Sunday, March 19, 2006

They play in Peoria

Guess I owe Jim Les a Christmas card this year. Not only does he lead Bradley to a huge upset over Kansas he then has them beat Pitt and bring them to the Sweet Sixteen, which they couldn’t do when they had Hersey Hawkins in the lineup. A really huge accomplishment for the team and I’ll be honest, they just played two great games of basketball. It wasn’t like Kansas or Pitt didn’t show up, Bradley just outplayed them. And yes, I know that it is schadenfreude but seeing Kansas lose in the first round is surprisingly satisfying. It at least helps to cover up the pain of seeing the Illini lose a game in which they were called for a foul every single trip down the court. Jeez, I knew that Duke got all the calls but I didn’t think that extended to Washington.

For those wondering, I did not watch the Bradley-Kansas game at a bar, which is a good thing because it would have ended with punches being thrown. Headed back to my apartment to catch the game in high-def. This weekend is one of the reasons to have HD, not as much for the higher quality but since CBS sends different signals for HD and regular broadcasts I was at one point able to switch between three separate games just using the regular cable package. It was like my own little sports bar. Admittedly, less crowded and with inferior service but still, it is a nice little option.

The other reason I ended up not at a bar on Friday night is that, well, most of Friday afternoon was spent at a bar. It was St. Pat’s Day after all and since that is a huge deal in Westport I had to make my way out to celebrate. Spent part of the time on the patio at Harry’s, which given that it was 45 degrees out made it one of the least crowded places in Westport. Still was a wait for a beer but at least you didn’t have to wait in line to get in. My one story from there is additional proof of what someone in my past once told me, “EC, you are naturally one of the nicest people on the planet. What that means is when you try to be nice you cross the line from nice into rather scary.” Here’s what I mean. Since I knew the place was busy and I know all the staff I switched my usual beer order to bottled beer. Figured that it would make life easier over having to pour, deal with taps, etc. Around the third beer they were asking me, “Chris, why the hell are you drinking Miller Lite?” Apparently, this wasn’t making their life easier, it was making things more confusing than they already are. As always this is what happens when I have good intentions.

My other story comes from when I made my way over to Record Bar for a while to listen to a U2 cover band. They were surprisingly good in that they really didn’t suck at all. Sounded like U2, played stuff from a wide range of albums, heck at least went as far back as War and to be honest, I like the band and I don’t really have a need to listen to anything from the Boy album. Anyway, while there I run into a guy wearing a Club 23 shirt. That was probably the most awesome shirt I saw the entire day. Spent like half an hour drinking with this guy and telling ND stories on the basis of a t-shirt. Sometimes life just works that way.

Otherwise, I really didn’t do much of anything with my time off other than watch basketball. I’ve done a complete reorganization of my apartment and I should probably take pictures of the place since this is the only time that it will ever be clean. It looks pretty sweet and I finally reorganized my bookshelves and that was on the list of things to do for months. I get really annoyed when I have books by the same author on two different shelves. It completely disturbs my natural sense of order. Still, it is back to the grind tomorrow. At least until I find a way to be independently wealthy, though that would probably require talent or something.

The five random CDs for the week
1) Dave Matthews Band “Under the Table and Dreaming”
2) Lyle Lovett “Joshua Judges Ruth”
3) Uncle Tupelo “89/93 An Anthology”
4) The Waco Brothers “Electric Waco Chair”
5) Black 47 “Black 47”

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