Bringing the Drama

as if i didn’t need anymore motivation for the football games to watch today, i went to my high school alma mater (Northshore) and watched them take on their main rival (Slidell). my senior year was the FIRST time Northshore ever beat Slidell. beating them was a BIG DEAL. it takes up at least a couple of pages in my senior book (yes, i felt compelled to make one of those, but it’s basically just pictures and newspaper clippings). i was a jerk about the rivalry the rest of the year to people in my youth group. it was kind of awesome.

i haven’t been back to the school for a football game in a long time. i may have gone with my friend Ryan (who’s now in NC) but i don’t think so. for last night’s game, i emailed the young adult group at my church to see if anyone wanted to go. i had a couple of takers, so we were all going to meet at the school. the parking was INSANE! i made it in and walked up to the bleachers just as they kicked off. my friend Ehren was the first one there, and as we walked up to the bleachers, i told her i used to hate walking in front of everyone in the bleachers when i was in HS. i don’t know why, but i was. last night, we walked in front of everyone looking for a seat. we found one about the 35 yard line.

the only bad part of our seats were this lady in front of us who brought confetti to the game. CONFETTI! everytime Northshore did something good, she’d throw it, all over, which meant it got all over the people in front of her, and around her. i’ve heard of air horns at games, and signs, but confetti? i don’t recommend bringing it to a game unless you’re surrounded by a good sized radius of people who are cool with it.

the game was fantastic! of course, it had it’s sloppy moments with a lot of fumbles and penalties, but for a high school game i thought they looked decent. both QBs played really well i thought. apparently the NHS QB went 20-32 for 327 yards! they don’t give you stats during a HS game, and there’s always that announcer who’s RIGHT IN YOUR EAR it seems giving you a sort of play by play using the nicknames of the players. my old AP Am History teacher made an XP at halftime and apparently won a year’s supply of Chick Fil A sandwiches. the 2nd half was a lot more exciting, esp the 4th quarter. Northshore scored with 7 minutes to play, then Slidell scored with 3:27 to play, then Northshore got the winning TD with 46 seconds to play! the D finally rose up and stopped Slidell on the final drive, and then pandemonium ensued. it was great. i don’t know exactly how many times Northshore’s won this game since i graduated, but i felt very proud.

so the morning after the awesome Halloween party, i went and ran in a 5k. it was the fall edition of the Crescent City Classic, and the people who would be able to run it in under 25 minutes would get a timing chip for the spring 10k. i’ve been running at least 4 miles multiple times a week for the last couple, so i figured i might have a shot at the 25 minute mark. i got to City Park without much time to spare, and was walking up to the start area as the race started. there weren’t very many other people running, and for some reason once those people started, they started taking all the start area stuff down! i didn’t even know where the start line was! some guy suggested i just run to catch up with the group, so that’s what i did. i passed a big group of walkers, and by about the first half mile, i was out running my own pace without having to jump the curb and avoid a big group of slower people. i had no idea my pace, i was too concentrated on keeping up a fast one. when i entered the stadium for the finish, i saw the clock was past 25 minutes, and i finished in 27:22. my ipod told me i only ran 2.89 miles, so i didn’t even run the full 5k according to it. i know i didn’t start that far ahead of wherever the start was, so i suspect the ipod was off. they had you write down your time, and then turn it in, so theoretically i could have written down a sub 25 minute time, but i decided to be truthful (stupid morals!). they had beer and jambalaya available, but it was 9 in the morning, and i had just run 3 miles, so i went with a banana and some gatorade. i got my race shirt, and headed home.

i basically watched football and rested during the day, because i was going to the Hornets’ home opener with my dad that night. welcome to another year of basketball pictures from the upper deck! (below: LeBron surveying the court)

the game was great, and it was good to be going to a game again. it’s felt like forever since the infamous game 7. it was fun sitting in the crowd, making jokes about players, complaining home team players didn’t at least act like they were taking a charge, and high fiving strangers. the game was a lot closer than last year’s Cavs game, which made it more interesting. i’m going again on Wednesday and then next week to the Lakers game. i can’t wait! i didn’t renew my season tickets because of the high possibility i’d be moving, but man, i sure was kicking myself for not renewing. i’m still thinking about it, especially after my cousin said he’d buy my remaining tickets if i moved.

i was invited to a Halloween party at my aunt and uncle’s in Chalmette last night. seeing as how i could stay home and face a ton of kids coming to my house, or go to a party where other people faced a ton of kids, i went to the party. i didn’t have anything planned to wear as a costume, but i had considered it. i had gone to a local party supply store, but some of their costumes were $50 and $60. i didn’t want to spend that much. i kind of wanted a Jedi robe, but they didn’t have that either. so i planned to go to the party and not dress up. then yesterday afternoon, i figured i could dress up like Jim from The Office. i called my superfan Office friends Alisa and Kari about what kind of things i’d have to put on to make sure i got the look right. Kari suggested a messenger bag (which i had!), then Alisa told me i should dress up like 3 hole punch Jim (which i could make!). unfortunately, only one person at the party knew what i was dressed as, everyone else was trying to figure out why i had 3 black circles on my shirt, even after i said it was from The Office. very few people at the party even watched The Office and some had never heard of it. (I KNOW!) the one guy who knew it immediately and i shared a fist bump. i felt validated at last!

the party was great. there were a lot of people, and we all stood outside at one time or another to watch all the kids come up to my aunt for candy. we encouraged the kids to put their masks on if they didn’t have them on. it doesn’t count as Darth Vader if there’s no mask. with no mask it’s just a black robe with some buttons on the front.

a couple of my uncles put together a ‘haunted house’ in the garage, but some of the music didn’t really fit the mood. the Ghostbusters theme song didn’t really make you scared of anything. when the music was changed to the more ominous Halloween themed music, then everything worked out better. the battery powered bat my uncle had bought was a hit with some of the kids, who walked right underneath it to watch it fly around. the bat was too fast to capture in the picture, but trust me, it was there.

the only people dressed up at the party were me, and then my cousin and his g/f. they dressed as the Flintstones, with my cousin wearing plastic feet with only three toes.

we saw plenty of kids dressed up last night with no one costume leading all others. we saw Batman, Iron Man, Darth Vader, random skeletons, Snow White, but i think the best costume was the girl dressed up as Dorothy, complete with a Toto. also, some of the adults who were taking their kids around were also dressed up. did you know Velma smoked and drank? the one i saw last night did.

there were a lot of older kids out there, which wasn’t nearly as odd as the lady who came up with a couple of kids, but then had her own bag. she said that bag was for the baby at home who was sick. alright, babies can’t eat candy, and really, the baby was at home sick? who’s going to be eating that candy? we reluctantly gave her candy anyway, then laughed and speculated she made up the whole thing so she could get candy for herself.