The Dalai Lama

Valarie picked me up bright and early and after a quick stop at Dunkin we were on our way to Gillette Stadium to hear the Dalai Lama speak. Coffee was good because I don’t think either of us were very Zen like sitting in traffic with people trying to cut us off. (We were seeing the Dalai Lama people! CHILL OUT!)
(Quick side note… what is the intelligence needed to be a parking lot attendant with a big orange flag? I ask because there was no reason we had to wait that long to park! These people! Seriously! What do you do during football season???)
So we finally park. Waiting in line to get through security, people don’t understand why they can’t bring in bottles of water. (I say to the guy checking my ticket, not the normal event crowd, huh? I mean, really, would that happen at a football game?)
The event is great. He talks all morning, then we break for lunch (mc d’s for $20 to 2 people!) then he talks in the afternoon. The sky clears, and the sun comes out… GREAT afternoon. Well, the Dalai Lama got hot and wanted a hat… so he got one! LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!






So the day ends and we are driving home… we make it up Rt 95 to the merge with 128. As we are on the ramp, all of these motorcycle cops come flying past us. At least 10 or 15 of them! Mass State Police, Cambridge Police, everyone! When we get to the top of the ramp, where we merge onto 128, they have Rt 128 in completely stopped! NO one is moving! We are one of the last cars to get through, a couple of SUV’s are behind us.
Then as we are driving, a bunch of the motorcycle cops come flying past us! They start blocking traffic from getting onto the highway in our direction. I’ve never seen anything like this. Then Valarie finally figures it out. It has to be the Dalai Lama’s motorcade!!!
So the first SUV passes us. It’s this single woman alone chatting on her cell phone. Then the second one passes us on the left. Valarie yells out, “That’s his interrupter sitting in the front seat!! That’s the Dalai Lama’s car!!!” I am SO excited I can’t even contain myself!!!
The rest of our conversation goes like this:

ME: SPEED UP! SPEED UP! You have to get next to him! Come on!!! Pass him!!!

Valarie: Julie, I can’t! I am already going 78 miles an hour! I CANNOT go 80!

ME: Come ON!! It’s the Dalai Lama!! I’ve NEVER asked you to speed before… come ON! PLEASE!! GO FASTER!!

Val: NO! I am NOT going 80! There are cops EVERYWHERE!!

ME: They are just stopping traffic! They are NOT going to pull over someone for speeding!”

Val: Except for the 2 crazy ladies’s trying to chase the Dalai Lama!!!


I made her pass my exit, and she still never went 80, so we never caught up to the Dalai Lama. I just wanted to wave at him!! 



So Val and I stopped for an ice cream, then she brought me home. I had to go to my aunt’s birthday party at the Chinese Restaurant with all of my crazy family, so after I jumped out of Val’s car, I ran inside, stopped to pee, then went back out to my car. I was about ¼ of a mile down the road when some idiot was pulling out of the gas station and stopped ½ way in the lane. I gave him the finger. Then I started laughing. So much for the peacefulness of the Dalai Lama. Guess it didn’t last very long!