Another Suitcase in Another Hall

I'm spending this week with my grandfather in Missouri.  I'm planning to work a bit from here, if I'm able to get a wireless connection.  It appears this house doesn't have a wireless router but last time I was here it seemed like one of the neighbors did.   Cross your fingers that my aura (what I call my ability to fix weird computer problems just by looking at them) fit in my carry-on bag.

The Devil(s) Went Down to (Atlanta) Georgia

And they LOST.  This is the fun part of running our office pool -- half of the players were just knocked out (sorry guys!).  Not having grown up in North Carolina, I don't think I have the same ACC bias that my friends do.  Don't misunderstand me, I picked ACC newcomer Boston College to be the last team standing, but I have no real logic behind that other than that I have a friend who lives in Boston, I have a Boston Terrier and I like the Red Sox.  Isn't that how you are supposed to pick the winner?  At least until tomorrow night, I'm still in it. 

 

I have to admit I also committed the cardinal sin of choosing a team to advance because a parent went there -- go UCLA!  Maybe I have a Pac 10 bias?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Anyone who knows me well knows I am a big old geek about figure skating.  I can admit it -- I know far too much about who the coaches are, where everyone trains, and old school Russian grudges that go back for decades.  I know the difference between a toe loop, an axel and a salchow (hell, I know how to spell salchow).  It's just something I've always loved.

 

Last week I went to see Stars on Ice -- it's my favorite day of the year.  This was my 10th show -- it has changed so much over the years but never disappoints.  There is a moment in every show that something so beautiful happens that no matter how my life is, I am so glad to be there in that moment.

 

The Olympic year is a special one.  You have your favorites and you watch them succeed or live to compete another day.  Today is that day.  The World Championships are this week and I'm spending a perfect night watching some spectacular programs (Evan Lysacek) and some devastating tumbles (Johnny Weir), while also watching the NCAA tournament (Duke just lost, Memphis just won).  I'm wearing my fuzzy slippers and my flannel pjs with a fire going in the fireplace and a stack of magazines to catch up my reading.

 

As much as I know about skating, I just do not understand Stephane Lambiel's costume.  Surely it's got to mean something -- surely the Swiss can't be that fashion challenged.

When I'm Sixty-Four

According to the 401k guy, I need to accumulate a scary amount of money by the time I'm ready to retire.  It amazes me how that is so easy for some people and so hard for others.  I guess it's a little naive to think that we all start out the same and have to make the most of our opportunities from there.  There are so many choices along the way -- how come some people luck out and have things so much easier than those who have to try so much harder?

 

Maybe, just maybe, I'll win all three of my tourney pools and make enough money to make my day.  Lord knows it won't be enough to retire on!

We Got the Beat

Can I just say how disturbing it is that advertising executives have hijacked a ton of the songs I grew up with and use them in commercials? Some of them are just so bizarre. I just saw a Papa John's commercial that changed the words to an 80's classic to "We Got the Meat." That's just bad. Not too long ago HP used a Cure song, to my continued disbelief. I'd love to know how that pitch went. "We know you are one of the touchstones of a generation but we think "Pictures of You" would really help us sell printers. You in?"

Devil In A Blue Dress

The madness has begun and I have to say I get pulled in a little more every year.  Before I moved to a place that considers itself the center of the college basketball universe, I had only a peripheral knowledge of what this time of year was about.  Now, when I hear a band playing Devil in a Blue Dress, I know Duke must be playing well.  Sweet Caroline does the same for Carolina -- hey Beth, is there a song for State?  A note for my Pac10 area friends:  Duke is a evil as USC, Carolina (UNC Chapel Hill) is like UCLA and NC State is like maybe, any Cal State school, but all of them are within about 30 miles of each other and there are rivalries that pre-date the mouse setting up shop in an orange grove.  Here, generations of people have deep-seeded, inherited hatred, at least a couple of days a year.  None of them are more pronounced than the days of the Duke-Carolina games or the ACC tournament.  My friend Beth even takes the Friday of the ACC tournament off every year to celebrate the games like her own personal Super Bowl.  It's infectious and it's fun and for me, it's a good warm up for what is yet to come when my Canes start the playoffs in April.

 

The brackets will be announced later today and I'll spend the next 3 days tearing my hair out, trying to figure out how far Gonzaga might go and how to pick the games where both teams are unknown to me.  I know that the prevailing opinion is that you shouldn't pick a school because you went there, or your parents went there, or your best friends second cousin went there, but when those choices include Maryland and UCLA, how can I cross them out?  The first round is a crap shoot -- once I've picked all my obvious choices (ACC and Pac 10 schools, NC schools, California schools, all the remaining #1s, #2s, #3s & #4s) I start with the weird tie-breakers -- directional schools, those that start with vowels, or which mascot would win in a brawl.  Wish me luck!

Forever Young

First, I have to admit I watch The OC. I think I'm about 15 years out of their demographic and looks nothing like my high school, which actually was in Orange County, but I can't help it. I think I may be one of the only people who gets the title. No one there calls it The OC, it's just Orange County, OC, South County, whatever dude. [Here's where you've got to stick with me] In Southern Cal, freeways all start with "the" -- to get from my house to CSUF I took the 91 to the 57. Notice the the's? Anywhere else in America, freeways just have numbers. I take 540 to get to work everyday and take 540 to 40 to get to hockey games. If I said the 540, people would think I was weird. But I can't image taking 91 to 57 -- they require the's. So, if you ever lived this (and left it), The OC is a hilarious joke. But I digress...

At the end of tonight's episode, there was a song playing called Forever Young. I'm not sure who it is, but the original was by Alphaville. That song once meant so much to me. I had a friend my freshman year named Kathy, who was killed right after she graduated. She was so much of that year for me -- she was such a good friend that she got out of line at her graduation to sit and hold my hand while I cried about someone else I wasn't talking to at the time and thought I never would again (you know who you are -- I'm forever grateful you needed Bullfrog for your graduation trip). I recall her saying one day she needed to stop drinking and having sex. I was 14 and completely shocked -- I didn't really think people in high school did those things (then I moved to The OC...). Anyway, she loved that song and then she died. "Youth like diamonds in the sun and diamonds are forever."

Take Me As I Am

Review time at the old job today.  It's really a weird experience.  Our office is pretty good about talking about what's going well and what's going wrong all the time, but it's still daunting when it's time to sit down and talk about yourself.  My whole life I have heard the same criticisms -- I can trace them all the way back to high school.  I won an award once for being "most dependable" -- not Miss Congeniality.  I'll always try to be a better person and be as good as I can be at my job.  But really, at the end of the day, I'll still be me.

 

Breathe

In trying to improve certain areas of my life -- my stress level, my aching back, my age creeping up on me...I have been playing with the idea of taking up yoga. I took my first class tonight and survived! My aching back is well, back and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning.

One of the things the teacher said at the end, when we were all trying to relax and get, er, centered, really got to me. It doesn't have to be pretty or perfect, you just have to keep breathing. That applies to life just as much as yoga, don't you think?

Have a Nice Day

The rules for attending any type of game or sporting event are easy and should just be known. ( I swear I'm not making them up -- true fans know them.)

1. DO NOT make people stand up to let you pass to get to your seat while the game is in play. You wait until there is a whistle or a buzzer or a time out. You do not return from the concession stand and expect 10 people to stand up, blocking the view of everyone behind them, while the game is in progress. I promise if you wait one minute, maybe two, there will be a break and you can get to your seat and no one will mind. Really, it's just the polite thing to do.

2. If you don't know where your seat is, ask someone. Fans are friendly and will always help. The last three hockey games I have been to have been a comedy of errors as the untrained masses spent whole periods moving from one wrong seat to another -- while the game was in progress -- generally making everyone there to see the game miserable.

3. If you happen to be sitting in the upper reaches of your venue, don't complain about how high your seats are. You are the one who didn't want to spend the money to sit closer. You got what you paid for and others would be thrilled to be where you are. Zip it.

Have fun. Tell your friends. Go Canes.

She Thinks His Name Was John

One of my favorite agents called me today and we had the following exchange:

ME: Good morning, this is Heather.
HIM: What's so damn good about it?
ME: The sun is out, the birds are singing, the sky is blue with nary a cloud in the sky.
HIM: Bah humbug, b****.

I love my job. These people make me laugh.

Kryptonite

If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman? 

 

I think I must have caught a piece of the 3 Doors Down song on my way home and now I can't get it out of my head.  I'm still in the midst of my furniture building projects.  My living room is full of pieces of wood, a dozen paint cans, power tools...the messes I get into because I think I can do anything.  I made a little headway tonight, humming the Superman song while I worked.  My coffee table now has 5 sides.  Maybe on Saturday it'll get a lid and some legs. 

 

Here's what I don't get -- did they think Superman was sane before he went nuts?

How Much is That Doggy in the Window?

This is not going to be a blog about my dog. I swear. But on occasion there will be stories. Sometimes she does something that is so darn cute that I can't help wanting to talk about her. I have a guest bedroom upstairs in my townhouse and it faces the street where I park my car. I know she sits up there most of the day, looking out the window and probably seeing nothing (because dogs are supposed to have really, really bad vision) but she seems very happy there. She has 3 other beds of her own, 2 couches, a doghouse...but she spends all her time on that bed, looking out the window. That is, until I get home. I put my key in the door when I get home from work each day and ba-dump ba-dump ba-dump -- she races down the stairs to see me, doing her happy dance and wagging her body because she has no tail. She basically tap dances across the kitchen. It is the best feeling in the world -- knowing she is that happy to see me. I know she would do the same thing for a burglar too, but I don't care. Today's happy dance is for me and I'm just as happy to be home to hang out with her.

A Long December

It's "the winter that wasn't" in NC this year. I keep waiting for cold, waiting for ice, waiting for snow. I escaped the numbing, endless sunshine of California (which is a myth anyway) for real seasons. I want a refund. I know I should feel blessed that we escaped the hurricanes and any bad winter weather, but does that mean that Mother Nature has something special waiting for us? I guess I should just enjoy the sun and stop waiting for winter to begin.