...aka Jacksonville Municipal Stadium aka The Gator Bowl aka The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, which incidentally is the most appropriate title. This trip was probably the worst I road game trip I can recall, including the time I went to Neyland Stadium and almost got into a physical altercation with a UT fan (no surprise there!) That also includes the time I went to Oxford and we LOST to Ole Miss (big surprise there!) So you can probably deduce that more than the loss is to blame.
But before I jump in head first, I have to explain the whole "Young Girl" sitch. It's kind of an ongoing joke with my parents (okay really just my dad but that sounds bad and it's nothing like that I assure you!) We were all sittin around, playin dominoes, listenin to music when we heard that song. Me and my hubby couldn't believe this song is still in circulation considering the times (too many examples to link). If you did your homework, then you will note that the words of that song go something like "better run, girl, you're much too young girl" or "so hurry home to your momma...before we go too far" Is it just me or can you not believe that song is still on the radio?!?!? Wouldn't you know we heard it again on satellite radio during our trip to Florida last weekend? We quickly realized we were mistakenly listening to Playboy channel's pedophile station and changed it. No, that last sentence was a test to see if you were paying attention. However, we really did hear the song and we had my dad laughing so hard with our thoughts on the song. He thinks we're blowing it all out of proportion (okay, we kinda did just for kicks) but then I found the original video and decided that Gary Puckett is definitely a perv/freak, or at least he was. And while I was browsing youtube, I found a video of him performing the song (wait for this....) at Epcot. You just can't make this stuff up.
Now onto football... Alabama obviously did not study my points to the game. Otherwise, they would have known that you have to outscore the other team... works every time! I literally chanted "no huddle, no huddle" about half-way through the 1st quarter but no one joined me. In fact, my husband pretended he didn't know me. My cheering did clearly draw attention from the crowd as I'm pretty sure I heard some drunkard mumble something about "that little sober girl" and "doesn't she know this is a cocktail party?!?!" I would love to say that our team and fans fought the good fight and came out on the losing end but such was not the case... unless River City Showdown really meant drinking competition. In that case, the giant golden keg goes to the Sabanation! Lest anyone thinks I have jumped ship, let me assure you that our experiences at BDS (or any college stadium for that matter) are nothing like that. It just seems that the sober UA fans (excluding us) didn't make the trip. FSU fans didn't bowl me over with their class and dignity, either. That reminds me... here's an unsolicited fashion tip: This is not a dress. It is a shirt so please wear pants. Bonus fashion tip: Ba-donka-donks by nature don't fit into a size 2. Indeed, that little slit will give way.
I'm surprised at how easy the media has been on Bama this week. There's some obvious problems with the offense that I personally believe could be corrected, yet they have not been so far. I have confidence in the coaching staff but am a little bewildered at some of their choices. And I'll go ahead and say it, for $4 mill I want to see a little theatrics. You know--a little jumpin, a little shoutin', a little grabbin' of the facemasks. $3.9 mill can be purely coaching but throw us a friggin' bone and give us $100,000 worth of inspiration... which of course brings me to this. You're welcome.
Now it's not all Saban's fault. I am convinced that John Parker Wilson is a junkie-- an adrenaline junkie! He once told me (because you know we're tight and all) "hey, it's sooooo much cooler if you come from behind to win. I mean, I look so much cooler when I do it that way." [tosses Bama bangs to the side] "Oh no, I can't change..." [cue Freebird]
So there's an insiders look at the collapse of a rockin' 3-0 season. Being 3-2 sucks, doesn't it? Oh if only there was anyone else out there that was 3-2....
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?
(Hint: A good way to express that growing fondness in your heart is TO COMMENT! I'm feeling insecure about the size of my blog, people! Shouldn't I have 50 hundred million readers by now?!?! But I digress...)
Okay, I know it's been a while. Let me see where I left off (scrolling down...) Oops! The more I think about it, the more I regret leaving a link to the Gary Puckett's "Young Girl" video as my parting post. BUT there is a story to that song and I promise to get to it soon. I'll leave you hangin' a little while longer though. Basically it's just another busy football season in our household this year. It's nothing new but this blog thang is so I'm not always able to post as frequently as I anticipated. I'd be a gazillionaire if I could invent a computer chip that would keep track of the thoughts in your brain and then post them automatically on your blog. I know what you're thinking "Gazillionaire? Really? I doubt anyone other than you and maybe a handful of nerdy bloggers would want that" but I'm telling you, the government contracts would set me for life. Anywhoo...
So I've had all these fleeting thoughts over the past couple of days that would have made interesting posts but the operative word there is fleeting. I can't remember a dern thing now so I'll have to work off of my last post. Then I promise to post my astounding and incredibly insightful thoughts on UA's last football game so put your bookie on hold until then. (I kid, I kid... don't ever put your bookie on hold)
The banquet Monday night was AWESOME, as expected. It was a fundraiser for a Christian ministry with many branches but it's primary focus is helping men and women kick addictions. There is a house for men, a house for women (including pregnant women), and there is also an emergency shelter for women and children fleeing abuse. This organization also heads up mission trips all over the world throughout the year. Basically they do just about anything they can to reach out to people in the name of Jesus (Their motto quite appropriately is "Putting God's love into action... where the action is at!) We consider it a privilege to in any way be associated with them and look forward to the day when we can do more.
The speaker that night told two stories to illustrate his point of leaving your mark on the world. These are paraphrased of course but the gist goes like this... Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite and made a fortune off of that and other armaments. An erroneous obituary published before his death claiming "the merchant of death is dead" spurred him on to leave a better legacy for his name so he left the bulk of his estate to fund five prestigious awards, including what is known as the Nobel Peace Prize. Good story, right? Well, there's another lady from about the same time period that also made a fortune off of armaments. Her name was Sarah Winchester and her husband's family's company made essentially the first functional repeating rifle (aka "the gun that won the West") Cue the Civil War and now their family is filthy rich. They had one child, a girl who died at about 6 months of age, and then a few years later her husband died of tuberculosis. Understandably , she took these losses quite hard. Not so understandably, she sought the advice of a spiritual medium who told her she was being haunted by the spirits of all those killed by Winchester guns. According to him, they were seeking revenge on her family so she should move and build a house to appease them/confuse them. This is the result. Whatta waste. She was convinced that she would die (at the hands of the spirits I suppose) if construction ever stopped so work continued 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 38 YEARS! I've been fascinated by this story on so many levels (and have read more about it here and here.) First, I'm struck by how many stories there are throughout history of women losing a child and it basically consuming them... modern-day versions: exhibit a and exhibit b). Never underestimate the sting of that kind of loss. But I'm equally struck by the thought of how desperate she was to save her own life and how it didn't have to be that way. Her story is fascinating to say the least.
Well, it just doesn't seem right to cover the Young Girl video and football in the same post so I'll leave it at that for now. Look for another post veddy, veddy soon though.
Okay, I know it's been a while. Let me see where I left off (scrolling down...) Oops! The more I think about it, the more I regret leaving a link to the Gary Puckett's "Young Girl" video as my parting post. BUT there is a story to that song and I promise to get to it soon. I'll leave you hangin' a little while longer though. Basically it's just another busy football season in our household this year. It's nothing new but this blog thang is so I'm not always able to post as frequently as I anticipated. I'd be a gazillionaire if I could invent a computer chip that would keep track of the thoughts in your brain and then post them automatically on your blog. I know what you're thinking "Gazillionaire? Really? I doubt anyone other than you and maybe a handful of nerdy bloggers would want that" but I'm telling you, the government contracts would set me for life. Anywhoo...
So I've had all these fleeting thoughts over the past couple of days that would have made interesting posts but the operative word there is fleeting. I can't remember a dern thing now so I'll have to work off of my last post. Then I promise to post my astounding and incredibly insightful thoughts on UA's last football game so put your bookie on hold until then. (I kid, I kid... don't ever put your bookie on hold)
The banquet Monday night was AWESOME, as expected. It was a fundraiser for a Christian ministry with many branches but it's primary focus is helping men and women kick addictions. There is a house for men, a house for women (including pregnant women), and there is also an emergency shelter for women and children fleeing abuse. This organization also heads up mission trips all over the world throughout the year. Basically they do just about anything they can to reach out to people in the name of Jesus (Their motto quite appropriately is "Putting God's love into action... where the action is at!) We consider it a privilege to in any way be associated with them and look forward to the day when we can do more.
The speaker that night told two stories to illustrate his point of leaving your mark on the world. These are paraphrased of course but the gist goes like this... Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite and made a fortune off of that and other armaments. An erroneous obituary published before his death claiming "the merchant of death is dead" spurred him on to leave a better legacy for his name so he left the bulk of his estate to fund five prestigious awards, including what is known as the Nobel Peace Prize. Good story, right? Well, there's another lady from about the same time period that also made a fortune off of armaments. Her name was Sarah Winchester and her husband's family's company made essentially the first functional repeating rifle (aka "the gun that won the West") Cue the Civil War and now their family is filthy rich. They had one child, a girl who died at about 6 months of age, and then a few years later her husband died of tuberculosis. Understandably , she took these losses quite hard. Not so understandably, she sought the advice of a spiritual medium who told her she was being haunted by the spirits of all those killed by Winchester guns. According to him, they were seeking revenge on her family so she should move and build a house to appease them/confuse them. This is the result. Whatta waste. She was convinced that she would die (at the hands of the spirits I suppose) if construction ever stopped so work continued 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 38 YEARS! I've been fascinated by this story on so many levels (and have read more about it here and here.) First, I'm struck by how many stories there are throughout history of women losing a child and it basically consuming them... modern-day versions: exhibit a and exhibit b). Never underestimate the sting of that kind of loss. But I'm equally struck by the thought of how desperate she was to save her own life and how it didn't have to be that way. Her story is fascinating to say the least.
Well, it just doesn't seem right to cover the Young Girl video and football in the same post so I'll leave it at that for now. Look for another post veddy, veddy soon though.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Just so you know...
...I'm not in hiding, not that there's anything wrong with that. I seriously considered staying in the sunshine state, at least until the toilet paper blew out of the trees downtown. The good news: there wasn't any toilet paper in my trees. Well, I do have a scathing review of the game this weekend but really no time to write it. For now I'll just say that the so-called home of the largest outdoor cocktail party on earth was all it was cracked up to be.
It. Was. Miserable.
We're table hosts at a fundraiser tonight which means 3 things:
1. I must clean the house so the babysitter doesn't call DHR.
2. I must do laundry so that said fundraiser doesn't take up a love offering for our family.
3. I must start working on my unruly hair hours before I need to look presentable.
Here's some homework for tonight though. We'll discuss it at my next posting.
It. Was. Miserable.
We're table hosts at a fundraiser tonight which means 3 things:
1. I must clean the house so the babysitter doesn't call DHR.
2. I must do laundry so that said fundraiser doesn't take up a love offering for our family.
3. I must start working on my unruly hair hours before I need to look presentable.
Here's some homework for tonight though. We'll discuss it at my next posting.
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