Ragnar team dinner

I reeeeally ought to be going to bed, since the Ragnar is bright and early tomorrow (we have to get there at 6:00 a.m.), but I am just not tired. I'm still so excited about this whole trip!

Meeting the whole team was just so surreal today. I couldn't even keep track of who I met already and who I still had to meet--because we'd been getting to know each other for an entire year on Facebook, I felt like I already knew everyone.

We hung out for a little bit this afternoon in Jerry's and my hotel room, and then we all headed downstairs to go to dinner. We took the vans to dinner, and there were 20 of us (team plus some spouses). We went to a place called Randazzo's, which had Italian American food.

The Today Show was there to film us "meeting", and then we sat down to eat. Holy cow, that was the WORST service ever. The whole team was cracking up because the service and food were SO bad that we thought it was a practical joke-type show (the joke being on us).

Meredith and I were going to split the lemon chicken, and I asked that it be cooked without added butter or oil. The server looked at me like I was insane, and then argued with me about it for a minute--"You mean you want it DRY?" he asked. "I just want it cooked with the lemon and garlic, no oil," I told him. He checked again, and I said, "Yes, dry is fine."

When he brought it out, it was swimming in a pool of butter--literally, there was probably a whole stick of butter in the dish, if not more. When I pointed it out, he got mad and said that's what I ordered. He said, "Well, it has to be fried in SOMETHING."  hahaha, I just said okay, forget it. And I chose not to eat. I had a blast just getting to talk with my team (John is hysterical, and I laughed so hard the whole time).

We were there for over three hours, and not one person got what they ordered, let alone in a timely manner. The servers were extremely rude--so much so that we all found it hilarious. It would take forever to describe the whole situation, but we all agreed that it was awful. So if you're in Miami, I would stay away from Randazzo's. ;)

It was a lot of fun getting to chat with the team, but after spending over three hours there, I was STARVING. It was also too late to decorate our vans at that point, so when we got back to the hotel, Jerry and I walked across the street to Walgreens so that I could buy some dinner. They actually had fresh food there, and I bought some brown rice California rolls and a small bag of pretzel M&M's.

When we got back to the hotel, we ran into John and Angela, who were waiting for some Ragnar crew to drop some things off. I scarfed down the California rolls while I chatted with them, and then I hung around to talk with the crew. They gave us passes to use for the race (well, for Angela to use so that she could film).

While we were standing there, my brother and his girlfriend showed up, so we chatted with them for a while. I had a couple of beers with them outside, then went and talked with Angela and John for a little while before coming back to our room.

Now I'm really going to try and get some sleep so I can get ready to Ragnar tomorrow!!

(For those of you that asked, the Today Show segment about our team is going to be on Thursday, January 10th.)