I’m in the process of uploading my pictures from the weekend in KC. I’ll share them here later today. To tide you over, a conversation overheard last night between a pregnant couple. (Not your typical prego couple conversation, but worth sharing anyway.) (Scene: Interior, pregnant couple sits on a couch watching the Nick & Jessica Variety Show.) Wife: Really, what’s the point? All anyone can do is stare at her boobs.
(Scene: Interior, wife is getting dressed for work, holding top under her chin so she can look at her 23 week stomach in the mirror. Husband enters room, laughs.) Wife: Shit! Husband: What? Wife: Look how big it’s getting! (Husband places hand on stomach.) It’s like a basketball. Husband: Can we paint lines on it?
More catching up thoughts, including the occasional comment added during Monday’s game. Portland is by far my favorite place to visit for work. It’s a tremendous city, full of gorgeous views, brewpubs, a college town vibe, clients I actually enjoy visiting, and most importantly, a group of people I know from previous lives that I can visit with. Unlike most other business trips, I don’t retreat to my hotel room each night with the sum of my excitement being checking e-mail and hoping something interesting is on HBO.
Trying to organize my thoughts from recent trips while watching the national championship game. I think it’s safe so say I’m one million times less tense tonight than I was a year ago tonight (or April 7 I guess). I don’t recall a time when I was wound as tightly as I was leading up to the KU-Syracuse game. Even if we had won, I don’t know if I could have enjoyed it as tense as I was that night.
Big day. Huge day. Important day. Opening Day in baseball. As should always be the case, the NCAA championship game is tonight as well. You may recall my suggested sports calendar last fall required baseball beginning the day college basketball ended. And just for the cultural reference freaks out there, it’s the 10th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. I’ve got a lot to work through here, without even touching what I’ve compiled over the last two weeks.
The Jayhawks lost, I am sad. I felt my daughter move, I am glad! The downside to getting so much joy and satisfaction out of your team’s successes is you generally crash with them when their season ends. You spend five months planning your life around when the next game is and suddenly there’s no next game. I’m pleased to say I was able to get out of bed this morning, unlike April 8 of last year when I used the excuse of getting my truck serviced to stay in bed staring at the ceiling for about three hours.
It’s currently 12:43 AM EST. My alarm went off almost 23 hours ago after a night in which I got about two and a half hours of sleep (following two nights when I probably slept a combined seven hours). Consider yourselves lucky I’m so wiped, as I’m sitting about two miles from the house I lived in for 11 months during our great, California experience in 1986-7. I’m sure I would wax poetic from the Hilton Garden Inn if I had any wits left.
(Interior. Couple sitting on the couch, watching NCAA tournament. Husband’s alma mater is playing. They’ve just blown an 11 point lead.) Husband: GOD DAMMIT! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP PLAYING SO FUCKING STUPID?!?! JESUS! Wife: You’re going to have to put the earmuffs on Little Girlfriend if you want to talk like that this time next year. Husband: (Patting wife’s stomach) Sorry. (Apologies to those who are offended by above blasphemy.
If that wasn’t the craziest weekend in the history of the NCAAs, I’d like to know what was. In the opening 32 games, there were three upsets. I picked two of the upsets correctly, but lost three games overall in the first round. Not a bad way to set up your bracket. Now, sitting here on Sunday night, I have one Final Four team left. Tear up your brackets! Two number one seeds gone!
Some quick thoughts from day one of the NCAA tournament (with minimal editing), a day in which I managed to pick 14 of 16 games correctly. Damn you Michigan State and Arizona for blowing those second half leads! Here comes the Wolfpack!!! I don’t like Jim Nantz much to begin with. Sure, his voice is associated with the Final Four and so many other big games in March over the past 14 years.
Here are my Final Four picks. I have no idea this year; I don’t feel strongly about anyone. Unlike Tulsa in ‘00 or Creighton two years ago, I don’t have a feel for any cinderellas that can make a run to the second weekend. Other than some crazy early round choices, most of the “expert” picks I’ve seen, I can’t disagree with because things are so open this year. Anyway, here goes:
You want my NCAA picks right? A lengthy ode to the first day of the tournament? 3500 words about how March is a perfect metaphor for life? Wait, you’d rather hear about our trip to the doctor yesterday? OK, OK, I’ll find away to not think about basketball for a few minutes. As many of you know, we went in for the 20 week ultrasound yesterday. I’ve seen plenty of still shots from ultrasounds, and seen video of scans on TV before, but it’s a whole different thing being in the room.
Some NCAA dominated thoughts while wondering if this Winter Storm Watch we’re sitting under is really going to drop 4-6" by noon tomorrow as one TV station is saying. Since the NCAA encompasses more than just the Big 8+4, I’ll post my thoughts here. First, most importantly, I was extremely pleased by KU’s #4 seed. There’s no doubt the desire to sell tickets at Kemper played into this. So what? The committee has been making such arrangements for years, and screwed KC three years ago by shipping Iowa State, KU, and MU all the other locales.
Despite the fact the Big 10+1 tournament is here in Indy, it doesn’t feel like conference tournament season. When you work alone in an office at home, there’s no buzz. I forgot to even check the TV yesterday until I heard St. Joe’s was down by 30. I’ll have to block off my calendar next Thursday and Friday so I don’t have the same problem then. Another strange thing about working in the office is I don’t always know what day it is.
There are times when I doubt the world, when I think it’s full of cynicism and selfishness. Moments when I believe people are more concerned with getting ahead than the common good. Then there’s a moment like last night, when my faith in man is reaffirmed. Yes, I subjected myself to ten minutes of Jay Leno so I could watch Vince Vaughn in action. The man is a Golden God, to quote his friend Will Ferrell.
I’ve been completely derelict in my Listening Post entries over the last few months. I have a folder full of partial entries. Seems I get inspired when on a plane and listening to my MP3 player, start an entry, then lose focus. I’ve got ten projects in some state of progress, and I hope to begin knocking some out again soon. Or maybe start ten others and ignore the backlog. (Hopefully I’ll do better once the basketball season ends and I’m focusing on this blog more.
Scene: Interior, basement, a man and his pregnant wife sit on the couch, watching TV. A commercial for a mini-van is on. Husband: How long do kids have to ride in car seats? Wife: Usually until they’re around 60 pounds. H: At what age do most kids weigh that much? W: 6 or 7. H thinking: (We want to have three kids, probably within the next six years.) H: We are soooo getting a minivan.
Three days, three time zones. And I’m doing it backwards (going from Pacific to Mountain in day three) which makes the adjustment even more difficult. Is it 10:00 (physical time zone) 12:00 (home time zone) or 9:00 (where I spent the previous 24 hours)? Strange. I was in LA Monday night, today, then flew into Phoenix Tuesday. No time for fun in LA, although I did drive by Dodgers’ Stadium, the Staples Center, and the LA Coliseum on the way to the airport Tuesday afternoon.
It’s all come to an end. Not only has the snow finally melted, bringing millions of birds to our yard, but my hair was trimmed by a Caucasian person today. It was disappointing to walk in and not see anyone of color perched smiling behind their chair, motioning me over. The people who were working seemed almost apologetic to service me, as if they knew there was something wrong with the situation.
I’ve got a week in the office to get caught up before I head west for my first business trip of the year. That means cleaning out the in-box, and getting a few things posted to the blog. I’m writing this while watching the NBA All-Star game on Sunday night. Bill Simmons had a great point a couple weeks back. He talked about how great mid-February was if you were a boy growing up in the 1980s.