Rallies, football, aspie stress, Halloween, and two girls called Molly

[luckycanuck]

We had a rally for Rick Scott (Republican candidate for Governor of Florida) yesterday, complete with Dunkin Donuts and boxes (yes, you read that right, BOXES) of coffee.


That's possibly soon to be Governor Scott and just behind him, former Governor Jeb Bush.

One of my colleagues did a bit of a write up about the races in Florida but I won't go into great depth here.  It's kind of odd being at one of these rallies.  They are totally focussed on getting out the vote, asking those who haven't yet voted to raise their hands and calling on them to vote today and therefore be available to work on election day.  There is also very little effort made to appeal to swinging voters.  (At one point they introduced the candidate for Attorney General and described her as being "a prosecutor who knows all about putting people in jail.  She's even put people on death row!")  It is overwhelmingly aimed at the base.  The same was true at the Democrat rally attended by my Labor/Green friends I heard later on.

At any rate, apparently the Republicans are doing a lot better on advance voting compared to previous elections, and turnout seems to be favouring them.  Tuesday we will know.  In the meantime I did speak to a number of people I may be meeting again during my visit to Washington, and who have plenty of expertise in areas of campaigning that are of interest to me.

We returned to the hotel and had some time off before heading out to the local football game between the University of Central Florida Knights and the Eastern Carolina University Pirates, and we got ourselves properly outfitted.


Yes, the best souvenirs are obscure.  I chose the number because it had the closest to my number in rugby without being absurdly too big.

Every time they were defending a third down there was a disturbing quasi fascist gesture using three fingers, which looks fine when one person does it but which looks kind of disturbing when 10,000 do it.



And while we are on the subject, the turnout surprised me.  I knew football was a big deal, but there were more people at a game between two universities I had never heard of three weeks ago than there would be at a regular NRL game.

There was a bit of upskirt action amongst the cheerleaders.


HAHAHAHA

And the game ended in a satisfying 49-35 victory for the home team.  I still prefer rugby though.

We got back to the hotel and quickly turned around and went back out for dinner on a Saturday night.  That's when the aspie stress began.  First we were about to go to a place we had been to on our first night in Orlando.  Then we decided against that and went elsewhere (which was fine by me.)  At dinner, however, they got my order wrong twice by making it rare instead of medium rare and by not giving it to me in the same style as one of my colleagues after I said "I'll have exactly the same but make mine medium rare."  I ate it and it was fine, but I was silently seething.  Also they only had bottles of mass produced beer (I've not come all this way to have Bud or Miller or Coors) so I drank nothing.  Then when the bill came we looked at it and everyone decided to just split it equally rather than work it out individually.  Normally that's fine by me except that would have resulted in me who had a simple meal and no drinks at all tipping nearly 200%.  I couldn't contain my annoyance any further and refused to pay what everyone else did.  I wasn't snippy and nobody took any offense.

Eventually I calmed down and found that there was one interesting beer available in the street that had been blocked off for a Halloween  party.  The first thing I noticed was that Americans take Halloween VERY seriously.  These were not just improvised costumes put together at the last minute (of course, we had nothing at all in the way of costumes, though my "Your favourite band sucks" t-shirt was photographed by a few people) but they were carefully put together or had been professionally made.

I wound up becoming Facebook friends with two girls called Molly whom I met in a crowded street scene in Orlando.  Hooray!

Comments

Mitzi adds ...

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, you were so restrained about the steak thing. I get terrible food stress when I'm hungry and the order fucks up. I am known to break down in tears in restaurants and ask to see the manager. You did remarkably well!

Re: Mitzi adds ...

[luckycanuck.livejournal.com]

I did hold things together, but doing so really sparked the aspie stress. I am often allergic to making a fuss. I even still tipped, but I nearly didn't.

[yurusumaji.livejournal.com]

Men don't become cheerleaders because they want to be cheerleaders. They do it so they can touch girls without it being considered creepy. :D

That dinner sounds horrible. Whenever my order gets fucked I'm polite, but I'm stern. The fact that they screwed it up twice is unacceptable and I would have spoken to a manager at that point and made sure it was being dealt with.

The stupid part of this is that even if they made the mistake, you still have to be careful. They'll still fuck with your food.

[luckycanuck.livejournal.com]

If you are looking at it purely as a numbers game, then that would work. I was in musical theatre for a while in high school and the ratio was certainly skewed.

I'm not entirely sure why I didn't complain. It's really not in my nature. It wound up being a good night but it took a while to get over the stress of it.

[displacedtexan.livejournal.com]

That's a great football story. You're right about the hand gesture.

Bummer about the beer and bill, though. Hopefully you'll find some good microbrews if you haven't already.

And, Halloween. Yes, it's big here, although I think we can thank big business for a lot of that. You should see how seriously they take it in New England, though. Very.

[luckycanuck.livejournal.com]

Why New England? I've not been there and that will have to be on another trip but I'm sure I will get there some day.

Overall I'm happy with the variety of beer that is generally available, but that was pretty slim pickings.

[displacedtexan.livejournal.com]

I just assumed it was because New England remained closer to their superstitious English roots. I just never saw so many decorations, including entire cemeteries festooned with Jack 'o Lanterns. It was all really quite festive.

Re beer, I usually, like you I'm guessing, try to get any local brews. Dark and chewy is better.

[cheez-ball.livejournal.com]

The football game you saw was for two somewhat smallish universities. It's more of a religion at the larger universities. I'm at Texas A&M, which pretty much wrote the book on football craziness. At midnight before each football team, students, alumni and fans gather at the stadium to practice group yells (everyone else calls them cheers).

Here they are doing one of their yells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj36iGrlNlk&feature=related Yes, they do this during the game, but the entire stadium is doing it instead of just the student section, seen here. And here they are "sawing Varsity's horns off": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEfVWw-IlVM&feature=related They do this after every single sporting event. And at weddings. And sometimes while drinking at the pub.

As far as the guys in cheer, most of them do cheer because not too many colleges or universities have men's gymnastics these days. And some guys can get scholarships on the cheer team. The girls are all wearing "spanky pants" under their skirts so it's more like they're wearing a gymnastics leotard than a dress.

For most cities, Halloween is their substitute for Mardi Gras. It's an excuse to dress silly and get plastered.

Finally, voting in the States is completely voluntary therefore we end up with something like 30% of eligible voters turning out for mid-term elections. The number rises to something like 45% during presidential elections. So it's a big deal to get people who support your candidate out to vote. Early voting helps, but not every state has it. I've heard about the fines that people get for not voting in Australia.

[luckycanuck.livejournal.com]

There are cheerleaders in some professional sports in Australia but they are nowhere near as integral as in this.

Tailgaiting was something that was also new. There was no beer allowed in the stadium so we all drank outside.

And yes, voting in Australia is compulsory and the punishment for failing to appear at a polling place is a fine of around $75. It totally changes the nature of the campaign.

[displacedtexan.livejournal.com]

Gig 'em Aggies!! (We have two nieces there now.)

[cheez-ball.livejournal.com]

Whoop!