Starting note: For those of you who work with me (or have worked with me) in that large collection of buildings somewhere in Kansas I just want to remind you that my leaving work happy hour is Wednesday night. Please stop by because it would be really, really sad if I was the only one there. Not as sad as the time when everyone in the building was sent home early due to snow except no one bothered to tell me and I didn’t notice until I took off my headphones and realized that no one else was around. (That’s a true story, by the way). Anyway, email me if you need the details. To prevent confusion, this is not to be confused with my Trivia Victory Lap or Last Night in KC celebrations. Both of those will take place once I figure out where life is taking me next and I’ll be sure to let everyone know.
(Looks like I’ll be here until June if just to see the greatest concert double bill ever: Chicago and the Doobie Brothers. I’m not kidding, I got an email about this today. Kansas City, now only 28 years behind the times.)
Comment on the last post: “Think of it as monetizing your desire to be taken seriously as a potential suitor”
Finally, advice that actually makes sense to me! Why hasn’t anyone used financing analogies before in offering me relationship advice? I understand discount rates; can’t we frame the discussion in those terms as opposed to all of these vague terms like “emotions” and “attraction”? Could I just go up to a woman and say, “Trust me, you’ll be duly impressed by my cash flow” and just leave it at that? Then break out a detailed spreadsheet to seal the deal? I can at least dream, can’t I?
Here is a reason why I am looking forward to unemployment in two weeks. So I went out last night for St. Patrick’s Day but had to leave early because I had a 9 AM meeting that I had to be functional for. In some ways that is a good thing (because I probably shouldn’t be spending Monday night in a bar) but in many more ways that is a horrible thing (because it is friggin St. Patrick’s Day, the one day where I can wear all my Notre Dame gear with pride and have a blast.) Get to work this morning, more bitter than hungover, check my email and find out that the meeting had been cancelled. Which would have been great information to have, I don’t know, last night! So I screwed over my social life for a meeting that didn’t exist in a job I’m quitting. Luckily unemployment will give me control over my schedule again. Sure, all I will do is watch daytime tv but damn it, my hand will be on the remote.
Ok, I want to analyze each region in the NCAA tournament but I’ve already hit a lot of topics tonight so I’ll just do the East Regional tonight and I’ll catch the other three tomorrow.
East Region: This bracket features my three most hated teams in existence as well as the one I will be actively cheering for. My Irish pulled a five seed, which is about right, and I can see them getting past George Mason and then Winthrop, who I’m picking mainly because I think the team is comprised of snooty English butlers. They might not have the hops of some of the other teams but they play a rather refined style of basketball.
Indiana is led by the traitor Eric Gordon who was fouled by Illinois during the pre-game introductions. They’ll get past Arkansas but then collapse because, well, they are Indiana, that’s what they do. In some other first round upsets I’d take South Alabama over Butler because the game is in Birmingham and St. Joe’s over Oklahoma because I believe that there is only one basketball in the entire state of Oklahoma.
Really this is a two team bracket. North Carolina is led by Tyler Hansborough, who looks that frat guy in college who spent his entire time in English 101 discussing how awesome their Barn Dance was going to be. I’m not encouraging anyone to give him a hard foul. I’d prefer a steel chair to the skull. Tennessee is coached by Bruce Pearl who along with Bono is most responsible for my crappy college experience. (Bruce Pearl snitched on the Illini and put us on probation while U2 cancelled a concert and cost me a date because apparently St. Bono didn’t want me to score.) Personally, I’ll be cheering for American in their first round against the Volunteers because, well, it would be un-American otherwise. It sickens me to say that Pearl, who shouldn’t even be allowed on a college campus much less coach, will get this team to the final eight and then North Carolina and their crappy uniforms will make the Final Four.
No Depression Week: If there is a current poster child for No Depression and all of its good and bad qualities it would be Ryan Adams. He is alternately a genius and a complete screw up depending on how he feels at the time. Starting with Whiskeytown he has written some amazing music that spans from pure country to hard edged rock. He also has screwed up relationships with Parker Posey, Beth Orton, My Beloved Lindsay, Winona Ryder and probably a dozen that I have forgotten by now. Judge his genius for yourself with “Come Lift Me Up” from Letterman. Performance would have been better if they would have kept in the swearing.
Showing posts with label St. Patrick's Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Patrick's Day. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sunday, March 18, 2007
The not so lucky Irish
Definitely not one of my better NCAA tournaments. All of my teams lost in the first round in heartbreaking fashion. Duke choked away the game against VCU, Illinois had Va. Tech beat and then somehow decided to not play for the last six months and, in all honesty, I dozed off while watching the Notre Dame game only to wake up to discover that ND was down twenty and I was now watching the Wisconsin game. ND came back and actually took the lead but ran out of steam and lost to Winthrop. My bracket is pretty much destroyed and my days of winning tournament pools seem to be far in the past. On the plus side, I’ve gained a lot more free time over the next few weeks.
(Oh well, at least Notre Dame picked up a number one seed in the hockey tournament. And, if I heard correctly, they are playing a team from Alabama in the first round, which is odd because I can’t imagine anyone in the entire state playing hockey.)
On the free time comment, I did realize something that might turn into the biggest conflict ever. I have tickets to see Guster in Lawrence on April 2nd. That just happens to be the night of the championship game, something that I didn’t notice when I bought the tickets. But depending on whose playing I could see myself catching a concert over watching the game. However, there is a measurable probability that KU will be in the title game. This would cause an interesting predicament. First off, I can’t imagine that there would be anyone at the concert. Lawrence has a bunch of art kids who don’t care about sports but given that this would be an excellent excuse to party I don’t think that they would miss it to watch Guster. Also, in this scenario I would be going to a show in the middle of the campus of a team in a title game, which is basically just asking to place yourself in the middle of a riot. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn out.
I did go out for St. Patrick’s Day and it was actually a rather uneventful night. I didn’t see a single arrest, though I did hear a bunch of sirens during the night so there probably were a couple. You didn’t get a violent vibe from the crowd, though. Everyone seemed to be calm and having a good time. I spent most of the afternoon at Harry’s where knowing all the staff made getting served much easier. The patio there is a great place to experience Westport on St. Pat’s as you can just sit back and watch everyone else be idiots. And cheer the guy who set up a stand that said “Magic” on it. Yes, a guy was doing card tricks for extremely drunk people. That has to be the easiest gig in the world. “Is this the card you chose?” “I chose a card? Woo hoo!”
Headed over to the Record Bar in the evening where I did get a compliment on my Backer t-shirt from a St. Mary’s alum. There is something that must be said about a bar that even when your hundreds of miles away people go, “Oh my god, did you drink there?” Having the t-shirt makes you a rock star in the drunkard world. Went there mainly to see a U2 cover band, which is interesting given that I probably wouldn’t go see U2 if they were playing a few blocks away. (At least not until Bono offers me a personal apology.)
They were a surprisingly good cover band. They learned quickly to make up for their lack of talent with volume. The lead singer wore sunglasses and looked like my buddy Fortino making him look almost, but not entirely, unlike Bono. The rest of the band looked like a bunch of guys from an IT department but sounded good even if they made no effort to resemble the band. Plus, they included a cover of “Electric Co.”, a song that even U2 doesn’t bother to play anymore. Some nights I’m not looking for music that will change my view of the world. Sometimes I just want to hear songs I know with large amounts of alcohol present.
All in all, not a bad St. Patrick’s Day. An improvement over past years in that I didn’t end the night with a girl crying in my arms, which did happen a few years ago. I might be the only one to remember this though it isn’t something you easily forget. There are very few moments when you are trying to simultaneously a) figure out what the hell is this girl’s problem, b) comfort her, c) explain to your buddies in pantomime what is going on and d) drink a beer. And definitely not in that order.
The five random CDs for the week (and man, what a good list):
1) R.E.M. “Dead Letter Office”
2) Uncle Tupelo “No Depression”
3) Martin Zellar “Born Under”
4) Kelly Willis “Kelly Willis”
5) Ryan Adams “Love is Hell, Part One”
(Oh well, at least Notre Dame picked up a number one seed in the hockey tournament. And, if I heard correctly, they are playing a team from Alabama in the first round, which is odd because I can’t imagine anyone in the entire state playing hockey.)
On the free time comment, I did realize something that might turn into the biggest conflict ever. I have tickets to see Guster in Lawrence on April 2nd. That just happens to be the night of the championship game, something that I didn’t notice when I bought the tickets. But depending on whose playing I could see myself catching a concert over watching the game. However, there is a measurable probability that KU will be in the title game. This would cause an interesting predicament. First off, I can’t imagine that there would be anyone at the concert. Lawrence has a bunch of art kids who don’t care about sports but given that this would be an excellent excuse to party I don’t think that they would miss it to watch Guster. Also, in this scenario I would be going to a show in the middle of the campus of a team in a title game, which is basically just asking to place yourself in the middle of a riot. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn out.
I did go out for St. Patrick’s Day and it was actually a rather uneventful night. I didn’t see a single arrest, though I did hear a bunch of sirens during the night so there probably were a couple. You didn’t get a violent vibe from the crowd, though. Everyone seemed to be calm and having a good time. I spent most of the afternoon at Harry’s where knowing all the staff made getting served much easier. The patio there is a great place to experience Westport on St. Pat’s as you can just sit back and watch everyone else be idiots. And cheer the guy who set up a stand that said “Magic” on it. Yes, a guy was doing card tricks for extremely drunk people. That has to be the easiest gig in the world. “Is this the card you chose?” “I chose a card? Woo hoo!”
Headed over to the Record Bar in the evening where I did get a compliment on my Backer t-shirt from a St. Mary’s alum. There is something that must be said about a bar that even when your hundreds of miles away people go, “Oh my god, did you drink there?” Having the t-shirt makes you a rock star in the drunkard world. Went there mainly to see a U2 cover band, which is interesting given that I probably wouldn’t go see U2 if they were playing a few blocks away. (At least not until Bono offers me a personal apology.)
They were a surprisingly good cover band. They learned quickly to make up for their lack of talent with volume. The lead singer wore sunglasses and looked like my buddy Fortino making him look almost, but not entirely, unlike Bono. The rest of the band looked like a bunch of guys from an IT department but sounded good even if they made no effort to resemble the band. Plus, they included a cover of “Electric Co.”, a song that even U2 doesn’t bother to play anymore. Some nights I’m not looking for music that will change my view of the world. Sometimes I just want to hear songs I know with large amounts of alcohol present.
All in all, not a bad St. Patrick’s Day. An improvement over past years in that I didn’t end the night with a girl crying in my arms, which did happen a few years ago. I might be the only one to remember this though it isn’t something you easily forget. There are very few moments when you are trying to simultaneously a) figure out what the hell is this girl’s problem, b) comfort her, c) explain to your buddies in pantomime what is going on and d) drink a beer. And definitely not in that order.
The five random CDs for the week (and man, what a good list):
1) R.E.M. “Dead Letter Office”
2) Uncle Tupelo “No Depression”
3) Martin Zellar “Born Under”
4) Kelly Willis “Kelly Willis”
5) Ryan Adams “Love is Hell, Part One”
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Screw Jason Kidd and California
Virginia Commonwealth? We lost to freaking Virginia Commonwealth? A school whose mascot is…does anyone even know what their mascot is? Do they even have one? This is a sad day for a Duke fan. I didn’t expect much from this team. Definitely not a national championship. But I thought that we’d at least get past the first round. Oh, and I also thought that with seconds left in a tie game that Scheyer would, you know, guard the guy with the ball as opposed to letting him take an open jumper in the lane.
I should look at the positives here. My calendar for Saturday just opened up a lot so I’ll be able to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day whenever the hell I want. That is important as I expect things to be pretty insane. I talked to Jamie (one of my favorite bartenders) this week and we joked about how much she is dreading St. Patrick’s Day. While it’s a profitable day behind the bar it’s also busy and insane. This year is going to be worse. Not only do you have the regular St. Pat’s revelers but it’s also a Saturday and the weather is nice. I’ll be amongst the crowd, though mainly to put in my field reports discussing the number of arrests I see in front of me.
(True story, one year I saw the cops just tackle this guy who was walking in front of me. As I see them go to cuff them me and this guy next to me both start muttering “Use the taser. Come on, use the taser.” No matter how old I get, my life still resembles a Beavis and Butthead episode.)
(Other fun story from Jamie. While talking to her these other girls at the bar asked if I ever went to any of the other bars in the area. I said no because it’s Martini Corner and I’m not a martini type of guy, which caused Jamie to start laughing as she went, “Yeah, I don’t know how to make a martini out of beer.” I am at the point where even if I ordered something different the bartenders would still serve me my usual. I’m no longer allowed to change.)
Not much else to add this evening. The office was dead quiet as a lot of people took the day off and I’m taking tomorrow off so that I can watch basketball, get some work done on my car and make yet another attempt to reorganize my life. Oh, and I really should get started on my book. I haven’t started it, thus making that April 15th deadline pretty much unreachable. I’m still going to do the project, it’s just that the timeline has shifted. I have finished cataloguing all of the old posts and I’ve realized that a) none of my posts are ever about one thing, b) when in doubt I always break out Star Wars analogies and c) I think I’ve written more words about Britney than I have my beloved Lindsay. It’s that last point that bothers me.
Have a great weekend, enjoy St. Pat’s Day safely, and Go Irish (and Illini).
I should look at the positives here. My calendar for Saturday just opened up a lot so I’ll be able to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day whenever the hell I want. That is important as I expect things to be pretty insane. I talked to Jamie (one of my favorite bartenders) this week and we joked about how much she is dreading St. Patrick’s Day. While it’s a profitable day behind the bar it’s also busy and insane. This year is going to be worse. Not only do you have the regular St. Pat’s revelers but it’s also a Saturday and the weather is nice. I’ll be amongst the crowd, though mainly to put in my field reports discussing the number of arrests I see in front of me.
(True story, one year I saw the cops just tackle this guy who was walking in front of me. As I see them go to cuff them me and this guy next to me both start muttering “Use the taser. Come on, use the taser.” No matter how old I get, my life still resembles a Beavis and Butthead episode.)
(Other fun story from Jamie. While talking to her these other girls at the bar asked if I ever went to any of the other bars in the area. I said no because it’s Martini Corner and I’m not a martini type of guy, which caused Jamie to start laughing as she went, “Yeah, I don’t know how to make a martini out of beer.” I am at the point where even if I ordered something different the bartenders would still serve me my usual. I’m no longer allowed to change.)
Not much else to add this evening. The office was dead quiet as a lot of people took the day off and I’m taking tomorrow off so that I can watch basketball, get some work done on my car and make yet another attempt to reorganize my life. Oh, and I really should get started on my book. I haven’t started it, thus making that April 15th deadline pretty much unreachable. I’m still going to do the project, it’s just that the timeline has shifted. I have finished cataloguing all of the old posts and I’ve realized that a) none of my posts are ever about one thing, b) when in doubt I always break out Star Wars analogies and c) I think I’ve written more words about Britney than I have my beloved Lindsay. It’s that last point that bothers me.
Have a great weekend, enjoy St. Pat’s Day safely, and Go Irish (and Illini).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)