Very Physical Day

Yesterday was one day I could have done without. I should have known that it would be a very physical assignment, and it was. I arrived before 9 AM and parked the truck in the rain which was steady all day, and walked to the Aramark check-in location. Here is a shot of the stadium from my parking space:

The security at the entrance was, as expected, substantial. I made it to the Aramark merchandise compound, checked in, and following a managers meeting that I didn't participate in, began my first assignment which was emptying boxes of shirts and sorting them by size and counting out different numbers of each size to re-box for distribution to the outlet locations in the stadium. Following that assignment I began the real physical part of my day which lasted through the rest of my shift. This shot shows the merchandise warehouse fairly early in the morning:

This warehouse would be practically empty by the end of the day.

I was assigned to a team to take pallets of merchandise to each of the kiosk locations in the stadium which was several hundred yards away. The rain made it miserable. The stadium looks spectacular and there were hundreds of people milling around doing various prep work for the game. This next shot is of the inside of the Team Store which the central location for apparel and other Super Bowl items:

I was able to take some photos of the inside of the stadium which is just about dressed for the big game - one of which is below:

Many groups were practicing their duties during the day, and I have this shot of the rehearsal of the National Anthem:

The day eventually came to a close for me at approximately 5:15 PM and my Accupedo mobile application recorded a total distance walked of 8.73 miles for the day. I felt it when I got home at 6 PM last night.

We have one last day to work at the NFL Experience today, from 9 AM until 5 PM, and then it will be time for the final, and most anticipated, assignment of the entire effort. I saw our kiosk that we are scheduled to work on game day and it is located - get this - right next to the NBC broadcasting booth in Section 116 of the stadium. If the assignment isn't changed, it will be a wonderful experience at the biggest sports event of the year...

Hospitaltity

I think it is thoughtful and also an omen that AZ has provided some good 'ol hospitality to the Seattle visitors. It started raining yesterday afternoon and it is forecast for today and tomorrow. What better way to make the Seattle folks feel comfortable? So far, we have over .5" of the stuff, and we expect at least double that before the big game on Sunday.

Josie and I both worked an extra long day - from 1:30 until almost 11 PM - and didn't get home until after midnight last night. The crowds were almost overwhelming and it was an "electric" fee at the NFL Experience all day. Josie had her camera ready as we walked from the train to the Convention Center to begin our shift. The Super Bowl activities are present everywhere in the downtown area. This is probably the largest Super Bowl sign in town:

There were other locations in this huge, mostly blocked off, area in town where the crowds roamed:

We received our first paychecks from Aramark - a whopping $25 each - for our kickoff meeting at the Coliseum on January 20. Our next check on next Thursday should be pretty good with some long days included.

It was an extremely busy day as the line at the registers rarely shrunk. We are both dragging this morning as I will spend the day at the Stadium preparing the merchandise for sale on game day and Josie puts in a regular work day at the shop. The excitement is growing, and we are getting anxious for the big day...

Final Free Day Before Game

I was able to enjoy a totally free day yesterday while Josie put in a near full day at the shop. She was able to break away around 3:30 and get home a little earlier than normal. I did some computer stuff and cross stitch to enjoy my day and Josie ended up doing some laundry before we called it a night.

We have a real nice photo of the sunrise yesterday that Josie took at the exit of the RV Resort on her way to work:

 

It doesn't get much prettier than that.

I received a copy late last night of the video that Michael Brady took of us at the NFL Experience. I'll have to play with it a little bit to see how I can get it published in the blog. It's a short but cute clip.

Our schedule now gets hectic until after the Super Bowl. We work together today from 2 PM until 11 PM at the NFL Experience. There is a meeting announced at the Glendale Civic Center today for 5:30 PM which we obviously will miss. I don't know if they realized it when they scheduled it, but some of the folks - like us - have to work in downtown Phoenix during that meeting. I sent an email for clarification, and the response was they would get the information to us in a pre-shift meeting (?). They are so disorganized it is almost funny. Of course, to give them the benefit of the doubt, this is new territory for everybody involved. I don't think anyone involved here has worked a Super Bowl event in the past.

So, we have a few hours this morning and then it is full steam ahead to the Super Bowl...

More Experience

My day at the NFL Experience yesterday was mostly uneventful. I worked at the checkout stand in the main store all day with the exception of about a half hour when I worked at the jersey customization area. That is where customers select any team jersey they want and pay $25 extra for personalization. That area is a little bit different from the main checkout area and it was good to get that experience. It started out slow and became madness at around noon and stayed that way the rest of my shift. I ended up doing over $10K worth of sales at my register.

The most interesting thing about yesterday was an individual that walked up to my register to pay for his purchase. He saw my name on my credentials badge and said "I don't believe it. In all my years I never thought It would happen, but here I am, Mike Brady talking to Robert Reed". He had his wife take a photo video of the two of us and we traded email addresses and phone numbers. Funny episode.

An interesting aspect of this whole experience is watching the different people that take the train from the first stop where we board, to the downtown stop which is probably 10-12 stops. It rivals people watching at any New York subway station or Chicago Elevated train station. There are drunks, transvestites, gays, students, and all kinds of dress codes represented. It is really entertaining.

I have off today before starting the final push to Super Bowl Sunday. Josie and I both work tomorrow, I work alone on Friday at the stadium putting together the merchandise for Super Bowl in the Team Store, and then we both work Saturday and Sunday. It is a real kick and a very rewarding experience so far...

Working The NFL Store

My schedule yesterday at the NFL Experience in town was from 3 PM until 11 PM last night. My second day as a cashier was at the main merchandise location at the Convention Center. It is a 30,000 square foot store that is between the three levels - on the 2nd floor - of the Convention Center. Josie and I were on the lower level and upper level on Saturday when we worked. This is what the big store looks like from behind the checkout stand where all the cashiers (15) are located:

There is not an item that you can imagine - from shot glasses to apparel to pennants to footballs - that you couldn't find in this store. We were told that every single item that was at the Pro-Bowl on Sunday sold out. There is no reason to think that the same will not happen with the Super Bowl.

This shot is one of the checkout stand where I worked for my entire shift yesterday:

My location was the third register from the right. We were extremely slow from about 2:30 when I arrived until almost 6 PM when business became brisk and stayed that way until around 8:30 PM. I left following the close-out at 10 PM and was out the door by 10:30 PM following the counting and bagging of my till. It was a lot less boring than Saturday, but I didn't get the opportunity to see much of the activities outside the store.

I am scheduled to do the same again today from 9 AM until 3 PM, so I really didn't get much time to do anything else from last night to this morning. I will probably leave here at the same time Josie leaves for her shop. I do get a day off from the NFL Experience tomorrow but I'm not sure if Sam's Club will call to have me come in for work during the day. In the meantime, have a great day everybody...

Final Break For Awhile

It was our last day off together until after Valentine's Day in February. In fact, there will be several days when the only time we see each other - awake - is in the morning for a about an hour and a half. I will be working the NFL Experience in town in the afternoons and evenings and Josie will be working the shop during her normal hours of 8 AM until 4:30 PM. There are a couple days we will be working the Super Bowl activities together, including the big game next Sunday.

We relaxed and hung out in the morning yesterday and did some grocery shopping and shopping for a couple other items in the afternoon. We ended up at the Arrowhead Mall looking for a pair of shoes that I could wear during my Super Bowl activities. The ones I bought at the Famous Footwear store in Peoria last week were too wide and they didn't have that shoe in my size when I returned them yesterday. I found a good pair at the Mall and now I am set to go again.

The Pro Bowl was played last night and it was a huge success at the stadium where the Super Bowl will be played next Sunday. I don't especially care for the new format with the new game rules, but it is always nice to see the best players knock heads on the field. We can now concentrate on the big game and after today, both teams will be in town to practice. The hype is growing and everybody has his own opinion on who will win and by how much.

I work until 11PM tonight so I don't expect to be home before midnight. With  a start tomorrow at 9 AM, there won't be much time to do the blog, so it may be a short entry tomorrow AM. Day number two at the NFL Experience is ahead...

NFL Experience Day 1

We left a little early for our first working day at the NFL Experience at the downtown Convention Center. Our start time was at 3 PM, but we parked at the Park-and-Ride, bought a 7 day pass for the train and rode to town in time to check-in at around 2:20 PM. We were given uniform shirts and led to the main merchandise center at the NFL Experience and began learning the cash register operations. At about 4 PM, Josie was led to a Kiosk on the lower level of the building to run a small Kiosk alone. I was led to another small Kiosk on the 3rd level of the building to operate my own small Kiosk. This is what my Kiosk looked like:

Josie's was very similar and both only contained a small selection of shirts and caps. It was a very boring day for both of us as the volume of business that is done at these Kiosks is small compared to the main merchandise area. Each of our Kiosks was the only apparel outlet on each of our floors. I didn't get to see Josie at all the entire shift except for a brief encounter during our single break of the night. The positive side was that I had a lot of time to take pictures of the surroundings.

These are a couple shots of the area where I was located:

There were many interactive events like passing and kicking, and also many displays of the NFL history.

As the Pro-Bowl is being held this weekend at the same stadium as the Super Bowl, there were many of the teams' mascots and cheerleaders that were roaming the floors. These shots show some of the ones I saw while working at my station. Starting with these cheerleaders. Notice that the gal on the left is one of the Sea-Gals from the Seahawks and a very attractive girl:

Of course, they all were attractive. These next shots are of a few of the team mascots that were walking around. Starting with the San Francisco 49er mascot (Sourdough):

followed by the Rams mascot (Rampage):

and finally, the Cowboy's mascot (Rowdy):

The fans that were walking around wore jerseys from almost every team in the league. The Seahawks and Patriots were well represented and I believe that there were more Seahawks fans than Patriots. Not that it means anything.

We clocked out at 10:30 PM following closing out our registers and Kiosks. We made it home just a little before midnight so it was a long afternoon and evening. It's a little early in our experience to arrive at any conclusions, but we felt that Aramark dropped the ball a bit with the handling of the cashiers on duty We only had one break during the entire time and I didn't even know that there was free food - not the best- available in the lunch room. We are both off today and I work the NFL Experience again on Monday, Tuesday and Friday while we both work together again on Thursday, Saturday and, of course, game day on Sunday.

Stay tuned...