World Cup Weekend 1 in Pictures (oh joy!)

So I have a crapload of photos from this past weekend but not a lot of verbiage.  There isn't that much to say, really, except that I hardly got any sleep and I drank a whole bunch without getting messy.

My intentions on Saturday was to let Andy slip out of the house silently at 4:30 AM while I blissfully dreamed my early morning away, eventually meeting up with him at 7 AM.  Sadly I'm a light sleeper and while Andy was as quiet as I've ever known a man in the early morning to be, I woke up at 3:30 AM to him brushing his teeth. I was never able to fall back to sleep, as much as I did try.  I refused to go to the pub any earlier than I originally planned so I simply groaned in tiredness on the couch until it was time to get ready.

Surprisingly (to me) by the time I got to the Harp, it was already quite busy.  Andy even failed to get our regular table in time.  By 7 AM though, he had made friends with all the surrounding tables, including a table of drunken Koreans who had stayed up all the previous night to make sure they caught the 4:30 AM Korea vs. Greece match.  They were hammered, and funny, and obnoxious, and were doing shots as soon as the bar started serving at 6 AM, and one of the girls threw up in the bathroom, and it was all a lot of stimulation (and smells) to take in that early in the morning.

Around 9 AM, more of our friends showed up taking the last of the patio seats.  It was all standing room only after that and scarcely so.  By 10:30 AM, the Harp was packed - three times over capacity, with a line, K-EARTH 101 set up outside, beer being sloshed and spilled, shots being done, toes being stepped on, the US National Anthem being sung - all for the 11:30 AM match USA vs. England.

 Standing room only (if you can even call it "room") during the match.

There was a line out the door.  None of these people got in as no one was leaving.

Thankfully we were tucked in a corner where we could actually sit down.  I suppose it didn't matter since this 10 foot tall guy with a big Grizzly Adams beard ended up standing in front of us so we had to stand to see.

We are absolutely shocked how the waitress managed to navigate through the bar with 10 drinks on her tray at a time.  She was well tipped.

For once, our local Johnny Foreigners were the minority in the bar.

This was after the match when there was finally room to stretch out again.

This is our new friend, Jeremy.  Jeremy got drunk rather quickly and ended up buying round after round of shots for anyone and everyone that was in his general vicinity.  We had a $1.00 in bet between us how much Jeremy's tab would be by the end.  Andy won by guessing $400 (before tip).

Fergie and Bishy show off their rip off England jerseys, complete with ligers instead of the proper lions.

Things might have gotten a bit messy at this point.

A picture of Mari enjoying the chaos.

 Fergie, Me, Chris, Nigel, and Frenchman who's name I have forgotten.  Maybe I was a bit messy.

Jill and Dave conveniently show up after all the matches are finished.  Smart people, those two.

I think this was taken at about 4 PM.  I might be smiling but I'm wondering what is an acceptable time to go to bed without seeming like a nancy.

Davey Davey, Fergie, and Andy.  Fergie is still showing off those ligers.

When Nigel saw this he said, "I remembered his head tasted sort of salty."

"It's seriously time to take me home."

"OK"

Around 4:30 PM, Andy and I went with Dave and Jill to El Matador for dinner.  This was a huge mistake on my part as beef enchiladas taste really good going down, they don't taste that great coming back up.  When I talked to Kristie the next day she stated, "yeah, drinking and El Matador don't mix - it's like cement in your stomach." That is completely true as cement is exactly what seemed like was shooting out of my mouth later on that night.   

Andy and I did manage to fall asleep at 7:30 PM on Saturday night, but I was awake again at midnight and couldn't fall asleep until 1:30 AM.  Of course at 3 AM, Chloe (stupid cat stupid cat stupid cat) decided it was the perfect time to get in a heated cat fight with another cat that was in our garden even though there was a large piece of glass between them.  Andy decided to get up at this point as well so there was no point in trying to sleep anymore, so we headed to the pub at 4 AM to watch the Slovenia vs. Algeria match.  

My intent was that after the Slovenia game I would go home and take a nap, but after the game, the next game started and I thought, "OK, I'll just watch this match and go home and sleep."  Except for after that match our friends started showing up for the Germany vs. Australia match and I decided that there was really no point in going home anymore.  All in all we put in a 12 hour shift at the pub and we forced ourselves to stay awake until 8 PM so we didn't end up waking up too early for work.   Not that I was able to sleep.  When I force myself to stay awake so long I have a hard time shutting down.  Of course Andy woke up AGAIN this morning at 4 AM to watch the Netherlands vs. Denmark match.  I'm so tired people.  There aren't enough words on this planet to describe my tiredness.   The World Cup is going to kill me.

 If you were wondering what 4:30 AM looks like, here it is.  It's not pretty.