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Nov012009
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Learning to Hate Baseball |
This morning and afternoon were reasonably uneventful. I had to work 5 to 10 PM this evening. Dad agreed to give me a ride there this afternoon. On the way we stopped at the Pep Boys on Carrollton to test the battery in my car and drop off some old ones. They told us my battery was still good but needed charging. We left it there to return and pick it up tomorrow.I arrived at the station at quarter to five. There was not much for me to do until the newscast this evening. Unfortunately that didn’t happen as scheduled. Fox broadcast the World Series baseball game this evening and we don’t do the news until the game is over. Only two and a half hours for the pre game show and match itself are scheduled which often isn’t enough for a whole baseball game. On top of that there was a rain delay of over an hour. I soon understood what Leah meant when she said I would learn to hate baseball.We finally went on the air after 11 o’clock. With all the extra time to prepare the script, it was actually complete when the broadcast started which negated the actual purpose of coming to work today. I watched the broadcast alone at the assignment desk so I could monitor the scanners.The staff started to go home after the show was over. I contemplated trying to call a cab to the station but as it was Halloween night I decided I might want to seek out alternatives. Nicondra, the meterologist working this evening said she was going down to Frenchman Street to meet some friends and I thoguht I might have a much easier time finding a ride down there than waiting around in Gert Town.I had to wait for her to get ready which ended up taking a lot longer than I was expecting. Since the game set us so far behind anyway I was no longer concerned about salvaging the rest of my evening so I was content to wait until about 1:30 when she was finally ready to leave.We drove down to the Marigny and had a hell of a time finding a parking space. We must have cruised around for a half hour before finding a space. While we were looking we inadvertently drove through Halloween parade of well over 100 costumed participants. It was pretty cool to watch everyone walk around us, wave and carry on. Eventually Nicondra found a good spot on Elysian Fields.After wading throught he crowd on Frenchman Street we met her friends outside. I don’t recall all their names althogh a few of them work at WDSU. I went to high school with one of the, Nicole. She actually started as a Fox 8 intern and now writes for channel six.Over the course of the evening we walked around a bit and stopped in a couple places on Frenchman Street. The place we spent the most time at was whatever Ray’s Boom Boom Room is now called. They had a band there and plenty of people.We were there for quite a whiel before leaving. The group decided to go out to IHOP in Metairie. The smart thing to to might have been to part company but with all the people still around and no cabs in sight, I figured I might as well tag along rather than wander around by myself for an hour trying to fetch a cab.The International House of Pancakes we went to was the one off I-10 adjacent to the Days Hotel. There was a rather healthy crowd of costumed patrons there. When we walked in I remarked to Nicondra that it almost felt like walking into an emergency room. Two people in front of us were ‘helping; in a third person obviously drunk and in need of some food to go with the liquor.It took us longer than the other to arrive so we already had a table when we walked in. Everyone ordered something to eat. I had not had one drink so I didn’t “need” any food but I ordered a small breakfast plate anyway. Eventually we were joined by four other friends of theirs. I’m afraid I don’t remember any of their names. We were there for at least an hour sitting and talking about this and that.Sometime after four we paid the check and left. Nicondra was not going in my direction so I went to the hotel lobby and started trying to call a cab. There was a large party in the lobby who called two cabs to go to the train station but those cabs were not expected for over an hour so I eventually got Service Cab on the phone and one arrived 10 minutes later. I had a plesant conversation with the driver and got home around 5 AM.