Westminster Dog Show
When I created my hypothetical "life list" with the things I wanted to do before I die, going to the Westminster Dog Show was slotted right behind "visiting Andar Province in Iraq". However, my recent trip to New York eliminated #3,278 from the life list and free tickets to the dog show was the panacea.
I IM'd my buddy at work to let him know that I was available for after work drinks and he returned the IM volley with an overhand smash:
bren316dan(buddy): I think i'm going to the dogshow tonite
victorkiam (me): hmm
victorkiam: any extra tickets (i wrote it sarcastically but obviously it didn't come out that way)
bren316dan: let me check.
bren316dan: yep, tix available. call me after u get out of work
victorkiam: cya
And that was it. I was going to the dogshow with my buddy. It needs to be told that my buddy actually works for USA Networks and they broadcast the Westminster. I sensed, from my emails/IMs to friends about my plans, that there are people out there that live for this and would kill to go. I could care less. I'd prefer people watching at the Brockton Mall or shopping at Building 19. One of my college friends actually Tivos the hound competition. Now, if they only knew where the seats ended up being!
Fast forward three hours....We end up at MSG, grab a few quick beers from the beer guy. A quick aside on the beers for the dog show. It is an indictment on our society that you can get a tall beer (20 ouncer) at the dog show but when you go to Fenway, you are subjected to that dixie cup of water/beer mixture. Anyways, we quickly found our seats which were 4 rows from the Mastifs. 4 rows center court (or center dog). Basically the seats were with the owners, Thurston Howell and other various dog posses. Fantastic seats except for the fact that I wanted to leave the moment I got there. My allergies kicked in with all these dogs running around. Suddenly I had a massive headache which I tried to minimize with another tall boy. The only thing that made me feel good was staring up at the "Joel 12" banner in MSG. The mere fact that he has a banner next to Rod Gilbert, Patrick Ewing, etc. is comedy. Thank god the Boston Garden doesn't stoop to this level. Imagine if they had a NKOTB banner hanging.
After 2 hours of the dog show, I was ready to fall over in headache pain. Thankfully, my buddy was ready to call it a night b/c his allergies fired up as well. So that sums up my very lame night with the dogs. I was happy to witness, on my exit, that there was a guy at the end of my aisle (probably 65 and looking bored as hell) had a beer in his hand with 4 prior cups under that full beer. That, my friends, is best in show!
Good day.