Daytona 500 Fest-Ode to Sprint

So, hey there. Right now I'm in a black SUV with a police escort leaving the Daytona 500 with some pretty intoxicated folks and I'm not even kidding. Doesn't that sound like fun? Thankfully none of them are driving. David and I are away for the weekend in Daytona as Sprint's guests. David received the invitation through work. It has been a fun weekend that culminated in our attending the Daytona 500.

We arrived on Friday afternoon to a lovely room on the ocean. There was free food and drinks all weekend. I told David that this would be the weekend to start drinking and he said, "that's fine as long as you can quit by Sunday night." So, I drank like 450 free diet cokes. With lots of ice. Just like I like them. As Sprint's guests we had some fun activities planned. David went by bus to Disney's Driving Experience and was on the winning racing team. He had a ball. I stayed back at the resort and received a massage at the hotel's spa. It was really nice. The problem with a massage is that you are supposed to lie still and enjoy it. My problem was that I had an itch. I laid there trying to decide if I could scratch my itch or not...finally I did. Anyway, it was a really nice treat. Last night we had a nice dinner where they presented the ladies with a small bouquet of roses. We sat and ate dinner with strangers. There was one guy at our table who calmly stated that he had driven 162 miles an hour in his BMW on the turnpike. To which I replied, "excuse me? did you say you drove 162 miles an hour? on the turnpike?" He responded calmly and I held my tongue...at least I tried to. I think I might, maybe, have calmly said, "are you kidding me?!" with an "oh my goodness" thrown in for good measure. It was at that point that I just shut my mouth and smiled across the table at the idiot...sorry for I offend any of you speed demons, but wow...that could so kill someone. Anyway, after a lovely dinner and very stimulating conversation David and I headed up to our room.

This morning we got up and David had to attend a sales meeting in order to receive our tickets to the race. The exciting thing was that at the meeting David won a pass to the "Driver's Meeting" at the race. I had no idea what a driver's meeting was, but people were congratulating us so I figured out pretty quick that it was a big deal. I'm no dummy you know. There were 2 buses of Sprint people and our buses had a police escort to the race. Your tax dollars hard at work or maybe Sprint paid for the escorts, but it seemed a bit extreme to me. I kept thinking that the people we were passing had been waiting for a long time. Just didn't seem fair to butt in line like that. I felt like a fraud. You know, like I should be someone important to receive a police escort and all. It was weird. Since Sprint sponsors the race we had wonderful accommodations in a suite with more free food, drinks and headsets where we could hear the drivers talking to their pit chiefs and such. Don't I sound like a race fan? We also had tours of the pits. Lots of tires in them there pits I tell ya. I decided to root for Jeff Gordan and so I was listening to him on my headset. At one point he had some choice words to say about car no. 2 who didn't have a bumper anymore for him to bump up against. Thankfully his language didn't shock me. I'm a southern girl...I've heard some language. Oh, I forgot...Keith Urban was the entertainment and he sang 3 whole songs. Are you kidding me? And Tom Cruise was there 'cause he's a race fan don't cha know. I was about 15 feet from him when we were all inside at the Driver's Meeting and HE HAD ON HIS SUNGLASSES. It was the Top Gun look I'm thinking. Oh, I digress...from our suite the view was lovely and the noise was not bad at all :). Ok, as an aside, the drunk gal in front of me is yelling into her phone trying to order a pizza...oh my goodness...she is just drunk enough to be funny. She yelled into the phone..."I'm staying at the nicest hotel in Daytona" when the people asked her where she wanted the pizza delivered to. Oh my goodness. That's all there is to say. Oh, and bless her heart.

Well, we are back at the hotel and our racing experience is nearly over. The race ending was very anti-climatic since it was called due to rain. Bummer. All in all it was a great weekend and I'd do it again if I was asked. I'm such a martyr. It's back to the old grind tomorrow, except tomorrow we are having family photos taken. I sure hope my hair decides to co-operate. Today was like the worst hair day I've seriously ever had. I have no idea what happened....I was seriously bothered by my horrible hair day. I could hardly get over it. I kept thinking that people were looking at me thinking, "that poor lady with the bad hair." And then I remembered the days when I used to get tons of compliments on my hair. And then I wondered what has happened to my hair. I tried to watch the race, but my deep thoughts kept getting in the way. Seriously, it was a fun weekend and I would like to publicly thank Sprint for the memories. We could have never done it without you. Love, JS (I'll post pictures later)