I'm an accountant for one of the nation's largest independent oil and gas producers. My area is the Permian Region in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. My days are filled with looking over capital expenses for drilling projects, putting out small fires in our accounting system, communicating with the Region and verifying my sanity on an hourly basis. In other words, I am strictly overhead to the company. Not a lot of perks are thrown my way versus the engineers that get exhausted from all of the free stuff vendors supply to them. However, I might have one-upped the entire engineering department. My ex-boss (still with my company, just different assignment) is married to a photographer for the Houston newspaper. I won't name names, but he is a talented guy. His forte is sports dealing with Houston teams (Texans, Astros, etc).
It had been years since I had been to a professional football game and growing up a Cowboys fan, I never had a desire to pay to see the sub .500 Texans. Well, I asked...more like pestered the photog leading up to Texans/Cowboys regular season game. The ticket for the general public was sold out so my only way to see the game would be securing media credentials. Score, he asked if I wanted to be his runner for the game. What is a runner? Well, I was to assist the photog with his three cameras and then collect media cards at the end of each quarter and download them onto a computer. There was another photog on the other side of the field I needed to collect her card as well. Turns out you run an insane distance circling that field about 10 times.
I spent the first quarter just in awe of the sights and sounds of the game. The players are just unbelievably huge and the cheerleaders are well...not as hot as you might think. The cameras are crazy heavy with the zoom lenses and mono-pods.
I even managed to get on TV during this play: (I make an appearance at the 0:29 mark)
My head was on a swivel all game but as I crossed behind the Cowboys' bench towards the end of the game, I took this photo. Just something to note, I walked by the bench numerous times during the game, but rarely was the conversation amongst teammates about football. Most of the topics (especially for the special teams guys) was about the cheerleaders or certain fans in the stands.
I also managed to score the same gig for the Texans/Titans game in which Andre Johnson got ejected for fighting as well as the Monday night game against the Ravens. I got to walk the field before the game and see all of the ESPN crew doing their thing. Towards the end of the game, Steve Young was just chilling...in my spot! Just because I wear a terrible red vest and couldn't operate one of the cameras to save my life doesn't mean you can just squat in my view!
It was fun while it lasted but my hard work and serious butt kissing has paid off for the best media pass yet...The 2011 Final Four here in Houston. The NCAA emailed me confirmation about my pass a few days ago. I will access to the court but I don't know where I will be 'running'. Look for me to rush the court at the end of the championship game. I figured I can work on my wind sprints so that I can be the first on the court for the confetti and festivities!!
Numerical Summary for the day:
74 - temperature here in Houston today. Sunny. Perfect weather. It's days like today that make me hate having a window in my office. More than anything, it is a tease because I can't enjoy the outdoors.
17 - minutes it took me to discover the new color copier on my floor.
38 - seconds it took me to copy something inappropriate on the new color copier. Hello maturity!
2 - minutes it took my boss to send an email out about abusing the color copier. Something about not wasting company resources. Whatever.
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