Joel Frey

BTHO 49ers!

Have you recovered from the National Week of Suck? Thanks to Heather's home cookin' over the weekend and a Saints wildcard victory versus the Lions, I feel like the wanderlust of the holidays has lifted. Now, with the divisional round of the NFL play-offs looming, my thoughts have turned to the Saints match up against the 49ers of San Francisco on Saturday afternoon.

As a young boy growing up in Louisiana, I was almost without fail twice annually subjected to the Joe Montana and Jerry Rice led 49ers absolutely pummeling the hapless Saints. On rare occasion, the Saints scored an upset, but overall the rivalry was decidedly one-sided.

One game, pre-dating the 49ers dynasty years, stands out. It was during the Saints unforgettable 1-15 season in 1980 and though I was only six-years-old, I still recall it. The Saints, led by Archie Manning, traveled to Candlestick Park late in the year sporting an 0-13 record. By then, the locals had notoriously dubbed the team the "Aints" and thousands of fans had taken to sporting brown paper bags over their heads on sojourns to the Superdome. The team had become a punchline and as the losses mounted from week-to-week, it seemed likely that the Saints were destined for the infamy of a winless season.

So imagine the delight of Saints fans young and old alike when on December 7, 1980 the team raced out to a 35-0 halftime lead over the 49ers. The streak was about to end! The revelers in the French Quarter could roam the streets with glasses held high! The Aints were about to win a game! But then the second half commenced and, unbelievably, the 49ers mounted a comeback, tying the game at 35 by the end of regulation.  I no longer recall the details of the overtime period, but the 49ers kicked a field goal, won the game 38-35 and sent the Saints back to New Orleans 0-14. (note: the next week the Saints squeaked out a 21-20 win over the Jets and finished the season 1-15)

Cast into separate divisions when the NFL realigned prior to the 2002 season, the frequency of Saints-49ers match-ups have decreased. The teams fortunes have as well. The Saints are just two years removed from a Super Bowl win while this is the first time San Francisco has even made the play-offs in a number of years. In fact, ESPN just informed me that the Saints have won the last six times the two teams have played.

My gut tells me that they will make it seven on Saturday though it will be tough. Between now and kick-off, the skeptical pundits will tell you that the Saints vaunted offense led by Drew Brees isn't as prolific away from the Superdome. Those same talking heads will also remind you on the Saturday morning pre-game shows that the Saints' three losses this year all came on the road, two against the hapless Bucs and Rams. At some point, they'll also mention that they've never won a play-off game on the road and that they were upset just a year ago by the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks. The ones who have really done their homework might even mention that the last time the two teams played early in the 2010 season on Monday Night Football, the Saints barely eked out a 25-22 win on the 49ers home turf.

I will tell you that all of these points are with merit. But I'll also say when it comes to the NFL play-offs, it's never wise to bet against the hottest team playing. The Saints, riding a nine game winning streak and a quarterback in Drew Brees who is playing in his prime, are that team right now. Yes, the 49ers defense is formidable, but I firmly believe the Saints will win on Saturday, once and for all vanquishing the memories of that aforementioned Sunday afternoon 31 years ago.

Final score: Saints 31, 49ers 16

 

Gloomsweek

The first few days of January need a moniker.  A designation along the lines of "The National Week of Suck" seemingly would suffice. Kidding aside, is there another week more unpleasant/gloomy to slog through? I can't think of one.

Thankfully, I've had the memories of Christmas vacation in Memphis and Lansing, MI to help get me through the first couple of days back at HQ. Enclosed are a few of ours that I bet are similar to your own. 

• Upgrades and Bloody Marys
• Mom sharing her knowledge of springerle
• Soul burgers at E&H with old friends
• Sizzling steaks at Folks Folly with Mom and Dad
• Graceland, adorned in festive lights
• Silent Night on Christmas Eve
• Joy to the World on Christmas Day
• Spotting Meg at O'Hare
• Cramming our luggage into a venerable Oldsmobile Alero (Thanks for the ride Cuz!)
• Watching the kids - Ava and Brady - rip open presents with glee
• Uncle Lance and Aunt Sue's downhome hospitality
• Aunt Margy, merely content that we were all together
• TinTin in 3-D
• Snow in Lansing
• Dual baby showers for Karena and Jamie, each of whom are expecting twins this Spring
• Teaching cousin Chris to go "null" during spades
• Endless plates of summer sausage, mild cheddar and cocktail rye
• A visit to Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland
• Lunch at Berger's in Bay City
• Staying up past our bedtime with cousin Stephanie on our last night (Thanks for dinner Ted!)
• A picture perfect landing in El Paso

 Happy New Year everyone! Heather and I hope 2012 treats you like a rock star.

 

 

#WFH

Today is my last day to work from home in El Paso. Over the next 10 days Heather and I will celebrate Christmas with loved ones, toast our 4th anniversary and ring in the New Year. After all that fun has been exhausted, I'll head east to rejoin the Travelocity team at HQ on a daily basis. Once our house here sells, we'll pack up and move to Big D. It's a bittersweet time, but we are excited about the future and, as an added bonus, we will be much closer to Megan in College Station.

As we look forward to leisurely winding down 2011 and ahead to the challenges that await in 2012, I'll leave you with the Top 10 things I'll miss the most about working from home. Blessings to all of you this Christmas season!

10. Shaving occasionally

9. Showering by Noon (note: this deadline was strictly enforced by my better half)

8. Getting Heather's coffee ready as she heads out the door

7. Shooting the breeze with the yard guy, the bug guy, the package delivery guy and the handyman

6. Keeping the laundry pile in check

5. A quiet office (Hello cubeville!)

4. The 60 second commute

3. Asking Cinder, our keeshond, "Are you hungry?" around 5:00 everyday and watching her go nuts

2. Having a glass of wine and dinner ready for Heather when she gets home

1. Catch breaks with Schuster

Missing the news cycle

As a PR professional, my cohorts and I are constantly assessing the "news cycle." As it ebbs and flows from important and not-s0-important happenings and events, it factors into our discussions and planning everyday. Weather, politics, war, terrorism, and the economy are just a few of the topics that we compete against in our never-ending efforts to get journalists, news producers, bloggers and social media mavens to consider Travelocity for inclusion in a story, segment, post or Tweet.

As you read the rest of this, note that I've decidedly missed the news cycle on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My plan was to follow the status quo and share my observations on that Sunday, but other priorities at work, home and church won out. Now, 10 days later,  the seasons are set to change and we have moved on to more pressing matters: taxing millionaires, airshow safety, the 2012 election, conference realignment and the latest iteration of everyone's favorite social network, to name a few. Though in the grand scheme, we likely won't reflect upon any of these topics 10 years from now.

As Sept. 11, 2011 came and went, I was surprised by own memories that surfaced. For example,  I vividly recalled the tennis match I played the evening before the tragedy. It was a long three setter against a guy named Sam who I had never beaten. We played to a third set tiebreak and I had a match point, but couldn't cash it in. When I woke up on 9/11/01, my defeat was the first thought that popped into my head.

I remembered the fall boots my colleague Judy Haveson wore to work and how she paced nervously up and down the hallway as the tragedy unfolded, anxiety covering her face. She was only days away from moving from Texas to New York and, suddenly, all of her plans were in doubt. But a month later, as the nation healed, Judy was in the stands at Yankee Stadium cheering on the Bronx Bombers as they valiantly tried to win the World Series. Today, she's still a proud New Yorker and mother to Jack, her own little Yankee fan.

I thought about Pastor John Koelpin and the special service I attended at Calvary Lutheran Church. For a few weeks after the towers collapsed, worship and prayer were in vogue. Then, predictably, our post modern sensibilites awoke from their slumber and carried on as before.  Today I live in El Paso, a married man. On the 10th anniversary, Heather and I sat in a pew at Trinity Lutheran Lutheran Church while Pastor Koelpin still preached from the pulpit of Calvary. His oldest son, Philip and our daughter Megan are now classmates at Texas A&M. In the fall of 2001, they were innocent kids, probably wondering what their parents were so worried about.

I remembered the first flight I took post 9/11, an hourlong hop from Dallas to Memphis on American Airlines. Not only was I nervous, I found myself sizing up my fellow passengers before we boarded.  After safely arriving to my hometown and having breakfast with my parents, I drove to Oxford, MS and cheered on Middle Tennessee State, my alma mater, as they took the field against the University of Mississippi, led by their All-American quarterback, Eli Manning. Fast forward to the present and he is the quarterback for the New York Giants and commercial airlines have taken me to countless places near and far, including LaGuardia, Newark and JFK.

Thanks for indulging my utter disregard for the 9/11 news cycle. I look forward to writing about more subjects that were yesterday's news as soon as the opportunity presents itself. If you have any thoughts, please share.  Cheers, ya'll.

 

 

Meg

Tomorrow morning, Meg attends her first classes as a member of the fightin' Texas Aggie class of 2015. On Tuesday, she turns 18. Three days later, Heather, Grandma Lu and I will catch a flight to Houston, pick up a rental car and drive an hour north to Aggieland to spend the long weekend with her and eat some birthday cake. We'll be among the 80,000 Aggie fans at Kyle Field on Sunday evening when the football team opens its season versus old Southwestern Conference rival SMU. Heather and I are determined to learn the War Hymn between now and kick-0ff.

As we look ahead to creating those and many other Aggie memories over the next several years, I thought I'd share a few from last weekend when we made the 700 mile drive from El Paso to College Station and moved Meg into her new home-away-from-home. How about a Top 10?

10. The group hug the three of us shared in Meg's room the night before we hit the road. "There's no crying in baseball!" Heather exclaimed, giving us a much needed chuckle as we finished packing her up.

9. Waiving good-bye to Grandma Lu after dropping the pups, Cinder and Schuster, off with her to spend the weekend.

8. Lunch at Taco Bell in Fort Stockton, TX: As we were eating, I checked Facebook and noticed Heather had posted that she was reciting Philippians 4:13 to herself. "Philippians 4:13?" I inquired, not knowing the passage from memory. She did, but needed to text it to me at that moment.

7. Sunday morning worship at Beautiful Savior Lutheran followed by lunch with a few of the fellow Aggies from Dallas who had strongly encouraged me to bring Meg to TAMU for a visit over burritos on one of my business trips to Big D. the summer before she began her senior year.

6. A couple of hours later the lunch gang - Jim, Phil, and Frese (the Dallas Aggies) plus Jim Sr. and sister Kim - transformed into the moving crew. After bringing the first load into Meg's room, Jim the engineering major quickly sized up the situation and suggested a layout similar to his when he had been a dorm resident his freshman year. Twenty minutes later, the beds were lofted, the desk furniture neatly tucked underneath with plenty of room for a futon if Meg and her roommate so desire. With the heavy lifting completed, the eight of us returned to the parking garage and gathered the rest of Meg's belongings in one load.  "I love the Calvary boys," Heather said, referring to the church in Dallas where we all met many years ago.

5. Not too long after we started unpacking Meg's stuff, her roommate Jenny from Austin arrived with her parents. This was the first time the girls had met, but they did text and Facebook over the summer. Jenny's original plan was to check-in to the dorm on Tuesday, but when she found out that Meg was arriving on Sunday, she moved up her plans so Meg wouldn't have to spend the first couple of nights in the dorm. How sweet is that?!

4. The unavoidable trip to Target: On Monday afternoon, following lunch at Panda Express - one of Meg's faves - we joined dozens of other Aggies and their parents at the retail mecca to stock up on essentials and a few other items, like an area rug. Thankfully, we still had a few gift cards left over from graduation easing the pain at the cash register - somewhat. Note to parents with children who will want to go to college someday: start saving your pennies immediately!

3. Dinner on Monday evening at Fuego: Jim, Phil and Frese met us again along with two more Dallas Aggies - Aaron and Blake - Aaron's roommate Austin and one of Meg's friends from Fish Camp, Jake. The energy at the table - old friends getting reacquainted while passing down sage words of wisdom to new Aggies Meg and Jake - was fantastic. We also discussed potential tailgating opportunities this weekend for the SMU game.

2. The great search for Meg's car: On Tuesday morning before we reversed course to West Texas, we dropped by the parking garage housing Meg's car to pick up a couple of items that needed to come back with us. I dropped them off and waited...and waited...and waited. A few minutes after realizing they weren't exactly sure of the car's whereabouts Meg started clicking the alarm. The good news was that they heard the beep. The bad news was that the echo in the garage was making it difficult to pin down the exact location. Eventually, they tracked Meg's ride down and we had a good laugh on our way to Starbucks.

1. Saying "see you soon" to Meg. As we pulled up to the dorm to part ways the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band was practicing the aforementioned War Hymn in an open area near the residence hall. Heather quickly hit the record button on her iPhone and captured their rehearsal. When the band paused to catch its breath, I gave Meg a kiss on the cheek and then watched as she and Heather walked away arm-in-arm. They embraced only as a mother and daughter who have shared so much over the course of the latter's formative years are able to. Then, Meg headed left and Heather turned around. I met her halfway and held her hand back to the car. It was undoubtedly sad, but at the same time it was difficult not to be anything but excited for Meg as she faces this next chapter of her young life.

Gig'em!

 

 

 

Book Review: The Tender Bar

Cypress Walls has crowded my thoughts the past few days. First, Jerry Simmons of INDI Publishing Group, the gentleman who assumed the relatively impossible task of convincing retail outlets that my unknown book was worthy of shelf space after my first partner, Blu Sky Media, went belly up has been a constant in my inbox. A company called Midpoint Trade Books has ceased conducting business with him and, therefore, no longer wants to market and/or warehouse the remaining 392 copies of Cypress Walls in its possession. So those will soon make their way to El Paso and, unfortunately, I have to pay the shipping and handling. Hopefully, I can find 392 future college graduates who will give them homes. The price will be right. On a separate note, I'm contemplating an exhaustive feature story on the pros and cons of self publishing a book.

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer is the other reason why my memoir has been on my mind. I finished reading it this morning though, admittedly, there were many sections that I skimmed. If you're unfamiliar, it chronicles the author's life from age seven to his mid-twenties and how a bar, first known as Dickens and later as Publicans, in his native Manhasset, NY shaped his journey from childhood to manhood.

I have mixed feelings about The Tender Bar. Moehringer is a crafty storyteller and there were parts that held my interest especially his account of being a copyboy at The New York Times in the mid-80s. At its core, however, I found the narrative nothing more than a celebration of drinking and getting drunk on a daily basis.  Had I read it 15 years ago, fresh out of college, disillusioned and swelling with pride, I probably would have loved all of the tales of boozing and brooding with fellow boozers because I was at the stage in my life where frequenting bars, running up ridiculous tabs and figuring out how to get home was highly entertaining. I wrote about several of those mis-adventures in Cypress Walls though the fondness I once held for those memories has faded.

Today, that kind of behavior just doesn't make any sense to me. Whenever Moehringer entered his hallowed grounds, I raced ahead to the next section, lacking the patience to read conversations that I found hard to believe considering how wasted the players were and all of the years that had passed from the time they occurred to the time the book was published.

As a fellow memoirist, that was my biggest point of contention with The Tender Bar. While I don't have any doubt that Moehringer spent a ton of time at Dickens/Publicans and forged unforgettable bonds with a host of interesting characters, it just didn't feel authentic.

When I wrote Cypress Walls, I went to painstaking detail to apply dates to the events I described. Most of the dialogue is pulled directly from letters and other correspondence which I catalogued. There are a few quotes and phrases that I drew from memory, but those are limited. Evidently, Moehringer took note of many of the conversations he had at the bar and then revisited those discussions with the barflies later as he wrote. I appreciated him mentioning this in the epilogue, but it didn't change my opinion of the work feeling sloppy. Had he presented the material as fiction I may feel differently.

Are my opinions tinged with jealously? One could make the argument, but The Tender Bar was marked for success and recognition long before it went to print. Moehringer is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, a Harvard fellow, and a graduate of Yale. He had access to the finest literary minds on the planet as he researched and wrote his book. A major publisher stepped up and backed him with a team of editors and a marketing budget. I don't begrudge him for his good fortune and I have no doubt that he paid his dues. I only wish that after accessing all of those perks, The Tender Bar offered the reader more.

Basketball for Breakfast

One of El Paso's lesser known oddities is that it is the only slice of Texas located in the Mountain Time Zone.  Generally, this factoid has no impact on how El Pasoans conduct their business, but now and then the rest of the country is reminded of this wrinkle. For instance, last Saturday the Conference USA championship game tipped off at 9:35 a.m. local time. The CBS commentators mentioned the early start several times and how it felt strange for a big game to be tipping off during the breakfast hour.

Heather and I woke up a few minutes before tip-off, brewed a pot of coffee and tuned in, pleasantly surprised to see a packed Don Haskins Center. During the early rounds of the tourney, I had tweeted several times about the plethora of empty seats. "Looks like crickets can be heard chirping," I said in one. But that wasn't the case on Saturday. More than 11,000 of the UTEP faithful had woken up early and were ready to rumble.

The game, pitting a senior-laden UTEP team versus an upstart Tiger squad, featured all of the elements of a classic. With an NCAA bid at stake, there was desperation hanging with every shot and constant shifts in momentum. Late in the second half, after a three-pointer put the Miners up by 12, I thought they had finally put away the young Tigers.

By then, I was on my way to play tennis, listening to the game on the radio. By the time I parked, the Miner lead had been whittled down to five. After checking in, I found a TV in the clubhouse. A Tiger three pointer had just tied the game. My thoughts shifted. "What a heartbreaker this would be for the Miners," I said to myself.

Down one with time winding down, Tiger guard Joe Jackson drew a foul in the lane and sunk two free throws. With 7.8 seconds left, Memphis had its first lead of the day, 67-66. The Miner fans who had gathered around the set looked anxious. A minute later after the potential game-winning shot came up short, their anxiety was replaced with dejection. The Tigers were on their way to the Big Dance and the Miners would most likely have to settle for an NIT bid.

And that's how it played out. The Tigers get Arizona later this week, while tonight the Miners battled New Mexico at the Pit in Albuquerque in the first round of the consolation bracket. Unfortunately, they lost and the team's season is officially over. But I think everyone in El Paso who had basketball for breakfast on Saturday knows deep down when it really drew to a close.

 

Shamefully biased travel advice

As the PR Man for Travelocity, friends and family occasionally ask me for travel advice and, unsurprisingly, those questions usually revolve around scoring a deal.

My first semi-biased tip: use a site like Travelocity to bundle your flight + hotel + rental car together and book your trip as a vacation package. Recently, I walked a reporter from the New York Times through Travelocity's vacation package shopping engine and she used the information in an article that was published last week. It's a thorough review and I recommend checking it out if you're contemplating a spring or summer trip and want to save some bucks.

My second shamefully-biased tip:  sign up for the Travelocity Rewards American Express Card. Why? The dollars you spend turn into points that can be redeemed for cash back when you book on Travelocity. One example:  20,000 points = $400 dollars. Here's a recent post with more information on how the program works.

And, yes, I take my own advice. On Friday,  I used Travelocity to book a vacation package for Heather, Megan and myself from El Paso to College Station for Meg's new student orientation at Texas A&M this summer. Within minutes, I lined up flights on our preferred airline, four nights at our preferred hotel and a rental car. Near check-out, I indicated that I wanted to redeem points. The $400 will show as a credit on our statement and, unlike airline or hotel programs, we don't have to worry about blackout dates and other fine print. Plus, we'll still earn our frequent flyer miles with the airline. And the kicker? We earn triple points on all purchases made on Travelocity so they quickly build back up after redemption.

If you have any travel-related questions, please let me know!

One reason for the recent lag in posts is because I submitted my first article to the Yahoo Contributor Network last weekend. Had my story on the three baseballs I've caught in the stands not been published, I would've have cut-and-paste it into this space, but the Yahoo! editors decided it was worth $10 and put it online on Thursday. If you missed my Facebook post linking to it, check it out here.

Movie Review: The Tillman Story

For months, I'd wanted to see The Tillman Story. After reading several reviews last summer,  I figured the documentary about the NFL star turned Army Ranger would eventually find its way to El Paso, home of Fort Bliss, the massive U.S. Army post that straddles the Texas-New Mexico border.

I began constantly checking the Flixster app on my Blackberry for local show times, but to no avail. At first, I guessed that El Paso was not big enough to warrant a run of screenings. But then, I wondered if the city's proximity to Fort Bliss was actually a deterrent given the film's unflattering portrayal of one of the U.S. military's most forgettable moments during the War on Terror.

Recently, I was perusing Netflix and The Tillman Story crossed my mind. While it wasn't available until February 1, I added it to our queue, satisfied that I'd finally get the opportunity to watch it.

The Tillman Story is well done and the footage and interviews are compelling, but if you've read Jon Krakauer's "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman," as I had, I don't think you'll take away much new information.

That said, there is one unforgettable sequence from Tillman's memorial service that I didn't remember from the book. At some point, his younger brother, Richard, climbed the stage to say a few words about his fallen brother. With a beer in hand, he called out the previous speakers, including John McCain, who eulogized Pat as one would expect at a religious service.

"He's not religious," he countered. "Thanks for your thoughts, but he's (expletive) dead."

There is so much about Pat Tillman's military career that saddens and disappoints me: his inglorious death, the U.S. government then using the tragedy to market an unpopular war and finally the shameless lies that were told by some of the highest ranking leaders in our country as his family tried to sort through the facts.  As a Christian, however, that scene embodies the most haunting and most hopeless part of all.

 

Hotdish, Potluck, Smorgasbord

We're having potluck for today's 300 words. I hope it fills you up!

• Heather and I are slightly dumbfounded that Megan, whose great-grandparents have called the state of Wisconsin home for almost 90 years, rooted for the Steelers. It was almost as perplexing as when she painted a horseshoe on her cheek last year while we sported the fleur-de-lis during Super Bowl 44.
• Last year, we started a new Super Bowl tradition: jambalaya during halftime. Heather made a scrumptious batch on Sunday and I appreciated having a taste of the Crescent City during the game even if the Saints didn't make it back to the promised land.
• As a lifelong Star Wars fan, the VW commercial featuring a mini-Darth Vader futilely attempting to harness the Force cracked me up. On Facebook I wrote that it was "amazing that Star Wars is still relevant 30+ years after its debut," to which my friend and fellow Star Wars buff Shea replied, "Much like us."
• El Paso hasn't quite fully recovered from last week's plunge into the deep freeze.  Schools just reopened yesterday and the city finally confirmed this afternoon that it was okay to drink the water sans boiling.  Unbelievably, some homes and businesses are still without water.
• We submitted Meg's FAFSA application last night. For those of you unfamiliar with college application process that stands for "Free Application for Federal Student Aid." As I was writing this I asked Meg to recite the acronym and she rattled it off. A few seconds later she then passed the "What is your social security number?" quiz.

Like most Lutherans, I'm an ambassador of potlucks involving pots. We're having one at Trinity (3800 Hondo Pass) on Sunday. If you're on the Northeast side of town, stop by around 11:30 and fill up a plate. And should your soul need refreshing, the service starts at 10:15.