here's hoping you brought your cell phone to your suicide attempt...

it's official...

it's that time of year again, when the madness of march is just around the corner, and obsessive watching of college basketball has started to infiltrate my daily life.

saturday night we watched memphis/tennessee instead of going out. that was the first real sign that the madness had seeped into our bloodstream. it will be a few weeks before it really takes hold, but the process has officially begun.

last night, we watched texas/kansas state, and it was the first game where i really started thinking bracketology. when is bracketology going to make it into the dictonary, by the way? can we get dickie v. on that, please? that's a viable word, if you ask me, and i'm a graduate student, for chrissakes. i should have a say.

anyhow, the day of reckoning is march 16th, selection sunday... just prior to that, i will be glued to a variety of conference tournaments hoping for the first sensations of the full-on madness. there will undoubtedly be some team, somewhere, who will get the blood flowing, mounting the unlikely march to conference victory, whipping everyone who happens to be lucky enough to catch the wednesday-afternoon action into a frenzy(and potentially fucking their brackets, although this year i refuse to succumb to emotional picks. i simply won't do it. or, i will only allow myself one. everyone is allowed to have one.)

i can't wait! march madness may very well be my favorite holiday season. it beats the shit out of christmas, that's for sure.

ps-sign number three? i am going to miss vandy/tennessee tonight because of work, and i am super pissed about it. i am even considering putting up the fight against daniel, my sports-loathing co-worker, to get the game on television at work. maybe i will convince a customer to ask for it. i think that might be easier than fighting daniel myself...

magical snow day!

well, we finally have the snow we have been bitching about not having! it would have been nice if it waited one more day, so that everyone wouldn't have to trek around to work and all... but it is still pretty cool. and cw gets off at 2pm, so that's not so bad...

anyhow, here are a few interesting little things. i am not one for sending the group email...but if i were, i would definitely send you this.

i used to work in the met life building and would pass through grand central every day on my way to work, and i can tell you first hand, there is always some kind of kooky shit going on in there. and there are always a bunch of overwhelmed, occasionally lost tourists to witness it. it is a great combination.

this definitely takes the proverbial cake, however. way to totally freak a whole bunch of people out! they will take that shit home to connecticut and tell their neighbors about it for days.

http://my.break.com/Content/view.aspx?ContentID=444980

among the not-as-freakish-but-still-cool things that have happened in grand central:

a) i once almost ran straight into the camera guy who was filming bill maher and whoever was interviewing him as they walked through the terminal. like a true new yorker, i didn't even realize that someone famous was afoot until i happened to realize that they guy who almost collided with me was pointing his gigantic video camera at someone. and i probably still wouldn't have been able to tell who it was, except that bill maher's head is the size of a medicine ball. or for those of you who were born in the 20th century, a really fucking large pumpkin.

b) my friends, mike simon and megan lyles, got married at grand central a few weeks ago, on the sly, showing up at 11:30am sharp with his parents, her grandpa, a photographer and a dude to perform the ceremony. they just stopped and got married, and then went to lunch at metrazur.

c) there was always endless amounts of fun in watching hedge-fund dudes with expensive suits and starbucks trip up the escalator in the morning. they get REALLY mad about that kind of shit. i think it brings them back to being ridiculed in high school or something. good times.

book-nerd crack

as if i really needed more things to distract me from all the homework and other-work i have, i present to you... goodreads. aka book-nerd crack.

anyone who is a book-nerd will immediately sign up and start posting every book they have ever read, which naturally is about a million, hence book-nerd status...

i suppose it could be worse. hopefully this obsession will at least complement the other work i am doing. at the very least it's a step up from playing halo on x-box live. that's also starting to become an issue.

anyhow, here is the link to my goodreads page. enjoy the fruits of my procrastination! oh, and to all my other book-nerd friends... please join me! i need to feel justified in all my internerd endeavors.

my goodreads profile

more pics

as promised, julie's pics of my birthday bowling extravaganza were much better than mine...here are just a few...

marty, where did all these fine women come from???

here is one of brodie's many attempts to save me from bowling suckitude. look at where the ball is...says a thousand words.

charles and i kept winding up at the bowling ball thing at the same time...here i am trying to sneak in a psych out. i believe i was saying "don't fuck up!"
(he paid me back later by waiting until i was in motion, and then saying "choke on it.")

going on a livin' spree...

what up, y'all. in a testament to the fact that apparently old folks can still tear it up, my 32nd b-day turned out to be one of the most fun i have ever had!

i should have known, especially when i saw the group of peeps that were scheduled to be on hand to celebrate with me, but it(and more importantly, they) really went above and beyond...

you know it's a great night when you wake up the next day and spend the whole day laughing about all the things that happened...

first of all, i must update. i wrote on saturday that i didn't know where my bowling skills stood at this point, and i can now furnish that information. i totally suck! it was pretty horrifying. it went like this: i bowled a big fat ZERO for the first four frames, then brodie and suzy gave me some coaching tips and i bowled a strike out of nowhere, everyone cheered, and then i promptly went right back to sucking.

later, i stopped sucking again for a brief second to bowl another strike (after which sarah celebratorially pelvic-thrusted me from behind) but that, too, was seemingly a fluke.

after a while, i just came to accept it. it helped that charles williams was also stinking it up on the lane next to me, but he eventually found a rhythm, and i was left to suck all on my own.

it's ok. it was my birthday!

anyhow, i was so overwhelmed by how amazing my friends are...i don't get to see everyone nearly enough anymore, but having everyone together for a night was a big bright reminder of how fucking awesome these people are.

unfortunately, due to a combination of drinking and poor photography skills, my pictures are almost all blurry, but i suppose that makes it even more authentic a viewing experience. and don't worry, i know that kels, trey and julie were all taking pics too, and theirs are undoubtedly great. here's a few, just to start...

trey will try to tell you that he has never bowled before. this is NOT true.

leanne strikes a pose as trey bowls another strike

my boys

fernanda found great success with the "heaving the ball through your legs" method

sarah and brain, secretly in love

brodie busts a post-bowling move


brucia's either really psyched or really frustrated about something

eric and bill, looking mad spiffy

julie is so cute...


charles took this pic of his man-crush, brad, who is well deserving of the adoration. he twisted his ankle and went ahead and bowled like a champion anyway. he also has light shooting from his fingertips!

did i mention that they played "the thong song"? it was so awesome.

eric and alysia, checking out julie's good pictures

cw's bowling nemesis, armed with photographic evidence of his bowling suckitude. kels is ruthless, y'all.

no one fucks with the jesus.

i know, this is a family website. but it's kinda necessary, as we prepare to head out to the leisure time bowl for some awesome bowling action.

charles, naturally, claims that he will reign supreme, but kels informed us last night that at one point in her childhood she owned a bowling ball so...

i personally have no idea where my bowling skills stand at this point: it has been a loooooooooong time since i have tried my hand at this.

i will be back tomorrow with pics and tales, and hopefully i will not have dislocated my knee or broken my hip or anything...