reposting....kind of

You know what is awesome about waking up three hours before having to go to work? Nothing. Especially when you only get three and a half hours of sleep before waking up and not being able to get back to the gloriousness that is sleeping.


It's funny how there will be random mornings when I wake up super early and find it a little refreshing to be up far enough in advance to get some random stuff done around the apartment. Nothing crazy like cleaning dishes, mostly watching some stuff that has been recorded and I haven't had a chance to watch. Or listen to a podcast or two that have been sitting around just patiently waiting to be heard. I seem to find time to write when I should be asleep as well. Looking at the archives, there are close to ten posts regarding waking up earlier than normal. So this isn't anything new.

There are also the early mornings when I just stare at the television and down a bunch of coffee to get myself going for the day. That is something I am trying to get away from, relying on coffee to get me through the day. The experiment went well. I never felt the ill affects of not having coffee for a little over a week. Not that I expected withdrawal symptoms or anything like that, it was more of a 'can I do it' kind of thing. Knowing that I can makes me feel good about myself. It reminded me of when I would give up alcohol for lent during college. Oh yeah, you read that right. I did it twice and it was really difficult.

The third kind of early mornings are what I call the 'smart mornings'. Simply put, I come out to the living room and sleep on the couch for an hour or two. Normally that happens when I haven't gotten any sleep whatsoever. Those nights when I toss and turn trying to get comfortable and it never works. However, I'll come out to the couch, set my cell phone alarm, and just pass the hell out. A little strange, but I'm never one to turn down a quick nap.

Don't get me wrong, it's going to be a long day today because of the lack of sleep and when I come home I do plan a much needed nap just to stay up a little later. The good thing is knowing that tomorrow morning I can sleep in and laze around the house because of the day off.

Early holiday decorating

One thing that I remember from growing up as a kid is decorating the Christmas tree and the house for Christmas in December. It was always a family event growing up. Spending the evening listening to the music of the of holidays, drinking egg nog, and dealing with sap on the hands from the freshly (illegally) cut tree from the back woods of the Upper Michigan. More importantly, there was snow on the ground. We would always turn the television off and just have 'family time'. It wasn't always cool, but looking back on it, it was a fantastic way to start the holiday and Christmas time.

While we were helping some friends move yesterday, I noticed several families with trees tied to their cars. I thought it was a bit odd to be going out and getting the Christmas tree a few days after thanksgiving. Shouldn't there be some time in between holidays, even if it is just a week or so? Maybe it's just because there isn't any snow on the ground. I think it would feel more Christmas-y if there was a little layer of snow on the ground, just an inch would do. There has to be time to transition from fall decorations to winter decorations.

Personally, I refuse to decorate a tree or put out any Christmas decorations before the month of December. It's a little childish. This much is true, but I'm stubborn in my ways. Andrea wanted to put the tree up last night just to see if it would fit in the corner of the living room, but I walked away. I claimed that it was not yet December and it was not time yet.

Hockey elitist

While at the Wichita Thunder game tonight, I felt like a bit of a hockey elitist. People all around us were shouting and swearing that there were penalties happening when there weren't. I kept leaning over to A and saying 'that wasn't a penalty' or 'they don't know what they are talking about' and of course, she knows hockey well enough to know whats a penalty and what isn't. So I didn't feel quite as bad saying it out loud. The fans are dedicated to their team...they just don't know what the hell they are talking about (or aboot if you want to get crazy).

Part of me wants to run a watching hockey 101 for the city giving a nice gloss over of what the rules of hockey are. It would make the experience that much better for those fans who understand the game having to deal with people who call themselves 'fans'.




In the meantime, I remain an elitist amongst a fan base of idiots.

Thanksgiving time

It's that time of year again in sports. Time for the non-traditionalist to question why the Detroit Lions are playing on the last Thursday of the month of Novembeard. It's tradition people. Get off it. They play the early game because most people don't want to watch it, but I'll be up bright and early on my first day off in about eight days to watch my Lions. My woeful, rip your heart out, just can't get over the hump Lions. I'm excited about it. I always look forward to Thanksgiving for a couple of reasons.

1. The Lions game
2. Pumpkin Pie
3. Any effort to guilt the white man about taking land from the Native Americans (which never works)

Being far away from family is always hard this time of year but we substitute family for friends. And the friends we enjoy the day with are close enough that they could be considered family. So it balances out.

Not only is it time to enjoy being around family and friends, it is also close to winter. The temperatures have been going up and down here and some days it feels like the beginning of winter. I went to work yesterday and it was twenty eight degrees. The day before? About fifty. So weird.

Prolonged experiment

I was thinking that six days without coffee would be no problem, and it wasn't much of an issue. I counterbalanced it with more sleep at night than usual, but coffee just tastes so good. I don't always drink coffee to make it through the day, it is an enjoyable beverage. It makes my morning. Kind of like having a beer at the ball park. It is just one of those things that some people need to be...happy and normal.

The only problem is that my mind was set on having a nice pot of coffee tomorrow morning while I relaxed and had my brain melt a little bit while watching television. Now I have to work. I completely forgot that I changed my schedule around for the Thanksgiving holiday. I don't have another day off until Thanksgiving day.





But then again, what is another two days without coffee? Maybe something awful, maybe just another two days without coffee. We shall see.

Old feelings

While working yesterday, I ran across someone wearing a Colorado Avalanche jersey and I had a feeling of hatred bubble up inside of me. What made it worse is that it was a Patrick Roy jersey and I wanted to punch them in the face. That is the one thing that I miss. A great, bitter, angry rivalry. Now, it isn't the Red Wings' fault that the Avs just started sucking and have gone down hill since the great games and greater fights of the last part of the nineties. It isn't the Red Wings' fault that they know how to draft and run an organization. Colorado just needs to learn how to plan for the future and they can bring back the great organizational rivalries that helped bring hockey to the forefront of sports.

Or they can wallow in the center or the cellar of the NHL.....which I can dig.

Finally found something

I preface this entry by stating the following: I do not hate weddings, I hate people that put way too much effort into them. That is all. Proceed with caution. Enjoy the language, I'm a bit of an angry writer tonight.

I have been sitting in front of the computer trying to think of something to write about. I have done much of nothing tonight and needed to find something worth while for the evening. As I was trolling through the internet I finally found something to write about: choreographed wedding dances.

I'm not talking about the YMCA or the chicken dance (although they should be outlawed) I'm talking about stupid shit like this. I don't look down upon people that get out and have a good time to a popular song that includes choreographed dance that has taken over the world for five minutes, it's created to give white people a sense that they know how to dance. I'm not much of a traditionalist, but when it comes to weddings there are three things that really need to happen at the reception.

1. First dance
2. Mother/son dance
3. Father/daughter dance

That's it. Why fuck it up by following a trend? Do they not know that they aren't original? Personally, if my wife had gotten possessed by some random demon and had demanded to have a choreographed first dance I may have laughed at her and walked away, but that's just me and that's also how our relationship works. Sure, the reception is the time of the day when everyone is suppose to cut loose and enjoy a fun evening of awful dancing, kids taking over the dance floor (which is fun to watch), and slow dances. The kind of dancing you don't see at clubs. Not the 'dry hump against your partner like you are back in high school' dancing, but fun 'stand around in a big circle and simply bounce up and down and left and right' kind of dancing. You may even get crazy and 'Soul Train' it (look it up). Even crazier? Polka!

I feel that the people that are doing this are attention whores above all else. Everyone knows that when you agree to attend a wedding it is all about the bride and the groom. There is no reason to draw even more attention to yourself. Superficial people are the ones that make their friends and family watch them perform some awful dance to a song that will be nothing more than a footnote in the archives of musical history.

As these choreographed dances become more popular I feel that there is a little bit of the old institution dying. I'm all about change and development of certain aspects of our world, but there are also things that should not be fucked with. The first major thing is baseball but that has been surpassed by the introduction of instant replay. The human element was a great part of the game and as much as I absolutely hate agreeing with Bud Selig instant replay shouldn't be a part of the game. The other thing that shouldn't be fucked with is the traditions of the wedding reception. The previously listed dances should not be fucked with, but there are things that can be omitted. Things such as the garter/bouquet toss, dollar dance, and whole wedding party dances don't need to be included in the reception, but can add to the experience. Personally, the dollar dance should not be involved in any receptions. A and I agreed not to do a dollar dance because we didn't want to feel like prostitutes. Our friends had a funny spin on the dollar dance earlier this year. Because of the recent economic struggles, they had a quarter dance. It was fun and in jest of the tradition, but I still felt a little dirty while standing in line waiting to dance with one of our close friends.

I try not to use the word 'hate' because I feel that it is one of the strongest words in the English language, but I feel this strongly about this subject. As I was re-reading what I had just written, that word fits well into the whole 'feel' of this entry. I do write this entry a little in jest of the whole trend that seems to be taking over some weddings, but there is also this feeling of...well.......hatred. Stupid trends.




I suppose it could be worse. There could be more douches like these people in the world.

These nuts

Beer for the month of Novembeard is Leinenkugel's Fireside Nut Brown. This is the tastiest winter beer I have come across. Once again, as I have stated numerous times, Leinenkugel's makes my favorite microbrews and this is no different. I was really excited when I saw this flavor in the store and had to buy it.

One more month for the beer a month year. I have been doing okay with it but I have bought more than eleven cases of beers so far this year. We have gone out to other people's houses for parties or dinners and brought beer. I have bought bottles of scotch or whiskey so there has been more than just beer in the house throughout the year but for the most part, I am quite proud of the fact that I have curtailed the amount of alcohol that I have purchased so far this year.

A little experiment

I'm going to try something this week at work. Not drinking coffee. I tried earlier this year to reduce the amount of coffee that I drank and it worked for a while, but then I went away from it. There were days when I thought I really needed coffee to get through the eight hours of work. A little desperate, no? And like I've said before, this isn't a full blown, get the shakes, get a caffeine headache, start to twitch kind of addiction. In fact, I don't think it is much of one, it is just nice to know that there is something in a big old thermos waiting for me for break and lunch.

So, from today through Friday and then from Monday through next Monday, no coffee. I am excluding the weekend, because it is nice to wake up in the morning to the smell of a pot of coffee. Folgers got their slogan right. The smell of coffee in the morning is the best thing. It puts a little smile on my face.

Am I going to regret this? Maybe.

Vacation v. 'Vacation'

I finally have a day off tomorrow. I have worked six days in a row, which is normal and that isn't the problem. The problem is that we were on vacation during the previous weekend. During my normal weekends off I do a ton of nothing more often than not. It's a nice 'vacation' from work. It gives me time to relax and gain some extra sleep from the week. I don't have too stressful of a job, but there are weeks when I am just drained by the time my days off come around.

Then there are vacations. Actual vacations. They are nice to get away for some time but by the time the vacation is done, I'm wanting a day or two off just to recuperate from the overall traveling. Take this last vacation for example. I traveled for eleven hours. Driving for five hours and flying for another six. Then, I had to turn around and get to work the next morning. I got six hours of sleep and haven't really stopped since. This will be my first day off since.....19 October. I worked eight days in a row before we left. I didn't do a ton of stuff while on vacation, but the fact remains, I didn't have a day of lazing around from waking up to going to sleep.

'Vacation' from the working world and actual vacations are two different beasts. Actual vacations are nice because you get away from your daily troubles. 'Vacations' from work are wonderful because you get fully recharged from your daily life.

Some letters

Dear Matt Millen,

The joke is on you, the Detroit Lions are starting to turn it around ahead of schedule. It took you six years to run the organization into the ground and has taken Martin Mayhew only two years to get it going in the right direction. His ability to draft players other than at the Wide Receiver position has put faith back into the organization. Oh, and he realized Roy Williams was past his prime and should be in jail for the malicious act of trade robbery he committed against the Dallas Cowboys.

Sincerely yours,

The Detroit Lions fans and organization


P.S. You suck as a commentator.

-----


Dear Joe Paterno,

Please retire. It isn't because you are not good at your job, because you are, but because the sport has surpassed your knowledge. And not your knowledge of the game, but your knowledge of the current systems colleges use. I really want to see you get to four hundred wins, but perhaps you should have retired a few years ago when you had some fantastic teams. I know you need one more win to get to four hundred, but please please please, retire. Ride off into the sunset on the shoulder pads of the young men who have great grandparents that probably played for you.

Respectfully yours,

A football fan.



P.S. Your nickname rocks!

Bless you, Sparky

Another mainstay in my youthful watching of the Detroit Tigers is gone. Sparky Anderson passed away today. Tim Kurkjian wrote a fantastic column about him today. There is nothing more that I could write that Kurkjian has written, but then again, he is a great columnist. If you never watched Anderson manage a game, this column sums him up.

There may be managers out there who have won more games or championships, but come on, who has a better nickname? He had a great eye for talent, and you will never find someone that will say something bad about him. He was just one of those guys that comes around once in a great while and can put a team together and make them play like a team.

Goodbye Sparky and thank you for being a role model for your sport.

The chops

I gave myself some mutton chops last night for Novembeard. It made me smile when I was doing it. It is just kind of a goofy thing to do. I'm probably going to keep them longer than the month, and why not? I took a quick picture of them while I wait for my plane to leave Flint, MI.



It's back to work in the morning, which will be quite painful just because of the day long travels I am enduring today. Nothing quite like sitting in a car for five hours and then flying from Michigan to Illinois to Kansas to drain your energy.

Being home

Currently I sit in a chair in the state of Michigan. We came home for my brother's wedding reception. The nice thing, I have discovered, about living so far from home is that when you get married far away not everyone can make it to the actual wedding. That sounds mean, I know, but wait for the follow up sentence. When you have a family like mine, they love to party so much which means because they miss out on the first reception, a second reception is damn near mandatory. And who is the one that benefits the most? The bride. My wife and sister-in-law both got to wear their wedding dress twice! If you are going to drop that much money on a dress, why not find a reason to wear it more than once? Am I right? Of course I am.

And who can turn down getting together to celebrate a wedding? I got to see some relatives I hadn't seen for a handful of years, by which I mean since college. With a second reception, there is almost no stress for the married couple. The most stress is decorating the room which includes figuring out which vase of flowers goes on which table.

So being home has been nice. We got to see our nieces and nephew dress up for Halloween and watch them run around my mom's house hopped up on sugar only to presumably crash by the time the drive home had ended. The weather has been fall-like. We were out last night and it got down to thirty three degrees. Now that is fall weather. One could make an argument for winter weather, but there isn't any snow nor is it December. There is something different about the air up here. Going outside, there is just something. A smell to it. It smells, natural. I don't know if it is the trees, the grass, or the just the moisture in the air. It makes it feel like fall. It puts a smile on my face and a hop in my step. In Kansas, we just hope it doesn't get into the eighties or that the wind isn't blowing too hard. It feels more like summertime weather then it does fall weather. And when winter comes around and it gets down into the forties all day long, it beings to feel like fall.




Too bad that when it hits the forties it is almost time for Spring.