NASCAR VIP for the Weekend

>> Monday, April 13, 2009

I promised that I would tell you all about my trip to Martinsville, Virginia for my very first NASCAR race. In a word... WONDERFUL!

This was a trip that I won through a sweepstakes with Goodys Headache Powders. I was not sure what a free trip would be like, but I am always up for an adventure. Well, I can not say enough about how wonderfully my husband and I were treated for the three days of this trip. The folks from Goodys were generous and treated us like VIPs. Our hotel, the Downtown Marriott in Greensboro, NC, was very nice. I met several of my fellow prize winners, the promotions people, Goodys executives, and other race fans the first night in the hotel bar. Any nerves that I might have had about the trip quickly erased.

Saturday morning they bussed us to the racetrack, about an hour away. They had coolers and snacks on the bus. Once we arrived at the track, we were escorted upstairs to the Goodys corporate suite and treated to a buffet and complimentary drinks. Our seats in the suite were phenomenal. We were in the front row of the suite on the Start/Finish line. Martinsville Racetrack is a "short-track", so our view let us see the entire track. The truck race was rained out that day, but we didn't care. We ate, drank, shopped and laughed a lot throughout the day. We also got to meet some celebrities. I met Darrel Waltrip, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmy Spencer, and A.J. Allmendinger. They were all nice guys.

On Sunday, we were up bright and early (well, maybe not bright) and back on the bus to the racetrack. When we arrived, the stands were not open for fans yet, but being with the Goodys people (the race sponsors) we were allowed in and up to our suite about an hour before everyone else. More food, drinks, and race swag awaited us. They even loaned us these new gizmos for watching/listening to the race that include a scanner and a mini personal t.v. I was hooked up! Richard Petty came by the suite and so I got to meet him and have him sign some items for me. Trace Adkins was the grand marshall for the race, so he watched the race in our suite.

One of the coolest things that I got to do was go down to the pits. We got to actually go through the tunnel under the track, and wander around the pits and garages while the crews were preparing for the race. I dodged lots of moving tires, and equipment. This "behind-the-scenes" experience was definitely an exclusive perk. I loved it.

I want to give a shout out to Chuck "Trouble" Carland. He is a well-known NASCAR radio announcer that Goodys arranged to host our suite. He is hilarious and one of the nicest folks I have met. He answered all of our questions about racing and entertained us with fun stories and trivia.

Overall, I want to thank the people from Goodys. These folks treated us like VIPs for a weekend and have created a new race fan.

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Obsolescence

>> Monday, April 6, 2009

I plan to write a nice long blog about my adventures at the Martinsville NASCAR race, but today, I have a mini-rant that I want to express about the concept/process of Obsolescence. I am laying here (feet up, cat snuggled close) typing on a very nice laptop computer. We have had this computer for about 5 years now. It was top of the line when we got it. Well... not it is fast approaching it's sell by date... if you know what I mean. I am getting annoyed at the way we are becoming a society that constantly needs new gizmos and gadgets because the onese we have are purposely designed to be obsolete in a year so that we will need to buy new ones. Case in point... a few years ago, my husband accidentally broke the LCD screen on his cell phone. No problem, we thought, let's just get him a new one. Well, turns out it is not so simple. Apparently, he could only replace his phone with one that operated on a new form of network and with a new type of chip. The hassle was that since we were on a family plan, they deteremined that I had to get a new phone too! Oddly enough, I am not complaining about the price of the phones. They gave us a nice discount. What I was upset (and obviously still am) about was that I had to turn in a perfectly good phone. I couldn't even donate it to a women's shelter, because it was so OBSOLETE. Yeah, it was only 2 years old.

Down from my soapbox for now. This rant was triggered by my laptop having a network burp and me spending an hour on the phone with a nice girl in India. She helped me out, but turns out I will be needing a new computer soon. Time to start saving up.

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