Bringing the Drama

with all the drama of the past couple of days, i’m surprisingly doing okay. the game yesterday was awful. horrible. a nightmare. Clemson’s defensive and offensive lines got manhandled. still though, it was fun hanging out with friends, going down to Gameday, and watching football on 20 different widescreen tvs. also, i was able to get out of the GA Dome without getting into a fight, which unfortunately does not extend to all Clemson fans. some people should just not be drinking at a football game.

as far as Gustav, i just got a call that my parents are leaving. most everyone i know is spread across alabama. i’m going to stay in birmingham until i can get back, which looks like probably Wednesday. i’ll update things when i can. if i get another extended vacation from work, i’ll probably go traveling or something. it’s weird to say i am not freaking out, but having already dealt with a major storm, a glancing blow from another just doesn’t seem as bad. please keep the whole situation in your prayers though.

yesterday at work was pretty good. i’ve been working on this one calculation for about a week and a half, but i’m still not well versed with the analysis world, so i was having to ask a lot of questions. yesterday afternoon, i was finally able to get help from my supervisor and it was like the light came on. i was able to get what i needed to done and send out an email before i left with the results i found. it was kind of awesome.

also yesterday, i was getting directions to birmingham to meet CJ later today in preparation for Clemson/Bama tomorrow. i plugged in the addresses on google maps, and noticed a little camera icon by my address. i clicked and MY HOUSE IS ON GOOGLE MAPS! apparently the google mobile drove through and snapped photos in my neighborhood. (i wish Paris was my neighborhood) i saw that they pretty much did the whole NOLA metro area. i thought it was pretty cool.

i need to go finish getting some stuff together. i have my stuff ready for this weekend, but i’m also going to be bringing some stuff over to my aunt and uncle’s in case that Gustav guy shows up while i’m gone. the models are shifted more to the west, but i can’t completely trust them. still, i feel a little better than i did yesterday or a couple of days ago. just hope i can get home early next week.

also, today marks 3 years since katrina. i don’t feel nearly as weird as i did the two previous anniversaries, and in fact it seems like such a long time ago. the attitude with Gustav’s mostly “we know what it can do, we’re doing what we have to. however, we also know how bad things could get, and we’re ready for them.” it’s kind of cool to see people have confidence and not in a panic.

TOMORROW IS GAMEDAY! OMG WTF BBQ!

so i’m starting to enter ryan adams fanboy mode. i’m reading everything i can about the tour and the upcoming album. i’m even going to the TM pages for the shows i went to just to see what kind of tickets could be bought now. i was poking around on ebay for different things today, and decided to do a search for RA tickets. i came upon this auction (linky linked). these seats are next to my seat for the Tuscaloosa show. literally, i have seat 14. guess i’ll have something to ask my concert neighbors about when i get there.

in other news, work today was long. i’m back in the deep end of the pool as far as what i’m doing, and i’m trying my best. it just feels like i’m spinning my wheels. tomorrow should be a good day though, and i’ll have things taken care of before i go out of town this weekend, and vacation/evacuation since Gustav still wants to come here on Monday.

best line of the day….i asked “since when are hurricanes named with Russian names?” my friend Kenny said “well, if it’s Russian, it’s going to go to Georgia.” it was fantastic political humor at 7:52 am. unfortunately, it does not appear to want to go to Georgia…..yet.

seriously….come on, i’m going out of town this weekend. at least the computer models shifted more westward today. if they keep moving then it’ll be fine. i don’t want to have to evacuate/go on vacation, that would suck. right now the plan is to come back Sunday, but now it looks like that’ll be too late. argh.

on the way home today, chad and thomas were talking about boarding up their windows in case the storm came this way. they asked me if i was going to board up my windows, but i told them no, because i’ve had worse things happen to my house, and the windows just aren’t that important.

i’m really not that worried yet, for now it’s more an inconvenience.

so i didn’t exactly wake up as planned at 1:30 this morning to watch the gold medal basketball game. i had set my computer to tape the game though, and when i was awaken by a video message on my phone at 6 am, i couldn’t go back to sleep because i had to know how the game turned out. i got out of bed and began watching the game. it was amazing, esp how i actually cheered for Kobe Bryant as he took over the game in the 4th quarter to put the game away. it was great!

later in the morning, i went to watch the water polo final, after avoiding finding out a final score. i went to the NBC website to watch the video only to see that the headline on the video was “Hungary defeats USA for the gold medal”. WTF? i’m trying to watch the game in suspense, and the only way i can watch the game is telling me what the end result is. thanks a lot NBC jerks! oh well. it’s still cool that the USA water polo team got to the final. the more i watched some of the sports, the more amazed i was when a US team would do really well in spite of not having a professional league like other countries.

so the Olympics have finally come to a close, and i can’t remember watching and being more involved in an Olympics before. i watched everything i could live or online, and it was great. i had discussions with a friend to go to London in 2012, but we’ll see if that actually happens.

in other news, the video message mentioned earlier was from my friend Marika who made it to the Ryan Adams show in SF last night. she sent me a 15 sec clip of a new song. this got me thinking, i should look on youtube for clips of new songs. i ended up during my search finding a video of a band (Company of Thieves) doing a cover of a RA song. i checked out more of their stuff on their myspace, and am thinking about buying the album.

speaking of RA, it’s about a month and a half until i see him in Tuscaloosa. he’s been keeping a blog, that gets updated at a frenetic pace. he posts videos sometimes of new songs, or old songs, or random stuff. recently he posted a version of my favorite song, and it’s below….enjoy.

Sylvia Plath cover by WereWolph from Wilson Wolf on Vimeo.

last night i got in pretty late from a birthday party, but i was planning on getting tickets for Ryan Adams in ATL in October. this would be the 2nd of two shows for Ryan Adams Road Trip 2008. i fell asleep last night though and did not set an alarm. i woke up this morning in my clothes from the night before at 8:55 am….5 minutes before tickets were going to go on sale because it was 10 am eastern time. i saw the time and said “Thanks God!” i got on the computer and got two tickets, because i had a feeling my friend who i had not heard from still wanted to go, and if not, i got 4th row behind the pit on RA’s side of the stage! yes, that’s right, to go along with my 2nd row on the right side of the stage in Tuscaloosa, for ATL i’ll be a little further back but on the left side of the stage. not bad not bad. TM did the same thing this time and sent me a code for a free iTunes song after gouging me for $12 per ticket ‘convenience’ charges. jerks.

after breakfast, i went out and mowed my lawn. it’s been raining here almost every other day it seems the past couple of weeks, so i hadn’t had a chance to cut my grass with it being wet. so today was tough going because even at 11:00 am, it seemed really hot. i made it through though with the mowing, but came to realize that my weedeater had died yesterday. i was going to have to get a new one to complete the yard work this afternoon.

i was wondering what time Fay would be getting here, and thought it would be this evening, so i actually went out to walmart on a Saturday afternoon. i was hoping i’d be back before any rain started. i went over to Sears and got a new weedeater. i got home and put it together and my gosh, it is so much better than my old one. i’m glad that one burned up! the new one disintegrated everything in its path. i think the sound of my new weedeater motivated the old lady behind me to get her son to weedeat her yard. i don’t know if he lives there or what, but he usually does all her yardwork.

anyway, as i was finishing with the new weedeater, i noticed sometime after mowing the lawn, the old lady behind me had let her dog crap in my yard again. i hate that. it’s not so much that i hate flinging the poo back in her yard (which i do), it’s that she’s so inconsiderate of me. any suggestions to show her who’s boss? i am open to them.

i grilled out with some pork tenderloin, and combined it with mac and cheese and steamed broccoli for a fabulous preseason game meal. the Saints beat the Bengals, and then i went back to watching the Olympics. did you know the world record for 5000m is 12 something minutes? that’s almost 3 miles! that’s crazy!

ok, so that was my rather interesting Saturday. i’m going to bed so i can wake up at 1:30 am to watch the basketball game and maybe water polo. then i’ll go back to sleep for church. i’m dedicated for sure to the live Olympics. no sign of Fay yet, but i figure it’ll be raining sometime tomorrow morning. my yard is ready for it though!

last year i took to the road to see Ryan Adams three times in three nights. this year he’s going to be touring again in October, and i’m lining up plans to go to two shows in two nights. the Texas dates probably won’t work out at all, but the shows in Alabama and Georgia will. i bought my ticket yesterday for the show in Tuscaloosa, and i got 2nd row. however, the base price of the ticket was $35 and my total for ONE ticket had an $11.80 ‘convenience’ fee. to make up for completely gouging me, ticketmaster sent me a code for a free song off iTunes. thanks i guess. (i ended up getting that new Madonna song “4 Minutes”)

i’m off work today, but i ended up sleeping in rather than watching the water polo. however, the USA didn’t need my help and are playing for the gold Sunday! incidentally, it’s going to be about an hour after the basketball gold medal game tips off, so i’m not sure how much sleep i’ll be getting.

speaking of basketball, the US team beat Argentina today. it was supposed to come on around 9:15 am, but no, the NOLA NBC station tape delayed it so they could show the Today show in its entirety. it’s a known fact the Today show does not get good viewership in NOLA, but they tape delay it everyday maybe thinking no one will figure out that Today shows times in ET not CT. so today because of their ridiculous planning, i had to watch the basketball game an hour later than everyone else in the country. in addition to the tape delay, they cut in almost every 15 minutes with a weather update to show TS Fay will probably come this way by Sunday or Monday. they didn’t do a split screen or anything, they just skipped ahead during the game, one time with 3 seconds to go in the first half. what is wrong with them? the ironic thing is that the affiliate’s slogan is “on your side”, but in this case they were not. the main thing though, is that the US team has finally made it to the gold medal game, which is awesome.

i just watched the 200m final, that guy Bolt is crazy. i had read earlier this week the giant difference between Michael Johnson’s record and the next fastest time, something like 0.3 seconds. Bolt broke it WITH a headwind. that is insane! as bad as i feel for the two guys who got DQ’d, it did mean the guy from Clemson (Shawn Crawford) got silver. what up!

i will probably get up early tomorrow morning to watch the US in the semis of the water polo. i don’t have work tomorrow.

i’ve been watching the basketball games and keep thinking the US mens’ team could be better than the Dream Team. i know you can’t really ever prove it, but i think they really sent as many of the top 10 NBA players as they could have sent. the ‘92 team had great players, but a few of them were on the downside of their careers. none of the players on the current team are slowing down, they are all speeding up, or are already at their peak. it’s been amazing to watch.

that Chinese chick who tried to fake an injury in the beach volleyball gold medal game was ridiculous. then again, if you know you’re going to lose, might as well string the glory of playing in front of your home fans a little more.

i miss watching the swimming.

so remember how i had joined a gym? i’m still paying for that gym, but i have totally fallen off the wagon as far as going to it regularly. last time i was there, i scanned my card, and the guy asked me if i was new. i started running there, but once i got up to running a 5k, i was able to run that at home. i like running outside, and not on a treadmill. anyway, in light of all this Olympic coverage and how awesome it has been to watch all of the swimming, i decided i’m going to buy some swimming goggles (i like these) and see if i can start swimming regularly. i won’t be lulled into wanting to do something at home because i have no pool at home and the neighborhood pool is probably 10m wide. usually when i’ve gone, the indoor pool has old ladies in it doing some kind of water aerobics, but i only will need one lane. growing up, i took swim lessons from another family in our neighborhood, and i learned all of the strokes. i’ll start easy with the freestyle, but i might see about the backstroke since i also liked to do that. we’ll see how it goes, i’ll probably be able to start on Wednesday.

in addition to getting back on the gym kick, i want to see how much slower my time is compared to the Olympic swimmers. it may take me like 10 minutes to swim what they can in 30 seconds, but hey, i gotta start somewhere.

so i went to Charleston this past weekend for one last vacation before summer ends. the journey getting there Friday was epic in it’s ridiculous unfolding. i was flying out of Gulfport because it was a little cheaper than flying out of NOLA. my flight to ATL was supposed to leave at 10:29 am so i could make my 1:30 pm connection to Charleston. then they updated the board….11:00 am, then 11:15 am. the arrival time on the last time change was going to be 1:33 pm, past the time i would need to be there for my connection. i went to the gate counter and told the lady, and she confirmed me on the next available flight to Charleston in case i did not get there in time for my original. i noticed on the ticket i was confirmed in first class which i figured was the least they could do since we were leaving almost an hour late.

we took off from Gulfport an hour after the originally scheduled time and arrived in ATL at 2:10 pm, way after my connection was leaving, so i was going to be taking the next flight. i realized a desire for chik-fil-a, and was on a mission to find one somewhere in the ATL airport. they make us wait in the plane while people are organized to ‘accept’ the flight. don’t people have jobs where they just go from gate to gate ‘accepting’ planes? while on the plane, i noticed a group of older women who were all flying to different destinations, but they knew each other. they made an announcement that there were 20 people on the plane who had either missed their original connections or were going to be rushing to make their connections, and people should let us off first. i was up near the front, so it didn’t really make a difference for me. the older ladies were worried about their 2:50 connections. they finally get a walkway lined up, and it’s stairs! a couple in their 80s were the first off the plane, and when they got to the bottom of the stairs, they stopped to ask an airport employee something. this held up the entire line, then one of the older ladies sitting near me on the plane goes “would you come on, move it along!” then i hear her say under her breath “wait a second, they are not that much older than me”. whoops. no one’s feelings get hurt though, and we move on. we have to walk up stairs to get to the concourse, and then realize they have gated us at the most crowded concourse at the ATL airport. Thanks Delta!

i walked back to the gate where my Charleston flight was leaving from and had to wait 20 minutes for the lady to finish with the previous flight. while waiting, i called my friend Brandon who i knew was at a computer and got him to look up where a CFA was in the ATL airport. i finally was able to check in for my flight, and took off to find the CFA. i found it and booked it back to the gate where my flight was taking off. i got on the plane and took my seat in first class. i sent the following picture to Brandon thanking him for his help:

i began to eat and thought as all the other commoners walked past me, if they thought all first class people got CFA. i had a bottle of water, a pillow, and a blanket waiting for me when i got on the plane. one of the stewardesses asked me what i wanted to drink while people were still getting on the plane. i told her i was fine, because i had a diet coke from my CFA meal deal. a gentleman sat next to me and he ordered a scotch and water. he asked me why i didn’t get anything to drink, and i told him i was fine with my diet coke. he laughed, so i asked him if the drinks were free. he laughed and said “of course they are, this is first class!” he asked me what i wanted to drink, so i told him a crown and coke. the steward came by and he told him what i wanted, and the steward asked if i wanted the drink in my CFA cup. i told him no. when the stewardess brought my drink, she apologized for them not having crown, but she had CC (i later found out this was canadian club). i thanked her and started drinking a cocktail before we even pulled away from the gate. i told the guy of my troubles with the late flight and the missed connection, etc. he told me it was a pity they gave me first class for a flight so short. we both ordered 2nd drinks early in the flight, but were not able to order a 3rd before the announcement came that we were making our approach to Charleston. i felt great getting off the plane in Charleston though.

incidentally, the guy next to me talked me up about where i was from and what i did. turns out he was a Clemson alum and the leader of some contractor in Charleston. after telling him i was looking around as far as a job, he ended up giving me his card and telling me if i wanted i could send him my resume. i told him i’d think about it.

so what started off as a nightmarish day, ended up being pretty good, and i only ended up getting to Charleston 3 hours after i had originally planned to arrive. still though, i’ll rethink flying Delta unless i have to, in spite of the free alcohol.