As most people know I gave up caffeine about a decade ago. Just went from being a six cups of coffee, four sodas a day guy to zero overnight. Doctors using words like “heart” and “explode” tend to result in such actions. That first month or so sucked, pretty much as close to withdrawal as I ever want to get to, but for the most part I survived. Even went through business school without caffeine, which explains why I was always well prepared and never pulled all nighters. I literally couldn’t stay up all night even if I tried.
Well today my coffee shop was out of decaf and I decided that I needed coffee more than grabbing a Gatorade and had a large, regular strength coffee. I’m trying to think about how to describe downing 20 ounces of coffee after having your body spend ten years getting it out of your system. Here is my best attempt. Remember the Beavis and Butthead episode where Beavis went around screaming “I am the Great Cornholio!” I felt like doing that all day in the office. I believe at one point I looked at my monitors were shaking and it took me a while to realize that I was literally bouncing back and forth. For a moment it was cool but then I remembered that this is exactly why I gave it up years ago.
(Though the possibility of having someone in my office go “Donde esta hall pass” would totally have made it worth it.)
Switching gears I received my Notre Dame football ticket form for this season. For those of you who don’t know the system ND sends its eligible alumni (meaning those who have donated money) a lottery form in which you pay up front for the games you want and are told three months later whether you get to go to them or not. In essence, you give them an interest free loan for the possibility of tickets. It’s a pretty masterful system when you think of it.
It looks to be an interesting season in South Bend. You start with the traditional Big Ten rivals in Purdue and Michigan. Fun games, classic rivalry and South Bend in early September is warm and sunny. Then you get the rivalry games that are slightly less interesting in Pitt and Stanford. Sure, they are technically rivals but it isn’t as important and the weather has gotten cold. Still, a fair first four home games.
Here are your last three home games from mid October to mid November: Western Michigan, Tulsa and Utah. I am not kidding. I don’t know about you but I have always dreamed of seeing Notre Dame – Tulsa under the watchful eye of Touchdown Jesus. Or that legendary Fighting Irish – Utes rivalry rekindled. Now I know why we have these games scheduled: it was decided that our schedule was too difficult and we lightened the challenge to better reach bowl games. But this seems to just be a mockery of a schedule. I can accept playing Army and Navy in the same season. Adding these games into the list just seems really weak sauce.
Wednesday Night Music Club: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: over the past fifteen years I have probably not gone more than two weeks without listening to some music by Jay Farrar. Whether in Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt or his solo work I’m always replaying one of his songs as part of my standard rotation. The guy never gets the praise for his genius that he deserves. If you ever wonder what is playing underneath my headphones this is it.
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