Bringing the Drama

i haven’t blogged in a while, but it’s not from not having stuff to talk about. i have two things that i just have not typed about that i will eventually very soon. so i’ll just muse about stuff that’s happened in the past 48 hours, some good some bad.

- i went to the dentist today. they had called me a couple of weeks ago and told me the hygienist who usually cleans my teeth won’t be there when i go and if this other lady can do it. i figured it’d be okay. i was so wrong. she failed to read my chart to see that i had sensitive gums, so when she was using the hook thing to scrape my teeth, it was PAINFUL. you know when you push your cuticles down on your nails? it was like she was doing that on my gums! i asked if she could go easy when she got to my front teeth, and then looked at my chart. “oh, you do have receeding gums”. i didn’t freak out or anything, and after i said something things worked out. i scheduled my next appointment though and made sure to get my old hygienist back.

- White Shoes and i have been working together on a part. i don’t know how i keep getting paired with him, but i do. maybe it’s because they know i can do my job AND his job if i have to. anyway, i’ve been asking him if we have deadlines for what we’re doing, and he’s said no. then tuesday afternoon he comes up and says “oh, (our boss) wants us to present at the 8:30 meeting tomorrow morning.” i told him that was fine, if all we had to do was give a status. on Wednesday i get there and WS is not there. i go to the meeting, and everyone is wondering why i’m in there. so i told them about what WS had said. (our boss) says “oh, i didn’t mean today, just sometime soon.” i told him i could talk the work if he wanted, but he said it was okay. i don’t think WS showed up at all yesterday. typical, and why i kind of hate my job right now.

- the other day i ordered some stuff from Nike because they were having a sale and someone on slick deals had posted a coupon for another couple of discounts. i ordered some Air Jordan wristbands, among another couple of things for running. the wristbands were less than $4 after the coupons. i thought i’d be getting the stuff next week. i got my shipping email today and clicked the tracking link. the package was delivered today and was outside. awesome.

- i watched the Clemson/VT basketball game tonight. it was an amazing comeback. i’m kind of superstitious about things, so when they were doing well in the 2nd half as i was cutting up a rotisserie chicken, i stayed standing in that spot even after i was done with the chicken. it worked and they won by 4.

- speaking of superstitions, i’ve taken my mom to a couple of Hornets games earlier this year. both were against teams the Hornets should beat, but they did not, they lost both games. so Wednesday’s game against the Nuggets was going to be one i thought they’d lose. my friend Gary ended up not being able to go, so i called my mom and asked if she wanted to go, because it’ll be like a reverse curse. if she went to games the Hornets should win, and they lose, then wouldn’t they win if she went to a game where they should lose? two starters out and playing the Nuggets who were playing well? the plan worked though, and the Hornets won the game. i told my mom on the way out that now she’ll be on the list of people to go if the Hornets are playing teams that are above .500, and she’s okay with that.

- last night i had a dream that i helped Ally Sheedy set her old house in NOLA on fire. she wanted to burn it down to collect the insurance, so she bought a bunch of gunpowder and explosives and had them in the garage. i poured a gasoline trail from the garage out to the street. she told me to light it, but i thought if i lit it we’d be tracked down. two other people were there but i don’t remember who they were. she took a match out of my hand and lit the gasoline trial. we all jumped in our cars and drove away as the flame raced up the driveway. i remember thinking that i had to drive normal, and saw in my rearview the plume of smoke rising from where the house was. then i woke up and realized my clock radio was on and they were talking on the radio about a big fire downtown this morning.

yesterday i was able to watch some of the inauguration live. i mainly wanted to see the inauguration address, which i did. i like watching inaugurations, because they are so traditional and dripping with historic significance. i didn’t watch it because Obama’s black and OMG a political rock star. i didn’t even vote for him. it’s a daunting task to give an inauguration address. i was telling one of my friends yesterday i wouldn’t even know what to say. to stand in the same position* as “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” and “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” and try to speak something worth anything is something i’m not sure i could do.

(* i thought the mentioned quotes came from the same physical spot near the Capitol but apparently they did not so ‘position’ in this case means on the steps on either side of the Capitol at an inauguration)

the speech yesterday was okay, but i guess i was expecting something mind blowing. it sounded like a bunch of stuff i already knew. i know we can get out of the calamity of the economy, i know we can overcome the problems in our country, i know America has done it before, i know each person is going to have to make tougher and smarter decisions with their money (which i think got us in this whole mess), i know all of that. i’m confident that things will turn around. i am hoping the speech struck a chord with some of Obama’s supporters, the ones who like to have Bush bashing parties, the ones who thought yesterday was their first glimpse of what America is, the ones who pimped their own political rant blog on a music message board, and the ones who in the facebook chat had no idea there have been more inauguration parades than Presidents. i like Obama’s attitude of trying to unite America again after years of divisive politics, and i want the same end goals, i just think the ways to go about getting there are different.

one of the things yesterday that bothered me is how much hero worship i saw yesterday. not that i haven’t already seen it for months, but it came up again yesterday. i don’t get wearing clothes with a politician’s face on them. i’m not going to put a politician’s name in sequins on a hat. it reminds me too much of Communist propaganda. i think people are too caught up in worshiping the man, and not looking past the man and seeing what the country can be.

then yesterday afternoon i saw this headline and picture. i don’t know who was doing the editing, but i think they could have done a better job. it looks like Bush is getting off the helicopter, who decided to go with that picture? was there not a picture of the new president available?

before yesterday afternoon, in the game of Basketball I Never, i had never seen a game winning shot as the buzzer sounded. i’ve seen my team beat the #1 team, rushed the court after said win, i’ve seen comeback wins when all hope seems lost in both OT and regulation, seen a player get a triple double, seen a player set an NBA record, but never a shot going up as the buzzer is sounding with the clock reading 00.0.

yesterday my Dad and i went to the Hornets/Pacers game, and just wanted to see a win. we got much more. the game started off pretty poorly. remember that guy i met before one of the games a while back, Sean Marks? he had to start the game yesterday because of an injury to David West. he looked terrible. i kind of felt bad for him, but he was taking terrible shots, letting rebounds go off his face and hands, and just looking awful. my Dad booed one of his terrible shots that barely grazed the rim. i told him it was still early, there was no reason to boo, then Sean had a rebound go off his face. what can you do?

the Hornets stormed back though, and made a game of it going into the half. they looked good in the 3rd quarter, and near the end of the 4th, they were up 5 with only 1:15 to play. the people next to me who always leave early i think had already left. a lot of people in and around my section were leaving. it appeared the Hornets were going to win. then the Pacers hit a 3. 2 point game, but no worries, Hornets ball with 49 seconds to play. Chris Paul is dribbling and TJ Ford and Jarrett Jack converge and stole it and they tied it on a fast break layup. i’m sitting there like WTF, CHRIS PAUL??? they get the ball and come down, Melvin Ely gets fouled, makes 1 of 2 FTs, 98-97 Pacers ball. they come down and the Hornets force a turnover with 7 seconds left and i think “we win”. they foul CP, he makes both. 100-97 with 7 seconds to play. the Pacers called timeout, and i’m telling my Dad they should know the ball is going to local NOLA kid Danny Granger, who’s been nailing 3′s all day. he’s the best player on the team, OF COURSE it’s going to go to him. cover him and make sure the guy he passes it to is covered. they inbound the ball, it goes to Granger, he’s got two guys in his face, BOOM! tied at 100. how in the world did he make that shot? and really, 2.5 seconds? i thought the game was going to OT, and the way the Hornets had let the game get away from them, i thought the Pacers would win in OT. the Hornets put 3 shooters out on the floor along with CP and Ely. they inbound the ball and the Pacers clogged the lane, so CP couldn’t drive, so he dribbles out and has to throw up a fall away 3 pointer. the horn sounds as the ball is going up. nothing but net. ball game. Pandemonium. Go Crazy.

this video shows the shot and the crowd reaction the best. i love how pretty much everyone puts their arms up. i was definitely doing the same thing.

after the shot went in, i wanted to yell out “Happy MLK Day to everyone!”, because we were reminded it was MLK Day about 1000 times during the game. they had PSAs at almost every stoppage in play. notice though, that the announcer in the video says “happy holiday!” that’s all i would have been trying to do.

today was kind of crazy, but overall ended up really good. first off, this morning was the presale for the Ryan Adams show in Baton Rouge. i made sure yesterday of how many tickets to get, etc, so this morning was just a matter of buying the tickets. i loaded up the TM webpage at 10 am and entered in 4 tickets. after the first result of row J, i did everything over and got row N. it was like 10:02 and i knew the tickets weren’t going that fast. Row R. Row N. Row K. then i got row C. with it being my sixth attempt, i bought them, and they look like they’ll be very excellent. looking at a detailed seating chart on the venue website, they’ll be 3rd row in front of Ryan. why couldn’t i have gotten row C the first time? it doesn’t make any sense!

later around lunch time, i was double checking to make sure the local ABC affiliate would be broadcasting the Clemson/Wake game on Saturday. unfortunately what i saw was listed the Kansas/Colorado game. confused, i googled for a coverage map, which is normally only important for football. i found the following:

oh i see, the border of coverage for the BIGGEST GAME SINCE I WAS A FRESHMAN STARTS 10 MILES AWAY! i emailed the station to ask if they could change things up, because the Clemson game is a matchup of top 10 teams while the other game is two unranked teams. who in their right mind outside of KS and CO care about that game when you have a better game? this is the decision someone made when deciding what game would more of the population would be interested in! Hawaii and Alaska are getting the Clemson game.

when i realized the problem, i emailed my friend Chris and told him because he now lives in Houston. obviously we’re both going to hit up a sports bar to watch our alma mater play on Saturday. since the Baton Rouge alumni club was already planning to meet at a sports bar, i wanted to email the guy in charge of the NOLA club. i couldn’t find any previous emails from him or the mailing list, so i looked up his email on the Clemson alumni page. i emailed him the information and told him to pass it along to the NOLA club. he doesn’t respond, but 30 min later i get an email he has sent out to everyone in the NOLA club basically repeating what i said. he didn’t credit me. i guess i shouldn’t have been shocked, he’s a lawyer, but still, he could have been nice. am i asking too much for him to reply and say “thanks”, or maybe say “hey, scott emailed me this earlier, heads up” before you basically repeat what i took the time to tell you? apparently so.

then later this afternoon CJ Spiller announced he was staying for his senior year. i got the video feed of the press conference loaded just in time for him to say he was staying. unfortunately no one else at work really knows or cares, so i kind of had to keep my excitement to myself. it is a BIG deal! it’s been a tough year for Clemson football, but today was a good jolt in the arm.

at a counselor meeting last week at church, i was chosen to be the captain for the adult team that will take on a team of youth on Super Bowl Sunday in a game of flag football. it wasn’t really something i lobbied for, but mainly was looked at and asked “so we need a captain, will you do it?” i sent out an email last night to the people who have signed up and explained a little of what we’re going to do, and what our expectations should be (WIN!). tomorrow night it’s supposed to get down to 31 degrees, but we’re going to have practice starting at 7:30. i told the team that if they didn’t want to get out on the frozen tundra, that would be okay.

i talked with my friend Brett this afternoon about what we could do, and how we could apply some real football ideas to the game in a couple of weeks. i think we have a good plan, so hopefully tomorrow night we’ll figure out who can play what position, and we’ll be able to get after drawing up plays and adapting schemes. i thought this year was the first year we were having this game, so i wanted to set a precedent, but apparently they’ve had a similar game before. last year apparently the adult team got blown out. not this year. the key to winning the game i think we be having a plan, like what plays to run and what defense to play. not sure how many parents will be playing, because right now i have a few people from my young adult SS class, one of which has jr high football playing experience. i’m confident we can pull it off, and i hope to get that message across to the team.

on my way home tonight i stopped off to buy a football. do you know there are multiple types of the same size football? i’m not talking 2 or 3. there were 8 or 10 different kinds. i had a suggestion from someone so i went with that one. but seriously, 10 different kinds of footballs? at the register i was behind a guy who was with his two sons. one of the sons wanted his dad to buy him some cold weather warm up gear. the dad refused and told him he was already at the register, plus he had some stuff at home for the kid to try on. the son didn’t like that, and started whining. he was like 13! his brother kind of shuttled him away, cause the dad was about to go off. i kind of looked at the football i was buying and tried to act like i was really interested in the box. i managed to avoid making eye contact with the dad after all that went down.

on my trip to walmart tonight, i bought a couple of those reusable shopping bags. i’ve had one for a grocery store for a while, and it has saved me from getting plastic bags there ever since. walmart though has been a culprit of the proliferation of plastic bags at my house for years. lately i’ve had cashiers who put one item in a bag. ONE. one pickle jar, one jug of milk, etc. tonight though, i changed things and bought the reusable ones. i got to the checkout line and struck up a conversation with the cashier girl, pretty much about the reusable bags. the cashiers at walmart are kind of hit or miss, sometimes you get nice ones who want to talk and some who just want to make it to their next break. the one tonight was nice, and she said she had even bought bags to use to go to the beach. then this other cashier guy comes up and starts showing how there are loops on the bags to put them on the little wheel of plastic bags to make it easier for the cashiers to hang and put stuff in. pretty handy tips, but then he kind of hung around still talking about the bags, and pretty much ended my conversation with the cashier.

anyway, the conversation with the cashier was kind of talked about in Sunday school this morning. we talked about how our attitude with other people can exude Jesus, and how that can be important. i try to talk to the people scanning my groceries, but i guess it gets awkward when they start sharing too much information. you know the types, you start talking to the girl and she starts telling you how the lady who was in front of you in line was using food stamps because she lost her job, not because of the recent hurricanes, and how she feels sorry for her because she knows what that lady was going through because she got pregnant and then laid off from her job because she couldn’t stand at the register while she was 9 months pregnant. i still like to be nice despite the possibilities of hearing TMI.

after church today, i went over to my parents house to have some soup my dad made. i had sent him a recipe from PW for Cauliflower soup. he loves cauliflower, and he loves soup, so i figured he’d dig the recipe. he wanted me to come over and help him eat it, so i went over this afternoon. it actually came out really good, so i was impressed. i’ve been telling him it’s more fun to eat food you make, because not only do you get to enjoy making something, but you know what is in there! hopefully today won’t be the one and only time he attempts kitchen glory.

yesterday at work i was waiting for one of the 2 gig files to load into a program, and used the downtime to do some research. i found out Ryan Adams is playing a show in Baton Rouge on March 5th. this is a bit closer than Mobile, which i already bought tickets for. this was great news, so i went to text my friend in BR the news. i know 4 shows might be pushing it, but they are paired up two weeks apart….and i already have free tickets to the ATL show.

when i opened my phone i found the screen to be messed up and non responsive. i turned it off and back on. everything appeared to work but the inside screen. i IMed my friend at work, Mike, who has the same phone. we have kept the phone well past our contract dates because it is an amazingly durable and functional phone. it is legendary and people still buy and review them even 3.5 years after the debut. unfortunately mine was failing. Mike shared in my disbelief and disappointment. i did some googling today and found i can buy a refurbished phone for $60. i am leaning towards this because if i go get a new phone from Verizon i have to re-up my contract, and i’d rather keep my options open for now. plus i love my phone and would hate to get a replacement that’s not as good. i’m tempted by things like the Storm, but i also like my $41 a month plan and want to keep it that way.

most of my friends read an insane amount of books. they can read more in one month than i read all of last year. i have no idea how they do it, but i am in awe. i used to be good about reading, i really did. i read LOTR in a month and a half. anyway, i got a bunch of books for Christmas again (i asked for them again) and started reading the book i got about the theory of Gen Patton being assassinated. it’s a pretty fascinating book, if only right now it’s all theory. there hasn’t been any concrete evidence shown, but the evidence is pretty convincing. i didn’t really learn all that much about Patton in school other than a high level view, but now i’m all about trying to rent the movie soon. i’ll let you know how the book ends up, but so far i’m enjoying it.

hopefully i’ll get to some of the other books i have and not have to be put on hold by the class i registered for this semester. i got what looks like the easiest class, which isn’t saying much. it doesn’t involve a project or working with other people, so it should be the least painful. we shall see though. i have high hopes. i’m still on the job hunt, but i couldn’t not take a class and still be considered in grad school. they only let you take two semesters of leave.