Bringing the Drama

this past week has been insanely busy with all the grad school work, but thankfully that is over for the day, and i only have hw due next week, no tests. the week before last, i did some more cooking that i had never done before. first it was the cake, next up were eggs. i had bought some eggs at the store, and baked some brownies, but since that only called for two eggs, i had 4 left over. i had another Saints party for the first game of the season (i guess you could call it a game) and someone had brought over one of those vegetable trays. i decided to make an omelet with some of the cherry tomatoes left over, because i had quite a few, and when it comes to vegetable trays, i don’t eat many of the tomatoes. i looked up some instructions online on how to make an omelet, and thought it seemed easy enough. i cut up the tomatoes and threw in some celery that had also come from the vegetable tray. celery is weird, in that, i want to eat it because it’s negative calories, but it doesn’t taste very good.

i scrambled the eggs and poured them into the pan. the vegetables were waiting off to the side until the bottom cooked.

when the top started to cook a bit, i threw in the vegetables.

the tricky part to an omelet is the turning over of the flap. i think i waited too long, and the egg started to burn a bit, but it didn’t taste too bad.

i deemed my first omelet a success, even with the crack in the bottom, and the slight burning. at least it didn’t completely fall apart.

a couple of days later, since i had one egg left over, i decided to try frying an egg. i pulled out my trusty copy of “things you should know by now” and read some tips on frying the egg. again, the tricky part was flipping it over to get the other side.

i waited until the time i thought the egg would be okay to flip over, and very carefully flipped it over. nothing broke, and the egg was flipped!

i think the frying of the egg was easier than the omelet, even though there’s more pressure to flip it over without breaking it. the yolk did not come out runny like i like it, so next time i’ll have to work on getting that right.

first off….the DMB show in Houston on Friday was fantastic. the seats were great, and the band was able to ignore most of their more recent albums to play the old stuff like Dancing Nancies, Two Step, and What Would You Say. standing there watching the show, i just felt so relaxed. i remembered some of the previous times i’ve seen DMB, and how at those shows i didn’t have the worries i have now. like my grad school classes that seem to be DOMINATING MY EVERY WAKING MOMENT or job drama. the show i went to in charlotte in ’99 where we tailgated before the show, then had front row seats. the summer 2000 show in ATL where we missed most of the opener, vertical horizon, because of infamous ATL traffic. you get the idea. if DMB is going to be ‘the’ band that tours every year, they’re doing the right thing by playing a setlist full of their tried and true classics. it was the first time in three years i had seen them, and i don’t doubt it’ll be my last time because the live show STILL is great….even if their last 3 legit albums have been terrible. (where have you gone pre-2001 DMB?)

speaking of grad school….i have been studying for about a week for a test i’m going to take tomorrow morning. i had hw due in another class last thursday. i got an email earlier that i have a test in that class to take by Friday. i feel like i have no time, and i wonder how i took 6 classes at once during undergrad. how did i balance? i wish at least i could go to football games on the weekends. tonight on what should have been a joyous evening of watching the premiere of How I Met Your Mother, then watching the Saints game, i studied. i watched 1.5 quarters of the Saints game, after completely missing HIMYM. it is getting ridiculous. the end of this insanity is near though, at least for a little while….if i can make it through the test on Friday.

and now another letter:

Dear Pierre Thomas,
Deuce might be out for a while….please be ready. Eventually Coach Payton will realize running the ball is the way to go, and not with Reggie as the workhorse. He still keeps calling plays that are not working as if trying to outsmart the defense. If anyone was not going to get a big head going into the season, it would have been Coach. We will need you and your feel good story if there’s a chance at another division title.

Starting to get worried,
Scott

time….i have not had enough of it this week. between hw for one class due monday, then hw for another due today, and then going out of town tomorrow….i’ve run out of time on more than one occasion this week. i even took a day off of work yesterday so i could do hw and do stuff in preparation for this weekend. you have no idea how great it was, but yet, i wish i could have been at work. combustion hw just is not that fun.

i finally heard about the Virginia job today…i didn’t get it. don’t worry, i’ve kind of been expecting it for a week. last week i heard my friend melanie got a job in fairfax, and i thought if we had been up for the same job, she’d get it (and she did). i didn’t even know we were competing for the same job! part of the job was something she’s been doing for the past 6 months, she’s got way more experience than me. the good thing i made contacts, and i know that doesn’t seem like a consolation, it’s better than nothing. plus, now i have a friend who works up there. i talked to the first guy i interviewed with for about 15 minutes today (he called me back from my VM i left tuesday), and he gave me some advice and info on another person i can talk to about getting a job with that group. it is not a total loss. also, some jobs opened up in denver, and with the contacts i already have there, when i finish my last rotation, i’ll have denver as an option too. i’m trying to stay positive in this, and i guess it’s not too hard. i mean, i really wanted a change, but not changing right now is not that bad. plus, i get to go to all the concerts this fall and not have to miss something. excellent.

i’m going to houston this weekend…to see the dave matthews band (i know…but they can still put on a good live show, i hope anyway). i know most people are normally really excited to see a band for the first time in 3 years, but i’m just not there. i blame most of it on the time issue from this week, and all the work i have to do this weekend. the trip just seems like something i could cut out.

one more month to ryan adams….and i think i’m going to try to hit up 3 shows. it’ll be a great october.

Dear Dave Grohl,
I like your band Foo Fighters. I still tell friends about how when I saw your band open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2000, that you were the better band that night and you can put on an amazing live show. Unfortunately, you do not tour as much as other bands, which I can understand to an extent. Imagine my excitement when you scheduled a show in New Orleans in October! I made sure to be online to order tickets yesterday morning. I was up earlier than 10 to make sure I would be on time. Imagine my disappointment when at 10:00 am, the show was already sold out. I hate TM along with the rest of America I’m sure, but I don’t blame them for what happened. Why did the presale sell out all of the tickets? Presales usually only sell 100 or so tickets leaving the rest to the public. Why must you not arrange it so where scalpers cannot get their hands on tickets? One search of eBay shows that scalpers got several tickets and are now scalping the $38.50 face value tickets for over $100. Another favorite of mine, Ryan Adams, had a small show earlier this year in Chicago where all of the tickets were put at Will Call, and as soon as you picked them up, you were brought into the theatre. This cut down on scalpers and ensured a theatre packed full of fans who didn’t get gouged on tickets. Please either tour more, or figure out a way for more fans to get tickets. Thank you.

Disappointed FF fan,
Scott

Dear Sean Payton,
Why have the past two Saints games look like reruns of the Bears game last year? You said after the game that you underutilized Deuce running the ball. However, so far this season you are giving the ball to Reggie to run the ball more than Deuce. Reggie still doesn’t seem to grasp running north and south in the NFL. He still dances a bit too much and not gain yards that are available. Please pull out some of the plays from last year and let’s beat the Titans next Monday. Also, please tell someone to make more Fujita jerseys, I am having a hard time finding one.

Still believing,
Scott

i went and gave blood yesterday as usual (this time i got a saints t-shirt and a free oil change…what up!)…and during the course of my ‘screening’, my blood pressure came back higher than normal. i have some theories on why that could be right now:

1) i had to wait an hour to even get to the screening. usually i can walk in and go right to the finger prick and temperature reading. so i had an hour to think about and get nervous of “what if the nurse misses my vein?” when i broke my arm back in the day, they had to set it with no anesthesia because the nurse could not find a vein to give me an IV. i still remember the doctor saying “here, put your fingers in here, they’re kind of like chinese handcuffs. now i’m going to put this weight on this part of your arm” EXTREME PAIN!

2) i’m anxiously awaiting news on the Virginia job rotation. i had the 2nd interview on Tuesday with the boss of the guy i had talked to about a week ago. she was nice, and hopefully i made a good impression. she said i’d hear back one way or the other by the end of last week or the beginning of this week. since i didn’t go to work on Friday, there could be a voice mail on my phone with the news. the exciting conclusion will hopefully come tomorrow since my current boss is always asking me what the latest is so he can plan for the next couple of months. i really would love to try something different, so i’m hoping it comes through.

3) i haven’t been running as much since the spring when i messed up my hamstring. i had been running 3 or 4 times a week and had to obviously stop for the hamstring to heal. you know when football players tear theirs and it takes forever for them to recover? that’s pretty much what happened to me. i don’t recommend the hamstring tearing, it’s not fun.

4) football…..between the Clemson/FSU game last week, to the Saints debacle last Thursday, it’s been a high strung week and a half or so. fortunately LSU has not caused me any heartache or worry in their two games.

5) i probably haven’t been eating the best things lately. i’ve been cooking more, but probably not the best things. grilling pork chops and chicken is probably better than steak, but i have kind of gone away from the special K diet i was on a few months ago.

I think it’s a combination of both 3 and 5, both of which i plan on remedying this week. speaking of this week, i’m going to have to get a new phone soon. don’t worry, i’m due for a new one with the verizon credit and everything, but apparently the one i’m replacing (moto e815) is one of their best phones as far as reception. great, so i’m going to have to be replacing a legend. when i can decide on a phone, i hope it’s more steve young replacing joe montana than damon huard replacing dan marino. (and i know what you’re saying….damon who? exactly!)