Bringing the Drama

the last two days i have been going through stuff in the bedroom where i have my computer. i’d call it the office, but i really don’t do much work in there. anyway, i have filled two bags of trash and as of right now, my work is done. the roomba is having a good time in there right now. i’ll check on him in about half an hour. the room looks completely different than it did before. i’ll have to attack the den and kitchen later since i was asked to host celebrity poker tomorrow night. i may not be going out of town for the holidays, but i’m staying productive.

last night as i was going to bed i caught an episode of madden nation, which is a show on espn about people playing madden. they try to make it dramatic by having people risk their show life on one game of madden. i know i’m probably not as good as those guys, but i noticed some faulty judgement in the game they showed. the guy had a 10-6 lead with 2:30 or so to play. he kept trying to pass the ball for some reason, and threw incompletion forcing him to have to attempt a FG. he made the long FG, but gave the ball to his opponent with about a minute and a half to go. he subsequently allowed his opponent to go down the field and score a TD and then win by making the 2 pt conversion. i thought “why did he keep passing the ball? run the ball up the middle and burn clock!”

dear carrie underwood,
i saw you on tv the other night during the cowboys-eagles game. if you’d like, you can be my girlfriend and come watch me work. my team doesn’t quit on themselves, and my coach is much nicer. in fact, we don’t even have a guy who complains about everyone but himself. plus you wouldn’t have to sit so far away in a press box. call me when you get tired of someone who’s so overrated.

i don’t know much about your music, but i’d give it a try,
scott

my family goes to the same mass every year…4 pm christmas vigil on christmas eve. every year, we go to mass, then over to my grandmother’s for finger sandwiches and gift exchange. when i was little, obviously i was anxious to get to the family gathering so i could get all my new toys. the last couple of years i’ve sat there kind of thinking about the christmas story, and how amazing it is. i sat there today just thinking of how joseph must have been struggling with how to deal with mary being pregnant….before he knew she was carrying the Son of God. and then the struggle it was to get to bethlehem and be a part of the census and all that. it’s good to be reminded each year about how everything worked out, and Jesus was brought humbly into the world in a stable. i remember in preschool/kindergarten we had a christmas play every year. i don’t know if it was called a pageant, all i know is that we each got roles. i think when i was 3 years old, i was in the choir. when i was 4 years old, i was a shepherd. when i was in kindergarten, i was able to play joseph. obviously i was able to move up from the choir to joseph pretty easily, must have been politics or something. basically i think we had a few lines, but mostly the teachers narrated. when i was a shepherd, i got to wear a robe and have a big can with a hook on it. i thought it was cool. when i was joseph, i think all i did was stand there, no staff. at the time, i just saw the people involved in the story as characters…not real. it’s interesting to think differently about the people in the christmas story, just to see how the story played out from their perspective. i’ve definitely gained a more mature view on the christmas story as i’ve gotten older, and thinking about it now makes everything more real to me, and even more miraculous.

today i had the day off of work, and did some cleaning around the house. i found several things from college that i had kept. old homework, old notes, even found a diagram of my first dorm room. i think i kept the hw and notes with the idea of “just in case”….like i’ll need the notes for my current job, which right now includes data entry. sometimes i think i was smarter then back in school than i am right now. most of that is because i don’t really do much of what i learned in school, and that’s what they kept telling us. well, ‘they’ meaning older engineers, not our professors.

also found amongst the cleaning was a couple of videotapes of the caedmon’s call guild weekend from 1999. i watched it and it took me back 7 years. i just remember being there, that night in the barn, and i felt a part of something. it was like a secret organization, we had to be mailed directions on how to get there and everything. after that show, and for a few years after, it was the best concert i had ever attended. the band was there for us, the guild members, and we soaked up every minute of it. there were several highlights of course, including aaron tate performing ‘potiphar’s door’, and derek debuting three brand new songs. watching it though made me remember how i was such a huge fan back then, and how different things are now. obviously the band dynamic has changed since 1999, but it’s not only the lineup that’s changed, it’s just the general feel of the band. it seems like they and their fans have moved so far removed from where we were that night in shiloh, texas. i guess that’s to be expected, but it sure is strange to think about. also, while i’m reminiscing, i’d like to again thank that kind officer from wherever we were at the time on the highway for not giving me a speeding ticket on the way back from the show at midnight on that lonely texas road.

this weekend i have to be careful when i go out, since i live near the mall and tons of other shops. it’s going to be insanity…i’m talking it would take me 30 or 45 minutes just to get to the interstate. i’m going to go out early tomorrow morning and hopefully make it in and out of walmart before the craziness hits. wish me luck.

oh, and i got word that i officially got into grad school….so that was pretty good. i was nervous about finding out since i have to pay for the class by jan. 2nd. i have no idea when the class actually starts, but i figure i should probably look into that.

this weekend i went up to nashville to visit some friends and basically take a vacation. i had gotten an email from southwest a couple of months ago and their deal of the week was nashville, so i made arrangements and voila. normally i go up for the andrew peterson christmas show (i have since 2003), but since the show this year was scheduled on a wednesday, i was now just going to go. not a bad reason at all. after hearing about the new kinds of hilarity being had in nashville, i was looking to have the same type experiences.

the weekend started out innocently enough with my flight being two hours late (for reasons still unknown), but quickly accelerated by attending the over the rhine chrstimas show. dig that peterson! i had never really listened to OtR ever, and only knew a cover song they did, but i’d heard good things and would not discount some friends’ love for the band. the show was packed out, and incredible, though very warm, esp in the balcony. anyway, check out their new christmas cd, i recommend it.

friday brought about a dinner trip to noshville, but sadly no dancing pickles were present.

saturday i went with trey and the collegiate group he leads at his church to christmas shop for a local family. we had a great time, and i was also able to score a darth vader mask for myself for the low price of $10. it’s not just a mask, it actually changes your voice, and provides countless hours of entertainment. saturday night included a vandy game, and a trip to a place called pizza perfect. the calzone was very good, though not perfect. i wonder what a perfect calzone would taste like.

sunday…..sunday was the best day. there a “drama” in church called “a smoky mountain christmas”, complete with singing and some dancing. it was excellent! i’m sure some people would downplay how much fun it was to watch, but there was no downplaying on our row. after church we went to a christmas theme party where we dressed in reindeer antlers and after lunch attempted to set the new land speed record for scooters in fairview, tn. i was hesitant at first because i had never ridden a scooter, but i gave a valiant effort though came up 6 mph short. 32 mph remained the top speed at the end of the day. it’s not as easy as you think it would be, because all of us quickly realized around 25 mph, the scooter gets a bit squirrely and your eyes start to water. much fun was had by all and the day became the landmark day of the weekend.

the flight home this evening was actually on time, which was good. i was even able to score a window seat even with having a C boarding pass. i also sat next to a nice lady who i talked to for the majority of the flight and gave me some encouragement on writing (i mentioned corner table).

(incidentally, we have several new articles up on corner table, including a concert etiquette article by me, a review of the new sufjan christmas album, and our first interview with a rock star. check the new stuff out!)

it’s been a really strange past couple of weeks. i’ve been trying to figure out how to write about it. thanksgiving was spend with family at a local restaurant. that was the first time we had done thanksgiving as a family at a restaurant. then last weekend my heart was ripped out when the clemson defense decided to mail in the south carolina game. HOW DO YOU DO THAT? at least the saints game the next day helped out, they beat the falcons…nice.

i did finally get my new macbook. it actually started out in china, and made it to my house by way of alaska. i’m loving having wireless internet. i’m sitting on my sofa right now watching the big 12 title game.

earlier today i insulated my attic where i had all the insulation removed by the tree. i woke up early this morning to meet my uncle at home depot to pick up the insulation and the blowing machine. then this afternoon chad and jacob came over and basically manned the ground operations while i climbed around in the attic. and when i say climbed i mean, literally….it is like a jungle gym up there!

i went in the gap yesterday on my way home and scored some new pants off the sale rack. i went looking for one of those product red shirts, specifically the one that says inspi(red) on it. you know, the one kanye’s got on that motorola commercial. unfortunately they only had two shirts available, one that said bo(red) and one that said hamme(red). i’m not kidding. so i go up to the counter to check out, and asked about the inspi(red) shirts by saying “do you guys have anymore of those inspi(red) shirts, cause if i’m going to be helping to eliminate aids in africa, i don’t want my shirt saying hamme(red) across it.” the girl says “oh….i bought that one, and the one that says bo(red).” i thought “oh, well, of course.” so i got home and ebayed an inspi(red) shirt. word.