Bringing the Drama

do you ever have that day at work where you feel like you’re in office space? maybe one of those sitcoms based in an office? everytime there’s a birthday at work, if the admins (ie secretaries) know about it, we have cake and a small party. everyone sings, but in that “i’m singing because i have to not because i want to” monotone. we had one of these parties on Friday for the new secretary. we all had to sing, it was monotone. i laughed on the inside.

lately at work we’ve had these new contract workers who come in to help do whatever they’re SUPPOSED to be good at. this is all theoretical of course except for one or two guys i know. one guy checks drawings, another guy makes drawings, etc. anyway, what they do is not important to this story. i’m standing there talking with a couple of friends on Monday when one of the guys comes up and is having trouble with his computer. i volunteered to help because most if not all of them have computer problems and there just don’t seem to be enough IT people. they are all older (which is not a bad thing) and some of them look at computers as if they are paranormal beings (not a good thing). most of it is as simple as helping them reset a password or figure out where they are saving files to. this guy wanted to be able to check his email. no problem, i knew how to set up the email and he’d be ready to go in a couple of minutes.

so i go back to his desk and sit down to help him. he keeps saying how he’s been given the name of an IT person (who i’ve never heard of) but he hasn’t been helped yet. i go to sit down to help him and i notice a BO smell. right….so i notice his computer can log directly onto the corporate network. all he needs is his password. he tries a password and it doesn’t work. he says he was never given a password. (there’s that BO smell again….it’s stronger this time.) i’m actually holding my left hand over my nose and clicking around with the mouse with my right, while thinking “this is going to be a fun story to share with friends”. (HELP! HELP!) we try to reset his password, but without the original password, he can’t reset it. (drat.) i find out his username to make sure it’s correct. he wants to write down all the information on the screen (which he doesn’t need) because he’s keeping a batch of important information written down. i tell him not to worry about it, none of it’s important. (what’s important would have been HIS PASSWORD!) i tell him he’ll have to wait till Tuesday to reset his password, because of the holiday Monday. he decides to call the IT guy whose name he was given, even though i told him that guy would not be able to help him. he starts to leave a message and gives his cellphone number…he leaves it TWICE because the first time he left it incorrectly. (how does someone have BO these days? it is overpowering) i go over again that we’re at a dead end without the password. he asks me if i’m an IT guy. i tell him i was not, i was just a designer/analyst. he says “oh, you’re a team player then?” “yep.”

so remember how i was sad when the Saints’ 2006 season finally came to an end? tonight the Hornets’ 2007-08 season came to an end and it had almost the same level of disappointment. i’ve never been to a game 7 of anything before, so tonight was a first, and hopefully it won’t be my last, though i hope next time the results are different. How was Peja not passed the ball much at all during the 2nd half? why were the starters out there so long? How did Julian Wright not even see the floor on his birthday? How was CP3 not making FTs? all these questions i wondered as we left the Arena.

before the game was great though. i had to go through my list of eligible game companions, because i had to bring someone i had been to a game with this year, and a game the Hornets had won. that was about 6 people total, so i ended up going with my cousin Jeff. we rode down there with one of his friends, drank some beer, i met the owner, and we even got to hold the ACTUAL peja heads!

so i guess at least the season went out with doing cool stuff like that. i really wanted to play the Lakers though. i hate the Spurs. after two playoff series, i now have pro teams i completely despise. the Mavs mostly because of Kidd, and the Spurs because they are so damn lucky (and they have players who like to bend the rules). they made what seemed like 70% of their 3 point shots tonight. granted, the Hornets couldn’t hit water if they were falling out of a boat until the 4th quarter, but even when they made a run, some 64 year old Spurs’ bench player would knock down a 3. yuck. my lucky shirt obviously had it’s luck run out tonight.

also, to that guy in section 319 on row 6 who asked people to sit down, you’re a jerk and if you wanted to sit down the entire game then you should have stayed home to watch it on tv. i would have told you that, but the one time you told me to sit down, i laughed it off while telling you “it’s game 7 dude”.

gas prices have gone up and have affected people in different ways. some people have chosen to drive less, others have chosen to stop eating in favor of using their money on gasoline. i have been carpooling for almost 4 years. first it was a 3 man carpool, then when Andy moved to Houston, it was 2, then Len joined at it was back to 3, then he went off to serve in Europe so it’s been 2 for about a year. Chad and I have alternated days and it’s worked quite well.

the gas prices apparently inspired our friend Thomas to ask Chad about merging carpool teams. the email traffic on Thursday set the foundation for a new carpool team that would add 3 to our existing team, which would help since we’d only have to drive the 60 mile round trip one day a week. awesome right? well….maybe. the opening email set the 5 minute rule, where if you’re late more than 5 minutes, you get left. and you can’t call. fine, i can be okay with that, but the inclusion of a guy with a mustang to fit 5 people doesn’t seem to jive with the iron clad 5 minute rule. the 3 additions are fine, i’ve talked to them before, but the carpool team has always been some of my best friends. not to say anything bad about these new guys, but they’re not on that level yet. i don’t know how it’s going to go with cramming 5 people in a car everyday, because it’s tight enough in my or chad’s car, and we have 4 doors. the mustang will be tight, we know this because when Len was added, we rode in the back of his Firebird. it was NOT that comfortable, even though there were two seats back there. Chad and I both agreed this new carpool will be run on a trial basis, because we are the original team, with Chad being a charter member.

this was written on Friday, but don’t worry, a recap of radiohead weekend including quotes will be posted next.

i’ve mentioned to friends before about how if there were such things as disposable cars, i would probably go through 3 or 4 a week. i commute half an hour each way to work every day. i see my fair share of stupid drivers. however, today my faith in humanity was questioned upon leaving my aunt and uncle’s after the mother’s day crawfish boil. i had pulled out onto the two lane road and making my way through an intersection where i had a green light. the traffic coming the opposite way also had a green light, and there were cars stopped to turn. one car went in front of me, because i was still a reasonable distance away, and there was no problem. then a gray xterra stopped, saw me coming, then went anyway. of course, i had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him. i laid on the horn, and he STOPPED IN THE INTERSECTION, so if i would not have stopped, i’d have hit the side of the car where his wife (i assume that’s who it was) was sitting. what is the point of that? what kind of example is he setting for his wife and kids? this guy is reproducing offspring? sure, i’ve seen the people who get mad at you when you blow your horn at them even though they are doing something stupid, but to actually stop in an intersection where you could have been broadsided is amazing to me. i would hope his wife was mad at him for putting her life in danger, but for some reason i can’t help but think of the other possibility where she was mad at me for blowing my horn.

in happier news, this weekend was pretty awesome, although the hornets getting blown out put a damper on sunday night. last night i played bunco for the first time ever. i had no idea how to play, but i literally walked in late (i was at a baby shower) and started rolling dice. it was a lot of fun, even though i lost $20. there was much hollering and gnashing of teeth. we played two rounds, and the 2nd round, my cousin jeff and i were paired together. we won our first four games, and were advancing table by table through our competition. at one point i had scored 17 points on one turn and only had one roll where i scored 5 points. the dice were HOT in our hands! we approached a table for an 8th win (and 9th since we’d have gotten the ‘bye’ which was an automatic win) knowing if we could win this table, we’d win the round. we had it won, until the last two rolls by one of our opponents. he rolled 3 5’s and they won by two. we would have won the 2nd round, and each won $70, but unfortunately lady luck frowned at the last moment.

also, thanks to brandi’s post a while back about going to see ben folds, i’ve been listening to my ben folds five cd lately because i love the song ‘kate’. so i wanted to link to a video of them playing it, it is a great song!

so the new sandwich mentioned earlier has been in the rotation constantly for a week and has been awesome. i think the use of the pickles has taken the sandwich to a new level. i got a new rotisserie chicken the other night, so one chicken is enough for a whole week. for an extra $1.50, it is way better than processed turkey. pictures can be made available upon request.

the Hornets games just keep getting better and better. the 2nd round games against the Spurs have been unbelievable. for game 1, they handed out gold shirts and Peja heads on a stick. the Peja heads were the coolest giveaway of the season IMO. they are awesome, and we got to hold ours up a lot during the game. he has a knack for knocking down shots at opportune times, and when he hit a 3 to make it 8-0 early on, you’d have thought it was to win the game or something. the Arena being full of people with gold shirts on was pretty amazing to see too. i yelled so much at game 1, i was wondering if my voice could make a comeback on such short rest for game 2. we also made friends with the people around us, which is easy since for the playoffs, we are sitting in the same seats for every game. there are a couple of tough looking mullet guys on the left of me, but they know basketball. i hear them talk about other teams and players, and one of the guys has binoculars. a few minutes after we sat down, we met a couple in front of us, who asked if i was the one who was yelling at Jason Kidd about being a wifebeater during game 5. when i told her i was (because it’s true) the lady laughed, and we had a great time yelling various random facts at various Spurs players. then there was the drunk lady on the other side of jacob, who refused to put on her gold shirt, but liked to yell and i think i saw her grab jacob’s leg.

the lowlight of the night was the stunt between quarters by “super” hugo, which came off fine, but the after effect lingered, literally. the fancy trampoline dunking is fun, and the past couple of times, there is a ‘team’ of fancy dunkers. so the team goes first, then they bring up a ring of fire for SH.

the dunk is cool, and then they go to put the fire out. the ridiculous spraying of 3 people with fire extinguishers causes dust and a film to descend across half of the court! the game is delayed for 20 minutes while the clean up people realize 1) it doesn’t clean up with just a towel mop, 2) it doesn’t clean up with two people with wet mops, and 3) it will take more than 3 people to clean it up. i heard some booing, and rightly so. why do something like that DURING a playoff game? by the time they finally got a sense of how to actually clean everything up, it was 20 minutes later. it was probably the dumbest entertainment event i’ve ever seen, and i actually saw some guy come lead a game of simon says at halftime this season!

game 2 the other night was another masterpiece, although we got another towel instead of a Peja head. more loud yelling, more insanity, and another win. unfortunately most of the people we met at game 1 were not there, except for the guys who sit next to me. no matter, we had a lot of fun, and i left with a headache from yelling so much. good thing the next couple of games are in SA.

Tuesday night’s Hornets/Mavs game was pretty incredible. it’s been pretty awesome to see how the attendance has gone from under 10K to now every game being sold out. the playoff games i’ve been to have been unbelievable. game 2 last week was great, and when the Hornets won on the road on Sunday, it gave them a shot to finish off the series in front of the hometown fans, and finish they did! the game started off with Byron Scott getting coach of the year, which was pretty cool. i was looking at my pictures from the game, and noticed what i had read about this morning, that Jason Kidd has his back turned to the ceremony. what a classy guy he is! after being a casual fan of the Mavs the past couple of years, i cannot stand them anymore. maybe it’s because they mortgaged their future for an aging bag of bones PG who’s too slow, maybe it’s because their star flops and gets away with traveling 291 times a game, but now they are a hated team for me. i never thought i’d have a hated NBA team. the halftime show left a lot to be desired after the Oak Ridge Boys had to sing acappella and only did one song before leaving. LAME! the 2nd half was exciting when the Mavs hit some 3’s to make it close, and then of course the end with the confetti and the crowd was great too. the Arena looked great all lit up as we were leaving. i’m pretty anxious for Saturday.

we saw more Saints players, which was cool. i felt awkward for Reggie though, because the mascot went over and got him to sign a football, then he was persuaded to throw it into the stands during a break in play. he’s just there to enjoy a game, don’t bother him! it’s bad enough they show those guys on the big screen, because i’m sure they’d rather just be able to enjoy a basketball game like the rest of us. what also bothered me was that the other players i saw did not get put up on the big screen. why just the guy who so far in his NFL career has been overrated? i like him and all, and was screaming for him not to hurt himself when he was going to throw the ball, but jeez, show some love to the other guys.

yesterday at work, i had to return a guy’s call in hopes to talk to him today about “golf clubs”. during the message i said “anytime tomorrow is fine. i don’t have any meetings tomorrow….awesome..” WHY did i do that? i say ‘awesome’ too many times as it is, but to a guy who i might be wanting to ask about a job later? argh! hopefully i’ll be able to talk to him later today and it’ll be cool, but right after i said it i thought “omg, i said that outloud!” other than that incident, work was fine.