Showing posts with label Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trip. Show all posts
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The Life and Times of a Ben at the Supermarket

*Originally Posted October, 2006*

Well hello again everyone! Now before I get started I wanted to make something clear that has to do with the title. Just in case the part that says, "a Ben" threw you off. That "a Ben" that it's talking about... ya, that's me... I just thought I'd clear that up in case you thought I was going to rattle off some random story about another Ben that you don't even know... Ok, glad we got that out of the way. So, let us begin our trip to the supermarket!


So there I was... I entered the Albertson's parking lot, found a decent parking space and headed inside to do my monthly grocery shopping. I walked through the front door, looked to my right and grabbed the closest cart available. I looked down at my cart and noticed something was missing... my list! I knew I didn't forget it so I frantically patted myself down, scrambling to find the piece of precious parchment. A couple of people walked by while I was doing this and gave some precarious looks, you know the, "I don't think it's appropriate to do something like that in public" looks. So I did what most any man in my position would have done.

As I patted myself, I started saying, "Where's my list?! I know that thing's around here somewhere..."

The passing peoples seemed to find the frantic babbling sufficient to get their dirty minds out of the gutter, so I was happy. Finally I found it! I was ready to shop!


So I began, with list in hand, and... an empty cart. I made my way past the fresh produce area first, to which I passed a meat stand stating, "Buy one, get one free!". This got my attention, so I stopped and perused the merchandise. While I pondering whether to get said deluxe meat or not, an Albertson's worker walked up, and started stocking the display I was looking at. After throwing a couple more packages on the display she stops and looks at me.

In a rather passionate but kind tone, the middle aged African American women states, "Honey, you should get some! They're buy one, get one!"

To which I responded the only way I could after that statement, "Well then, I'll take two!"...and I did.


Next I was off to the aisles... the aisle part of the shopping usually goes well. I was buying food, I was looking for the super-savers... things were pretty much "same-o, same-o"... that was until I reached the coffee aisle... Now I don't know why, but there is a gravitational pull when I pass by the Starbucks section of the coffee aisle. It's a tug, if you will, to assist the poor helpless individual looking so aimlessly at the Starbucks coffee, that they are almost overwhelmed by the sheer variety of it all. Now this "tug" usually gives way because there's is no one looking at the coffee... but, this time there was someone standing there in front of the Starbucks coffee display, and he had his hand on his chin... just waiting for some knowledgeable individual (such as myself) to help him with his coffee brewing needs/wants! I tried to keep walking... but I just couldn't, and the gravitational pull of "Legendary Service" reeled me in.

I walked up beside the man and proudly stated, "Hello sir, I happen to work for Starbucks and I am currently training to be a Coffee Master, is there any questions I could answer for you?".

The man turned around, and to my surprise stated, "Well, actually I'm looking for a good breakfast coffee... what would you recommend?"

I quickly went off on a rant about what coffees he may enjoy. When the dust settled he choose Breakfast Blend... a real shocker I know. He ended the conversation with, "Well, thanks for stopping by."...So I guess that's good.

Well that about does it for my trip to the supermarket... Oh, I lied... one last thing before I end this. I also met the OETA movie guy! ...You know, the one that's from the public station, he rambles on in the dead of night about classic movies, and is always holding a bucket of popcorn? No? you don't know him? *ahem* Well anyway... it was no big deal, really. Ok... more later.

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The Chronicles of the Phantom of the Opera Trip

*Originally Posted April, 2006*


Hello to all! Well, to start off...For those of you who didn't know, I got see the Broadway tour of "Phantom of the Opera" yesterday in Dallas...with that ground work laid lets dive in to the trip...


The Trip There:

So we started our day off by picking Krista (my brother's girlfriend) up at her house. Next, we decided that we were hungry and needed something to eat, so we stopped at Braums for some chow... Now I know what you're thinking, "Man, this is pretty boring...why the crap would I want to read about a boring trip?"...and right you are. That's why courtesy of Caleb (my brother) things got interesting... First we waited for what seemed like 30 minutes in the Braums drive-thru... Oh, wait IT WAS 30 MINUTES! Anyway, shortly after receiving our food and drinks, which almost all of us ordered stuff that wouldn't mess up our clothes (if we dropped them), the unthinkable happened... Caleb spills almost his entire chocolate milk on his tan-ish, white pants... I'm telling it looked like he had uncontrollable explosive diarrhea! But on the front... so I guess it did a u-turn, or something like that. Whatever. Needless to say I felt for the guy. So we went to Target and got him some new pants... And yes, he had to walk through the store that way... Finally we make it to the theatre!


The Show:

The show was good, really good even. Not great, but really good. What can I say, I love the movie! But I will say it might have been better if there wasn't a baby in the freakin' theatre though! I'm telling you how stupid can people get... I can see it now, "Hey, lets just bring the baby, you don't think anyone will care do you?" Just do us all a favor, if you're going to have children... Don't bring them in the freakin' theatre, and let them cry!!...*ahem*... I'm better now.


The Trip Back:

Alright, so we started our journey home... I was really tired because I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before, as such my eyes stung when they had to stay open. But since I'm the compass of the troop, I had to navigate us back to the straight and narrow. Just one little snaf-foo happened. Caleb had to use the facilities, like a mo-fo. So, we looked for a place to exit... When my mom finally decided to choose an exit, she did so in the bad part of town. So Caleb's only choice was a Churches Chicken (Yep, now you know the part of town alright). He dashed inside, and dashed back... with a new appreciation for port-a-potties! j/k Anyway, we decide to stop at Dairy Queen for some food, and of course ice cream! There was just one little problem... it seemed like for every order you had, you could multiply that by 5 min per order and that's how long it took to get the darn thing. So needless to say the DQ trip took a wee bit longer then we thought it would. Finally we made it back... I came into my apartment, and I'd like to tell you I crashed, but no. I watched some TV, ate some chips, then crashed! Ha! Thought you knew me so well... j/k. Well, check for more later.

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Ben Goes on a Wedding Trip (AKA,The Not-So-Told Nashville Stories)

*Editor's Note*

This was originally posted in January, 2006. In fact it was the first blog after the Starbucks blogs had to be taken down. How's that for an interesting fact, huh? Oh... it's not interesting? Sorry. Read on.
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Ok, so... Since there can be no more "Starbucks stories" I thought I'd take a you, the reader, (in case you didn't know who you were in all of this) on a little journey, to enlighten all of you (fine readers) to the experience that was Nashville! To place the proper setting....Some 5 peoples go to Nashville for our friend, Jay's, wedding. Setting set...let stuff begin.



Day 1.

Alright, to start things off... Me, and 4 other guys stuff themselves and all their stuff in my car and we start our trek to the city of Nashville. Now to introduce the crew...First there's me, tall studly dude with no butt, so my lack of butt starts to hurt 5 hours into the trip guy (AKA, the driver). Second there's Jay, Mr. glue a phone to my face (AKA Mr. ring off the hook face...AKA, the groom). Third there's Caleb, the fart anytime, anywhere I don't care guy (AKA, the fart machine). Forth there's Andrew, the I can't tell if you're mad or not because your face looks the same all the time guy (AKA the guy that your mom would let you go out on a date with because he's a nice guy...guy). And fifth there's Josh, the hey! You lookin' at me, because if you are I'm going to smash your skull in guy (AKA, the I can bench press a 150 lbs guy). Mix all 5 of us together, let us sit in a car for 10 hours, and you have a recipe for the best spicy chili casserole you've ever tasted (AKA, trouble). So pretty much the conversations on the way there consisted of...Pooshswah (sp?), Caleb playing Kingdom Hearts...So you hear...Ohh!Ooo!Ahh!NO!!Yes!Lucky! More Pooshswah...don't ask. Us talking about how wild of bachelors we are because we're listening to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack, and yes...more Pooshswah. Seriously, you don't want to know. We get to Nashville, we help with some stuff...shmoota, shmoota, shmoota. Then, sleep. By the way in case you really wanted to know "Pooshwah"...... is a kind of cheese. You and your dirty mind.



Day 2.

We wake up, and join up with a sixth person! Blake, the guy (AKA, the tall, I wanna do fun stuff the entire time guy). We decide to go soak up some local color so we go to this freakin' huge mall and kill some hour-age...Yep, it was fun...I had soda come out my nose and land in my chicken on my plate, I couldn't stop laughing... nobody else was really laughing but.... I guess you had to be there. Anyway, next we go to the wedding rehearsal...It goes well, we go to the rehearsal dinner/hay ride...in the freezing freakin' cold and light rain...We take a hayride. It's really hard to make hayride interesting so, ya...I'm skipping that. We eat, I say a poem I wrote for the occasion, people clap for me, and it's off to bed!



Day 3. Wedding Day...

First I woke up, which is good to do, it means I'm still alive... So that means I was already having a good day because I didn't kick the bucket...Next, I went with Jay to the hotel suite to turn it in to a love shack...And oh btw, we were successful...It was the love-ist love shack that ever shacked...yep. Finally the wedding... I'm wearing a Tux (boom baby!), everybody looks great, the bride and groom get married (which is typically what you want the bride and groom to do at a wedding). We go to the wedding reception, look cool in our tux's (boom baby!) and watch the bride and groom leave for their honeymoon (AKA, the love shack)....ummm and ya, we call it a night. I doubt they did though. Just sayin'.



Day 4.

Well, we went home...Actually we took a...umm, how do you say it. A Detour...To Mississippi...because we missed our exit. Then after that we were on the straight and narrow. 10 hours or so later we arrived in OKC, kissed the ground we walked on, and then washed our lips because we kissed the ground...and that's nasty. And that 's pretty much the whole trip...More to come from Ben soon.