Skydiving Without A Parachute

Gift Exchange

2006-12-23T18:51:00.000-05:00

Since I'm flying home tonight, Gloria, Matilda and I exchanged our girts last night. They got me some good stuff: a nice pair of brown pants, green sweater, a belt, dress socks that I sorely need and some t-shirts.

I got Matilda one of my favorite books "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and a karaoke game for the PS2 Gloria bought her. She couldn't open the game yet since she doesn't know she's getting the PS2. Actually, she's pretty sure she's getting is but just to be safe we told her she couldn't open the gift until Christmas.

I thought I had done well for Gloria until I got fucked by shipping companies. I bought her a Victoria Secret perfume/body lotion set and a bottle of massage oil from Bath and Body Works. Unfortunately that's all she could open because the other gifts haven't arrived.

I got her a set of earrings she picked out from this speciality catalog she had at home. They were suppose to be here last Friday, Monday at the latest. When I called on Thursday - okay maybe I should have called sooner - the lady told me they were being return to the company because of an incorrect address. Apparently the pinhead who took my order didn't fully put in my address and since they didn't have the right house number, they got shipped back. Fuck! So then they tried to overnight them, but they didn't arrive by the time I left this morning.

The other thing I got her was a single-serve coffee maker that she wanted for her office. I ordered it off Amazon and again they said it would be here early this week. I had a tracking number and it said it was delivered on Dec. 18 but it was no where to be found. I got Matilda's stuff off Amazon and had no problems. I went to the post office for my zip code and they didn't know where it was at.

So then yesterday I checked the order to see if I could figure out anything. When I bought the coffee maker it took me right through the process and didn't show me what address it was sending to. When I looked through again, it showed that it was sent to my old address. I went there this morning to see if they have it, but the office is closed until the 26th. Fuck me, again.

My first Christmas with someone and I royally fuck it up. The earring mishap really couldn't have been avoided. The damn company that I ordered through is like Avon used to be where you had to order from a rep and you couldn't get anything through their website, which is completely stupid in the 21st century. Since I didn't know any reps I just called the company direct and I guess they would have gotten to me had the customer service rep not messed up.

Originally I wasn't going to get her the earrings because I was going to get her a Brighton necklace. Brighton isn't as completely stupid as the people at Silpda in that they sell there stuff at some stores. Unfortunately the two stores in Tallahassee that sell Brighton didn't have the necklace I wanted. The lady at the second store told me she would see if she could get the necklace for me, but never actually told me she ordered it. When I didn't hear from her for a week I assume she couldn't get it so that's when I order the necklace, only to have her call me two days later saying it had come in!

I think the coffee maker is in the office of my old place and I'm planning to get that when I get back into town. As for the earrings, I'm not sure what to do. Unfortunately they won't open until the 26th so I'll have to give them a call and figure out where the hell the earrings are. If they get returned again I think I"m just going to have them sent to her house since I know people will be there. As for the necklace, I'm planning to give that to her for Valentine's Day.

I'll Be Home For Christmas

2006-12-23T18:26:00.000-05:00

I'm currently sitting in the AirTran gate of the Jacksonville airport, waiting to begin my journey home. Gloria, Matilda and I had dinner at PF Chang's this afternoon and then they just dropped me off at the airport.

I'm really torn this year about being with Gloria and Matilda on Christmas versus being at home with my family. At first glance it may seem sad that this is my first Christmas with a girlfriend, but if you understood my dating track record you would understand, so its different for me to want to be in two places at once.

Since I got my internship at Fresno State eight years ago, my only holiday routine has been to get on a plane bound for Pittsburgh and spend time with family and friends. It was rather easy actually, no thinking about what I was going to miss where ever I was because all that was back in Fresno, DeKalb or Tallahassee was an empty apartment with half gallon of milk that was going to be expired before I got back.

Thanksgiving of 1998 was the first time I ever missed a major holiday with my family, which isn't that big of a deal considering I was only a year removed from college. Since then I think I've only been home for one Thanksgiving, but it's gotten easier each year to be not be home. Sure I miss not laying around my parent's house all day Thanksgiving then heading out to the bar that night to meet up with fellow over-stuffed friends. Then the next day we always played a game of football that evolved with age from full-blown contact to two-hand touch.

Given my job, there is almost always an athletic event, usually football and basketball, sandwiched around Thanksgiving so it's tough to get back. What has made it easier the last three years is that my parents have driven - yes driven, dad's not a big flier - from Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. We go to the volleyball coach's house where there is anywhere from 15-30 people so it's very festive. I think my mom likes it too because she doesn't have to do much cooking anymore. But Christmas is different.

Unless there is a bowl game of some sort or you work in professional sports, the three-day span before and after Christmas is pretty much a dead period for athletics so going home is only natural. Originally the plan was for me to come up today and then Gloria and Matilda would fly up on the 26th, but because of financial reasons we couldn't do it. Next year - and I know looking ahead a year might be premature - they tentative plan is for all three of us to fly up on Christmas day into Ohio where we always go to my uncle's. It will just be easier for all of Matilda's presents to be in one location so Gloria and I don't have to lug them through the airport.

I'm not sure how my parents will take it. At some point they had to know there was going to be a day where my sister and I are not there on Christmas morning. Right now my sister and her husband come in Christmas Eve for dinner and midnight church service, then we open present Christmas morning. Then my mom, dad and I head to Ohio and my sister goes to her in-laws. Hopefully if I'm not there Christmas morning my sister and her husband will still come up so there be someone there. Who knows.

Most married/dating couples that I know alternate holiday's where they got to one place for Thanksgiving and another for Christmas then the following year they switch it up. Unfortunately that really doesn't work for Glorida and I. Given our jobs, traveling for Thanksgiving is nearly impossible so that only leaves Christmas. Since her parents live with her it's only my parents that are going to get slighted by the plan for next year.

Maybe two years from now we would open presents at her house on the 23rd or 24th and then fly up to PA? The other thought I had was my parents fly down a day or two early for Christmas and then all five of us fly up to Ohio on the 25th to go to my uncle's. Then there's the issue of them coming to Florida twice in less than a month and again my dad's not a big flier.

Ugh.

I guess I should just be happy that I've got someone in my life that I care enough about that I'm willing to give up Christmas morning with my parents. There are thousands, if not millions, of people who won't be with the one's they love whether they are not in town, at war, in the hospital, etc.

I doubt I'll post until well after Christmas so to all of my five faithful readers, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakuh, etc. and a Happy New Year.

Toofache

2006-12-13T16:31:00.000-05:00

Running off at the keyoard...

...So I had my root canal last week. It was a much easier process than I could have ever imagined. Just wish it didn't set me back $596. No pain, at least during the process, and they even let me listen to my iPod, which made it much more tolerable. Now I have to wait at least a month while they see how my tooth reacts and then they will make the crown. It looks like it's going to be February before my mouth is whole again...

...I've done the majority of my shopping already and most of it has been from the comforts of my office as I got almost everything online. I got a game and book for Matilda as well as a coffee maker for Gloria. Relax that's not all I'm getting her. I ordered a pair of earrings from a catalog and I was going to get her this necklace, but the retailer doesn't let you buy online, don't ask me why, and the two stores in town that sell that line can't find it. I think I'm going to get her a Victoria Secret gift set and save the necklace for Valentine's Day. And yes I'm already looking ahead to VD by taking a cue from the John Mayer song "St. Patrick's Day". Once you get to Christmas you're pretty much locked into a relationship until mid-March. Not that I'm looking to get out, but you know....

...Right now is one of those times where I love to live in Florida. This whole weekend and into this week it's going to be in the 70's and sunny. If I wasn't working I'd be wearing shorts and they may appear as the week goes on. Thursday I'm going to play golf. That's not happening up north right now without some serious bundling up...

...As much as I like the weather right here now, I'm actually hoping that there is snow on the ground when I get back to Pennsylvania but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. The highs are in the 40's with the lows not going below freezing. If I have to go up to the cold, especially for Christmas, I want there to be snow on the ground, it just makes it more festive...

...I'm glad I don't bet on the NFL because this year I would be losing my shirt. I'm in one of those pick'em leagues were you pick the winner of all the games and I'm just brutal this year, but the whole league is like that. Every week there are 4-5 "upsets" and very few teams are covering the spreads this year. It's frustrating and I've pretty much given up on this year....

....I've never like Tom Brady, but now I like him even less. First off I just don't like him because he always beats the Steelers. Even his injuries led to a Steelers' loss. I contend that if he hadn't gotten hurt in the '03 AFC championship game that the Steelers would have won. They were beating him up and he was ineffective, but when he got hurt and Drew Bledsoe came in it gave the Pats new blood. Now i hate him because he screwed my fantasy football team.

After starting 0-7, I won four of my last six games and got into the playoffs. Even though I was facing the No. 1 seed my team was playing well. Brady, who was averaging about 13 points a game, lays an egg against Miami and scores zero points. I lost to the top seed by three points. If this pretty-boy jagoff has an average game, or hell slightly below average game, I win and move on in the playoffs. But no, this bitch couldn't throw one lousy TD pass against a horrible Dolphins team.

Meeting The Friends

2006-12-09T19:19:00.000-05:00

Since Gloria and I worked together our circle of friends in town isn't that big to the point where we're meeting new people. We tried to keep the relationship on the down low during the fall but by now it's pretty common knowledge. There really hasn't been a chance for us to do anything within the department setting as a couple, but that may change at the office Christmas party. That could be interesting, especially since she has some hang up about it.

The two of us have also lived all over the country so we've got pockets of friends all over the place. I meet two of her friends early in the fall then she went through the ringer at the end of October. First she met my friend Nikki in Boston then my parents in Maryland as well as my friend Merseydotes and Kristen for dinner. When we went to Duke and Wake I got to meet three of her neighbors from when she lived up that way, but it was only a brief meeting after the match.

This week I got to meet on of Gloria's best friends, Martha and her family. Martha's got three kids, ages four, six and eight. Friday was Matilda's seventh birthday and every year she takes her to Disney so Tuesday we headed down and Martha and her family came up from south Florida.

The first night we went to Mickey's Magical Christmas where you buy a special ticket and they keep the Magic Kingdom open until 12 a.m. with special shows, fireworks, cookies & hot chocolate all over the park. It's a pretty good deal because you barely have to wait on any of the rides and get all the perks for an even cheaper cost.

On Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom, which I hadn't been to and then MGM. Animal Kingdom is pretty cool - it's got a great roller coaster Expedition Everest - and a good safari ride where you see also sorts of animals. They don't mention anything about security but there didn't appear to be any sort of fences separating you from such animals as lions, cheetas, elephants. I mean if something flip in one those things and they just went on a rampage, what's to stop them?

Not that any park at Disney sucks, but MGM is pretty solid. They got two good rides - Rockin Rollercoaster & Tower of Terror - then some other cool stuff like the back lot tour and a special effects show. Since we spent most of the day at Animal Kingdom we didn't get to spend much time at MGM, but enough to get our money's worth and for the kids to get on the rides they wanted to. The day wasn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, $80 for a one-day park hooper ticket, and that's with my discount as a Florida resident.

Getting back to the point, I was glad that Gloria asked me to come along on the trip and to meet her friends. I thought it was important for relationship. By meeting each other friends you get to learn more about the other person and you're sharing a part of your life. I'm not the best at sharing and expressing my feelings to Gloria, I'm getting better, but I think meeting my friends is another way to share with her.

She may get another chance to meet my friends if we go to Mobile to see Ohio play in the GMAC Bowl, but that trip is still up in the air. I'm also hoping that we can come up to Pennsylvania this summer.

Okay it's time to fold some laundry, I'll have more later.

Thanksgiving

2006-12-09T18:53:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was pretty good. The day didn't start so well as I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to fly back to town from North Carolina with the volleyball team. We played at Duke and Wake Forest Tuesday and Wednesday then came home that morning. Needless to say all of us were tired and had it been any other day I would have come back to the house and just slept, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

My parents were already in town and waiting for me. They had driven all the way down from Pennsylvania - my dad doesn't fly - and they were just as tired as me. They stopped stopped somewhere in Georgia to take a nap but that was about it.

After taking a shower and unpacking slightly, we caught a quick breakfast and headed up to the volleyball coaches house. I've gone to his house the last four years and my parents have been down the last three years. Last year it was a huge thanksgiving with our vb team as well as wake forest. This year was pretty good, but not as big as last year. His whole side of the family drove down from Ohio in an RV, which had to have been an interesting trip.

Dinner was also going to be a little bit different because Gloria's whole family was going to be there and this would be the first time our parents would meet. I can count on one hand the number of girlfriends I have, I know sad, and Gloria is in even more exclusive company as the only girlfriend I've ever introduced to my parents so needless to say the meeting of the parents was completely new territory for me.

Luckily our families got a long pretty well, it didn't seem like anything was forced between us like we were just sitting there because we felt like we had to. My parents, especially my mom, seem to really like Matilda as well. I'm sure just likes to think about the potential of a grandchild, but let's not get a hold of ourselves.

As for the meal itself it was great. I love thanksgiving because there are really no expectations. Everything centers around food - which I obviously love given my spare tire - and football, which I also like. Because of all the activity in the house, and because the games weren't that good, I didn't watch a whole lot of football but we did manage to get a game going in the backyard. Despite being in the boot I got to play as the all-time quarterback. The food was great, we deep fried two turkeys and there were all the usually side dishes like cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, etc.

The rest of the weekend went pretty well. Friday morning my parents and I played a par three course, which was about all the golf I could play in the boot, and then I worked a women's basketball game that was on TV. After the game my parents and I went out to Gloria's for dinner with her parents. Again everything seem to go really well, good food, good conversation, etc. I think both sets of parents are pretty easy going so that makes it easier for everyone to get along.

Saturday was the FSU-UF football game, which didn't have the big game feel it should since we sucked this year, then out to the football coaches house for son's birthday party. The party was fun, but with a noon start to the football game it was a long day for everyone and we headed back to my house early.

The house was a little crazy because on top of my parents, my other roommate's parents were there as well as a friend of his dad and one of his buddies and a friend of my other roommate. I had to sleep on the couch downstairs which was a pain in the ass because the guys kept coming in after 2 a.m. from the bars and I was trying to sleep. In theory it would have been best for my folks to stay at at hotel, but I was trying to save them some money and between the short trip and all the work I had, I wouldn't have seen them that much if they didn't stay with me.

Sunday we had breakfast with Matilda and Gloria then my parents started back for PA. After that I helped Gloria with the Christmas lights, which took a long time and we didn't get a whole lot accomplished. Because of our schedules it took us three days to do everything, but they are up and look nice.

More to come.

More Catching Up

2006-12-09T18:46:00.000-05:00

This blog, like my life, seems to go in this cycle. I let every thing go for a week or two then catch up on everything in one fell swoop. Instead of maintaining this blog, and my life, at small increments at a time every day or every other day, I fall behind and then when things get to a breaking point, I address them.

Take laundry for instance. Right now my fourth load of laundry is in the dryer. I started last night and I am now finishing up this evening. I've got time because Gloria and her daughter are out of town at a volleyball match.

Last week it was my car that I finally cleaned after who knows how many months. The rugs were dirty, it started to smell a little bit, and there was just junk every where in it so I cleaned it. The carpets still need to be cleaned in it, but it's about 1000 times better than it was at this point.

Since I'm at home alone watching bad TV and don't want to work on my softball guide I've got some time to catch you up.

Catching Up

2006-11-28T17:28:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since my last post, so I wanted to do some quick catching up:

The boot is off, though I've transitioned to a brace for the next few weeks

My folks met Gloria, her daughter Matilda and her parents over thanksgiving. It well well.

I returned to the site of my first trip as an SID. Nothing sentimential, just had been eight years.

I'll type more tomorrow. I'm off to Gloria's house to help finish putting up Christmas lights.

MS

The Root of All Evil

2006-11-15T16:32:00.000-05:00

So I've got my appointment to see the dentist about a root canal. I get to go on December 13, which if you're scoring at home, or by yourself, is four weeks away. How is it possible that it's going to take me for weeks to get a root canal? It's not an elective surgery, I need to get my tooth fixed! Then a month after I get the root canal, i can get my crown replace so it will be well in 2007 before my mouth is back in place.

The only positive from having to wait so long is that I'll have time to save up the money I don't have to pay for the damn thing. In case you were wondering, after insurance it's going to cost me $596.25 to get a root canal. The crown will probably be another $300. Good times.

I think I've come up with a stop-gap to my financial woes. This isn't the best idea, but it's about the only one I've got. During my time at NIU, I accumulated about 8 grand in a retirement fund and it's just sitting there. I'm sure I'm going to get a good portion of that taken away in taxes, but if I get half of that, I can pay for my teeth, pay off the overdue portion of my credit cards and put the rest of it away in a saving account towards the down payment on a house. Like I said, it's not ideal, but it's a way for me to pull myself up by my own bootstraps. Like i said yesterday, I really, really, really don't want to ask my parents for more money.

On to another subject...I finally got my ass working out again as I went swimming on monday. I was slated to go today, but lightening in the area closed the pool. I contemplating going to lift, upper body only since I've got the boot, but I'm pretty tired. Gloria is coming down with the flu and/or strep throat so I stayed with her last night and got very little sleep, probably 45 minutes or so at a time, which is nothing compared to what she is going through.

Fortunately I don't' get sick that often. You can probably count on one hand the number of days of school I missed because i was sick. That's high school of course, we won't got into how many times I missed an afternoon calculus class because the allure of golfing or hanging out with friends.

and keeps pouring

2006-11-14T16:51:00.000-05:00

Some I got into the dentist today. After nearly two hours of sitting around he comes in and tells me I need to have a root canal done where my crown fell out. Once they do that they'll rebuild the base of my tooth so they can put the crown back in. Even better news is that there is a short of dentist in town who do root canals so it may be a month before I get this done.

Ugh.

The upside is I don't have to pay for it right away, which is good because i don't have the cash for it. The more and more I think about my finances the more it just turns my stomach into knots and gives me a huge headache. I missed a car payment last month and I can catch up on that in my next pay check, but then I don't have the money to pay off my student loan. Add to this that I owe Gloria $225 because she was nice of enough to let me put my plane ticket on her credit card so I could go home for Christmas.

Then on top of all this my parents know about my financial woes because they co-sign my car lease because my credit sucks so when I missed the payment on my car they got a notice. They've always been there to bail me out financially and I feel so guilty borrowing more money from them. I feel like such a failure. Anyone know how much a kidney goes for these days on the black market?

When it rains, it pours

2006-11-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

So I've been getting around the last three weeks with the boot on my left foot. It's not the most enjoyable thing, it's not the most comfortable thing, but at least all my left foot shoes are getting a much deserved break. It's a pain in the ass, but I'm managing and it's better than the alternative of a cast. Plus my leg is feeling much better and most of the swelling has finally gone down.

My financial situation is still in disarray and is the biggest stress on my life. I feel like I'm never going to catch up on all my bills. It always seems like a student loan is popping up here or some forgotten bill over there and they are never at the right time for me to keep a positive balance. I've enrolled in credit counseling and if every goes to plan I should have my credit cards paid off in five years, compared to the 20 years it was going to take me by just paying the minimums.

Another reason why my finances stress me is that I can't do much for Gloria. I like to do nice things for her like buy her flowers on a whim or pick up lunch every now and then, but given my financial status, that doesn't happen very often. She makes more money than I do, which I'm fine with - I've always said I'd be Mr. Mom if I could find a sugar momma - and she does a lot for me, but the fact that I can't reciprocate just kills me. I don't even want to think about Christmas.
I swear I'm so desperate in my finances that I'm this close - envision my thumb and forefinger about a millimeter apart - to answering one of those online ads where you get paid to answer surveys and junk like that. I already do one where I earn points towards frequent flyer miles, which I've actually gotten. I'm also entertaining the idea of a second job, but god knows I don't have the time for that. Actually god knows a lot of things, including that, but probably doesn't rate that as high on his list as I do. Even with all those problems, I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I hope to be getting a raise sometime this year or next and I'm picking up some cash on the side doing work for televised basketball games, but for the time being it's not good.

Before you start the pity party or sponsor a tele-a-thon, though I'll take any donations, things haven't been all that bad. The job is going well, my relationship with Gloria is going great, though she's been a little cranky lately, and in general, everything else is fine.

But, and what for the dramatic pause....the friggin crown on my tooth falls out Friday night! I got it put on about 6-7 years ago in DeKalb and it bothered me a few years ago so I saw a team dentist and the x-rays were negative. I've had a few check ups since then, but really no pain since I was brush and flossing (occasionally), but Friday morning my tooth was a little sore, but I didn't think much of it. That evening I've got the slim remains of a Tootsie pop and when I bite down on it, my crown comes off.

Fortunately it's a pretty clean break, there wasn't any pain. I'm also fortunately in that none of the nerve endings have been exposed so there's really not that much pain in my mouth. However, I do need to find a dentist - i hadn't set one up yet with my new insurance - and I need to get this damn crown replaced. Of course this also means I'm going to have to fork out $300 after insurance for the new crown and this is money I don't have in the first place. All of this just adds to my stress and I don't know what I'm going to do so if you see me on the street corner, throw me a buck.

I Got Your Birthday Candles Right Here

2006-11-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

I hate my birthday. I really shouldn't say that, but I do and it's not because I don't like getting older. Getting one day closer to 40, 50, 60, etc. Doesn't bother me. I hate drawing attention to myself and that extends to banquets, award ceremonies, etcs. I know what kind of work i've done and I know how well it was done. Do you get award for doing something poorly? Seriously?

That's one of the many reasons - I won't got into all of them - why I want to get married - when it happens, cool your jets - in Vegas. Some little chapel off the Strip with an Elvis impersonater and/or Wayne Netwon, the actual guy, performing the ceremony. Afterwards there can be a big party with as many people as possible just having a good time, but idea of standing up in front of all those people doesn't thrill. It's not stage fright, I have no problem being in the public eye. Eight Saturday a week I'm on the sidelines in front of 85,000 people and I'm right in my element. Maybe that's because only about 100 of the 85,000 know who I am, whereas a whole church full of people would know who I was.

It's the need for little attention that makes me good at my job. My job is to make other people look good and that's how I get my gratitude. When one of my athletes or coaches wins an award, I know I played a part in that and there's a good chance they wouldn't have won had it not been for my efforts. Yes the athletes and coaches do the majority of the work, but how do you think Lee Corso or Kirk Herbstreet finds out about someone, through someone like me.

Anyways....the one thing that I like about my birthday is that it brings people that I like around. I like hanging out with friends, it really doesn't matter what we're doing, just as long as good people are around. Gloria, as they call my lady friend in the office, asked what she could make me for dinner on my birthday. I told her that I didn't care if it was franks and beans, as long as she made the gesture. I'm a substance guy, not style, which most of you have can tell from my wardrobe.

With that said, I'll be spending most of the night with my friend Daisy while her husband and Gloria go to this banquet. After dinner there will be the usual cake and presents but it will be low key and that's how I like it. Besides, 31 is nothing to celebrate. Now 35, when I'm eligible to be President, that's another story.

Meet the Parents

2006-10-27T19:20:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm writing to you from Boston. We're up here to play a match against Boston College. We spent the late morning walking around Quincy Market to get the girls out of the hotel for a little bit so their not sitting around. A lot of times too much down time is bad because the girls get dormant and then its hard to get their energy level up in time for the match.

I haven't been to Boston since I was 16 and came on a family vacation to New England. We got a lot done in a little bit of time. We toured Boston, went to Plymouth, Walden Pond, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and then stole a rock off some wall at Lexington and Concord. That prompted my parents to get some sort of rock from basically every national park, landmark, etc. that they visit. They've got Yosemite, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone and a bunch more all displayed in their flowerbed in front of their house.

We're flying to Maryland tomorrow and my parents are coming down for the football game there. Since my lady friend is traveling with me she'll get to meet my parents tomorrow. I haven't brought that many girls around to meet my parents, actually she might be the first. I haven't done a whole lot of dating and when I have the relationship haven't lasted that long to warrent meeting the folks. I have this bad habit of deciding that the relationship has no future so I cut it off before getting in too far. Probably not a healthy idea, but no one's perfect.

For those of you who have asked about the lady friend, here's what I tell you. We'll call her Amber. She's taller than I am, older than I am, a widow, got a daughter and her parents live with her. No I'm not making any of this up. This is all you get, for now.

Das Boot

2006-10-27T18:47:00.000-04:00

It's been probably two weeks since my last entry, but there really hasn't been much to talk about. The last two weeks has pretty much been one of two things: work or hanging out with my lady friend.

The only real major change that has occurred for me stems from an injury I wrote about a month ago. If you'll recall, I got hit by a golf ball while out on a course southeast of Atlanta. With ice and a couple of dips in the cold pool - in the training room at our athletic facility we have two pools, one is always at 60 degrees and the other is at 105 - I was able to work out a little bit. But the following week my leg felt worse and then I tried to play flag football, but that made it only worse.

Last Friday I saw one of our team physicians and he told me I needed x-rays. On Monday I went and got it checked out. Getting the actual x-ray took about five minutes, which was surprising for an HMO. The x-ray machines now are pretty sweet. The imagines come up on one screen and then the technician can put arrows pointing to the injury, etc. Even before the film was printed I could see a little fracture just above the ankle on the outside of my left leg. I was hoping I would get a boot and not a cast.

The radiologist, which how cool is this, who wasn't even on site, after looking at my x-ray, called my doctor's office and told them I needed to get in with an orthopedist ASAP. My doctor's office calls me and asked how and when the injury occurred and told me to not put any weight on the leg - which was kind of tough considering I didn't have crutches - and that they would call me soon with an appointment. An hour later around 11:30 a.m. I'm still in the x-ray waiting room when one of the receptionist suggest I call back. Good thing she suggested that because they had no idea when I was getting in with the orthopedist so I went back to work. At 4:30 I call back to my doctor and they still don't know when I'm going to be in. Just before five they tell me I've got a 1 p.m. appointment the next day.

For one reason or another, my insurance company has tried twice to mail me my info pack with my insurance card, but it has gotten returned. Since I need the card to see the orthopedist, I had to drive to the far north side of town to get the card then go to the orthopedist. I get there and fill out the SAT like 8 pages of forms before I go in to see the doc and about five minutes after filling out the paper work they take me back. 40 minutes later I finally see the guy, who is actually a physician's assistant, not an actual doctor. If I wanted to see a doctor it could have taken an extra day or two which is stupid even I knew the damn thing was fractured. The only saving grace of all this was that I had my iPod and I was watching episodes of "Grey's Anatomy".

The guy looks at my x-ray then tells me what I already know. He agreed to the boot over the cast and said since the injury happened three weeks ago I would probably have to be in it for only six weeks instead of the normal 10. This took about 10 minutes so it was 40 minutes of sitting 10 of actually talking to the guy. When you make your appointment they should tell you that you should show up at 1 to fill out the forms, but it won't be 1:45 until actually see someone. I think I would have gotten pretty pissed if I didn't have the iPod.

The PA sends me to prosthetics/orothodic office to get fitted for the boot. Again it's another 30 minute wait to meet five minutes with a guy. All the boot guy asked me for was my shoe size then he brought it back and showed me how to put it on. Ridiculous. I could have figured it out myself and saved both of us some time. I finally got back to the office around 3 p.m. so I wasted a good 3 hours for a grand total of 15 minutes of face-to-face time.

So far the boot as made my leg feel much much better. It's designed to take most of the weight off the foot/ankle/leg so it can heal quicker. The PA said my leg would have eventually healed if if I never got the boot, but it would have taken a lot longer. I can already feel the difference because even for the short time when I walked without the boot - which is usually just at night before bed and in the morning when I'm getting ready - there isn't nearly the same level of pain.

For now the only exercise I can do is swimming - but no two feet pushoffs - and upper body lifting. In about a month I'll be able to ride a bike - though I may start doing it with the boot on since its such a short distance from my place - and in three months I can start jogging again. I go back in a month so we'll see what the PA has to say.

The DMV

2006-10-12T12:43:00.000-04:00

Bit by bit I'm getting my life into place. I've got all of my stuff out of storage and into my house and I've unpacked the last of the boxes. As far as I know, most every bank, creditor, magazine, junk mail has my new address, I know I haven't sent it out to any of you yet. Right now I'm working on getting all my benefits in line, like picking a doctor, retirement, etc.

One of the things I haven't done in a long time is get my address updated on my driver's license. The one I had was from three moves ago so I figured it was time to get a new one, plus in the photo I'm about 20 pounds heavier and a few strands of hair lighter. I'm hoping to be at this address until I buy my own place in Tallahassee or move out of town. Of course I say that now and this time next year I'll be moving again.

So yesterday I make the trek out to your friendly neighborhood department of motor vehicles. Being a "Simpsons" fan, I'm always expecting Patty and Selma to be there, but I'm always disappointed. Surprisingly it went pretty smoothly and I was only there for about 20 minutes, but while I was there I did see two interesting people.

While I was waiting, there was a woman ahead of me at the counter that was having problems with the title to her vehicle. Apparently a vehicle that was registered to her was involved in a car crash in California. When the woman said she didn't own the car anymore, the lady at the DMV said, someone's been lying to you to which the woman replied "Probably the guy that's been lying to me for 26 years as my husband." From what I can gather, her old man sold the car, but the title never got changed.

The other interesting character was a guy that stood about 5-10 or so and checked in around three and a half bills. He was wearing a white t-shirt and denim overalls and probably driving a broken down pick up truck, fully equipped with a gun rack, confederate flag sticker and the sticker with Calvin - from Calvin & Hobbes - peeing on the Ford logo or the John Deer tractor. I didn't pick up much of his conversation, but I did hear him say - and use your best Forest Gump voice - "It's a boat trailer" and "my ex wife probably sold it when I was in the hospital".

Only in the south.

Back to School

2006-10-12T12:36:00.000-04:00

My mom took a job this fall as the softball coach at Clarion University, which is a small Division II school about 20 minutes from my hometown. A kid who graduated from my high school is getting a minor in sports management at Clarion and for one of his classes he has to interview someone in the sports management field. He couldn't find anyone apparently, because he asked about the sports information business. Below is the transcript, thought you might be interested.

Why did you choose to get into this position?
Growing up with both of my parents coaching, I've been around sports all my life and I also like to write so really it's the perfect job. I thought I was going to be a sports writer, but when I decided that journalism wasn't the job for me, I found out about the sports information office while I was working with the school paper at Ohio University. The job is the perfect combination of sports and writing, plus you get the interaction with coaches and student-athletes that you don't find working at a newspaper.

How long have you been in your present position?
I been full-time at Florida State since August 1, but I've been at FSU since July of 2003. I worked in the office as a graduate assistant for three years while working on my MBA and then recently a full-time position in the office became available.

How did you perpare yourself to work in this field?
Luckily I had taken a few journalism classes to hone my writing skills and working at the school newspaper helped a lot as well. The best thing I did was do my practicum in the sports information office because it showed me a lot of the ins and outs of the job that I didn't know existed.

What were the particular job requirements?
The number one skill you have to have to succeed in sports information is the ability to write. Not a day goes by that I don't write something, whether it's a press release, a PA script, feature story, etc. If you can't write well, you can learn everything else about the job as you go along. As far as other tangible skills, it helps if you know a few things about desktop publishing, Photoshop and web publishing applications. Writing fast doesn't hurt either because many times you're trying to get your release in before the newspaper deadline, tv goes on the air or, more importantly, they leave you behind at the gym or field.

There are other, maybe more important, intangible attributes you need to be successful in sports information. It may sound like a cliché, but you have to be a hard worker. Like most jobs in athletics, you work nights, weekends, holidays and every time in between so if you're not a hard worker, this isn't the job for you.

Another thing you need to be able to do is work well with people and be able to read people. The sports information director (SID), is the liaison between the athletic department and the media and this means balancing a number of different personalities and egos and they don't always get along, but it's your job to make everyone happy so if you have to be able to find that balance.
I couldn't continue to list attributes for days, but the final one I'd say is that you have to inquisitive. To be good at this job, you can't just look at box score or results and write your release. You have to think to yourself "Is that a record?" or "When was the last time we did that?" Those are the things that get your sport or athletes attention from the media. Along those same lines you have to be creative, especially when working with sports besides football and basketball, because there is only so much space in the newspaper or during the news so you have to come up with interesting angles or storylines to draw the media in. The media should be doing a story about a tennis player who is one of the best players in the conference, but you'll give them more incentive if they know she's classically trained in piano, speaks three languages and volunteers to read to elementary school kids.

What are your greatest challenges in this position?
Time is always a factor, you never seem to have enough hours in the day to get everything done, which is usually why you work nights and weekends. There always seems to be one more project or one more release you can write, but sometimes you have to decide what's important and what's not. That's where good time management skills come in as well as delegation. If you're lucky, you have a good group of students working in your office and they can make your life much easier, even if it's through little things like sorting pictures or clipping articles out of the newspaper.

Going back to an earlier question, it's always a challenge to make both the media and the coaches/student-athletes happy. With sports like football and basketball, the media wants all the access they can get, while most coaches don't want to talk to the media beyond the minimum. Some coaches are better than others, but most try to avoid the media as much as possible and this of course, upsets the media. With student-athletes, you have to watch them more than coaches when it comes to dealing with the media. Most student-athletes like talking to the media, but there are some who are stubborn about it and will do everything they can to get out of it. You also have to watch what they say and work with them. Coaches are pretty good at not giving out information that is no for public consumption, but student-athletes are more prone letting things like that out. The student-athlete's day is filled everyday with classes, practice, lifting weights, study halls, meetings, going to the training room, and oh yeah, trying to be a regular 18-22 college student so you have to remind them more about interviews and keep them on task, whereas you pretty much know you can find a coach in their office or on the field/court.

What have been you greatest accomplishments?
I'd like to say that I've won numerous awards for my media guides, features, etc., but I haven't. Most of the rewards you get in sports information stem from working to get a student-athlete an award or get a feature story written about them. When I was at Northern Illinois University I worked to get the school its first Freshman All-American as well as its first First-Team All-MAC basketball selection in about 20 years. At Florida State I worked with one of our men's tennis players to get him the National Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship award. The athletes do most of the work, but the flyers, emails and release we put together bring light to their efforts and it brings you a sense of accomplishment and that your works isn't going unnoticed. It's also very rewarding to hear one of the television announcers or studio hosts use a note that you've written. If you ever want to know how Lee Corso knows that Florida State has never lost when scoring 40 or more points, in the month of October, at home, when it's 70 degrees or warmer? It came from the sports information office.

What have been your biggest problems?
Losing. The worse day on the job is when you lose and it's even worse when you lose in the postseason because your season is over and for the seniors, perhaps the last games, meet or match of they're every going to play at this level. Losing affects everyone, but it makes our job much harder to do. After a loss, an athletic trainer makes sure everyone is okay, hands out some ice then is done or the marketing person packs up their table and goes home. The SID has to make the coaches or student-athlete do the one thing they don't want to do, talk. No one is happy after a loss and it brings a lot of pain and my job is to make coaches and student-athletes relive that pain. Losing sucks.

What advice would you offer individuals wanting to get into this profession?
Learn how to write, if you can write then you've got about half the job cover and the rest of it you can learn as you go, but if you can't write you'll struggle with the job early on and you'll be out before you know it. After that, I would suggest doing an internship, practicum or volunteer in sports information before you decide to do it for a career. Sports information is one of the toughest, but most rewarding, jobs in athletics. At most schools you have more than one sport so there really isn't much of an off season and even if your sport(s) are not in season, you trying to get ahead for next year, catch-up from the last or you're helping out with another sport so it helps to get a taste of the job before you dive into it as a career. On the flip side of the hard work are the rewards. I've seen most of this country, including Hawaii, on someone else's dime thanks to athletics. I've met people and done things, like play golf with Bobby Bowden, I wouldn't normally get to do because of athletics. There's no better feeling then being on the field during the Florida State-Florida football game or being at center court when Duke comes to town for basketball. People pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to come to my office, and it seats 85,000.

Losing Sucks

2006-10-07T17:57:00.000-04:00

When you're team loses, usually you're over it in the next day or so. Maybe if it was a title game it takes you a little bit longer, but when you work in athletics, losing hurts even more because its your job.

Take Thursday night for example.While the average Florida State was over the loss to NC State when they got up Friday morning, the nightmare of the loss as just beginning for me the next morning. Nothing sucks worse than having to go to work the next day after a football loss. Football games are such a big event that encompass the entire athletic department that anytime you lose, it brings the whole department down. Everyone walks around with their head down, moping and you're not motivated to do anything.

Another thing that makes football losses tougher to take is that they play so few games. When you play 65 softball games or 30 basketball games you've got a shorter window to think about the loss and a quicker time to get another win. But when you lose Saturday afternoon it sits with you until about Wednesday or Thursday. It isn't until Thursday evening/Friday morning that the potential for that next week overtakes the pain of the previous loss.

Of course the flipside is also true. You win a big game Saturday and it carries you the whole way until the next week. Last year after Florida State beat Miami on Labor Day you would have thought they discovered oil under the stadium.

I'm not getting any younger

2006-09-30T12:48:00.000-04:00

I've started playing on an intramural flag football team this fall. I play on a men's team and a co-ed team. Both teams are pretty good - our co-ed team won 50-0 last week - and I'm having fun, but I'm definitely not getting any younger. Oh I'm in good condition, just my body isn't fairing as well as it used to.

The men's team plays at 6 p.m. Sunday's then the co-ed is an hour later, which is nice because it only takes up one day and the weekends are ideal. However, by about the middle of the co-ed game I'm usually pretty beat up. During the first half of the men's game two weeks ago I pulled a muscle in my back that nagged me for the rest of the evening, but I still managed to have an interception in the men's game then two touchdowns in co-ed.

However, the next few days I felt like I was 60 years old because my body was sore all over. I'm talking sore just to sit down the toilet. By Thursay I was okay and ready for last week's but again in the first half of the men's game I pulled a muscle in my hip, which made it hard to run at full speed, but I was okay to play in the co-ed. About three plays into the co-ed game a girl fell in front of me when I was running with the ball and her head went right into my leg and pulled my quad muscle. Luckily the game was a blowout and the defense scored three times so I didn't have to do much running.

The soreness was back all over again, but after some ice and a dip in the cold pool - in our training room we have a pool that is set at 55 degrees all the time, as well as one set to 115 - and I finally thought I was over it going into this weekend...

Yesterday I'm playing golf with my old roommate Adam and a few of his co-workers. On the first hole, one of the guys duffed his shot past me and I thought he was done so I started walking onto the fairway to hit my ball. I happened to glance to my right, only to see him in the top of his backswing. I tried to hightail it out of the way, but I couldn't move fast enough and he hit me with a line drive right about my ankle. Somehow I managed to walk the next 17 holes and shoot 83 along the way with some shots left on the course.

Unfortunately my left ankle and most of the ligaments in my lower leg hurt like hell and I'm having trouble walking on it. It's swollen up pretty big and it hurts even worse when I ice it, but I know that's helping the swelling. Right now I would list myself as doubtful for the games, which wouldn't be a bad thing because I would get to spend some time with my lady friend.

Losing Sucks

2006-09-18T14:15:00.000-04:00

With the exception of the people who jobs are literally a matter of life or death situations - such as doctors, nurses, police, fire fighters, circus freaks, Tom Cruise, etc. - i can't imagine any job that has the highs and lows of working in athletics and the highs are incredibly high and the lows are incredibly low.

Except for the extreme situations - like when a student-athlete dies - the worse days of my job are the ones when we lose. Losing sucks. What makes my job suck more after a loss than others in athletics, such as marketing, facilities, etc., is that we have to make the athletes and coaches do the one thing they don't want to do after a loss: talk. After a loss no one wants to talk to the media. They'll go see the trainers or meet with a coach, but after a loss all they want to do is crawl inside a hole. It's my job to get them into the interview room.

It's much easier to get coaches into the media room because they know it's their job. They're being paid to be here so they understand it needs to be done. Student-athletes are a different story. The best way to get them into the room is stroke their ego, tell them that players with character are the ones that talk after losses or that if they really want to be a leader, they can chose when to lead, you talk after a win then you're going to have to talk after a loss.

Saturday night the emotional swings that come with athletics were front and center. One of the great parts about my job is that I get to be on the field for the final five minutes of the game. After a poor first half, we fought back to tie the game in the fourth quarter and we had the momentum. Clemson hadn't done much the second half and if we could get the ball back we surely we're going to score. Then it happens. Our defense is caught off-guard and Clemson takes the ball from midfield down to our one-yard line. Ball game. They punch it in and go on the game.

Now instead of celebrating the win everyone's heads our down. Holly Rowe is on her way to the other side of the field to talk to the younger Bowden, not the guy who says "Hey buddy" when you see him in the hallway. The job just got that much harder and the next few days there will be a black cloud hanging over the athletic department. It's a lot easier to stay in the press box until 1 a.m. after a win, but following a loss all you want to do is go home and go to bed or drown your sorrows with a cold soak and that's just the support staff, imagine what the coaches and players feel.

Losing sucks.

Catching Up - Home Sweet Home Pt. Deux

2006-09-14T10:18:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning I start the 4-hour plus trip across Western PA and the wasteland that is Northern Ohio. Along the way I pick up my friend Nicole, who I know from college, but haven't seen in probably eight years. We've kept in touch, but she's been in Orlando and Boston while I've been everywhere from California to the Gulf of Mexico. The car ride is spent catching up on the last eight years and guessing what the wedding will have in store. Many times we catch ourselves saying we can't believe we're going to Dave's wedding. Dave was a great roommate at OU and an awesome person, but he can be picky and stubborn as hell. He found the perfect woman for him, she makes him happy and I'll be damned if I wasn't going to be there for him.

Once you get west of Akron there isn't really anything until to say, Chicago. The closest thing to civilization is the urban hotspot Mansfield and then beautiful Findlay, the hometown of Steeler quaterback Ben Rothleisberger.

Since we got kind of a late jump on the day, we don't have a chance to stop at our hotel and change clothes. That's not a big deal for me since I'm got my suit on, minute tie and jacket. For Nicole, however, it's another story. Since we couldn't find anything on the two-lane highway that split through miles of farmland, Nicole has to get changed in the back of the van. Yes I had to take my folks van since the driver side window of the jeep was stuck about halfway up. Being the gentleman that I am, I turn the mirrors to the side and stare out the front window with my hands at 10 and 2.

The wedding was nice, as far as weddings go, I'm not a big wedding person. It was pretty quick, which was a pleasant surprise considering I expected a full blown catholic mass. We had a good two hours to kill between the wedding and the reception so Nicole and I headed back to Findlay, which was about 20 minutes away. Along the way we stopped to take picture besides this 25-foot plastic bull that stood next to the road. Only in NE Ohio.

After checking in we went next door to the Outback as it was the only place near hotel with a bar. A girl that worked at the school newspaper, the Post, with us joined us at the bar and we did some more catching up. Eventually we made out way to the reception, which wasn't more than a 1/2 mile away from the hotel, probably 1/4 as the crow flies, where we met up with our friend Kim, another Postie. The reception was pretty much you would expect a wedding reception to be: Good food, open bar, some dancing and generally a good time.

When it was about time for the garter toss and I made sure to get the hell out of there. It's stupid shit like that makes me hate weddings -- my friend Jim did it right when he got married, they came in, did their first dance and the dance with the parents. Then everyone sat down, ate quickly and it was onto the dance floor -- so when I hear them talk about crap like that I make a b-line for the door.

There wasn't much to report from the reception until the end of the evening when I see dave go into the women's room to retrieve his wife. Apparently the mixture euphoria of the day, not eating much and booze did a number on her so Dave and another guy carried her to the car. I had a picture of it on my camera phone, but I decided to erase it.

After the reception wound down, Nicole, Erica, her sister and myself returned to Outback for a few more cocktails. Most of the time was spent revisiting our time at OU and talking about what watering holes and restaurants were still there and those that had been closed. Apparently I offended Erica's sister a little bit when i made a comment about the Crystal - with a C, not a K like the White Castle knock off spells it - being a sorority bar. When asked what a sorority bar was it was usually filled with girls wearing black pants and shiny shirt as well as guys in khaki's, a t-shirt or button down, plus a baseball cap. As you can probably guess she was in a sorority, but I really didn't care. Nicole said that I probably could have hooked up with her had it not been for the sorority comment, but that wasn't my attention for several reasons. 1) I was sharing a room with Nicole so there would have been that awkwardness. 2) I had just started seeing someone so i really didn't want to mess that up.

Sunday we headed back east to civilization. After I dropped Nicole off at her parents I made it back to Brookville in time to get a final round of golf in with Bill, Josh and Neil. We've been playing together for almost 15 years now and the rounds are fewer and farther between since I first moved out to California, but I can see myself meeting up with these guys somewhere on the links 20 years from now.

The remainder of the trip was pretty uneventful, which is what I needed after five non-stop days. My dad and I played 18 hole at a different course near by. My short game was solid, I nearly holed-out several times - which figures as close as I got to doing it, my dad holed out on 18 for par - but I was horrible off the tee. I think I need a lesson or two to get things corrected. Early Tuesday morning we headed to the airport and then it was back to Tallahassee. It was a good trip and I'm glad I got to see as many people as I did because I won't see most of them until christmas.

I love the 90's

2006-09-14T09:39:00.000-04:00

Did anyone know Hootie and the Blowfish are still touring? Next you're going to tell me the Spin Doctors are reuniting.

Nothing really new so I'm catching up with a long posting about my trip back home, the PG-13 version so there might be a side shot of a bare ass, but no frontal.

I did get to spend some quality time with coach Bowden last night. Normally we get quotes from him after practice, but since there was lightening in the area they had to move practice inside. When that happens the man usually leaves a bit early so someone has to get quotes and yesterday was my turn. I think I may have woken him up from his nap.

More soon...

Catching Up - Home Sweet Home Pt. 1

2006-09-12T15:46:00.000-04:00

I've got a volleyball match on TV tonight - no I'm not playing, I'm working it. Florida State plays Florida on Sun Sports for those of you in the south or anyone with DirectTV/Dish Network. I need to leave for the gym in about an hour and I really don't want to get any projects started so I'll recount my trip back to Brookville last month.

With my mind pretty much made up about what job I wanted, it was time to enjoy my annual summer trip home. My friend Josh picked me and we headed to his new apartment in downtown Pittsburgh. The apartment is your standard one-bedroom place but it sits about 100 feet from the Alleghany River with a perfect view of PNC Park and Heinz Field just to the west. You can see home plate from his balcony, it's pretty sweet.Unfortunately was very little going on in the Burgh that night, the highlight was really a one-man band playing "Rhinestone Cowboy" as we walked into one of the bars.

The next day my parents pick me up and we head off to Vincents, a local pizza place near Forest Hills, where my dad grew up. Nearly everytime we went to see my grandparents we went to Vincents. It's one of those family-owned restaurants where they still hand toss the crust and topping are just throw about so one slice may be covered with pepperoni while the one next to it may have none.

Thats about the extent to the relaxation for the rest of the trip. Josh comes up to Brookville Thursday evening since there is nothing going on at his firm. Around 9 we met up at Dirty Ehrma's - a bar my friend Dani owns - to start a long night. Somewere in the middle of the night we make our way up to another bar to check out a band and then its back to Ehrma's. Like most nights when I'm home, someone has the bright idea of going back to Josh's for afterhours - he has a small house on a golf course in Brookville, nice life I know. That evening winds down with me going home at 5 a.m. after a dip in the hot tub and some other nonsense.

I woke around 10 on Friday morning, but didn't actually get out of bed until noon when my mom asks if I'm to join her and my father for lunch. I'm playing golf with Josh, Neil and Dan, but before I play nine holes with her. I played lights out on the front - shooting 37 - but fell apart with a 45 on the back, but still won some $.

The four of us have dinner with Neil's disgrutled girlfriend then I take Neil back to his place and head home to shower so we can go back out. For some reason Neil has me drive his truck to my parents place instead of him dropping me off. His truck is a stick and going up the hill to get back to his place it stalls on me. I hadn't driving a stick in some time and the hills of Western Pennsylvania aren't the best place for a refresher course. Ehrma's is packed, but it's a young crowd and i don't know that many people. I'm sure that's how it was for the people that were 5-10 years older than me when i was in that 21-25 range and knew most of the bar on any given night. The evening kind of drags on because i'm exhausted from the lack of sleep, but I also have to get home at a reasonable time because I have to drive to Ottawa, Ohio for my friend Dave's wedding on Saturday. I manage to get home around 12:30 a.m., which wasn't that bad.

On the Road Again

2006-09-11T09:25:00.000-04:00

I'm procrastinating writing my match notes for tomorrow's match with Florida, which is on Sun Sports for those of you with satellite, so I'll entertain you with some talk of travel.

I had my first flight last week since the new restrictions were put in place. For the most part the flight wasn't much different than the ones I've taken since Sept. 11th. No real long lines to wait in an by now most people know what they can and can't take onto the place. The thing I found that confuses most people is that they can not take liquids they buy once they get past screening onto the plane.

The reason for my travel was a volleyball tournament in Columbia, S.C. -- btw, not very impressed with the University of South Carolina. Nice but not great. Prior to the trip someone printed out a little sheet for the girls detailing what they needed to brings, expectations of when we travel, etc.

I happen to see one of the sheets and it listed that you couldn't bring any carry-on items, which seemed really odd to me, especially since I knew people who had recently traveled and they had carry-ons. So I decided to check out the TSA website and see what they had to say about what you could and couldn't bring onto the airplane.

As expected i found out that you can bring a carry-on, but with the restrictions on liquids, but what I didn't expect to find was a pleasant surprise of an odd list of what's prohibited. You can bring a saber on the plane, you can your wear gel-filled bra or prosthetic limb. Throwing stars are a no-no, but personal lubricants, and it specifically names ky jelly, are more than acceptable. Cattle prods of course are not allowed, but you can bring up to 4 oz. of whip cream. Basically what the TSA is telling you is that you can't hurt anyone at 30,000 but you can join the Mile High Club in your own kinky way.

A Catching Up Break

2006-08-31T08:20:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to post on a few current topics in the midst of my feel good catching up stories.

I still haven't moved into my new place yet. I had to vacate the old one in the ghetto on August 6 and it's not going to be until Sept. 17 that I get into my new crib, hopefully. There's a policy in Florida that where there is a hurricane warning they freeze the sale of new home owners insurance policies. With Ernesto looming, Tuesday the freeze went into affect so the guy I was going to live with can't close on the townhouse today because he can't get insurance. They think it will be a week before the freeze is over, but who knows. What I do know is that my stuff is in storage for another two weeks and I'm staying at my boss' place for two more weeks. I can't wait to get back into my own bed. But at least I'm saving $ on rent.

So I'm listening to Lex and Terry this morning on my way into work and they're talking about Kevin Federlein - aka white trailer trash with a microphone - is suppose to be on the HBO show "Entourage" next year. They're putting together an online petition on their website to send to HBO saying they'll stop watching the show if k-sped is on the show and I totally agree. I love the show and I'm going to stop watching if they put this idiot on there. I have no idea what the HBO people are thinking. The show targets 18-35 guys and the only people who give a damn about this piece of shit back-up dancer trash are 18-25 girls. I think the show will lose more of its viewers in the long run than it will gain during the three-show arch that he's own. It's sad really. Last week's season finale was so good .

I had an old boss who used to say about college towns "This place would be great if it weren't for the damn kids" and I think of that every year during the first week of school. This place is a complete madhouse during the first week. The summer is great because you can get everywhere you need with relative ease. There's plenty of parking and very little traffic. Then the students come back and this place goes to hell. Monday and Tuesday I came back from lunch and couldn't find a parking spot in a lot with 500 spots because the fucking students park in faculty spots.

Now that I'm paying $250 a year to park - know it's nothing compared to what you kids in the city pays, but this is Tallahassee - i want to find a damn spot in front of my fucking building when I'm at work. Tow every last one of those bastards who don't have the right parking passes and it won't be a problem the rest of the year. I don't care if its the starting quaterback or some freshman shlub that doesn't know any better. Student passes are free whereas staff has to pay for their spots, but those little bastards have no respect for that anymore. It's just another point on my long laundry list of what's wrong with kids these days. I know in a week it will all die down because those jagoffs who's parents pay the $12,000 a year it costs to go here will stop going to class after the first week, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it pisses me off. Hell i'm pissed off about it all over again. I may have to key one of those little fuckers new cars their mommy and daddy bought them for graduation.

Going to end the post on a bit of a sad note. Legendary trumpet player Maynard Ferguson died on Sunday. This didn't get a whole lot of attention in mainstream media, but in the jazz world this is a huge loss. Whether you know it our not, you've probably heard his work. He was the one hitting all those ridiculous high notes on "Gonna Fly Now" from the Rocky movies. When i started playing the trumpet, my fifth grade teacher, who was big into jazz and had three sons who were musicians, introduced me to Maynard and for the five years that I played all I wanted to do was hit those wailing high notes like him, even though i couldn't even come close. Later on I discovered Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonis Monk, etc. and a hipper form of jazz, but I've always loved the way Maynard could get those notes above the register that no one else could get to. He'll be missed.

Tired

2006-08-17T14:12:00.000-04:00

I'm exhausted. Plain and simple. I haven't been getting much sleep lately, some good reasons some bad reasons. I also know I haven't posted in a long, long time. Like longer than the length of time Chevy Chase will be waiting beside his phone to make that fifth National Lampoon's Vacation movie after Vegas Vacation.

Here's what's happened since my last post:

1) Went to Alabama but didn't love it
2) Interviewed at Florida State
3) Went back to PA for a week
4) Decided to stay at FSU - it's the best fit
5) Got very little sleep, but saw a lot of friends and played plenty of golf while home
6) Went to a fun wedding where I saw the bride get helped out for the first time
7) Moved out of my shitty apartment
8) Have all my stuff in a storage unit
9) Staying with a co-worker until I find a place to live
10) Had two options for roommates, but they both fell through
11) Found a guy in the athletics department with a room to rent out
12) Can't get in until Sept. 3 so I'll be staying at the co-workers until then
13) Have been working my ass off on the volleyball media guide, which is incredibly behind because the bimbo who had vb before didn't do shit before she left for the job that she stole from out from underneath me
14) Football practice has started and it's the normal circus
15) That brings us to today where I'm trying like hell to get all the corrections made so I can get it to the printer tomorrow.

Disturbed

2006-07-30T23:11:00.000-04:00

There's a lot of catching up to do, I mean a lot. Like the catching up i'm going to have to do after missing the last two episodes of "Entourage" or the catching up they must have done on the "Saved By the Bell" reunion. What had that must have been like? "so...Elizabeth, how did that movie about being a stripper work out for you?" and "So...Dustin, you're completely crazy. Who knew?" There was an episode of the "College Years" on the other day when I was on the eliptical machine in the weight room of the football stadium and am I the only one or did Mark Paul Gossler look like he was on roids? Seriously, he was all jacked up but was back to normal for his stint on "NYPD Blue". Good I miss Sipowicz.

But before we get to that, I've got a serious issue....

In hopes of protecting my anonymity, I put the name of the blog into a Google to search to see what came up. To my shock, the first result was a blog by the very same name, hosted by this very same company. Shouldn't have the good people at blogger detected that and stopped me from putting together a blog by the same name? There should really be a rule that you can't have two blogs with the same name, at least hosted by the same site. I could see if there was one here and one done by Tripod or whoever, but it's kind of incestuous, don't you think?

This also leads me to a dilemma. Do I change the name of the blog, and the address, to keep mine unique or do I just stick with this one? Had I gotten one of the columnist spots at the Post my senior year, Skydiving Without a Parachute was the back up name for the column to Life in the Moose Lane, which was the name of the old blog, but you already knew that. I don't know what to do. If I do change, my last post at this site would just be a link to the new site. I'll stick with the good folks at Blogger.com, so they don't have to worry about the 1,000s of hits that I get every day.

I'm a little disturb that my blog didn't come up on the Google search, but relieved at the same time. It was surprising how many hits there were when you put the name into Google. So much for being orginal, I'll have to come up with a better one I guess. Any suggestions?

I also tried putting my last name in Google and the first reference was to the Urban Dictionary with the street definition of "Moose is a Japanese Samurai Hitman who kills by Honour." The next listing was www.Moose.com which upset me again because I was hoping to get that domain. The topper with this thing is that none of the references to the people on the site are to anyone I'm related to or with the same last name. I could see if it was a cousin of mine who did it, that wouldn't be an issue, but just some random jagoff pisses me off. This SOB didn't have to go through elementary school getting picked on because their last name. That bitch has earned that site. I need to plane some sort of hostel spamming take over to get it back.

Alabama Getaway Part I

2006-07-23T18:21:00.000-04:00

Well I got to Tuscaloosa okay today and to my shock, about an hour or so faster than what Mapquest said. Mapquest said it would take me just over five hours to get here and that was with directions that took me the whole way up to Birmingham and then back down southwest towards Tuscaloosa.

Luckily for me, a friend who had been to Tuscaloosa many times said the quickest route was to pick up Highway 82, just north of Montgomery. When I look at the Mapquest directions for that route this morning, the site said that way was shorter, but it would take me almost seven hours. Fortunately it was a quiet Sunday on the roads and I was humming along in a caravan with a few other cars the whole way here.

Tomorrow afternoon may be a different story when I go back. I'm going to hit Montgomery right around 5 p.m. so there will be some congestion and the state of Alabama hasn't done a great job of snyching its lights. With the exception of some parts of 82, most of the roads I was on were four-lane state highways where the speed limit is 55-to-65 mph, which is great. What I don't get is why they throw stoplights up on a road where the speed limit is 65. They do that in some parts of Ohio, but at least they put up a sign about a quarter of a mile away with a flashing light that tells you if you're going to hit a red light or not

I haven't seen much of Tuscaloosa as I came straight to my room at the Hampton Inn. Nice place as most Hamptons are. My only complaint so far is that the ID that pops up on the screen does not match the actual station. If that's my only gripe, it will be a good trip. I'm schedule to leave here at 3 p.m. (CST) which would put me home at 9 p.m. EST

I've got dinner tonight with the director of Media Relations and a couple of guys from the office then most of the interviews are tomorrow. Tuesday I have two interviews at Florida State with another pair Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon I'll be on a flight back home and I figure by the time I reach Pittsburgh I'll know whether I want to be in Tallahassee or Tuscaloosa. Both places are good solutions and hard to spell.

Roll Tide

2006-07-21T10:37:00.000-04:00

So I'm interviewing at Alabama on Monday for a job in their SID office. The last three days have been a rollercoaster. Having not heard from Bama this week I was all set to accept a job at FSU, but by Wednesday afternoon Alabama was back in the mix. Since then I've gone through a set of mood swings where every three hours my opinion seems to change.

I'm not sleeping particularly well. I tossed and turned all last night and had a couple of crazy dreams. It took me 45 minutes to get out of bed after the alarm went off at 6:30. Most of it has to do with the stress of the job, but I'm sure the 40 of Colt 45 that I drank last night at friend's going away party didn't help.

I drive up to Tuscaloosa Sunday afternoon and have dinner with some people from the office, then Monday is all the interviews with the various coaches, administrators, etc. I come back Monday night, then interview here Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Wednesday afternoon I'll be on a plane for PA.

I think the job is going to come down to the people. The schools, the jobs and the salaries are pretty comparable, so that leaves the people. I already have a great relationship with the people here so Alabama is going to have to comparable or better. We shall see.

First Ones Here

2006-07-20T15:30:00.000-04:00

This is the new blog. Apparently I need a little more anonymity in my life so I've moved from the good folks at Tripod - fair ye well - and now I'm here. Look for more post along the way.