Been a long time

Just checking if this place is still here. I might start writing again, a little slow while I recover from shoulder surgery but writing none the less.

My Fandom

There are so many reasons to choose whom you root for and they are all valid. Whether it is bandwagon or the team of your parents, the school you went to or where you grew up. I root for both the teams where I was born (Minnesota) and the teams where I grew up (South Florida) and my college (University of Florida). And while I would never root for another college my professional fan allegiances have worked out well. The teams in Miami and the teams in Minneapolis all fall into different conferences and rarely have I had to choose one side over the other. If I had to I would take Minnesota because those were the teams I loved first. I will never forget my trips to the Metro Dome to see the Twins as a little kid or my Mom taping me the final innings of the 1991 World Series for me. I still have my Homerun Hanky. My rooting interest in Florida sports came somewhat later and has never held the passion that the Minnesota teams get. But, when Florida got a baseball team I was a fan, same with the Heat and the Panthers. So, the majority of my sports attendance took place in South Florida and while I do not live and die with those teams I do care about how they do. Of course, none of the pro teams even come close to how I feel about the Gators.

 

I have an unhealthy obsession with University of Florida sports. I remember times in college when instead of going out on a Saturday night or afternoon after a loss I would just go to sleep. In 2001 when we lost to Tennessee at home and subsequently lost our chance at SEC and National titles, I sat in the stadium until we were forced to leave. I was physically unable to get up and believe it was over. Of course, a month or so later I would be in Charlotte when a Vol told me that Steve Spurrier was quitting. The following three years have made the losses easier to handle. And the past two years have made winning almost routine. And when I look back on all the losses and all the wins, not just for the Gators but for all the teams I follow, it adds up to one pretty special life of fandom.

 

In my nearly 27 years I have celebrated 9 Championships. That is quite a lot and even if you take away my secondary allegiances in South Florida I have still enjoyed 6 championship seasons. And it’s the Championships that is why the Minnesota Twins are my first love, how could they not be, I was 6 when Kirby Pucket and Kent Hrbek were beating Ozzie Smith in the World Series. I was 10 when they won their second and even though it has been a long time since they have won another  I still root for them and watch them every chance I get. Even through the down years I found something to get excited about. But, this isn’t about being a fan through the downtimes, every real fan goes through those times. This is about how fortunate I have been in my fandom and really I have done nothing to earn it. I was born into a small market that overachieved in baseball but has been disappointing in hockey, football and basketball. I moved to an area where the favorite team, the Dolphins, have not done anything my entire life, but the upstarts basketball and baseball franchises have won championships. The only fan allegiance I actually had to choose or try to get into was UF and even there all I did was apply, get in and go to class. Not that being an alum is even necessary to being a college athletics fan. But, I did apply to one school and one school only, I got into that school and joined the thousands of other students in becoming a member of that community. So, I had the time of my life there for five years and in return I have cheered on 2 basketball championships and went to one BCS title game. Even in a season where the Vikings are not looking great outside of AD, the Dolphins are terrible, the Timberwolves are playing for ping pong balls and the Heat look like they are slipping, how can I complain about a down year? The Gators are rebuilding and reigning Champs and since I am averaging a Championship every 3 years I am fairly certain that the down times will be outweighed heavily by the good ones.

My fitness plan

I see it all over the place, people are very concerned about health and fitness. So, the amount of info is immense and overwhelming and even more what works for one person might not work for another. In what follows I want to describe how I keep up the fitness habit, stay motivated, bounce back, ride the highs and lows and manage to still enjoy some of the less healthy pleasures in life.

I am no expert but in my quest to leading a healthier life I have made it a point to read as much as I can on the subject from experts and regular practitioners. With that said here is my philosophy on fitness. I begin by focusing separately on the two major factors and applying similar techniques to each: Nutrition and Exercise.

 

Nutrition:

 

Have a stated goal and time frame. At the beginning of this year I returned from the National Championship game in Arizona weighing a lot more than I liked. 211 pounds actually and it wasn’t the good kind. So, I made a short term goal to lose 20 lbs. in 3 months. This is a little less than 2 lbs a week. A range that is perfectly healthy.  

 

So with that goal as my starting point I knew I had to make changes and study myself to find out what was working. I became very neurotic about what I was eating. At first I had cut out all but minimal carbs and was actually under eating. After a week I had lost 4 pounds, more than I liked. So, I reworked my eating habits and did a little research into a more balanced diet.

 

Track your progress. I tracked both my weight and dietary intake every day. Weighing myself first thing every morning and using www.fitday.com to track everything I ate. I still do both today though my goals are different.

 

Stay on schedule. For me eating well is not a problem as long as I stick to the plan. The plan being 6 meals a day. As long as I do this I have very limited cravings and those that I do have are easily overcome with little tricks. However, when I get off schedule and go more than three hours without eating something during the day I begin to lose focus and tend to get caught up giving in to unhealthy options. Once I take that path the rest of the day usually ends up being shot. But on a day where I plan ahead and have 6 meals scheduled it is not hard to go the 2 or 3 hours between without snacking or eating something I shouldn’t.

 

Remove temptations. Simply put if I want to eat something that is not good for me I have to go out to buy it. I do not buy junk at the grocery to keep in my house so anytime I go off course it is a one time purchase such as a restaurant or something I purchase to have just that once.

 

Allow free days. Or free meals if that is all you need. I try to eat healthy all week but come Saturdays when college football is on I allow myself to enjoy bar food and some drinks. Or if I am going to the movies I get the buttery popcorn. In the end its not going to kill your progress. I like to take 90-10 approach to eating; if you eat well 90% of the time the 10% when you don’t is not going to stop you.

 

 

Exercise

 

 

Have a stated goal and timeframe. Just like with nutrition you need to have goals with exercise, they usually go hand in hand. When I was in college I took on a position in my fraternity that required me to be a little bit stronger than I was at the time so I spent the summer getting stronger and putting on weight. Over about 8 weeks I gained 15 pounds of muscle and got a lot stronger. Back then it was a lot easier to do. This year with the goal of losing weight I worked out knowing that my goal was to burn more calories than I was taking in.

 

 

So with my goal of losing weight I molded a program at the gym that would help with my progress. In truth it was not much different than it would be had I been trying to gain. I still lifted weights, but my focus was less on increasing the amount of weight each week. And I added more cardio to my routine.

 

Track your progress. Again the same principles apply. When I go to the gym I bring a notebook with me and record what I have done. It helps me see what is working and what isn’t, what I like and what I don’t. And it helps me shape my next workout.

 

 

Stay on schedule. I have experimented with many different splits in the 12 years I have been working out but the one that continuously works for me is a 2 on, 1 off split. Anymore than 2 days in a row and I feel like I am overdoing it, any less than 2 and I am likely to not stay motivated. So, I work out 2 days, then rest 1 and repeat. Within this structure I change the actual workout once every four weeks or so just to keep it interesting.

 

Lift weights and use Intervals. I am not someone who likes cardio, never have. But I do understand that it has value. Though, if I only had time to do one I would lift since lifting weights is the only real weight to change body composition. Still, after pushing myself through a difficult medium paced lifting routine I usually get in some cardio. I have done the slow steady state and the high intensity. Doing long bouts of moderate paced cardio may work for some but I get so bored I am likely to not get a whole lot of benefit from it. However, with high intensity intervals I can do a warm up, do a bunch of sets and a cool down before I have time to lose focus. I also usually feel like I could die afterwards which for me is the sign of a good workout.  

 

 

A few other things to note:

 

Fake it till you make it. I am not sure where I read this motto but it is a good one to use. A lot of days the gym is the last place I want to go. It could be rainy outside and you don’t want to leave the house or you have just had a long day at the office and you have no energy. Go anyway. Just getting there is half the battle. A lot of times you will find that as you get into it you will end up putting in a good workout. Or even if your workout is half ass, its still better than no workout at all and chances are you will eat better afterwards.

 

Take breaks. This is similar to Free days in a way but its more than that. When I go on vacation or go visit my family for a holiday I leave my goals behind. That does not mean I am not mindful of the big picture, it just means that whether I am in New Orleans or at my moms for dinner I am going to enjoy myself no matter what is put in front of me. And I will not be worried about missing workouts. For a few days in a row its ok to get off track as long as you are planning to get right back into it once you return to your normal routine.

 

Do not constantly stay in one mode. A lot of people have problems with this. Amateur weightlifters stay in constant bulking mode and end up getting out of shape. People trying to lose weight will push themselves for too long and end up binging until they regain what they had lost and all progress is shot. Instead of such extremes ease from losing to maintaining back to losing or from gaining to maintaining back to gaining. This year, once I hit my goal of reaching 190, it was not in my original timeframe but I got there, I decided to try to maintain for a while. I eat a little less restrictively and I am not as hardcore at the gym. My plan is to stay within a few pounds of 190 for a little while before setting a new goal and timeframe to do more.

 

Constantly readjust. Life does not happen in a vacuum and we are not science projects. Real life sometimes does get in the way of progress. When this happens adjust to it, do not let it stop you in your tracks. When March came and I was close to my 12 week goal but had to stop exercising and was away from home for two weeks I knew I would be set back. So, I changed my end date and kept at my goal. And eventually I did make it and now that I reached my goal I am trying to decide what my next one is while I maintain the progress I have already made.

 

 

 

There you have it, not sure if I wrote this to help anyone or just give myself something to look at and remind myself what I need to be doing. Either way, I think this will help motivate me and maybe it will help someone else. There are a ton of other little things that I do and other people do to keep up the habit of living a healthy lifestyle, so I know I can not put it all into one post. So to all those who are gym rats good luck and don’t hurt yourselves.

Thank you DVR

Now that we are a couple of weeks into the Fall TV season I feel the need to share a few thoughts on the season so far. But, first I really need to thank the makers of the Scientific Atlantic 8300 HD because mine has been working overdrive. Before adding the digital video recorder to my cable plan a couple of years ago I hardly watched any television at all. Mainly because the only show I could remember to watch was Smallville and even when I knew others were on it was hard for me to put aside other things to just sit down and watch TV all night. Since DVR however, I have become a full on junkie, to express this point I offer this example. Last week I spent 5 days in Louisiana and returned to a DVR full of shows to watch, since I have been working from home I was able to catch up on everything I had missed by Wednesday morning, by Wednesday night my DVR had 8 new recordings, in one day. So what exactly have I been watching this season? Here is the breakdown:

 

Sunday night:

Family Guy – Still funny, it’s not spectacular but enjoyable for it’s off the wall humor and seeming lack of direction.

 

Monday night:

Heroes – Through three episodes the show is teetering right around average. I forgave that in the opening episode as they have a lot of storylines to set up but I think this show would really benefit from having a story arc that comes to conclusion in about 6 or 8 episodes. Keeping up interest for a 24 part arc is very hard without the momentum from a good side story to push you along. So far its all build up and little action, I have faith though that it will get better. I also happen to hate the new characters of Alejandro and Maya, their powers suck and their little adventure to become illegals bores me to tears.

 

Chuck – So far I really like it. Even gift shop girl who plays Chuck’s sister is entertaining though I have hated her in most of her other appearances.

 

Tuesday night:

Bones – I never got into the CSI thing but I am guessing that this is kinda similar in that they are all medical mysteries. The storylines themselves though are not as big a draw as the characters and the actors that are playing them. Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz are great as the leads and the supporting cast all fits very well.

 

House – By now who doesn’t recognize House as one of the best shows on television. Count me as one of the people who really likes where they have gone with the search for a new team and finding a way, if not completely realistic, to keep the old cast still on the show. I wonder where Forman lands?

 

Wednesday night:

Pushing Daisies – Of all the new shows this is my favorite. Both of the episodes have been great. Visually it looks fantastic, sort of like the movie Big Fish in that in looks like a larger than life world. And the stories are great; right down to the voice over that kind of makes me feel as if we are watching a Dr. Seuss story.

Gossip Girl – I could go either way on this show. On one hand I can not relate to a single character, on the other I really need a fix for trashy television and Josh Schwartz does it well. So what if it is based on books for teenage girls, I can still find something to enjoy, right? Well, I have watched three episodes so far and the first two were pretty subpar, but the third one actually had me quite entertained. I still have to watch last nights but I could see myself either becoming hooked or just giving up before they hit the halfway mark.

 

Bionic Woman – Fading fast on my radar, the pilot was so-so and the second episode was a mash up that seemed disjointed. I hope last nights was better or this is getting dropped from the DVR before the 4^th episode.

 

Thursday night:

Smallville – I have watched every episode, own the first 5 seasons on DVD and can hardly believe I am now watching the 7^th. I like where they are going this season and you can totally see the show coming to a close as Clark Kent gets ever closer to being Superman.

 

The Office – I was so reluctant to watch this until I rented the DVDs over the summer. Now I love the show. I do not like the hour long episodes however. Still, I think we are in store for a good season and even though many people did not like Michael driving into a lake I found it funny.

 

Grey’s Anatomy – I think this show is going downhill. The spinoff siphoned away a good character and left a void that the new characters are not filling. Through two episodes I am the least excited about this show of all the returning shows. Shame really because that second season was great and it has not lived up to the hype since.

 

Friday night:

Friday Night Lights – My favorite new show from last season also came back with a great first episode. It could be my love of football or small town America but this show is great. I might even buy a “What Would Riggins Do?” Tshirt.

 

Moonlight – I have a soft spot for Vampires and even though this show is clearly a rehash of so many shows that have come before it. Whether you are thinking Angel or just about any other PI plus reporter solves crimes show you would be right. Still, its Friday night and you cant expect too much.

 

Las Vegas – Possibly the most ridiculous show on television and that includes those mentioned above. Repeating that point, the most ridiculous show I watch is about a Las Vegas casino and the people who work there, not the one about the Mutants, or the guy who had government secrets downloaded to his brain, not the guy who can bring people back to life by touching them or the girl with weird robotic parts. Nope, it is even more ridiculous than the show about the Alien who gets powers from the yellow sun and the Vampire PI. Still, the show is entertaining and the cast is hot. Again, it’s Friday night TV.

 

So there it is, my rundown. Where I realize I watch a ton of television and feel bad about it for a few seconds before coming to terms and realizing there are worse things I could be spending my time doing. And thanks to my DVR I get to watch it all on my own schedule without having to give up other more healthy pursuits like working out or spending with actual real live people.

Back from the Crescent City

I am home. Sick. Tired. And broke. But, even with the Gators losing, this trip was totally worth every cent. Here is my day by day recap of the trip:

 

Wednesday:

Mint and I left my house a little before 1 pm to drop off his car and then head to BWI. With the time change and everything we ended up landing in New Orleans around 8:50 pm. So, it was a really long day. At the airport we met up with Scott and headed to the W hotel on Poydras St. which is conveniently located right next to Harrah’s casino. The hotel was great, one of the nicest I have ever stayed in and we had a pretty nice view. After dropping our luggage we quickly headed out towards Bourbon St. After all, that’s what you do in New Orleans. As many would expect it was dead on a Wednesday night, there were people in the streets but most bars were pretty empty except for what looked like a convention crowd blowing off steam. After bouncing around for a few hours we decided it was time to hit the casino. Mint and Scott ended up at Caribbean Stud while I played Blackjack one on one with a dealer. By the time I sat down to play I was in that rare combination of drunk and tired where everything felt like a dream. It is entirely possible that I nodded off for a few hands but I still walked away with a few dollars of the casinos money before calling it a night.

 

Thursday:

We woke to overcast skies and lots of rain, the perfect day to just stay in and rest up. Even though we wanted to be out and about we just weren’t willing to walk around all day in the rain. We did make a few stops during the day, hitting the Harrah’s buffet for breakfast and getting a nice lunch at Mother’s. After lunch though, we spent the rest of the afternoon in bed watching TV and listening to the pouring rain outside our window while we waited on the rest of our crew to arrive. The second wave arrived around 6 pm, checked in to their room and settled in. We walked around the casino a bit before heading out to Port o’ Call for dinner. This place had amazing burgers and the look and feel of a place you would only see in New Orleans. It was all wood interior, very cramped and the clientele just oozed with Southern stereotypes, from the older suited gentleman at the corner of the bar to the drunken Cajun who looked like he had been there all week. After eating we headed out down some back streets towards Bourbon for another night out. Again, the architecture of the city was stunning, it is one of those places that just has a feel, a look, that if you were dropped into town blindfolded it wouldn’t take you long to realize where you were. And you don’t even need a landmark to do it, just the looks of the buildings all seems familiar and unique to this city. As the night wore on and our group grew larger, 7 total, we visited many of New Orleans famous bars, spent a couple minutes on a balcony, and drank some of the staple drinks like the Hurricane at Pat O’s. Again, we ended the night at Harrah’s where I won some more of their money before calling it a night.

 

Friday:

I awoke Friday morning to King and Scott discussing the arrival of more of our friends and as I was now awake I volunteered to join the trip. We got coffee and some food from the hotel before heading to the airport to get a second rental car and Shannon. All the while two other friends who had just landed in Baton Rouge decided to drive in for half the day. After meeting back at the hotel our group of now 10 decided to go eat lunch in the French Quarter. We took a long walk on a terribly humid day to the Gumbo Store where we had some of Louisiana’s finest cuisine. Gumbo, Jambalaya, Crawfish etouffee, you name it we tried it. Of course, combining hot sauce with the already stifling heat and forgoing water for beer might not have been the best plan but it did make for a great meal. After eating we headed over to Jackson Square to look at the art for sale and watch the street performers. By this time it was getting on into the afternoon and some of us had dinner plans in Baton Rouge so we had to get a move on. But, we could not leave before stopping at Café Du Monde for beignets. After the beignets, my car with Scott, Shannon and Mint left for BR. We luckily, just beat some nasty traffic and made great time. After arriving at Scott’s brother’s place we were treated to plenty of beer, tilapia and shrimp etouffee over white rice with a broccoli and cheese side. In short it was an amazing dinner, surprisingly cooked by an LSU grad student. Then we went out, which was just like any other bar in any other college town in America I imagine. Though, there were very few cabs in town and lots of drunk drivers, I am not even sure they have enough police to give out all the DUIs we witnessed. Though we did see a pretty entertaining one where the driver was so smashed the cop had to move the kids car off the road. And on that note to end our night we all walked home very carefully, staying as far as possible from the road.

 

Saturday:

Game day!!!! So this is what we made the trip for. Everything leading up to it was just an appetizer, an amazing one no doubt, but just a warm up. Our crew by Saturday had actually swelled to 12, but we were split up, with 4 of us staying at Scott’s brothers and the rest staying at another house. In this scenario where I stayed at sophomore’s apartment and slept on a reclining chair, I got the kind of sleep you would expect. But, I really didn’t need much. Mint and I woke up early, as did Shannon, so we strolled out while everyone else was asleep and got the best breakfast you can find without looking very far, McDonald’s. We also got a laugh out of the drunk drivers car from the night before still being in the same spot. We ate our breakfast and before we knew it we were on our way to the middle of the LSU campus right behind the Gameday set. On our walk wearing our Gator colors we really didn’t run into too many obnoxious fans. We hear Tiger Bait a lot but nothing really cruel until later in the day. Our first stop was at a Fraternity tailgate which was actually pretty impressive, a large tent in the middle of campus with a DJ and a bunch of kegs. This was even more impressive given that in Gville, kegs are not even allowed on campus and the fraternities do all of their pre-gaming in their respective houses. So, for what its worth I found the LSU set up much more enjoyable, obviously there are drawbacks to this but I think there are plenty of positives to having everything out in the open at a central location. Anyway, after spending some time at the tailgate we headed out to meet up with our Gator tailgate at another great location. We had a tent, a couple coolers and plenty of food. During the day, we drank, met friends and enemies, ate, and walked around. It was a beautiful day out and I don’t think any of us, especially those of us with tickets could have asked for anything more.

 

 

The Game:

At night we finally got to take in Tiger Stadium. This place seemed enormous and when they wanted to be the LSU fans could be insanely loud. We had seats very close to the field which were great but also made watching the game a bit difficult. Still, sitting in the Gator section and cheering on our team while they put up quite a performance was an awesome experience. I am now 2-2 on the road in the SEC and hope to continue going to games at new stadiums. But right now I have to say that the LSU experience will be hard to beat. Alabama was great, Tennessee was fun, but LSU was just a monster of a trip. Even with the loss it is not something I will soon forget.

 

Sunday:

 

Another long travel day. We left Baton Rouge early for New Orleans, had our final lunch and headed to the airport. Then I spent the rest of the day sneezing, coughing and blowing my now from one airport to the next and then on the long drive home. A day that started early in Baton Rouge ended very late in Northern Virginia. And now I think I will need at least a week to recover. Thank the scheduler for a bye.

Reasons I have not been posting

 

1. Florida Football

 

My weekends are generally consumed in a rage of drunkenness and screaming at a television set. This is usually followed by hangovers and trying to get ready for the week ahead by having a few beers watching Minnesota Viking football. However, the Vikings usually just make me vomit, not the beer, just the play calling. On top of giving at least my weekends to my alma mater I also have been spending a ridiculous amount of time reading articles and scouring message boards in excitement for upcoming games. I am actually already planning my Baton Rouge tailgate for Oct. 6.

 

2. Jewish Holidays

 

I should have so much to say about these but for the life of me can not put them down into words. Spending Rosh Hashana with my Mom and sisters was great as it was the first time my mother has ever made that particular meal. And who complains about apples and honey? No one. Plus the challah was fantastic. Yom Kippur this year was a pretty hard fast for me, normally I go my 24+ hours without anything crossing my lips with ease but this time I had hunger pangs by 9 pm and by late the next afternoon my headache was terrible. Of course as soon as I broke fast I felt sick from eating. Go figure.

 

3. Video Games

 

Most people already know I am a huge nerd. They already know I play way too many video games but what many do not know, is that over the summer during a crazy storm the power cord on my XBOX blew out. Microsoft sent me a free replacement; however that replacement took two weeks to get here. And in that time NCAA 08 came out, being a practical consumer not one known for making rash purchases I used the broken power cord excuse to buy an XBOX 360 with NCAA. I was not enamored with the game and actually have not even opened the case in weeks. Instead I have been playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion nearly non stop in my free time. I am addicted, I plan it into my day and I have actually gotten to the point where I am extending the game instead of pushing forward to beat it. Though, today may start something wholly different as it is Halo 3 day and my copy is waiting for me now. I did not call in Halo sick as some others so I will have to wait.

 

4. TV shows

 

The new seasons are back starting this week and to be prepared I spent my time not doing the other things on this list by catching up on shows DVDs so I would be ready. Particularly, I watched all three seasons of the Office. I had really doubted this show based on season 1 but it is an amazing show and I can not wait for Thursday night. As a matter of fact the take over of my DVR has already begun with Family, Chuck and Heroes. All shows looked pretty good in their openers which gives hope to a solid season to follow from shows like House, Smallville and Friday Night Lights.

 

So, there you have it, I could add a fifth item to this list but I really don’t want to talk about work. I will just say my new position has me busier than I have been in a while and I still have no idea what I am doing. Hopefully that will change or someone will notice, at this point I would take either but so far everyone seems to think I know exactly what I am talking about while I feel like I don’t have a clue. Oh well, better get back to work.

Haven’t done this in a while

A couple of years ago I was working on the road over St. Patrick’s Day, when it also happened to be the opening weekend of March Madness. At the time I was alone in a hotel room watching games and had a lot of things I wanted to write about but nothing longer than a paragraph or two, so I just wrote about all of them in one monster post. Since, I have not been posting very regularly anyway; I figured why not try that again. So here goes. Feel free to skip to something you like.

 

 

On A Somber Note

I didn’t even realize it until I woke up this morning but it is the 6^th anniversary of 9/11. Granted I have taken a pessimistic view on the subject since day one but it has changed the country and it has resonated for some people for a long time. I prefer to listen to Colin Powell on the subject when he says that terrorism is not the biggest threat we face as a nation because acts of terror will not in themselves change the American way of life. Only we can do that, and hopefully we are strong enough to not let outside stimuli force us into giving up the tenets that we live by. Still, I doubt I will ever forget where I was that day, the way I felt and how the rest of that week unfolded. The mood that day in Gainesville is one that I have felt on very few occasions and it will stick with me for a long time.

 

On a lighter note

September is still my favorite month of the year and 1/3 of the way into it September is living up to the hype. After going for months without much activity in the DC area I have spent plenty of time going out, not making it home at the end of the night and just doing my usual drinking partying that comes with football season. Unfortunately, the Gator bar makes it really hard for me to watch games at all; I mostly just sit around drinking and talking to people until I lose my voice. After Labor Day weekend my voice was completely gone, after the Viking game on Sunday it was only half gone, thankfully the NFL is not all that exciting or I would have been done for.

 

Summer, what happened to you?

I don’t mean that in the sense of where did it go, it was definitely here, it was definitely hot and I did get to enjoy parts of it. No, my question is more about how summer has gone from my favorite time of year to my least. My childhood ranking system looked like this:

1. Summer
2. Summer
3. Summer
4. Summer

 

Adult ranking system

1. Fall
2. Spring
3. Winter
4. Summer

 

How the heck did this happen? I have two theories on the subject. The first being that as I grew up a Floridian the only seasons I knew of were Hot, Hotter, Hurricane and rain at 4. The second theory is what I like to call Summer Camp syndrome. To this day I will bump into people who will bust straight into summer camp talk. It happened on Saturday, it happens all the time, and the conversations are always the same, people talk about what camp they attended and what cabins they were in and then begin playing the name game. But, that has nothing to do with my theory, at least not directly, no; Summer time without summer camp is simply hot, rainy and bad TV. But Summer time with summer camp is the outdoors, new friends, lakes and kickball and if you go on to be a camp counselor it also means remote locations and drunken nights. Every June I seriously consider quitting my job to go work at sleep away camp, but every time I realize its not the best idea and decide to suffer through another boring summer with bad TV, bad weather and bad movies.

 

I am a bit of an introvert

I think I have always known that to be true, though I am not sure people who know me understand. So if you care, read this little article that I stumbled upon. I am not as bad as the description it gives but there are some definite similarities. I don’t consider myself anti-social as I do need social interaction as well as time alone but I definitely get that feeling sometimes of being overwhelmed by too much face time. This summer when I spent 5 of 6 weekends out of town either visiting family or working I was constantly with people. When I finally got back to being home for a while all I wanted to do was decompress and spend some time alone. So, I did that until September started.

 

I could keep doing these short things all day but I will stop here

I am going home tomorrow for Rosh Hashana. I have not been back to Florida in six months and I am really looking forward to my trip home. My mom ordered challah and is making homemade chicken soup and brisket and I just can not wait. It has been far too long since she has made me a home cooked meal, so I will forgive her for making me cook as well. I am also really happy that the holiday lines up perfectly with the UF-UT weekend so that my cousin and I can drive up and see our beloved Gators in person. It is sort of becoming a family tradition as we attended the game last year in Knoxville.

 

 

And on that note I am out, maybe I will put up some pictures after the game or something, it has been a long time since I have posted pics. I actually do not think I have put up any pics of myself, maybe I will. I can guarantee that if we barbecue you will see pics of what we eat and probably a bottle of Jim Beam.

It is Finally Back

Nine long months of waiting came to an end last night when the college football season officially began. Thus we are entering my favorite time of year, September, when fall is approaching and Saturdays are all for the Gators. It is the time of year when Orange and Blue are the only colors that really matter, when vacations mean taking a long weekend to a road game or heading back to Gainesville. I have already begun my preparations for tomorrow’s kickoff and have begun looking even further down the road. Flights are booked for Tennessee, rides to the game are being finalized and tickets are being searched for. Emails have actually been circulating for weeks amongst my friends in preparation for the season; we are already planning our tailgate on the first weekend of October. Some of us have flights booked to New Orleans for the UF-LSU game while others like me have made arrangements for Tennessee and FSU, but am waiting on a friend before finalizing my road game.

 

So what does a Saturday look like for me?

 

We have friends visiting DC for the holiday weekend but that hardly changes my weekly gameday routine. I plan on getting up early Saturday morning so hopefully tonight will not be too crazy. I will have my breakfast and drink my coffee out of my blue Gator mug. I actually used to have two mugs, one orange for away games and one blue for home games but the orange one broke. I also used this method at times when deciding on which Gator shirt to go with, but have since changed to going with the HOT shirt, so I will wear the same shirt to every game until we lose, then switch to another one. I am still unsure of which shirt I will be wearing when we kick off tomorrow. I could go with my grey Gator football shirt, that’s what I was wearing in the desert for the National Championship. It will just come down to feel and of course in two weeks when I am in Gainesville I will have to make a stop at the campus bookstore to purchase more gear, maybe a MNC T or a new coffee mug or a sweatshirt, heck I will probably buy one of each. You can never have enough Gator gear. Back to the topic, after I have finished eating I will probably hit the gym, I get too antsy before games and usually like to do something to keep my mind off it. Since the game tomorrow is early, 1230 kick, I will rush home from the gym, shower and throw on the chosen gameday outfit and head out for the Gator bar. Once at Baileys in Ballston I will order the greatest chicken fingers and extra honey mustard ever served followed by numerous buckets of beer. We will eat, drink, the Gators will win and then we will celebrate. Because its an early game most people will head home to relax after and then go out later. If it were a night game or a later start there is a good possibility we all head out in gameday apparel and annoy the rest of DC in our blatant obnoxiousness that comes with being Gators. We are after all the champs at just about everything. So, there you have it, a typical Saturday not spent in the Swamp.

 

Here is what I am looking forward to during my favorite time of year:

 

9-1: Kickoff of the 2007 season enjoyed with great friends

9-8: A relaxing tune up before the SEC season starts.

9-15: My first trip to the Swamp in over a year, tailgates, family and Jim Beam

9-22: No watching, no eating, no drinking, its Yom Kippur and some things are actually more important than football

9-29: Round out the great month watching UF get revenge on Auburn (hopefully)

 

And then one week later we kick off October in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. This fall is going to be great and it all starts tomorrow.

My bookshelf overflows

I am a bit of an entertainment junkie. I love reading, going to movies, watching TV and listening to music both live and at home. But summers for me are usually the time when I devour books. And as a bit of a collector I like to buy them instead of just borrowing or going to the library. Finishing a good book is like a conquest and I purchase them in hopes of someday giving them away. I offer a lot but I think to this day only three people have ever taken books from me. Whether that is because of different taste or because my friends just don’t read as much as I do I am not really sure. One summer a few years ago when I was working at a sleep away camp I read about 8 books, all of LOTR and The Hobbit as well as the whole Enders Shadow series. Since the end of this TV season I have read about a dozen new books, all the Harry Potters, I am Legend, the Gunslinger (Dark Tower book 1), The Book of Fate, and Don’t Stop the Carnival. OK, so that is 11 books, but you get the point, I also bought the Drawing of the Three which is the second book in the Dark Tower series. The problem is that my two little bookshelves are now full and I have started just stacking books on top of other books. I really don’t want to get another bookshelf as I hope to move in the next month or so but I also don’t like my bookshelf to be so messed up and overrun.

 

Since my friends don’t want my books and I still want so many more I have been looking into online trading. My amazon.com cart is always full but I try not to buy too many at a time. There are some great book exchanges online that I am looking into

 

Book Mooch and Zunafish(you can actually trade all sorts of things on here) are the two I am considering signing up for at the moment. There is also Library Thing which allows you to catalog the books you read, no trading though, just kind of cool. Still, even though these online resources provide me with exactly what I am looking for I kind of wish people I knew read more so I could hand them the book in person and get to talk to them about it later. I might be asking for too much, after all I do get to talk to my friends about all the other things I love like movies and TV and music and those mediums we are able to enjoy together often.  

A Name Change

Coming off of last weekend when I was surrounded by my entire family they still linger on my mind this weekend. Specifically, I have been thinking about my last name which I could care less about and the last name of my grandfather which is really important to me. My father’s last name might be the one I have had all my life but little else about my father has been part of my life. On the other hand, my grandfather was a huge part of my life, living near me from the time I was born until I moved away. He was also the only survivor of his family. When he got married he had three girls and one boy, I am sure he was relieved to know that his name would carry on for one more generation. But, then his son only had one child, a girl, so that means his name is pretty much done. My other cousins have last names they don’t intend on leaving behind and fathers that deserve that. I do not. For many years now I have discussed changing my name, I have been thinking about it for probably ten years now. Though, I have always figured I would just rid myself of my last name, not take a new one. And now, with some urging from my family, no one really pushing me but suggesting that I take my grandfathers. They say it will become clearer to me or more important once I decide to have a family and that may be true however right now all I know is that the name I have is not going to work for me. So, the decision comes down to taking his last name and continuing that tradition or making my own and starting anew.