Bringing the Drama

i’m going out of town this weekend, and originally i was supposed to leave today, but things got pushed back to tomorrow. i still took a day’s vacation and did all my laundry, watched a couple of grad school classes, and did some lawn maintenance. it was a pretty productive day.

i always somehow procrastinate to the last minute when having to pack for a trip. i have to be at my parents’ for 7:30 tomorrow, and yet here i am at midnight not packed. the destination is augusta, GA, because we’re going to the masters’ practice round on monday. it was a funny thing, the same day last fall that i was given the news that my grandmother had a couple of months to live was the same day the notice came in the mail that i had been drawn for practice round tickets. it’s a lottery type system, and i had been trying since 2002. i’m not even sure i’m ready for this. i have grown up watching this tournament on television since i can remember, because my dad would always have to get my mom to tape the final round because he’d be at church, or doing national guard stuff. i remember how excited my parents got when nicklaus won in ‘86, i remember watching mize chip in to beat greg norman in a playoff in ‘87. the masters is THE thing i would most want to win in my life if i could win anything. unfortunately i have chosen another career path, but the answer to the hypothetical question remains. the entire tournament is built on tradition. i can’t believe i’m actually going to be able to go, even if it is only for the monday practice round. one year at clemson, i lived with some guys that were from north augusta, and they had been to the actual tournament much less practice rounds. they had videos of players warming up, and would talk about the tournament like it was just another thing. i envied them. i don’t even know if i’m prepared to stand at amen corner, to see the eisenhower tree, or to see the famous 16th green. i don’t even care if i see any players. i’ve been to a PGA tour event, i’ve seen my favorites up close (except for tiger), and while that’d be exciting, that’s not a big priority for me. since i do get to bring a camera to practice rounds, i hope i get to see some of those guys though, you know, for posterity.

all that being said, please pray for no rain on monday in augusta, ga, because there are no rain dates for tickets that are one day and one day only. if it rains monday, we’re screwed. however, looking at the forecast tonight, it says 30% chance of rain in the morning, and that’s it. let’s hope it stays that way.

so apparently gap is now selling unisex tearoff khakis. some would call this foolish, i say maybe they are on to something.

march madness became march boredom the past week or so. what was up with all the top seeds winning? nobody cares about that stuff. people want to see the lower seeded teams get some upsets, and except for maybe VCU beating duke, no big upsets happened. and btw, the big 12 torched my bracket AGAIN! kansas is out as a final four pick for at least 3 years. i have picked them 3 straight years and nothing. at least this year they got past the first round. rock choke! i had finally forgiven rick barnes and picked his team to get to the final four, and yet they lost in the 2nd round. at least A&M went out putting up a fight.

and finally, i was poking around on youtube and found a pretty interesting video of this guy drawing john locke from LOST in photoshop, THEN i saw this video, which was so much better!

i hate reruns of my favorite shows when i’m not expecting them. i especially hate when my favorite shows are pre-empted for shows that are languishing so the network can take advantage of my favorite shows’ viewership to push their not so good shows. last night i went running and got back just in time for the beginning of ‘how i met your mother’. imagine my shock when not only was it not a rerun (i keep waiting for ’slap bet’ to rerun), but that seinfeld retread show ‘new adventures of old chrstine’ was on. damn cbs and their manipulative spring scheduling. i hate them and their 72 different CSI’s!

i’ve watched a lot of college basketball over the past two weeks for obvious reasons, and plan to watch plenty more for the next month. in fact, i’m going to some games in new orleans this weekend. not only am i glad that i’ll be at real games, but i will not be subjected to watching that new dick vitale hooters commercial. has anyone seen this? (if you haven’t you can click the link) it is entirely awkward, and what is he doing at the end? it looks like he’s got the shakes like he’s thinking about passing the basketball, but doesn’t. i don’t get it. i hope he got paid a lot, because he looks like a fool in that commercial. i would like him to do the basketball on cbs than that curmudgeon billy packer. he’s so bad i’m going to watch some of the games on mute.

i read this article on npr’s website the other day on some hearings on credit cards in washington. i was troubled a bit that instead of trying to make people make smart decisions, they’re just making the credit card companies change their rules. my favorite was the guy who ran up a $3,200 balance in a month, then struggled to pay it off by not paying anything at the end of the month. well duh.

“Do you think most customers understand that the grace period only applies to people who pay their bill in full every month?” Levin asked. “Do you think most people understand that? Mr. Wannemacher sure didn’t.”

“I think a large majority of our customers do understand that, sir,” Srednicki answered.

nice job dude, charge up $3,200 on a card, then don’t pay anything. of course it’s the credit card company’s fault! i didn’t even know all cards had a grace period, but i think it’s a good thing if it only applies for people that pay their cards off in full every month. why should people that don’t pay their bills get the grace period too?

today at work our resident dwight said in a serious voice: “as fast as my star rose, it has fallen.” sounds like he got in trouble again today.

i’ve come to realize that one of my co-workers is very much like dwight from the office. you know how dwight walks around saying he’s the assistant regional manager, but he’s just the assistant TO the regional manager? this guy at my office seems to have a control complex where he needs to feel in control of everyone, even though he’s not really in control of anyone. he built a model of the spacecraft we’re building, and i thought this week about how i would go about putting it in jello. i would definitely use blueberry jello, with some club soda, so it would look like it’d be out in space, surrounded by stars.

i was going to buy tickets to go see the police this week, but the presale did not allow you to buy tickets in the upper deck, only in the sections where tickets were $90 and $200. i like the police and all, but not that much.

thursday night jacob and i went and ate, then met up with a couple of other friends after dinner. i’m not a big fan of the bar we went to, because it’s smoky in there, and there’s not a band on the verge of stardom like the green room. anyway, on our way home, jacob was pulled over not once, but twice, within 10 minutes. the 2nd time i think the guy was profiling us, because he never told us why he pulled us over.

clemson’s nightmarish end to the season came to a close thursday. i had to watch the score update at work on the computer, and am glad i didn’t have to watch them blow a 5 point lead at the end, and then have the ref call a foul with 1.5 seconds left. who does that? now i think they’re headed to the NIT, though i think they should still get some consideration for the teams they beat during the season. with all the upsets in the other conference tournaments though, i don’t know how many at-large spots are available.

yesterday on the way home i bought a flat (24) of abita strawberry harvest lager. i loved this stuff last year, and after going on the brewery tour a couple of weeks ago, i know their beer can keep for a few months. i’m stocking up this year.

and this week was also great because a new ryan adams album was announced. i’ve already heard a few of these songs through live bootlegs, and i think it’s going to be very good.