Thursday, May 22nd - The Weekend Approaches...

Now that I have gotten last weekend's recap out of my system, I can return to regular blogging, but of course, since it is Memorial Day weekend and I am planning on going to the track tomorrow, it is time to prepare for another weekend. One can only hope it is not as busy as the last one, but it already looks a bit jam packed from here.

I'm taking tomorrow off to go out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Carb Day, and no, that does not mean it's a time to throw Atkins out the window and eat bread all day. It is actually short for Carburetion Day, which is the last time teams will be able to get their cars on the track before the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

This is not to say I am a big racing fan. Tomorrow will only the third time in my life that I have ever set foot inside the track, and I cannot say I have any real need to go see the actual race. I just started going to Carb Day because it was cheap to get in to partake in some of the spectacle, and well, it is just another chance to tailgate and drink outside. Plus, there are always some ridiculously hot guys walking around shirtless. Last year, I did a semi-stalkerish photo pictorial of the Men of Carb Day. I'll be doing the same this year, and with a smaller camera, it should be easy. Praise Cher that it is supposed to be sunny and warm!

For those that aren't aware, the Indianapolis 500 is actually a pretty big deal for the city. While it certainly doesn't garner the same television audience as, say, the Super Bowl (which, btw, we are hosting in 2012 - Woo Hoo!), a sell out crowd at the Speedway is 400,000, which makes it one of the largest sporting events in the world. This, along with the Brickyard 400 (NASCAR), the new motorcycle race in September, and the defunct (but possibly returning) F-1 race, gives Indy quite the cache on tourist dollars, the fact that a lot of them camp out around the track, notwithstanding.

Of course, I also do not get the fascination of watching a car whiz by at 220 miles an hour around a 2.5 mile track. You're really only going to SEE the cars a fraction of the time, and you're probably going to be wearing ear plugs or go deaf. Sure, I get the inclination of standing outside and drinking yourself to oblivion, but I can do that at home, too. The $10 it costs to get into Carb Day is perfect for me to just get a taste of the mania. Plus, this year Stone Temple Pilots are performing, so at least it is a band I mildly enjoy, and you never know, maybe Scott Weiland will fall off the wagon again. One can dream!

So that is how the weekend starts. Then Xena is having a video game party on Saturday, which will be a nice diversion. Sunday will probably be a couple of parties, and then I'm not really sure if we're doing anything on Monday. The scary thing is that we are two weeks out from Pride Week here in Indy, and my god, I am quickly coming to the conclusion that I am going to have work a limited schedule that week because there is something going on literally every night from June 7th-June 15th (not to mention Father's Day with the fam). If my liver doesn't leap out of my torso after that, then it never will!

Buckle up, folks. It's going to be a bumpy blog!