Ramblings From Work…

I know, I said I wasn’t going to be able to update this for three weeks. Well, I just happened to bring the laptop to work during my weekend rotation and was a tad on the bored side (the Texas-North Carolina game just ended and I got to the end of one of my articles for my paper), so I figured I’d take a moment and write. I don’t think I realized how many people actually read this until my friends that I don’t get the chance to talk to too often started to stop me on campus or leave me an IM and tell me that they read something in my blog. It’s cool to think that people read this–I always did want to be a journalist, but somehow I got derailed on that road. This works though. Maybe someday I’ll revisit that. So thanks for reading everyone–I’m really flattered that you do!

-My brackets, they are a mess. Thursday was a glorious day, well, until 5pm, that is, when BYU lost to Syracuse. I had been 3-0 in the early games, having picked Manhattan to upset. When I left for art history around 4:15, BYU was leading. I was stunned. I had ended up picking BYU because I couldn’t allow myself to break my streak of picking them without fail, and because I had convinced myself that Syracuse stunk. Sure, Syracuse started pulling out some wins along it’s conference season, but before that it had looked just a tad glum. Plus, by the time that game started, I was convinced I was on a total bracket roll and could afford one loss.

But no, Syracuse had to pull it out, like the defending national champions they are and beat BYU. The poor Mormons. Maybe Steve Young can stop by school and deliever a motivational speech. And while he’s at it, can he stop by my school and do the same, for my brackets are now totally in shambles and I need some motivation to keep checking my standing among the Holiday boys (again, I am the only girl in the pool). I also need some thesis motivation.

-On that note, does anyone ever think that BYU ever brags about Jim McMahon? In their football recruiting materials or any admissions materials at all, do they ever actually mention the fact that he went there? I mean, if I’m a conservative, no-alcohol, no-drugs, no pre-marital sex, Book of Mormon reading parent, and my son or daughter receives promotional material from a school naming a bad-boy where-have-you-been lately, DUI committing, ex-NFL quarterback as one of their alumni, wouldn’t you just be a little skeptical? Even the Mormons couldn’t curb that guy’s image. How the heck are they going to control your kid, who, for anyone over on this coast, is going to be thousands of miles and several hours away from Mom and Dad? I’ll have to dig out the old BYU mailing I got when I was in tenth grade, if I still have it, and see.

-Keeping on the topic of NFL quarterbacks, Alex Van Pelt was released by the Buffalo Bills this week. This is very saddening to me, seeing that I felt deeply sentimental about him. I mean, he was around the Bills for most of my football watching life. Mind you, he never really played much during my football watching life, nor did he really do anything too often to merit any starting position, but I had a soft spot for him nevertheless. I think it was because anytime he was mentioned on TV or the radio, my father would say, “Hey, Lucy Van Pelt’s brother plays for the Bills!” Lucy Van Pelt, being of course, the full name of Lucy from the Peanuts comics. Why my father knows that, I don’t know (he has a knack for random trivia, one I think I inherited), but he always says it, even last summer, when I came home from Bills training camp disappointed that it looked like Travis Brown was going to move up on the depth chart and mentioned it to him. And just as he said that, the power went out as we were hit by that major power outage.

But don’t fret–Van Pelt (Alex, not Lucy) was picked up by the Bills Radio Network to work Bills telecasts. Which, of course, I won’t be able to catch anymore seeing that I’ll be spending at least the next year in Patriots country. Hmm…I’m giving up Van Pelt calling Bills games for having Tom Brady talked about every five seconds. I think I can live.

-I am addicted to the show Cold Pizza on ESPN2. I started watching it over the January break, and watched it again last week while I was home. Why can I only watch it at home you may ask? Because Binghamton is weird, and despite all my begging during DIFR committee meetings during my term as DTC President, and all of Rob’s begging on my behalf at them this year, Binghamton Telecom STILL hasn’t added ESPN2 onto campus cable. It’s a travesty–we get the Outdoor Life Hunt-o-Rama channel, but we don’t get ESPN2. Now, last I checked, most Binghamton students have no interest in watching programming about hunting wild turkeys. I don’t know–maybe I’m completely out of touch with these kids. Anyway, I would really like to watch Cold Pizza in the mornings before I head off to work. But I can’t. I may be here for only (checks countdown) 57 more days, but I’m thinking of my younger peers. Don’t deprive them any longer, Telecom. Give them their ESPN2.

-I am in love with the song “Aluminum” by, you guessed it, Barenaked Ladies. (All those who know me well, and even those who don’t, all know that any questions about things I love or adore can be answered with one of three things: Barenaked Ladies, Steve Young, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. For example, if I were to say, “You know what I just love?” you would answer, “Barenaked Ladies? Steve Young? My Big Fat Greek Wedding?” And I would say, “Well, besides those.”)

Anyway, so I am in love with this song, and the verse that was cut from it during recording that recently resurfaced (okay, I admit it, I’m a junkie who reads the band’s blog everyday, where this verse was mentioned, then I went to Yahoo and looked up the cut verse.) The cut verse reads:

“Why should it come as a big surprise

It’s just an element of disguise

Even your emotions are anodized”

Now, if a song can teach me a new word, such as this one did with the word anodize (to coat in metal), it gets my everlasting adoration. Therefore, I adore this song. Hence why I keep quoting it as my away message. So here’s my caveat emptor for the week: I may be quoting this song in my away message a lot, but it means absolutely nothing. I just like the song. I think it’s got to be one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. But just because it’s so lyrically clever. I mean, the song is basically saying someone is so fake–they appear to be silver, but they are just aluminum, which is just about one of the best analogies I’ve ever heard. But I don’t mean it towards anyone, so don’t you all worry.

-I got into Northeastern yesterday. Unfortunately, at this point, I just can’t commit to two more years of school. I can’t do it. Maybe if I hadn’t burnt myself the past 2 ½ years, I could. But I’m exhausted from being a stressed out workaholic student since age 3, and I don’t think I’d make it another two. I mean, sure, once I’m out of school, my blood pressure will drop a good 20 points, making it even lower than it is now (which isn‘t a real good thing), but I think the bags under my eyes might disappear and I’ll stop getting gray hair. I am pretty much set to go to Boston University starting three days after graduation, and I’m happy about that. Then at this time next year, I’ll have to decide what I’m doing again. But at least I’ll be REALLY done.

Okay, at this point, I’m back in my room and I’m about to go to bed. Yep, my life is lame. I’m probably one of the most dull 22 year olds you will ever meet.