Guns & Hoses

I attended a benefit last night. The charity you ask? The Special Olympics of Nebraska. My friend Steve (Tammy's hubby) had some complimentary tickets from his employer. So in all, 10 of us met at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs for a boxing match. The MAC as it's sometimes called, is about the equivalent of the Quest Center in Omaha. In fact one is just across the river from the other.
Now I'm not much into boxing but this sounded like it could be fun. We had ring side seats, at tables, and there was a wait staff that gave us ample opportunity to order food and drinks!

The Omaha Police Officers Association and the Omaha Firefighters brainstormed and decided to have a boxing challenge. The title of the event was very clever. At least I thought so anyway. There is a band called Guns N' Roses. They are a rock group that was popular especially back when I was only about 20 or 21 years old. (don't say it, I know I'm getting old!) I'm assuming that they may have changed a small technical detail and came up with the name of the event from this band. But don't quote me. I could be completely off base. But that is what I thought of when I saw it!
There has been a lot of strict rules when it comes to attending events in the big arenas. For example, no cameras usually allowed. Therefore I left my camera at home thinking that this would be the case once again. But alas, there was no such rule on this particular occasion. I could have brought mine to the boxing match and taken better pictures than I did. So I was resigned to using my cell phone camera. If I had gone up closer to the rink, they would have been better than they actually look.

In between rounds during one of the matches.

Before the boxing started the lighting was a little different and gave me a better picture.

The final match.

The wins and losses were pretty even with each organization winning almost the same as the other. There was a match between two women too! All the boxers had trained at various gyms all over Omaha and some in Lincoln. They all wore protective head gear and no hitting was allowed below the neck (I think). At least no one did as far as I could tell. So it wasn't as rough as it could have been. I really did have a good time.

After it was all done, there was an after-event party/hang-out-and-meet-the-participants party very near the MAC. It was at the Quaker Steak and Lube. So I and 3 of my other single girl friends that attended, decided to go over there and have a little food and and some cocktails. One of them is a detective on the police force and knew several of the boxers. We sat out on the patio and enjoyed the very temperate evening air whilst visiting with each other and some of the boxers.
It wasn't the venue that I would normally choose to attend but it was fun and something different!