The Event Weekend Hangover

I'm sure you know what I'm referencing in the post title. It's the feeling you have on Monday and Tuesday after just finishing a weekend that you've been looking forward to for weeks or months. In my case, I had a bachelor weekend with my Grove City friends, which started to be planned in April. It finished early on Sunday, with the last guys leaving by 2:30 pm. And the feeling of dread set in...

Then, I remembered my Advil - my friend Sean would be coming into town for two nights. Sean works for BLESTO (Bears Lions Eagles Steelers Talent Organization). That's right, he works in the NFL! At BLESTO, they have teams who are their clients and contribute to this scouting organization; it adds another set of eyes to the evaluation process. Sean has been there for about a year, and he recently got a promotion to be an area scout in the Northeast. His territory is as far west as Pittsburgh, as far south as Virginia, and all the way north to Maine (although the furthest he has to go this year is the Boston area). Which means that he will be in Western PA a couple of times, the first of which was Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Sean and I met as interns for the Buffalo Bills in July 2002. We became friends at this point; I remember one of the first discussions we had was about Brian Giles (the Pirate OF) and how underrated he was. After we left our internships, we remained friends (the only intern of the 6 I remained friends with). He has since lived in New York, London, and Jacksonville, and I've visited him in every one of those places. We also have a race going as to who can go to games at all 30 active baseball stadiums first; by active, I mean that, if they build a new stadium, the old one no longer counts. So we both will be losing the New Yorks (Yankee and Shea) after this season. I am ahead now (I've been to 13: PIT, PHI, BAL, WAS, CLE, CIN, NYM, NYY, DET, CHC, MIN, STL, ATL, soon to add SD and LAA).

Anyway, Sean came in on Tuesday night after driving from Charlottesville, VA - a grueling drive. I took him to one of the best places to eat in Pittsburgh - Fatheads. If you've never been there, there are probably 100 different sandwiches on the menu. He liked it so much that we went back there Wednesday for dinner. I had two great sandwiches, the Red Pepper Sirloin and the Bacon Jalapeno Steak. Wow, were they good. Sean tried the one that was voted #5 sandwich in the US by Maxim Magazine, the one with kielbasa and pierogies. He said it was awesome.

Anyway, that was a treat for Tuesday and Wednesday. Now, all of a sudden, it's almost the weekend, and next week I head to St. Louis for a 5 day Labor Day weekend extravaganza, and it's also the start of football season!