BACK FROM VACATION

It was kind of weird to wake up this morning in my own bed. After 11 days on the road. I finally got home last night. What a great trip. I know Indianapolis isn't the most scenic locale, but for me it was one of the best trips I've had in a while.

There's so much to say about the experience. I learned an awful lot about public relations -- I did a lot of errand work, but that's part of the job and I was willing to do it (You only get one shot to make a grand opening, so you better make it a good one).
The permanent staff at the track is nothing but first class and I appreciated all the veterans on the staff accepting me, even though I was a rookie at Indy. So many cool things happened on the trip. Thanks to Paul and Josh for helping make this happen. I'm just sorry that I forgot to bring my digital camera to most of the events.

Here's some highlights that have nothing to do with seeing the race:

* I got to ride in a 50th Anniversary Corvette driven by Joie Chitwood III (who drove the car during the race) around the track. Top speed on the backstretch was 125 mph and we came off of turn 4 at 100 mph. Some folks got up to 150. Not bad for a production car.

* I went to a Red Bull party hosted by Eddie Cheever. I had a couple of really nice free red bull drinks and their were some very nice looking bartenders.

* I saw Ashley Judd when it was unseasonably cold, so needless to say, I got a nice view, if you know what I mean.

* Tomas Sheckter told me "You are a really good interviewer. That was a good interview," and Buddy Lazier said "It's nice to see you again."

* Helio Castroneves scaled the fence about 10 feet in front of me after he won on Carb Day. A fact I called about 20 minutes earlier.

* Got to visit Robyn in her new home in Columbus, Ohio. It's in a really yuppie area called German Village.

* I met a journalist from India named Vangkhat Ganeshi, who may have been the best story of the whole trip. Vangkhat started writing my friend Paul a few years ago with a dream of being a motorsports journalist and coming to Indianapolis for the 500. He even calls Paul his mentor and presented him with a traditional hindu wrap. Vangkhat was finally getting to come this year, but shortly before his trip, his visa was denied. After jumping through every political hoop (and getting some help from the speedway) he got to come to Indy. He told Paul and me that he spent a year and a half's salary just to come to Indianapolis for the race. That's dedication to a dream. I'm glad to hear that story because if he can chase his dreams, anyone can.

Oh yeah, there was a race too. All I can say is wow. Didn't see a whole lot of it from my spot on the far south (really north) end of pit road but I truly know what Al Unser meant in 1992 when he said "You have no idea what Indy means."

WELCOME TO MY VACATION

Hey everyone,

I'm in Indianapolis working on the staff of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500. Been pretty busy since I got here on Thursday, so I have a lot of news.

I've seen Star Wars and it rocks. I think I may actually see it tommorrow when I visit my sister in Ohio. Other than that, it's pretty much a busman's holiday. Seeing this place in person is so much different that watching it on TV. It's freaking huge, maing. (Inside joke for the Brickyard staffers). I've probably walked about 4 to 5 miles since Friday. The cars are still cool, and it's great to see all the permanent staffers that's met over the years.

The highlight of the trip though has to be when I got within a foot or so of Dario Franchitti's wife (You may know her as Ashley Judd). If you've been paying attention, it's been unseasonably cold here in Indy, so needless to say, I got a nice view, if you know what I mean, maing.

Well that's all for now, but I'll write again soon.

Thought for the day:

Stay cool, maing -- Raul

LOOK WHO'S TYPING
I was just talking to Geoffrey and he mentioned that since we started our blogs we don't really talk about stuff. Just about our blogs. It's true. But I might as well get used to it, since he'll be gone to DC soon and the only way to deliver news will be through websites, or e-mail and Trillian.

Speaking of being gone soon, there are a couple of job opportuinites out there that have peeked my interest (A NASCAR writing job and a copy editing job at one of the Big 7 -- Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Corpus, Denver, Orlando,Seattle). Maybe a move could be in the works. But I'll never know if I don't apply. More updates on that later.

My road trip has been planned. It looks like it will take about nine hours-plus to get from here to the Speedway. Hopefully I'll be able to get out of bed after seeing Star Wars and won't fall behind. The good news is that Indy is one hour behind because it Indiana doesn't observe daylight savings.

If I see the Shaq Pack commercial one more time, I may kill....

Thought for the Day -- (courtesy Celena, who ripped it from the AP feature in the paper today)

"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money?" — Ayn Rand, author

WHEN I WAS SHORT...!

I read a couple of neat things today that made me flashback to my childhood.

One was a blog entry by actor-turned-webmaster Wil Wheaton who spun the tale of how as a youth he once traded a Star Wars Death Star playset for a landspeeder and five bucks. It reminded me of ALL the Star Wars stuff I had when I was younger.

I could play with those things for days. And between my older brother and myself, we had about every thing a kid could want. We had X-Wing fighters, landspeeders, the Millenium Falcon, the Hoth playset, Ton-Tons, one of almost every action figure from every movie, including Boba Fett, which we had to send away for. Star Wars is still one of the only things that can bring all five of my "siblings" (Bhukets and Sribhen alike) together. It makes Thursday sort of like a holiday because I know that Taft, Amanda, Joy and Robyn WILL SEE THIS MOVIE... but not until after me :P

The other was Steve Rushin's column in Sports Illustrated about the Topps Baseball Card company. I have plenty of baseball cards from when I was younger and some from when I wasn't so young. I remember the gum that came with the cards -- seemingly pressed from the cardboard that made up the accompanying cards. Gum doesn't come with the newer cards, but there was a time that we would open those wax packs of cards and see the face of some baseball player I never heard of... then rush to the back and chew a stick of gum that held it's flavor for about 10 seconds. You never even got the gum to be "chewy"

It's good to remember this stuff now.

TESTING 1, 2, 3, 4....

I think there are only three people who read this, and I'm one of them, so hello to Geoffrey and Marcus!. My life has become such a routine. I get up, go to work, come home and sleep again. The only thing that ever changes is the clothes I wear and what I want to eat. Hopefully a new challenge is on the horizon... At least I hope so...

On to the news...

The exodus from Anderson is starting to build. First Celena and Anthony are getting married next month and will be moving to Tennessee sometime this summer. Then Stacy and Geoffrey announced they were moving to DC. Now Pete and Amy will be moving back to Colorado in two months. Pete will be heading to Cullianary School (Johnson & Wales) so Amy will be leaving us. I'm pretty sure that other friends will be gone before Christmas time. The market is beginning to open up a little bit.

Eight days to Star Wars and the trip to Indy... God I'm a racecar geek.

Thought for the day:

"The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."
- Muhammad Ali

ONLY IN AMERICA....
I love living in the South sometimes... Today I got a call from my boss telling me they were having a contest to write the best headline for a story about remote-controlled rats. I'm a budding punster, so I wrote something about guided mice-iles (A play on missile)

But let's think about the story. The made remote controlled rats! What are they thinking? What is the practical use of being able to make a rodent jump or turn or anything? Didn't the Penguin try it in a Batman movie? It didn't work then. ...

Things are status quo here in the big town. I'm just trying to make it to the 16th then I head to Indy. I'll be quite busy, but you can keep up with me here, because I can update this blog from ANYWHERE!

It's kind of sad, because Stacy and Geoffrey's last day in town coincides with my trip. It looks like one of the last things we'll do as co-workers is go to see Star Wars.

Thursday means it's time for something scary, something funny, and something educational.