21-7, 21-7, 21-7, 21-7, GAH!!!

I'm sorry, but I have had it up to here with Hi-Tops commercials. Every
week it's the same ad, with the same dancing girls on the bar, and that
part's fine. You have a commericial, you run it, it gets old, but
whatever, the Gerber baby is like 40 and they're still running the same
ad.

But at the end of the commercial, every week, all season long, they make a
Steelers score prediction. Two waitresses introduce themselves, push
their breasts into the camera (I honestly don't know how all four fit on
the screen), make some ridiculous pun on the opposing team's name, and
then predict a 21-7 victory. It's ALWAYS 21-7. No one scores field goals
in football I suppose. 14 point wins are ridiculously common, right?
They're creative enough to come up with a different pun every week (unless
they've already played that team, in which case they just run the previous
commercial) but not creative enough to change two numbers!?! I hate to
say it, but I'm looking forward to the season ending and not having to
hear the numbers 21-7 for a long time.

Improvements!

Wait... the last few days... they've been... good?!?

Following a horrendous Winter League performance in which my efficiency rating was probably around .001, and a night of drinking that ended... badly... Thursday on was actually pretty good. Well, my head wasn't really in practice on Thursday, but that's to be expected. Went out with a friend for her 21st, more to keep J-Sco company than anything else, which was a good call on my part. Had a decent time aside from 80s night. May God have mercy on the souls of whoever came up with that idea.

Friday's winter league game, despite losing, was a lot of fun. It was our first good game of the season, against a strong opponent in which we stepped up, kept it close, and mostly played very well. I had a lot of fun playing for the first time in a while, perhaps because I cut a bit more than I handled. Also partially due to the fact that my ankle, which has been bothering me for a couple weeks, finally felt pretty stable. (though I'd tweak it at practice on Saturday, it was play-throughable and didn't hurt today)

Then I find out that I have interviews!! Baltimore Teaching Residency and Philly Teaching Fellowship both want me to come in for interviews! They're more like try-outs than interviews; I have to prepare a 5 minute sample lesson, participate in group discussion on a few articles I'll have to read, create a writing sample, and do a 30 minute personal interview. It's pretty intense to say the least. Still, it's a start, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's a step up from being a Pitt rejection at any rate, so that's something, right? I'll find out about the grad schools in a couple months.

I think we're right to be legitimately worried about our players' health. I keep wondering just what it is about this team that has so many of us injured so often. Why doesn't it seem like other teams have this issue? I feel like it has something to do with the urban environment, is it the turf? is it nutrition? lifestyle? what? I wish we could run a cross study with the life aspects of other good teams cross-referenced with number of injuries per year. Perhaps an RSD post collecting data would be in order... however I'm hesitant to reveal to the nation our current fragility. And I doubt we'd get a significant sample.

I wish Josh would post more. I so enjoyed Rambling Parts One and Two. Rambling Part Three will certainly be even better than the first 2 cause he must have been working on it for so long!

Applications and Exams, Irish Men and English Women

The Social Studies Praxis was ricockulous hard. I just hope everyone else who took it on Saturday felt the same way, and that scales work out in my favor. There will be updates, but I'm not holding my breath for a passing grade (or a failing one for that matter).

Graduate school applications are starting to get finished, but they are also completely absurd in their complexity. The courses I should have taken but didn't, the forms to fill out, the repetitive information in this box or that box, figuring out my GPA according to other schools' scales and credit systems. GAH! Makes my head hurt.

At least the references part is almost done. I just have to mail out some forms to one of the references, which means i need to find the envelope I'd set aside with all the stuff in it... hmmm....

I did get to visit with Jamo and Nesta, which made me very happy. I miss those two a lot, and it was real great to hang out with them even if only for a short while. Bar motto of the weekend: You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning.

Back to work on these damn applications.

Long Awaited Update

I know, I've been remiss for the last week. Therefore, my loyal readers who didn't stop checking in will be treated to random thoughts about the last 7 or 8 days:

In the West Palm Beach Airport I heard the following:
-Hey! Haven't seen you in a while, still travelling on business all the time?
-Yep! Working hard protecting the money of those who deserve it from the rabid hordes of proletariat! Silly lower classes.
-(Both laugh heartily)

My recovered alcoholic uncle is now a relapsed alcoholic uncle, and that's not good for anyone.

Drinking until 6am makes sleeping til 6pm really easy, and my mother thanked me for it because she got to see me for an extra half hour while she ate breakfast. I'm not sure if she was sarcastic.

I love the Disco Biscuits. I had such a good time on Wednesday night that I was reminded how easy it would be for me to fall into that scene and never reemerge. If I had gone to more than that one show, I may never have been seen again.

Whiskey is still good for you. Molecule is still bad for you. Nothing has changed in the last few years.

Seeing people you used to be close with, but haven't seen in a long time, and they don't recognize you at first, and then you get that 'Oh my GOD!' look on their face, yeah, that will never cease to amuse me.

Josh is right, SB is a good time. I don't know if it lives up to his hype, but definitely a lot of fun. Drinking port and tullamore dew all night is a bad combination.

Soulive is fantastic, Robert Randolph is great, but inviting 35 girls on stage for "Shake Your Hips" took away from the song a bit. Especially the slut in the blue shirt who just kept turning around and shaking her ass at the crowd.

Sleeping while driving is bad, napping at a rest stop is great, especially when you dream about blue millipede cars that wiggle.

Here's an actual rant: I'm sick of encores. An encore used to mean something. The band would leave. Like, legitimately, to actually leave. The crowd would refuse to leave and chant or clap or something, and the band would come out and do an impromptu song or two. Nowadays, the crowd just stands there cause you KNOW the encore is coming. The house lights don't go up. You don't have to ask for it. They HAVE to do one. When they say "Good Night, thanks for coming" they're LYING to you. An encore was once a rare and special thing. Now it's just another set break.

All other recollections of the week will be posted in comments.