Day 4 & Day 5: The Saints Came Marching in

That they did. The Saints. Oh yes the Saint came marching in this morning at 8:50 a.m. for the first practice of the pre-season.

The entire staff arrived at work yesterday and today at 6:30 a.m. (yes, someone better send me a cookie because I actually got up that early) and started working to get the entire program running.

We set up all of the "A-frames" which are huge advertisements from all the business around New Orleans and Metairie (most of which jumped on the bandwagon after the Superbowl win, of course) that line the side of the football field in front of the stands. There were probably 50 of them or so and they sit right in front of the barricades that are put up the before practice every day. We made sure that all of the barricades and the A-frames were lined up correctly then we started on all of the cardboard trash cans and lined them with trash bags around the fields. After all 60 of those were put out we set up several tents that were in specific areas; the front entrance fan gate, the media entrance gate, the VIP tent gate, and Mr. Tom Benson's gate that sits below his office balcony that overlooks the practice field. After all the set up was complete we moved into our positions to prepare for the fans to come through the gate.

** During the practice on Friday morning there was a huge gust of wind that picked up the tent that was used for Tom Benson that sits under his office balcony. That wind threw the tent over a fence and it slammed into the windshield of his personal car, shattering the windshield like a golf ball would. There was a small dent in the hood but the main damange was the windshield. Did I mention that this car is a Mercedes S 500 full-sized Sadan started at $109,900.00? Yeah, that's right. That's before all the bells and whistles. I guarantee you that thing has a lot more than manual windows and seats, and an AM only radio. Anyway, before he could even get out to the car after they told him, they had his exact replica replace that car with all of the things he had on the inside already switched over to the new car, including his license plate. Absolutely ridiculous. I wish I had an extra $100,000 car chillin at home.

Danielle Farrell (who is one those people you become best friends with right off the bat) and I were assigned to the front gate where we would be passing out the team roster's and keep count of the amount of people that come into the practice. Danielle took the job of being the mean one and telling everyone that they couldn't bring their water, gatorade, book bag or three-weeks worth of luggage that some of them insisted on bringing to practice in through the gates. We were also joined by two of the Saintsations (the Saint's cheerleaders) in which I'm sure you know I thoroughly enjoyed. Danielle and I had a great time repeating "Welcome to practice and please through away your water bottle." We definitely sounded like a broken record.

After we finished the practice we joined the rest of the group and began cleaning up the trash after everyone left the fields. I definitely regret my decision to ever litter. (Sarah, I am sure you're ecstatic to hear that) I look forward to the next time I go to the movies and or football game or other event to throwing away all my personal trash. I mean, these people were DISGUSTING. One vendor was passing out little hand fans that had a wooden handle on them; people broke them into a billion pieces and shredded the paper part of the fan. It's ridiculous. I mean they were given these fans to cool themselves off in the blistering heat, but noooooo.. they just shred them ungratefully. I would love to stab some of them with those pieces they threw on the ground.

Forty-five minutes of picking up trash we finally finished and headed in for lunch. Lunch at the facility is really good. It's got a lot of variety and everything is really well prepared. The full time staff kind of wishes there were changes in the menu choices, but I think it's pretty good. Great salads, burgers, pizza, fish, and chicken everyday.

On Friday I stayed all day long. We kind of just hung out after lunch for an hour and a half and then I headed out to the Media Gate in order to check the media members into the correct spots. I finished aroun 5:00 p.m. and came home to shower. Michael Jones (my roommate from Sophomore year) and a couple of other friends were in town so I met them down at Jackson Square for a beer. They, of course, had been on Bourbon street for several hours and had put it to good use or "really strapped one on" as my mom says and they were good and drunk by the time I got there. We went to a great dinner near the courthouse, a few blocks off of Bourbon, and I had an awesome blacked grilled chicked ceasar salad. Michael and the others had a "Taste of New Orleans," which included some seafood, and a couple of different types of gumbo. It all looked really good but I knew that I wouldn't enjoy it. They highly recommend it, however.

We drove back to one of their friend's houses named Chris and we hung out there for a couple hours until I drove them back down town. I, of course, didn't think about what traffic would be like on a Friday night at 10:30 p.m. near Bourbon and Canal street. All of the stop lights, people, traffic, and congestion in downtown was absolutely ridiculous. I didn't enjoy maneuvering through the area and I definitely do not want to go through that again anytime soon. I finally made it through the traffic and got back to the hotel in order to get ready for work the next morning at 6:30 a.m.

Saturday was about the same. We had the same job responsibilities and it was great because instead of two Saintsations, there were four. It was great. We had a couple of smoothies from Smoothie King that acts as a normal vendor and then we finished the day off with the same activities as the day before. At the end of Saturday morning's practice look what they found in in the bleachers and handed to me:

After the morning practice was over on Saturday however, I was sent home since I had worked the day before. I came back to my incredibly friend packed room and hung out with all my buddies. Wait, that's not right. I came back to my empty hotel room and exhaustedly laid on the bed for nearly ten straight hours. I didn't want to go to sleep because I knew I wouldn't sleep well at night but I also didn't want to get up and do anything. My body was just tired.

At 11:00 p.m. Alex Harrelson and Joanna David (my little brother in ATO and his girlfriend) called me and told me that the wedding that they were attending in Jackson Square was over and they wanted to meet up. I drove downtown to the Westin Hotel where they were staying and got to visit with them and meet Joanna's family. It was great getting to catch up with them and see some friendly faces from home.

I definitely needed to see Michael, Alex and Joanna this weekend. It was great seeing them and definitely helped that "homesick" feeling from Wednesday disappear.

Thanks for reading, sorry if you want to stab your eyes out now,

Until next time,

Blake