Unnoticeabull

I haven't had a chance to watch SportsCenter or anything, but according to the InterWeb, the big story this morning is that Antonio Davis went into the stands at the Bulls/Knicks game last night when he thought his wife was being threatened. What is interesting is that if this is the biggest sports story of the year, which it obviously shouldn't be, then I, and the rest of section 314 at the United Center, somehow missed out on it completely.

I was at the game, and the incident apparently occurred with only a minute left in OT. A few minutes earlier, there was a bit of a fight and a double ejection, which everyone saw. The Davis incident didn't cause much more than a ripple in the opposing crowd, it was so low key that the crowd never had any chance to jeer or boo, and I didn't even hear the announcement that he was ejected. Perhaps all of this is due to the fact that I was approximately 4,348 feet away from the scene, and extremely lightheaded due to the high altitude. Also, since our seats were roughly in the corner of the court, and on the aisle, every time some idiot kid decided to walk down the stairs and help himself to eight dollar nachos my view was completely cut off. The experience was surreal in the sense that until the waning moments of the 4th quarter and OT, the crowd was virtually silent during gameplay, and only made noise during the between-period breaks and time-out filling moments such as the Duncan Donuts Race, the 'hilarious' antics of Benny the Bull, the dudes armed with T-shirt bazookas, and the delightfully whorish choreography of the 'Love-a-bulls' dancers. Since I generally hate even going to people's houses to watch games on TV because half the people there usually spend more time exchanging recipes for spinach dip than comparing assist to turnover ratio (or explaining why Peyton Manning sucks or whatever), the experience of sitting, trying to focus, with 20,000 distracted people was at times painful. Regardless, the game was sloppy but good, Ben Gordon (who's on my underachieving fantasy basketball team) scored 32 including the buzzer-beater to win it.

I'll be back in a week, amigos!

Gimme a Breaksville!

In four days I'm going to Mexico, to this place here. I've kept quiet about it to not upset the vengeful travel gods, who love nothing better than smiting overjoyed vacationers (see 2005, June). I'm also trying to downplay any excitement that would cause the rest of the week to be unbearable. I'm also, due to my cynical nature, trying to make a list of all the potential disasters that could occur while on the trip. The ten-day forecast is already showing an unseasonal week of rain. I'm remarkably cocky about my linguistic skillz, despite the fact that I dropped out of second-semester Spanish in college not once but twice. I can't imagine avoiding what will surely be a horrific sunburn. I may get bored of sitting by the beach all day. I mean, obviously it will be nicer weather than Chicago, and obvs it will be more enjoyable than working, but could all this vacation $ be better spent on a low-end plasma TV? I'm always big on experiences, but planning them ahead of time can be hit or miss. This concludes me complaining about going to Mexico for a week. I'm excited, don't get me wrong.

Here was my Saturday: Wake up when M gets home at 9, half-sleep another hour. Eat cereal and read for a bit. Move to the couch at 11 am. Watch Iowa-Penn St basketball game, watch Wisconsin-Northwestern basketball game, watch Wash-Seattle playoff game, watch NE-Den playoff game. I think I ate food and possibly showered sometime in there. I stayed on the couch for most of SNL too. But 11.5 straight hours of sports was quite nice. Sometime around hour 5 or 6 I had the idea that I'd take off of work the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA basketball tournament. See, this is where a wide screen plasma high definition TV would come in handy. I have 20" of regular ol' basic TV, which was a high school graduation present. I'm an unintentional luddite.

Gambling tip #1: If you live in a city with a major sports team, you'll always be able to find some sucker who is willing to make a straight-up bet on them against substantial odds. Due to the Bears not making the Super Bowl, I win $20. Hooray!

Bought tickets to a co-headlining New Pornographers/Belle & Sebastian show in March, going to be awesome. Seeing Ted Leo the day before, too.

I've had an upset stomach since yesterday; most likely my trip is going to be ruined.

Happy Year of the Whisper Quiet Maytag Dishmaster!

It seems like i'm on a once every two week kick around here, something I'll try to remedy soon. I'll add it to the resolution list:
Eat Better/Exercise:New Year's Resolutions::RSTLN E:Wheel of Fortune Bonus Round. Also reading more things that aren't on a computer screen, unless I'm writing them. Also go out and drink more often but drink less quantities of alcohol overall. Get out of bed earlier, work harder. Get through at least one conversation with someone, anyone, but preferably with someone I don't know well, without fearing that they have quickly lost interest in whatever I'm saying and are only being polite before finding the chance to end said conversation (the only times in my approx. 26.6667 years that this has happened is when I'm the one being polite and looking for a way out (which represents a small percentage of overall conversations), so what I'm really saying is, I suppose, is have more conversations that are mutually appealing, without the urge to bang my head against a hard surface either after or during.) Also: cook interesting but practical meals.

Christmas was basically a long weekend with lots of gifts changing hands and driving. We got our load of things to try and cram into our apartment (which will be doable once we obtain and assemble our fifth bookshelf.) My personal highlight was absolutely destroying my family playing poker on Christmas Eve, despite the fact that I haven't played in nearly two years. But overall it was quick and also exhausting. The following 4-day workweek was among my worst work week's ever, and it seemed roughly twice as long. Thursday night I broke my routine to go out with coworkers for drinks. Several hours later the 'drinks' were the equivalent of roughly 13 beers, all consumed without any food since my two-sandwich lunch around noon. Needless to say, the fact that I was conscious enough to find my way 85 blocks home was remarkable in itself, with no permanent damage save for a nasty scratch on my new inessential cell phone from when I dropped it either before or after a failed attempt to call one of my coworkers and shout something loud into the phone. I made it to work around 10 the next morning, luckily it was a slow pre-holiday day. This episode was enough for me to avoid regretting not having fun, sexy plans for new year's eve, which I largely spent alone at home trying to fix my ipod. As midnight fireworks were heard emanating from downtown, I was on hour seven in the process and (obviously) too wired from sheer adrenaline to notice the passing of one calendar year closer to my (fiery?) (watery?) (sticky?) grave.

Later there was champagne and cake and a trip to a Nepalese (sp?) restaurant in the north suburbs and watching the excellent and highly recommended 'The Squid and the Whale' afterwards. (TSATW, along with 'Me and You and Everyone we Know' make up the entirety of my 'best of 2005' film list, fyi)

The Best of 2005 CD should be in several hands already, and others will have to wait until I get CD-packing envelopes and make a trip to the Post Office. Best Year Ever? You can be the judge.