Ok, Ok... I get the hint!

To the Tucson television station that sent me not one, but two rejection letters: Thank you for feeling so strongly about my lack of talent that you felt the need to reject me twice. I'm now seriously considering quitting television altogether and working as a Waffle House waitress, and I have you to thank.

Road Rash

We're back from our circle tour of Misery... oops... I mean, Missouri. I'll detail the trip some other time, just as (at some point) I'll detail my trip to Michigan from earlier in the month. But here's a brief summary of the trip:

Christmas Night: In Columbus. I had to work the 11 p.m. news (more on that later, as well). Of course, the debut of NBA on ABC was Christmas night, so the damn basketball game meant that we went on the air late. Got home from work about 1 a.m.

Friday, 12/26: Wake up very early. Leave for Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport at 8:00 am. Board airplane at Noon-ish. Fly to Kansas City. Arrive around 1:00. Drive to South part of city to meet Cory's Dad. Find out Cory's Dad isn't meeting us. Drive back north to Kirksville.
Total Time in Car: 5 1/2 hours. Total Time on Airplane: 2 1/2 hours.

Saturday 12/27 (my Birthday): Go with Cory to eye-doctor appointment. Drive to Kansas City. Experience someone else's holiday family argument. Go to casino (birthday treat, and kind of a bizarre story, as well). Go to Cory's dad's place to spend the night.
Total Time in Car: 4 hours. Total time spent in Wal-Mart: 1 1/2 hours.

Sunday 12/28: Go to Chiefs Game (Final Score: 31-3). Go back to Cory's Dad's to pack. Drive to Springfield, Missouri to visit Cory's brother Casey, and Casey's girlfriend Nicole.
Total Time in Car: 4 hours.

Monday, 12/29 Spend entire day in Springfield. Spend most of it driving around the city with Cory's mom, the woman with the worst sense of direction in the universe.
Total Time in Car: Too much, considering we went nowhere. Total Trips to Wal-Mart: Two (one Wal-Mart, one Sam's club).

Tuesday, 12/30: Leave Springfield ridiculously early to go to Kansas City Airport. Leave at 10 a.m., arrive at MCI at 2:30. Sit around the airport until my 5:50 p.m. flight. Fly to Atlanta, drive back to Columbus.
Total Time in Car: 6 hours. Time on Airplane: 2 1/2 hours. Time spent getting irritated looks from Airport Sports-bar waitress for monopolizing table: 2 hours.

So the grand total (Ugh): 21 hours in the car. 5 hours on airplanes. 2 1/2 hours in WalMarts. Countless hours wishing I was dead (or at least in a coma).

Merry Chauna-kwan-christ-solst-ivus-adan

I think I got everyone covered there.
So, it's Christmas, technically, though since I haven't gone to bed yet, it's still Christmas Eve to me.

I was too phenomenally busy this year to send out Christmas cards. Call me a slacker if you like... but I don't see anyone else working 14-straight days, plus working Christmas Eve and Christmas.

So Here's my Christmas Card for you:

Merry Freakin' Christmas.

Love, the Sportslady

An Open Letter:

To the guy driving his Corvette convertable, top down, at 4:56 p.m. Tuesday on Wynnton Road:
Dude. It's late December. I know you spent a lot of money on your car, and I know it's unseasonably warm. But seriously, is there really a need for you to drive with the top down?

To the 70-something couple using the self-checkout line at Winn-Dixie Wednesday:
Perhaps the day before Christmas, when you're purchasing 49 items, is not the ideal time to experiment with the self-scanning technology. Do you really think that you can scan and bag your 49 items faster than a grocery clerk can? I submit that you cannot.

Winter? What's that?

So, according to my calendar, Monday was the first day of Winter. Hmm. It was in the 60s here. And sunny.

Actually, I know why it was nice out. High school football season is over, and Mother Nature reserves the coldest weather for Friday nights when I'm stuck outside in the cold. So we can all rest assured, it'll be nice in Columbus until the next outdoor sporting event rolls around.

Let's see... college baseball season is just 1 1/2 months away.

I Love Danger

At least, it would seem that way. Take a look at the 25 most dangerous cities in the country. Pay special attention to the top three. Now consider the major metropolitan areas I've lived closest to.

What's up with that?

A Lesson To Be Learned:

Pick on someone your own size.

A Sad Commentary

Who would you rather watch on a Tuesday night? Paris Hilton or George W. Bush?

It's a tough call, I know. On the one hand, I find it kind of a sad commentary on our society that "The Simple Life" beat the big exclusive Dubya interview. On the other hand, I don't think I could watch either for a prolonged period of time.

In case you missed both, here's an excellent summary taken from the aforementioned Reuters article:

In the interview, the president made headlines by saying the recently captured ex-Iraqi leader should be executed -- the "ultimate penalty" -- for his iron-fisted rule in Iraq.
But Hilton won more viewers with her performance baking pies and working the town fair's kissing booth in a mini skirt.

I'm an Idiot.

Big surprise, I know. But there's a specific reason that I'm an idiot tonight.

On my dinner break, I came home and took out my contacts. I've had to wear them all day, every day for the last week and a half, and my eyes were starting to dry out (all the dust from moving offices didn't help, either). So I put on my glasses, shoved my contact case into my pocket, and headed back to work.

Right before the newscast, I put my contacts back in, and promptly forgot about the whole ordeal.

That is, until I got home. I took out my lenses, dropped them into some enzymatic cleaner, and then realized that I didn't remember to bring my glasses home from work. I've already put the contacts into the enzymatic (read: expensive) stuff, so I don't want to fish them out of the solution just so I can stay up for another hour or so. So at this point, I've committed to an evening of blindness.

Then, Eureka! I remember that I have a spare pair of glasses. I just don't know where they are. I dig around for a while, drop a ton of stuff on the floor in my blind, mole-like rummaging, and eventually Cory takes over and looks for my spare glasses for me. It took about 10 minutes, but he found them.

Too bad they're about four prescriptions old, and the lenses are so scratched up that everything looks like it's in a fog. Ah, well. Beggars can't be choosers, I guess.

Life Is Short

Something completely shocking happened this week. You may have heard about it, since it made national headlines. I was returning from dinner on Sunday night, when I found out that the captain of the C-Town State University basketball team had died. His name was Jed Bedford, and he was only 21 years old.

Jed was a hell of a basketball player. He was the spirit of the Cougars last season, and led all Division II basketball players in the country in 3-point shooting. I regret that I never got to know Jed as a person, but from what I understand, he was an even better person than he was a shooting guard.

He died at practice. Nothing appeared wrong. He'd just sank a shot, his coaches turned away to talk to a couple other players, Jed ran down the court past them, then just hit the ground. He never got up.

An autopsy showed that he had an enlarged heart, something that went undetected because he'd never had any physical problems. Of course, there will be more tests. When a 21-year-old in perfect physical condition has a heart attack, you have to be suspicious. I hope that those suspicions prove to be unfounded.

CSU's Sports Information Director wrote a column on the school's website about Jed. Please take the time to read it. Life is short, often too short. Make sure to spend it doing the things that you love, and with the people you love.

DayQuil days, NyQuil nights

Greetings. I still feel like ass (thus the lack of blogging). I actually haven't been living on DayQuil and NyQuil. I'm too cheap for that. Instead, I've been living on DayTime and NiteTime, the WalMart equivalents thereof.

As always, my timing couldn't be worse. Not only is Dave on vacation, but this is also the week of the big office move. That was somewhat of a surprise. Oh, we knew we were supposed to move offices this week. But as of last Sunday, our new office wasn't ready yet. It had a bunch of holes in the walls where outlets and phone jacks were supposed to be. So Dave and I decided we'd probably end up moving on Monday night.

Monday morning, I got a rude awakening. Literally. The phone rang, woke me up, and it was Dave, saying that we apparently were supposed to be out of our old office by Monday morning. News to me. News to Dave, too. So at 9:30 in the morning, I trudged into work in sweats, and spent the next five hours trying to move 10 years of crap out of our office. Of course, we couldn't move it into our new office yet, but that didn't seem to matter to anyone. At 2:30, I went home, took a shower, changed into my Sportslady clothes, and went back to work. Yep. I was there until 2am.

Late Tuesday afternoon, we finally got working computers in the new sports office. Late Wednesday afternoon, we got our satellite hookup. It wasn't until Thursday that we had working phones. Half of our crap is still in boxes, and though I've spent about 10 hours trying to organize our new office, there's still crap everywhere.

I hate moving. Even if it's just moving 20 yards, it still sucks.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas...

And A Happy New Year.

'Tis the Season

Cory and I started decorating the our cheap, fake Christmas tree tonight. I got it at Wal-Mart about eight years ago, for about $25 bucks. It's pretty pathetic, but I just don't see the sense in getting a nice one. We never have people at our apartment, and we don't have any kids (Unless you count Zoe). So we really decorate the hell out of our cheap little tree. I feel that if you put enough crap on it, it doesn't look nearly as sad.

Anyway, I went out to our storage shed to get the decorations, and there's an enormous, gift-wrapped box out there. I must admit, my curiosity is piqued. It had better be for me!

So, for the next week, I'll spend way too much time trying to figure out what's in the big box. Based on the size and shape, I already have a couple of ideas as to what it could be... now I'll just have to resist the temptation to go back out to the shed, pick it up, and shake it.

Early to bed, early to rise....

...is something that I know very little about. This is the first night I've been home before 1a.m. since I got back from vacation.

It's been a crazy week. I left Jan & Steve's on Friday morning, and it took a little more time than expected to pack my suitcase. Because we had "Christmas" on Thursday, I was leaving Michigan with all my stuff, plus all the gifts I received, plus I was bringing back a couple of presents for Cory, too.

Anyway, it took forever to pack, while I decided which things should go into which bag, and tried to figure out how to make it all fit. When we finally got to Flint Bishop Airport, it was about 25 minutes before my flight. We were in such a hurry to get my crap out of the trunk, that my head got thumped by the hatch on Jan's Envoy. It's still pretty sore (My head, not her car).

Now, Flint is a pretty small airport, and the Airtran ticket counter closes half an hour before each flight. oops. So I get to the counter, and thankfully there's someone still there. She calls up to the gate and has to beg for permission to let me board the flight. They say it's ok, but they're not going to hold the plane for me, so I have to get my baggage checked and clear security in 20 minutes. Amazingly enough, I got through, though I ran down the gate with stocking feet. Oddly enough, I wasn't even the last one on the plane.

So I arrive in Atlanta around 1pm, collect my luggage, go to the car (By the way, I got the greatest parking spot ever. I almost didn't want to leave), and haul ass back to Columbus. I arrive in town at 3:45, run into the apartment to change, rush to work, and anchor the 6:00 and 11:00 newscasts. I've worked every day since then, and I won't get another day off until Christmas.

To make things worse, I'm getting sick. This happens every year right before Christmas. I have to work two days straight, and there isn't anyone who can cover for me, so I end up working while I have the flu. Last year, I had to anchor when I had no voice. Literally, I had no voice. I tried calling my mother the day before Christmas, and she didn't recognize my voice. She thought I was some weird kind of phone pervert calling to harass her.

Hopefully, this year, it won't be as bad. I'm dosing up on Zinc and Vitamin C as we speak.

Brief And Random College Football Musings

Southern Cal fans, quit yer whining. You finished the year with one loss. Oklahoma finished the year with one loss. LSU finished the year with one loss. They're playing for the National Championship, and you aren't. Why? For starters, you played one fewer game than either the Sooners or the Bayou Bengals, meaning your winning percentage isn't as good as theirs. And who did you lose to? Crappy Cal, that's who. And who did they play? Only one team USC faced all season (Washington State) finished the year in the top-25. Oklahoma lost to a top-15 team, and played three top-25 squads. LSU played three top-ranked teams (and beat Georgia Twice), only losing to Florida, who was in the top-25 most of the season. So, USC Fans, deal with it: Southern Cal gets to play in a classic Rose Bowl matchup... plus they got to be part of one of the best sports headlines this year.

Oh, and everyone else: Stop bitching about the BCS poll. It did its job. The only thing the BCS is supposed to do is pick the two best teams in football so that they can play each other for a real national championship game, so we don't have any more of those Michigan/Nebraska fiascos which seemed to rear their ugly heads nearly every other year. And let's face it... there's never going to be a playoff system in Division One Football. First, because there's far too much money invested in the current bowl system, and second, because small schools would never get to go to a bowl game again.

If you want to bitch about something, let's all get together and bitch about this instead: Phillip Rivers isn't a Heisman Finalist. And yet, Eli Manning is. Now granted, Eli's a heck of a quarterback, and of course, he's football royalty... no name has produced more elite quarterbacks than the Manning bloodline. But come on... Philip Rivers is amazing. Just take a look at the numbers:
Touchdowns: Rivers 29, Manning 27
Completed Passes: Rivers 311, Manning 253
Completion Percentage: Rivers 71, Manning 61.71
Interceptions Thrown: Rivers 7, Manning 9
Quarterback Rating: Rivers 166.7 (2nd in Nation), Manning 147.5 (20th in Nation)

I'm not saying that Eli isn't a great QB. I'm just saying that if he's a finalist, Rivers certainly should be, too.

Happy Festivus!

That's right, it's nearly that time of year again. No, there won't be any "feats of strength," though there may be an annual "airing of the grievances."

Tomorrow (Thursday) is a holiday this year, at least as far as the O&O household is concerned. Since this is my holiday trip back home, Thursday is our "Christmas." Oddly enough, it'll also be my "Birthday." I think maybe we should also count down to midnight and crack open a bottle of champagne and call it "New Year's Eve" as well, though that might be overkill.

Anyway, as you all know, folks don't do much on holidays, real ones or otherwise. Get up early, open gifts, eat, have the annual family argument, then sit around and do nothing. If you're religious, tack on a trip to Church/Synagogue, and you're set for the day. With any luck, I'll have plenty of time to blog about all the excitement (or lack thereof) this week.

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

I just spent about 30 minutes, writing a very lengthy and clever blog posting about my day at the Rochester Chrismas Parade. I then went to publish it, and blogger ate my damn post. Gone. Kaput. Bastard.

Maybe tomorrow I'll try it again. I doubt I'll be able to replicate the cleverness of the original post, but I'll try.

Slacking on the Blog Again

It's been a long couple of days, kiddies. I worked all day on Friday (one of those crazy, hectic nights when there was nothing to do until 10 p.m., then suddenly everything had to be done within the next hour). Got home from work a little before 1a.m., then had to drive up to Atlanta at 5:30 in the morning to catch my flight. I got a three-hour nap in there somewhere... just enough to keep me from falling asleep at the wheel.

Some observations from the last couple of days:
1) An open letter to the idiot drivers on I-185 and I-85 in Georgia. You're supposed to pass on the left.

2) When handing my baggage to the AirTran baggage screener, she asked "where are you flying to today?" I responded, "Flint." She scrunched up her face (and if you've ever been to Flint, you understand that isn't exactly an atypical response), then said "I've never heard of that place."
Now sure, there are people that have never heard of Flint (The same people who have never seen any film made by Michael Moore). But for God's sake, her airline flies five non-stop flights to Flint every damn day. I can't possibly be the only person on these flights.

3) Note to the folks running the thermostat at Hartsfield International Airport. Yes, I know it's cold outside. But that doesn't mean that the Airport needs to be 90 degrees inside. Moderation, people.

4) While I'm at it, a little note to the woman waiting to board the flight to Atlanta from Flint: Shorts? It's Atlanta, sweetheart. It's not Barbados.

Obligatory Sports Posting:

I was watching the SEC Championship game, and just for kicks, switched over to the Big XII title game. Huh? Wha?? What the hell happened to Oklahoma?

Granted, K-State is a hell of a football team that never lives up to it's potential. But OU was averaging over 48 points a game. At the time I'm posting this, they're down 35-7 with 7:25 left in the 4th Quarter.

My guess is that the Sooners will still play for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl, even with the loss. They hold a 12-and-1 record, a massive lead in the BCS rankings, and it's not like KSU is chopped liver. One loss, to the 15th ranked team in the nation, probably won't drop OU out of contention. Of course, I've been wrong before.

Ok, I'll admit it...

Sure Wayne Gretzky was a great hockey player. After all, he's been called "The Great One" for decades. Some even say that he's the greatest ever (Though I'll always contend that Gordie Howe was better).

I don't care how great he is or was, though.... $26,600 is way too much to pay for a game-worn sweater (or "jersey," for my hockey-challenged friends). Seriously.

Ok, so I suck

I'm a crappy blogger. Sorry, I've been a little caught up in Christmas shopping. See, I'm having "Christmas" in about a week or so with my family, so I won't get many more chances to do my shopping. For those of you that may be interested (Anne, Melissa, Sue, etc...), I'll be in Michigan from the 6th to the 11th (well, 12th, really, but I'm flying out pretty early in the morning so I can work that afternoon).

I've also been attempting a new culinary skill... making Turkey Soup. I'll let you know how it goes.

So Many Lives Lost

Monday was World AIDS Day. For those of you that don't know, I spent over two years of my life immersed in studying AIDS and HIV. Not surprisingly, it was also the most depressing two years of my life. I could honestly talk about it for days, but I won't. As often as I use this blog as my little soapbox, I'm too tired to soliliquize tonight.

But, if you're looking for a little light reading on the topic, may I direct you here? You may be able to access it via interlibrary loan.