The Great Gatsby

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament." - it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.

 The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Happy Anniversary from Green Bay" from Steve

Steve wrote the following post on our 3rd wedding anniversary trip to Green Bay. I still wear the leather coat he gave me. I have the multiple-player signed football he wrote about, too. The Pack won that game. Davenport (long since traded off and then out of football) snapped his ankle on his first play. Favre is long gone, but Aaron Rogers seems to be an alright fella. I don't know about Karma, but the Pack plays on.

And so do I.

Happy Anniversary from Green Bay - October 9, 2005

Here we are in Green Bay, Sunday morning 7:45 local time and I can’t sleep any more. Game time is 12:00 noon. The tailgate party at Brett Favre’s Steak House begins at 9:00. Do I need to say more?

Of course I do....

Karen and I arrived in Green Bay Friday morning, checked into the hotel and immediately headed over to Lambeau Field. A quick aside to set the perspective: Tuesday October 12th is our third wedding anniversary and this is our anniversary trip. Since tradition dictates couples purchase leather for the third anniversary I bought Karen a warm leather jacket for Green Bay. Karen bought me an official NFL game ball. So off we went to Lambeau field, Karen dressed in her new leather jacket and my game ball tucked in her backpack, in search of Packers to sign the ball.

Green Bay is notorious for cold weather, but our southern acclimated bodies were not prepared for 40 degree temperatures and wind chills in the 30’s so we headed into Lambeau for some Packer history.

The first stop: The Packers Hall of Fame. Picture a room shaped like a football with display cases on either side and a divider down the middle. Each display case marks a decade starting from 1919 when the Indian Packing Company sponsored Curly Lambeaus fledgling football team and ending with today’s Packers. We made it as far as the 1950’s before we had to catch our tour of the stadium.

I’ve done a lot of cool shit in my life, but the stadium tour pretty much topped them all. It’s not just because I learned some cool stuff, or got to sit in the luxury boxes, or got to see the inner workings of the stadium, no. My wife and I got to walk through the tunnel and out to the field. Yes, that tunnel, and we’ve got the pictures to prove it. I swear to Christ it gave me goose bumps. Oh, and we also saw punter B.J. Sander giving an interview to a local news bimbo. Sander was hitting on her pretty hard and my guess would be that they would hook up.

After the tour we had lunch at Curly’s Pub which overlooks the parking lot. Karen noticed some people standing by a fenced off gate and quickly surmised that this was where the Packers would be driving out. In other words, this was the spot for autographs.

We headed over to the fence and within five minutes I was way too cold to stay. However Karen, all 105 lbs of her insisted that she wanted to stay and try to get autographs for my ball. And we stayed, and she did. Her first was V.P. John Jones, followed by fullback Vontay Leach and linebacker Robert Thomas. Karen was thrilled. Later she scored Defensive Tackles coach Robert Nunn and Director of Player Personnel Reggie McKenzie (I was really happy about that one. Reggie is old school)

Karen found out that she could get more autographs on Saturday so we called it a day and went back to our hotel. We had a nice dinner at the Titletown Brewing Company, a brewpub located in an old rail station, and were asleep in bed by 9:00.
Saturday we woke and headed to the field at 10. Karen positioned herself at the fence (temperatures in the mid 40s and overcast) and I got on line for the book signing.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Karen found out that the Favre family would be signing copies of the book “Favre” written by Brett and Bonita (Brett’s mom) Favre. The signing was to begin at noon so there were only about 5 people ahead of me. The celebrity signers would include Bonita Favre, Scott Favre (Brett’s brother) and Deanna Favre who is Brett’s wife and the plan was you’d get one signature and it was pot luck. I sincerely hoped I didn’t get Scott but what the hell, $5.00 for each book sold went to their charity so who cares? It was all for a good cause. Meanwhile Karen come running in with the football. She had just scored Offensive Line coach Larry Beightol and had several players tell her they’d sign the ball when they were done with their walk through. She bought me a cup of coffee and while I waited inside the warm atrium my little trooper headed back to the front line to face the elements.

I’m running out of time here so let me get right to the good part. Karen filled the ball with signature upon signature, scoring too many Packers to name. Her coup-de-gras was Aaron Rogers who signed our ball and left everyone else standing there empty handed. It pays to have a little adorable wife who I might add would do anything for me. I'm really that lucky. Meanwhile, I got to meet Bonita, Deanna, and Scott. All three signed my book. It was so worth the wait…

Well, it’s now 8:30 local time. Karen’s up and it’s time to get ready to go to the game. She doesn’t know yet, but her man Davenport is starting. So is Roy Manning, the Michigan Wolverine the Packers picked up as an undrafted free agent. And Brett Favre is going to start as well. I’d say the karma is looking good for the Packers.