had advanced the ball into Jet territory. They quickly scored a touchdown and made the extra point. Things only got worse from there. The Jets lost 33 – 0. The Jets quarterback through four interceptions and fumbled once. Obviously, he threw no touchdowns. Is Passing Rating for the game was 2.
What was good was hanging out with Alan and not being sick. I got by with only one bathroom trip. I haven’t seen Alan in a month, so it was good to see him again. My Alan time is unlike my time with any other friends. Our common interests are sports and politics. We left early. I wanted to make the 11:00 train. I left myself too much time because of my bad experience getting to the station. On the bright side that meant I got a seat. Lots of people left early, it was early fourth quarter.
I met a cool guy on the subway when I was one stop from home. I noticed him in Jets gear and said, “Bad game.” We commiserated. Then discovered he grew up in Queens, not far from me, and was a Met fan going back to the Polo Ground days. He was remarkably well spoken. My guess is that he went to college out of the area and has a great ear, as he didn’t have a typical New York accent. But that wasn’t what impressed, it was the clarity of his speech and his thoughts.
I’m going to spend one more day resting after my illness. I pushed it last night, so I’ll make up for it today. I’ll watch the World Series tonight. Go Astros.
In the meantime, you should listen to Folk Music Notebook. You might even hear a rebroadcast of an old Gord’s Gold.
Wise Madness 