Bringing the Drama

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.

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 past weekend was so great, that in order to tell you about it, I’m going to break it up into two parts. Blog friend Mandy will appreciate this also as she is wont for something to read while she gets back into being at work, and not on vacation anymore. SaturDAY I went over to my sister’s to borrow her iPod so I could go run. I went for 7 miles in preparation for the HALF MARATHON next week. Everything went fine, and the weather was perfect. It’ll be great if the weather is like that for next Saturday.

After the run, I went and returned my sister’s iPod, and then went to the gas station closest to my house for a couple of bags of ice. My friend Megan has told me ice baths are awesome after a long run. I did try one after the TEN MILE run a couple of weeks ago but had only gotten one bag of ice. One bag didn’t really feel that cold, so Saturday I was getting two. I got out of my car and was checking the big cooler out front to make sure they had bags of ice. I hear “Hey neighbor!” and turn and see this guy who I didn’t recognize. I looked around at his car and it was the white truck that lives at the house around the corner from me. The guy always has Saints stuff out front on Sundays, and he keeps his yard really nice. I always pass and think the house is cool. I shook his hand with vigor going “oh yeah, you live in the house with all the Saints stuff!” He laughed and said “yeah man. You know, you never can tell how tall someone is if all you ever see them in is their car.” He was a little taller than me, but not much. We laughed, and he went inside. I went inside and bought my two bags of ice, and went back outside to grab them out of the cooler. My new neighbor friend was also getting ice, so after I put the bags in my car, I went back and introduced myself. He said his name was Marlon, and I mentioned the Saints stuff again, and he explained how he’s part of a group of 7 houses that rotate Saints parties every Sunday. This weekend it was at his house. So I told him that was cool, and we went our separate ways.

I got home and did the ice bath thing, and I’m not sure even two bags was cold enough. I keep reading about how it’s supposed to hurt by being so cold, so I think maybe I’m not getting the water cold enough. I might try 3 on Saturday after the HALF MARATHON. Anyway, I started watching the Clemson/Miami game and it was great, at first. I was watching and saw Miami score to make it 10-7 with less than a minute to play in the first half. When that happens, you’re always kind of going “you know, it’d be really cool if they returned the kickoff for a TD.” That’s exactly what happened! CJ Spiller returned the kick for a TD and Clemson had the lead with 40 something seconds left. Crazy.

The second half started, and then I started making dinner. I was watching the game in my bedroom, and walking back and forth to the kitchen. I started noticing when I’d be watching the game, something bad would happen. When I’d come back from being out of the room, they’d be showing a replay of a good play for Clemson. This happened 2 or 3 times, so after Kyle Parker threw the INT in the end zone when Clemson was almost assured a FG to tie the game in the 4th quarter, I had had enough. Obviously by me watching the game live, something was happening to the team. I had to stop watching, I couldn’t take it anymore. I left the room and went back to the kitchen, then got on the computer and didn’t keep track of the game. After a while I figured it might be over, so I went to check and saw the game was going into OT. I left the room again and hoped they’d find a way to win in OT. About 5 or 10 minutes later my dad called and says “How about that game???” I told him I had quit watching it, the whole story about me thinking I was bad luck. He told me they won in OT with a TD pass. Awesome. I felt a little validated.

I was able to watch the end of the game more than a few times on ESPN360 before I started watching the LSU/Auburn game. I couldn’t believe it. I had thought Clemson had a shot at winning the game before, but they were so inconsistent I had no idea what would happen. I knew Clemson had the players to matchup with Miami, but had no idea if they’d actually make the plays. I realized also after the game that I’d get to email my friend Nick (from work, who now lives in FL) who went to the U, who had trash talked after Clemson lost to GT. I told him just wait until October 24th and we’ll see. We did see. I emailed him this morning.

I talked to my friend Bill after the game too, and told him about the superstitious activity of the 2nd half. I also told him that I’m glad I ended up not going to the game, because obviously being in the stadium would have been the ultimate jinx and Clemson would have lost 52-7 or something. Being down in Miami for the Clemson game and then the Saints game the next day would have been awesome, but not having anyone to go with and it being expensive made the decision not to go rather easy (and a little sad in retrospect). C’est la vie!