Jacksonville Pet Boarding

As I write this, the Boston Celtics basketball team is celebrating last night's victory. Not because it put them into first place… in fact, quite the opposite. Last night's win mercifully broke a team record, 18 game losing streak.

Things were very different around here twenty years ago. Back then, the Celtics were a great team, and – unlike today, where not only can you get seats, you could probably suit up and play for a few minutes if you asked nicely – tickets were impossible to find. So when my boss handed me two "luxury box" tickets to a Celtics-Lakers game, I was thrilled.

I'd been to the old Boston Garden a couple of times before, but when my friend Fred and I arrived for the game, we weren't quite sure where to go for the luxury boxes. After wandering around a bit, we found the entrance: A dilapidated-looking elevator, hidden in a corner and manned by an equally dilapidated-looking security guard.

Being the street smart, world travelers that we were, Fred and I took one look at the uninviting entrance and quickly deduced that there probably wouldn't be any food stands or roaming snack vendors on the other side of that elevator ride. So we stopped to wolf down a couple of hot dogs each, and five minutes later, when we boarded the elevator, we were happy at having "planned ahead."

You've probably already guessed the punch line.

As we discovered, one of the things that makes the luxury boxes so luxurious is the fact that they are stocked to the gills with (free) soda, beer, snacks .