Bringing the Drama

Last night’s Clemson game hurt. I haven’t been that upset after a game since last year’s Bama game. It just hurt to watch GT on the last drive, and it hurt for Clemson to fail on 4th and 1 with 30 seconds remaining. It hurt for CJ Spiller to have such an amazing game and be named MVP, but to lose in the end in excruciatingly painful fashion. Yuck. However, today somewhat made up for it and made me feel a little better.

Tonight was my project team’s final presentation. I caught up on watching class videos before the Saints game this morning, to make sure nothing was talked about in a lecture that would be useful for the presentation, and also to catch up because I was two lecture videos behind. Once the Saints game started, I took a break.

The Saints game didn’t exactly start off that well. The offense was being frustrated by the Redskins D, and the Saints D was not able to get much pressure on Jason Campbell. Weird stuff was happening, like this TD near the end of the first half. Seriously, when have you seen something like that happen? (linky link) A rough transcript of the play from me as the play happened, then as the play was reviewed and confirmed on the field: “oh come on, he didn’t intercept it! It hit the ground! Go Meachem! GO MEACHEM! TOUCHDOWN! No, he did intercept it! He wasn’t down! That is a touchdown!….YES! YES! WHO DAT!”

At halftime I went back to watching video, and had the audio of the game going on in the background. At the beginning of the 4th quarter I went back to watching the game. What happened at the end is still unexplainable to me. The Redskins were driving up 30-23, and got inside the 10 yard line. They went to kick the FG with 2 min to play, and I thought the Saints were dead to rights. The only way they could win now would be to block the FG. I thought this was how it was going to end, and they would have to hope the Vikings would lose tonight to maintain being #1 overall in the NFC. The dream was over. Then it happened. The Redskins missed a 23 yard FG! The Saints took over with no timeouts, and ended up scoring a TD with a little over a minute to play to tie the game at 30. WHAT? They got an INT, then had a chance to win with a 58 yard FG, but missed, and the game went to overtime. The Redskins won the toss, got the ball first, but then there was a fumble and the Saints recovered. They went down and kicked an 18 yard FG and won the game in overtime 33-30. I still cannot believe how it all ended.

Then I had to come down off the high of seeing such a miraculous finish and concentrate on my team’s final presentation. We had met as a team on Wednesday last week to do a rehearsal, and I tripped over my words. It was crazy and very embarrassing. This evening before the meeting, I wrote out what I would say for each slide I was supposed to talk, so I wouldn’t mess anything up. We all logged in for the meeting and the professor joined in shortly after. We did our thing and everything came out great. I was really happy with everything. I had asked our mentor a couple of weeks ago to be really picky with our presentation, because I wanted to make sure we’d be prepared for any questions our professor could think of. I think his questions prepared us for tonight, and we were able to answer our prof’s questions with flying colors. All that is left for me in that class is the final and then I’ll be done, and based on how well I did on the midterm, I feel good about that.

So this fake company I’m CEO of in my grad school class is coming together. We give the final presentation next week, so tonight was the 2nd of two weeks where we did run-throughs for the presentation and our mentor guy critiqued. I asked him last week to really grill us this week and hold nothing back. We met this evening and he put us on the spot a few times, which was good. I don’t know how our prof is going to play his role next week, so I want my team to be prepared as much as possible. We were missing one of our team members though, so we’re going to have to meet during the week this week to get our timing down before next week. I’m really proud of the team though, and I feel good about our presentation next week. I definitely will be glad when it’s over though.

After the meeting, I tuned in to the end of the Clemson/Butler basketball game. I was yelling pretty loud at my laptop, and was on the edge of my chair as the game went back and forth. Clemson had some defensive lapses and was down 5 or 7 with about 3 minutes left. Then they finally changed defenses and buckled down and created opportunities and clawed back into the game. They had the final possession it seemed down 1. I was yelling “get a good shot! drive to the basket!” Then it happened, the PG drove to the basket, missed the shot but got fouled. Two FTs upcoming, for a guy who was up until that point 0-2. He made BOTH free throws. Clemson had the lead with 3 seconds to play. Butler inbounded but Trevor Booker blocked the first shot, then they inbounded again but it got tipped away. It was a HUGE resumé win for the team. Nobody is going to remember that they fought hard in March, only that they won.

I came home from a tough day at work and checked my mail. Tough is really relative because KCOG was not there. I think he was off handling something with his divorce, which I know way too much about. He likes to let me in on his life at random times, even if I am using my headphones. ANYWAY, this is not about him. I got my U2 tickets today! They are just regular TM tickets, nothing fancy. I’m a little sad. Still though, they say FIELD on them, and that’s all that matters. My sister came over earlier so we could settle up on the Jay-Z tickets, and I got to show her the U2 tickets. She was a little concerned with me having to get in line so early, but I told her I’m probably going with a bigger U2 fan than me, so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to convince anyone to get out there early. It will be awesome. I want to fist bump Bono. Can we make this happen Adriene?

I finished up my paper for grad school and uploaded it with about a minute to spare. Since NC State is in the eastern time zone, I have to upload one hour earlier than probably everyone else in the class. It’s probably better off, because I know as a professional procrastinator, if I actually had till midnight, I would probably waste time until midnight. I found a late addition article to add and was able to easily satisfy the 1000 word requirement. Right on.

Since today’s Saints game wasn’t until 3 pm today, I was able to get some stuff done around the house. I set out to cut my back yard for the first time in weeks. I got about 3/4 of it done before my lawnmower had had enough. I then took out my edger and did some detail work. While I was outside with the edger, I saw one of the sons (I’m guessing) of the old lady that lives behind me. That tree that fell a few months ago, it’s still there. He rode the riding lawnmower around the tree as if it’s another obstacle. It’s ridiculous and sad. At 3 pm, I finished up outside and watched the Saints game. The yard still needs to be cut, but I took care of a lot of the back yard, and also took care of a couple of ant problems around my house. Seeing the ants try to come up for air only to find more poison made me evilly laugh. I still have a ways to go, but with the HALF MARATHON over, I have found I have more time to do things, which is awesome.

My fake company meeting tonight even went well, and we finished up early, which was great. I’m much more comfortable with steering the meetings, which helps keep us focused, and helps the meetings flow much better. We should have our project wrapped up next week and then we have to present it at the end of the month. We’re on track, and our mentor gave us props this evening for our progress.

It was a good football weekend again. I didn’t think LSU would be Alabama, so I wasn’t surprised at the result. I was disappointed with HOW it happened, because I thought for sure LSU had an INT that the refs completely missed. Clemson took care of FSU and moved closer to an ACC title game appearance. My favorite part was when the Clemson safety threw a shoulder into the FSU QB who was trying to prevent an INT return for a TD. It is still weird for me to see Clemson beat FSU, even though it’s happened 5 out of the past 7 times. It will never get old.

Ah, the streak was close to coming to an end today, but I will not let this happen. Here’s the story of Maggie the iPod and her terribly sad passing. About two weeks ago, I mentioned that my iPod had died. Her name was Maggie, because Apple makes you name your iPod, and it was the first name that came to mind. This guy on my hall sophomore year of college and I were discussing girls’ names for some reason, and I remember he said he liked the name Maggie. I did too, so that name has stuck in my mind for YEARS.

Anyway, I’ve been running like crazy, and have been having to borrow my sister’s Nano in the mean time until I get closure for Maggie. Last night I brought her to the Genius Bar at the Apple store in Metairie, where it took all of 5 seconds for the Genius to say “yes, it’s completely dead. I can order you a brand new 2nd gen Nano for $99, or you can get 10% off a new one.” (it was way out of warranty) Knowing my current car charger will not work with a new Nano, getting a new 2nd gen seemed pretty good. So I told her I would take it. I asked “it’s a brand new 2nd gen? How….?” She told me that Apple stockpiles previous versions until they become vintage. I have no idea what that means, but she assured me it would be brand new from Shang-hai. Well alright. I already have determined since the new Nano will be the same color, it’s name will be Maggie II.

Also as an update, I finally got an email from my professor about my midterm. I got a 97, in addition to 2 bonus points. I’m guessing that means I got a 99. How about that? Awesome.

Sunday morning I woke up and went to early church. I hadn’t been to early church in a long time, but this Sunday happened to also be the week my mom was doing the scripture reading. The sermon was once again not really on the mark for me, but I enjoyed being up early on a Sunday seeing friends and family at church. After church I went to the store to pick up some things, and on my way home thought I would stop at the Quiznos near my house. I hadn’t been in a while and I wanted to stop off and have someone make me lunch. About 11 I pulled into the parking lot and parked the car. I started walking up and noticed a ‘For Lease’ sign in the window. QUIZNOS WAS CLOSED! The tragedy comes from the fact that now the only food places on my side of the interstate are Krystal and Sonic. Of course, there’s tons of stuff across the interstate but when there’s a lot of traffic, it’s not the most convenient trip to make. I went home and made myself a PB&J.

My grad school class project team has been meeting each Sunday night. I am the CEO of our fake company, and Sunday I was also up in the rotation for typing out the agenda and leading the meeting. Since the Saints game was not until 3, I set about to get that night’s meeting organized. I edited some of the final presentation slides and typed the email out to the team. The plan was for everyone to edit the presentation and send out their edits during the week, but I guess with the test we had last week no one really had time.

I had about 2 hours before the Saints game, so I went out to try to cut my grass. My lawnmower had to have some maintenance done to it because I had overfilled the oil. I had to replace the spark plug and the air filter, which wasn’t a big deal. With all the stuff that’s been going on with going out of town and working late and studying for tests, I had not been able to do anything with my yard. After a struggle to add oil and figuring out what the dipstick was actually saying, I had the oil done during the Saints game. I would go out to the garage during commercials and check on the oil, and add some. At halftime, I went out and tried to cut part of my backyard. The game had been going terrible for the Saints, but I had not lost all hope yet. I was outside cutting the grass and emptying the grass catcher when I heard loud cheering in my neighborhood. I remembered meeting Marlon and him telling me the Saints party was at his house Sunday and realized they were cheering, so obviously the Saints had done something really great. (it ended up being Darren Sharper’s INT return for a TD at the beginning of the 2nd half). The cool thing was it wasn’t just that crowd that I heard, it was multiple people from multiple houses in my neighborhood. I thought that was pretty cool, the community feel. That was one of the things I liked so much about the 2006 season.

I finished up with the lawnmower and went inside to watch the rest of the game. I had my team project meeting at 6 pm, and the game was still going on. I was going to have to multitask. The meeting started and I was steering us very well. I was watching the game on TV that was behind my laptop, so I didn’t miss much. I saw Reggie’s leap for a TD and everything. When Carney missed the XP, I remember back when he missed the XP after the most incredible last second play in Saints history. When they went ahead 40-34 I thought “it’s only 6 points! They need more!” Then I saw Tracy Porter get the INT and run it back for a TD and they locked the game away.

During all of this, I was leading this team project meeting. We’re assigned a mentor who ties in to all of our meetings. At the beginning of the meeting, he asked me if I was watching the Saints game. I told him I was and that if I randomly yelled out it had to do with the game not the meeting. At one point while I was typing something and said “NICE!” when the Saints scored, then had to cover saying “I said ‘Nice’ when referring to Drew Brees throwing another TD, not really this slide” which was about marketing or something. Once the game ended it was easier to focus on the meeting, and we actually finished half an hour early. The meeting ran really well, and I got props from the mentor guy. After such a crappy week last week (except for IMGL), the weekend was awesome. I need to find an SI with the new Saints cover!

This week has been up and down being back at work since going out of town last weekend. It was my first five day week at work in a while, not counting the weeks I was working OT. I had my midterm in my grad school class to take this week which I scheduled for Friday. Having to study for the midterm and knowing it was coming was hanging over my head. Things still worked out by the end of the week though.

I had sent my dad the link to the website for It Might Get Loud a couple of weeks ago. I had heard good things from friends that had gone to see it. My dad dug the trailer, so we were going to go this weekend. The problem came in that the theatre in NOLA with the movie was only going to have it for a week, and it was leaving the theatre on Thursday of this week. I called my dad late Wednesday afternoon and asked if he wanted to go see it. He did, and said he’d get off work at 5:30 and pick me up. The movie was awesome. It was so interesting seeing where the three guys came from as far as their guitar playing, and seeing pictures and video of them when they were just starting out was cool. One of the highlights was seeing a very young U2 playing Street Mission. Also how each of them got some of their most well known guitars was cool. I’m really glad we got to go see it together. Not sure if my dad will want to listen to White Stripes now, but at least we got to talk about them.

Thursday was just a bad day. Maggie, my iPod nano, died suddenly on my way to work. The last two songs she played were Hurt by Johnny Cash and Oh My Sweet Carolina by Ryan Adams. A fitting end now that I look back on it. I was so freaked out about my midterm and having to study, that I left work at lunch to come home and study. My lost night of studying on Wednesday and then plans to go to a concert on Thursday added up to high stress. I studied all afternoon, and committed several acronyms and vocab words to memory. I ended up skipping the concert on Thursday night, which was a blessing in disguise. The hassle/disappointment ratio was so high that the only way the show would have been worth going to would be if Paul McCartney or someone showed up to play half the show. I knew if I went that I’d just be thinking about my midterm and how I should be studying. I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate crossing that off my list of things to get done.

Friday I woke up and went in to work dreading the test. I had scheduled to take it at 10, but emailed the guy in HR who is my proctor and rescheduled for 1. When I finally went to take the test, I crushed it. If it would have been a fight they’d have had to pull me off. I was the Drago to the test’s Apollo Creed. I was the Patriots and the test was the Titans. It was 15 question short answer and we had an hour to finish it. I was done in 35 minutes. My hand hurt from writing so much so fast. I filled each page with writing. The prof hopefully sees that I knew what I was talking about and more. Some of the stuff I studied wasn’t even on the test, and I could have explained that too! I probably won’t get my grade back until next week, but I feel really good about it. Maybe grad school isn’t so bad after all.

Yesterday afternoon I went to pick up a book I’m going to need for my new grad school class this semester. I know, grad school, but this time it’s a management class and not an engineering class, so it SHOULD be easier to deal with. While I was in the shopping center, I stopped at the Gap to spend a gift card I have had for a few months. The last time I can remember buying clothes was a few months ago when I went to the Gap near my house and ran into an old HS acquaintance who was working at the Gap and making it his career.

Usually when I go to the Gap I head immediately to the sale rack. I searched and found some ugly pants with buttons on the sides. Buttons to NOTHING. I didn’t get them. I also found several pairs of shorts that looked like someone made them out of curtains. Have clothes come to this? However, I was able to find a pair of gray pants in the same mold as my khakis I bought on that fateful Gap trip of a few months ago. They are awesome, so when I saw these gray pants on sale for $13, I pounced.

I walked around the store and spotted more typical really trendy Gap clothes. I don’t wear most of these clothes. I see models wear them, but then always opt for what I know. I’m realizing lately some of my shirts I own are now 10 years old, and I’m not sure what to do about that. I think they still look fine. Anyway, in my perusing around the store, I saw this khaki blazer marked half off. The shirt they had it paired with made it look pretty cool. I picked it up to go try on. It was the only other item I thought looked good for the price in the entire store. They had some cool button up shirts, but they were still on the first level of discount, and they had plenty of them, so I figured I’d wait out the Gap on those.

The blazer fit great, but I don’t wear blazers. Other guys not me wear blazers. I have a gray stripped type blazer that I had gotten on sale that I don’t wear. This khaki blazer though had potential, and I knew it. I still couldn’t decide. I brought it out and stood there in front of the rack with the other two blazers (they had 3 total). The sales girl came up to me and said how versatile it was, blah blah blah. I texted a friend who I thought would be able to help me decide. I think she’s pretty trendy, and I figured she’d be a great non-biased person to let me know whether or not this blazer was a good idea. I sent her a picture taken with my cell phone of the blazer too. She approved, so I bought it.

Maybe I can be a blazer guy after all.

last night i spent the evening doing hw. i had gotten the main problem done on monday night, but still had a 2nd problem to do for tuesday. at lunch i went to work on the problem only to find out the professor didn’t really go over the process to figure out the problem in class, and i’d need my book…..which was at home. i faxed off the one problem and planned to fax the 2nd the early this morning. i got home and cracked open my book for the first time, maybe all semester and found the section he referenced. i figured out the problem after about an hour, so the hw was done.

after a quick run to the store, i settled in to watch the Hornets/Kings game, and saw as they had this ridiculously long ceremony at halftime to honor Vlade Divac. (i know, right, Vlade Divac?) they really did it up, complete with a video and children bringing the banner down from the stands to really dramatic music. i used to love watching those Kings teams, too bad they never could get past the Lakers. oh, and the Hornets won on a last second shot, which i didn’t see, but have now seen 5 times already.

i still have that test i need to take tomorrow, but fortunately the prof went over what would be on it in one of the class videos i watched, and i THINK it won’t be as bad as i feared. i may still reschedule tonight’s plans for next week though so i can study. i mean, yeah, it’d be nice to go tonight, but it’d also be nice to get reimbursed for my class too (which may not happen if i bomb the test). stupid priorities.

in my email this morning i got this birthday card. today’s starting off on the right foot! (i think she got my email from when i submitted an app for free tickets to the show last fall, but then i got a bunch of calls from a telemarketer….et tu kelly?)