Oh, HI! Remember me?

Oops.

Not so good at this blogging thing sometimes! It’s been three weeks since I’ve posted, and it’s not even tax season!

We’ve been keeping busy, doing a little this and a little that.

I joined the Pinterest craze. I would LOVE to tell you that I haven’t blogged because I’ve been pinning, but roughly 80% of the time I try to use Pinterest, it doesn’t work, so I quit. Even still, I’ve found some fun things to pin.

My husband won a pair of Colts tickets from Jim Irsay on twitter. (I’d tell you to follow my husband, but it would be a wasted effort. He doesn’t tweet, except to Irsay. That potential social media addiction is lost to him – it would interfere with his online poker.) It wasn’t the amazing, multi-post worthy experience I had back in January, but I’m all about any chance I can get to see my Colts play in person. If you follow the NFL at ALL, you know that the consistently amazing Colts team is … not so amazing this year. We’ve not won a single game yet. Rough.

You know that saying about lemons and making lemonade?

When you’re having a really bad year, the bandwagon fans who have tickets to games are willing to sell them really cheap.

I jumped on StubHub, and we had the chance to take our sons to their very first Colts / NFL game. Totally surprised them with their tickets, took our time after the game just wandering around Lucas Oil, took lots of pictures, and while we still lost the game, we won the day.

 

(Eli in our seats; Jeep in our seats; My Guys in front of LOS; Jeep & Eli in front of the field & window in Lucas Oil.)

We had a wonderful time, and a fresh round of thanks to Jim Irsay and the Colts organization for helping make it all possible!

I think that will do it for tonight!

Tax Season, Twitter, and Being a Winner

The final chapter, and some other random stuff.

It’s tax season. I’m tired. Be nice!

 

 

 

       <----Me & my mom.

Cheap Trick was the half time entertainment – I want YOU to want ME!

I really like my camera’s panorama feature. Lucas Oil after the game.

Jacob Lacey, who gave away the tickets I won for the Jets game!

See! There I am!!

Ok, y’all. Enjoy the rest of January, no promises that I’ll be back anytime super soon. Happy Tax Season!

Enter the Luke

Ok, this is a bit of a saga, really. If you’re just joining in, go back and read this first, then read this.

Ok – we good? Sweet.

My husband and I have just entered Lucas Oil Stadium, which is an amazing facility. The suite pass is only for me, so we’re splitting up – he’s got time to explore, I’m heading upstairs to make sure I’m where I’m supposed to be, when I’m supposed to be there.

I am pointed in the right direction by the exceptionally friendly staff (seriously – the staff is amazing) and find myself standing outside a door with guards and a greeter.

Dude.

I was on the list.

I walk into this amazing room – food on my right, a bar on my left, between the two, several chairs. There are TV’s all over, each one with a different football game on. And in front of me?

Stretched out in front of me is 120 yards of football perfection.

I met several of the folks I’d been tweeting with for the preceding three days, and after a few minutes, we were asked to take a seat, Mr. Irsay was on his way up.

Ho-ly cow. This was the real deal. And I was a part of it.

He talked to us for a bit, then we took pictures – as a group:

And with us individually:

 

He autographed a few things for us (for me, my suite pass and my game ticket!) And then he said “Well, let’s head down to the field!”

 

I’m sorry, what?

You could literally see every one of us, already overwhelmed by the generosity we were the recipients of, process that sentence. Confusion. Eyes widening. Jaws dropping. And then, we went.

We all took turns with each other’s cameras, snapping pictures in front of end zones. With players behind us. Oh- and then, they took us down to OUR end, where OUR guys were warming up.

Yep. That’s me, with Peyton Manning just over my left shoulder. 

We probably spent 25 or 30 minutes on the sidelines, watching guys warm up.

 

Meet Robert Mathis, who’s jersey I rock on game days, and Pat McAfee,  who visited a little boy I know who was recently diagnosed with cancer, and immediately won me over with his kindness.

My boys, getting ready to tackle the Titans.

I even was *this close* to a Super Bowl ring!

(It was on a member of the Colts staff who was with us. Several of the others ended up wearing it long enough to get their picture taken with it!) 

We eventually were herded back upstairs to the suite, where we were invited to hang out, come and go as we pleased, and enjoy food and beverages. I headed to our seats, and was thrilled to pieces with them – we scored great tickets and got to watch a great game. I didn’t return to the suite, despite my husbands “approval” – I wanted to watch the game, and the seats were a better view! 

Overall, it was an amazing experience, and showed me just how valuable Twitter could be.

And then… there was the next week!

How Tweeting Really Rocks

So, it’s tax season again. Did you all figure that out yet?

Ok, I wanted to catch you up on my twitter fun, because after the last post, it got even better, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, so hang with me a bit, k?

I had won. I won the chance to hang out with an NFL team owner, MY NFL team owner, in his suite pregame. I get a call from “his people” (her name is Abby, and she’s amazing) by a little after 9:00. I’ve called my mom. My dad. My brothers. My heart is pounding out of my chest. My husband is texting coworkers, who had been laughing at him all week for his ongoing harassment of me.

To Kate’s utter disappointment in me, I went to WalMart in my pajamas because I HAD to replace my camera. I was not getting to Lucas Oil Stadium with no camera, not with all this. Off I went, bought the camera, bought a memory card. Brought it home, charged it up. Tried to sleep.

Sunday was a flurry of activity – I installed a new router for my mom, in exchange, she came & hung out with our kids. We hustled our way through getting ready. I put on make up. (Kind of a big deal. I don’t do that very often.)

Then, we headed north.

Indy is about an hour from us, with Martinsville being about halfway between. We got to Martinsville to find every.stinking.stoplight out. It was awful. I was freaking out. I had to get to will call, get our tickets, and be in the suite by 2:45. It was 1:30, and we weren’t sure where we were going to park. It was going to be close. Finally, at the last stoplight, a police officer decided that the traffic backed up for a half a mile down the highway was not so good, so he decided to actually direct it. That was nice of him.

We hit the south side of Lucas Oil right at 2, and decided that the parking lot RIGHT THERE looked good. Will Call opened at 2:15, and we were on hand to get our tickets. Off we went through security, and into the building.

More to come! (Trying to do it in pieces so it’s not so long!)

Shock & Awe

Have you ever been a part of something so big, it makes your head spin to think about it?

Just a few short days ago, a tweet flashed across my screen, and my universe tilted just a little.

I may have mentioned a time or two that I’m a Colts fan.

Colts owner Jim Irsay agrees.

On Dec. 30th, he tweeted that he was looking for what he, in later tweets, referred to as “SuperFans” to join him at the Colts – Titans game. I tweeted to him, congratulated other winners, tried to rally a way to get a young girl from New York there after she had been selected but couldn’t arrange it (she’s coming to a game next season, they worked it out) and had fun.

My husband texted me mercilessly, as Mr. Irsay did other giveaways over the next couple of days. Shirts, jackets, tickets, and the chirp of my cell phone: “You win anything yet?”

And then, it was Saturday. And I tweeted. And chatted. I made new twitter friends. At about 8:30, this appears in my twitter stream.

That Meg Mahaffey?

Yeah, that’s me.

(I know. It’s my last name. I’m not really “internet anonymous” anyway, as it is on my twitter account, etc. Don’t be creepy, k?)

There was much screaming. Mine. My husbands. My kids, too.

After a series of phone calls, I replaced that camera I’ve been missing so much.

Be forewarned. There are more football posts, with lots of pictures, coming.