The Price of Leaving Town

My time working for the BIG EAST had come to an end, but getting home wasn’t supposed to be this hard.

I put in my last week of work and said my goodbye’s in Providence on Friday. The next morning, after loading everything left in my apartment into my Mustang, my dad, who had flew in to make the trip home with me, and I headed south for the nearly 1,000 mile journey.

Our path wasn’t the straightest as we made a two-day pit stop in Baltimore to watch a couple of baseball games between the Orioles and Tigers. My cousin’s cousin Josh Anderson is an outfielder with Detroit and was slated to start the Sunday contest. Camden Yards was a great ballpark, but Josh didn’t have the best day, going 0-for-4 at the plate, although the first-place Tigers still won.

After receiving directions towards the interstate to take us on towards Kentucky we headed through what had to be the roughest part of the city. In the middle of boarded up houses, run down convenient stores and a multitude of police sirens and ambulances, my car, which had never had any mechanical problems went completely dead.

The lifeless car had only enough energy to roll up to the nearest curb where there just happened to be an arrest taking place as two police offers had a large man down on his knees and handcuffed. They looked a little panicked to see my dad and I stop by, as if we were there to aid the assailant.

Once we relayed over that our car had broken down, the tension lessened and the smaller cop headed towards my car and immediately let us know that he had owned an ’82 Mustang and that it may be the solenoid. This meant nothing to us and I’m sure his partner holding down the criminal would rather he return to the scene, but our friendly cop stayed with us all the way through bringing in a tow truck.

I don’t remember the officers name but found out he had once stayed in Kentucky while he was in the military and found out about a program in Baltimore’s inner city to become a cop and enter a 20-year retirement plan. He said he was eight years into it, but I have my doubts about his making it 12 more working that particular beat.

The tow truck arrived and my dad and I climbed into the front seat with the driver and his wife. Let’s just say it was a tight fit. But luckily he was a nice enough guy and gave me a flat fee of $150 which seemed fair since he took us quite a ways to get near a hotel and a Pep Boys repair shop. The room for the night was necessary because it was Sunday night and the repair shop was just shutting down.

The next morning we were relieved to hear it was just the alternator that had gone out. So another 30 minutes and close to $400 later, we were finally getting out of Baltimore and heading home through West Virginia and Kentucky.

I’ve always said I’m not normal, so nothing about that story really surprises me. I think only my family could pull off making a routine trip like that into something out of a Saturday Night Live skit.

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Not sure how I had the energy, but the next morning I took off for a job interview in Columbia, Ky., which involved another 300 mile round trip and then promptly took off to Louisville that night to pick up my parent’s car from the airport, adding another 100 miles. Then the rest of the week I went to a birthday party for my uncles wife from the Philippines, went to Owensboro to cover the State Softball Tournament for Estill County and spent two days this week laying out a sports and business page for a newspaper in Irvine, Ky. Needless to say its been a busy couple of weeks. And I also was offered and accepted the job I had interviewed for on Tuesday.

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Notes Since Being Home

I’ve been taking my dog for a daily walk through the American Legion Park in Lawrenceburg and have to admit they’ve done a nice job refurbishing it since my childhood. The walking track is paved, there are numerous exercise stations and there is a disk golf course. But today, I saw a guy taking disk golf way too serious. It looks like a fun hobby and I may even give it a try, but if I’m ever spotted wearing a disk golf backpack and making notes about distances when trying to decide which disk to throw, be sure to tell me to take it easy and loosen up a little bit. This isn’t the U.S. Open.

My neighbor across the street has an odd ritual of taking a walk with his son and wife one time around the circle at the end of the street and then right back into the house. An estimated total distance of 0.1 miles All I know is that I find that funny, and my dog absolutely hates it. He goes off growling and barking at the mini walk from our front door. He can even sense it’s happening while he’s sleeping in another room by letting out a small growl. It’s as if he knows the kid probably wants to make a few more rounds and is letting out his canine anger at the parents.

I can still drop a three on my basketball court. You always like to have some home-court advantage in case any Lawrenceburg thugs come challenge you on your home turf so I went out today and proved I still had it in the backyard. I made myself hit 10 threes in a row before I came back in the house, and it only took about 10 minutes. I consider that a success.

While watching the NBA Finals I can’t help but notice how similar the games are of Rashard Lewis and former Louisville Cardinal Earl Clark. I’m praying that some way the draft plays out where Sac-Town acquires Clark in some kind of trade because I don’t think they’ll take him at No. 4 and I’m scared to death that they may take Ricky Rubio, which would be like saying, “Hey lets suck for the next five years,” because he not the answer at point. I’ve always liked Lewis’ game and he no doubt has a better outside stroke than Clark at this point, but I feel like Earl is still growing his game into his body and will breakout in the NBA in the next two to three years.

Am I correct that Louisville is getting very little attention in any of the very early preseason top-25’s. If so, I actually like that, because a lot of people are going to be surprised this season. Veteran backcourts win championships and I’d take E-Sosa and Jerry Smith as seniors along with Preston Knowles as a battle tested junior over just about any other trio in the country. Place sophomore studs Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings underneath and bring a high-energy freshman like Peyton Siva off the bench, and that’s a solid nucleus to me.

I hate banks. I tried to close my account in Rhode Island and was advised that leaving $5 in would take care of any pending transactions before it closed. Turns out two more transactions came through and without knowing my account had been charged nearly $200. It looks like when a customer closes an account and moves that they could send me a letter or call letting me know I need to cover some final charges instead of continuously charging me fees.

Oh well.

Rhode Island Living Coming to and End?

Seems like yesterday I was just creating this blog, ready to bring the trials and tribulations of living in the Ocean State to anybody that cared. But now, it appears my time here is coming to an end, as I will be venturing back to Kentucky in a little over a month to figure out what lies ahead.

I'm getting used to finding new jobs, my next one will represent my 10th different emplyer in about five years. I actually like the process, finding jobs I like, getting interviews, meeting new people, so this search should be fine. There's a lot I'd like to do in my life right now, but at the same time, I feel ready to commit to a job and feel the security of having somewhere to return to each year.

My experience at the BIG EAST couldn't have been better. I was worked harder than I've ever been in my life, but I was also treated as well as anywhere I'd been before. Anytime I needed something or had a question, there was always a willing person around. This has been one job and experience overall that I'll never forget.

In an odd sequence of events, I'll be travelling to Louisville as the softball communications contact for the BIG EAST tournament May 5-10, then flying back to Providence before moving back to Kentucky at the end of the month. That's a lot of hovering around the planet in a short amount of days.

Until then, I'll continue to enjoy my work and wait to see what the future holds.

Sometimes You Just Want To Feel Wanted

Last year I wrote a few blogs about Josh Anderson, native of my parent's hometown of Pulaski County, Kentucky. Josh had been maneuvering in and out of different minor league baseball organizations for about five years, waiting for his big break in the majors.

Entering this season, Anderson seemed poised to take over center field duties for the Atlanta Braves, as they had not found a suitable player in the free agent or trade markets and worried it was too early to bring up some of their younger prospects. Then 21-year old Jordan Schaeffer happened. Schaeffer tore through spring training with a fury, blistering balls to every corner of the stadium and chasing down flies in the outfield with reckless abandon. Needless to say, it became very obvious, as Anderson had played well, but not great in the same period, that he would not be winning the position battle after all.

With no minor league options available to him, Anderson's fate would come down to either being released and made available to any interested team, or be shopped in a trade. The latter seemed unlikely as a few teams looked and balked on the transaction, until the Detroit Tigers may have pulled the best trade of the season so far.

By giving up only a subpar pitching prospect, the Tigers landed the perfect last piece to their puzzle with Anderson. With a lineup that includes plenty of All-Star worthy power already in place, the Tigers were looking for speed and defense and recieved a good dose of both with the majors' arguably fastest player in Anderson to scorch the basepaths.

The early returns have been good on Detroit's investment. Josh made an opening day MLB lineup for the first time in his career, and has produced both at the plate and in the field with a pair of ESPN Top-10 caliber plays.

It will be fun to keep up with Anderson this season, as the Tigers appear on the road to success after last season's last-place debacle. Many of their supporters have argued that Anderson is the one piece that team was missing to make a playoff push. We only have about six months until we find out.

Hello Sunshine

I just returned from Florida on Monday, after spending six days under the sun. We had our Tennis Championship on the campus of USF, and it was a joy to work. Tennis, as anyone who knew me in high school can attest, was one of my biggest sports passions, so being able to watch the game be played in those great conditions was the good kind of work to me.

I even got motivated myself to relaunch my tennis career. I met with a USTA representative about starting up my membership to the group and possibly get involved with some tournaments whereever I am living next. I'll be honest, I'll need a few months of training to pick up the sport again, as I've fallen out of practice since high school. I think I know a few people I can drag out to the court this summer, so I should be ready to compete soon.

There's really nothing out of the ordinary to report about the tennis tournament, and that's a good thing. My results, recaps and pictures all went out on the web and everyone involved agreed that the event was a success.

Trip to New York: Part One

There’s a lasting image in my head from my trip to New York to work the men’s BIG EAST basketball championship. I’m in a cargo van, riding shotgun, with a bevy of trophies and awards shifting around in the back. The breathtaking skyline of the city is right in front of me and my driver is in a deep conversation about his collection of DVD’s. Our talk was going so well that he must have not seen the car in the other lane, the one that just about cut my trip and life short. But let’s backtrack a little bit.

It’s Saturday night, the day before I left for New York, and I’m in the BIG EAST offices with a collection of my colleagues, all working with a buzzing fervor to prepare everything and anything for the tournament in the Big Apple. Games, such as Louisville and West Virginia, were playing out on the 70 inch flat screen TV hanging above the last-supper looking meeting table that was doubling as my office for the night. And in between glances at the screen to check the score I was stuffing, sorting, labeling and whatever else you can think of about 800 media credentials to make sure the pick-up process in New York ran as smoothly as possible.

Saturday’s work started at about 4:30 p.m., I think I eventually left the office at 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning, five hours from when I would return to depart. But how can I complain? Getting to take this trip was a dream come true. Putting a basketball junky like me inside Madison Square Garden with 15 games to be played by the best conference in America is like putting Martha Stewart in a Bed Bath and Beyond going out of business sale. Does that make sense? Probably not.

So after I got home Sunday morning, I finished up some packing and got to sleep around 4:30 a.m., woke up at about 8:00 a.m. and rolled my suit case out the door. Once at the office we did a few last second checks of supplies and other items and then had to trust we had it all and headed to our various modes of transportation.

A group of four took a limo van to the city, another group of around six boarded the express train, but I, in my opinion, got the best ride of all. We’re talking about a brand spanking new Ford Cargo Van (bright white too). Why was this ride the coolest? How about the cargo load. Nestled next to my suitcase in the back were the Player of the Year trophy, regular season champion trophy and trophy for the eventual tournament champion. I’m not going to lie, it felt pretty awesome to be riding with hardware that would sit on some school’s shelf for many years down the road.

And now the story returns to the beginning, the story of the driver of the van and I. First off, it’s definitely awkward riding shotgun in a cargo van on a two-hour trip to New York with a man you’ve never met. Needless to say, there was a necessary few moments of figuring each other out, but with a little work I cracked his interest and we rambled on about a variety of subjects the whole way to town.

For one, he loved tennis, he was seriously pretty obsessed with it. Luckily I had seven years of varsity tennis experience and knowledge of many pro’s, so we were able to rally, if you will, a few debates back and forth about who was the best and whether the men’s or women’s game was more exciting. Pretty normal conversation, but you never know what could happen in the second hour.

In the second half of the trip, I found out this driver loved movies as well. Double bonus, I also love the motion picture from time to time and have a surprisingly vast knowledge of movies. But what I couldn’t agree on my companion with was his devotion to the animated Disney classic. Bambi, Beauty and the Beast, you name it, this guy loves it and owns it. It was an interesting topic as most of my favorite movies border on the insane comedy realm to very intense dramas, but nowhere in between is any love for Walt Disney.

Then the guy almost wiped us both out, we made the craziest merge over three lanes of traffic to pay a toll I’ve ever witnessed, problem was not all the lanes were clear. About three inches from my face was the grill of a sedan that luckily swerved out of our path at the last second. The toll was paid, and we safely rolled into New York. I was alive, and we were coming upon our destination, the Grand Hyatt.

I’m sure those Grand Hyatt bellmen were happy to see this kid from Kentucky hop out of the cargo van in the heart of New York City with a million boxes that needed to be ushered up to our conference room on the hotel’s second floor. I was happy to see that they were nice guys and luckily took note of my request not to break any of the trophies, if they had, the trophies might not have been the only thing being replaced.

Part one of my New York duties were done, and I was off to my room to relax for a few hours while I waited for my bosses to arrive for dinner. While I turned my hotel room into my apartment, it became obvious that I needed more hangers, so I picked up my phone and hit the operator button. “Mr. White, how may we help you?” came across the other line, and I let them know how they could help, just like they asked. About 30 minutes later, boom, there’s the hangers and life is good.

Life only got better than night as we strolled through the city to our dinner spot at a great little steak house that served a mighty meal. I ordered the filet mignon, which I think is French for ‘really good steak’ and tried to soak it all in as to what I was doing, and where I was doing it at. I’m not even a big New York fan, but at that moment there wasn’t anywhere else I’d rather be. New York grew on me over the week.

Monday morning, through the afternoon was treated as a regular workday. Softball and handing out credentials highlighted the day, but my trip to Madison Square Garden for some initial set up made the day. There’s nothing like walking into an empty MSG with the BIG EAST logos emblazoned on the floor. Standing at midcourt, just looking into the seats and checking out the goals, I knew this was a special moment. I had grown up playing out my fantasies on this very court in video games and my driveway outside, now it was reality.

Each day when the games actually started were both long, exhilarating and a lot of fun. The first morning a limo picked us up outside the hotel so we could fit all of our boxes in the car on one trip. The limo driver was an awesome little guy that had mad skills maneuvering that long vehicle. We got to roll up to the garden and enter through the players tunnel, we were pulling a total Patrick Ewing, security clearance checks and all. We winded all the way up the arena in a circle ramp and eventually parked the car right next to the arena floor, inside our workroom. We were told this is where the Knicks players park their cars on game days. What a life. I mean, I was probably in David Lee’s parking space.

Watching the games courtside at the Garden was nothing like I expected. The games just took a surreal twist. The sightline I had was incredible and it was something I’ll never forget. Especially the seemingly never-ending battle between UConn and Syracuse. We didn’t get home that night until 3 a.m., but who cares? It was fun running around like mad men in the final few overtimes collecting stats and records to announce at the post game press conference.

On the days we had a break in the mornings, I made myself a tourist and walked miles and miles through the city. I went to Rupert Gee’s Hello Deli from the David Letterman show, watched people go crazy for the Naked Cowboy, accidentally walked into a movie being filmed, went inside some knock-off electronics stores, drank some Jamba Juice, immersed myself in the crowd at Grand Central Station to get a New York pretzel and went to Magnolia Bakery to recreate SNL’s Lazy Sunday Video. How many cupcakes did I get? Four, Eight, 12? No. Baker’s Dozen!!!

We also had another staff dinner at Grand Central at an Oyster Bar type place. This was my favorite meal of the trip due to the company, southern flair and beautiful building. I had grilled shrimp with fried green tomatoes and sweet potato’s. The mix of sour and sweet vegetables with the plump shrimp made Price a happy man. The joke of the dinner was my order of Clams Casino for appetizer. I think I pulled off ordering it like I knew what it was well, but had to admit to my coworkers that I had no idea. Luckily my boss ordered it too, and knew what it was, so we both got a great start to our dinners. For those out of the loop like me, Clams Casino is a plate of clams on the half shell with a slab of bacon draped over each piece with some sort of sauce drizzled on the top, I don’t really remember all the details, just google it.

So that’s a pretty long account of most of the trip, here are some quick hitters to wrap it all up, there will be a part two later:

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Before Louisville was presented the regular season champions trophy, the Courier Journal was taking some pictures of the trophy as I polished a few smudges off to made the presentation perfect. The photographer ended up taking my info and posting the picture to the Courier’s site. It’s caption read that I was Dan from Lawrenceburg, Ky., I felt proud.

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Louisville also ended up winning the tournament, it was their first BIG EAST championship and first win in a conference tournament since 2005 in the old Conference USA.

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The trip also marked my first foray into text messaging, I finally surrendered to its calling. By the end of the week, I had 340 messages in my inbox and had sent 320. I think I’m hooked.

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Saw some celebs at the games: Regis, Morgan Spurlock, my old buddy from the gym at U of L Kerry Rhodes and that big dude from the movie 8 Mile, his name is Omar something.

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Riding in cabs in New York is really confusing. The drivers, who never speak English, are talking constantly…but not to you. I think they are all connected to some kind of secret cab driver communication device. Sometimes they’ll go a couple minutes without speaking, then go right back into a new conversation without pushing any buttons. One day I’ll find out how they are doing it.

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Jamba Juice was the bomb, they even asked me if I wanted a free scoop of wheat grass, just like David Letterman jokes about.

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Checking In From Storrs

Thought I'd hop on the blog while I'm here in Storrs, Conn., working the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. My official role here is Blog Coordinator, which means I'm in charge of monitoring all the bloggers here to make sure they are following NCAA guidelines. Any type of real-time updates such as running stats or score reporting is not allowed. The bloggers are only allowed to provide those things periodically, such as halftime and postgame.

So, I would tell you how the Huskies are doing against Florida, but I don't want to commit a violation.

I will be putting together an entry about my trip to New York for the BIG EAST Tournament soon. There is so much to talk about with that whole trip, starting with my journey in a cargo van to get there with my driver who wanted to talk about pro tennis and movies the whole time.

All of my regional picks for the Kentucky State Tournament are still alive. The list of my picks are a few posts down on this blog.

All signs point to an Anderson/Shelby final on Tuesday night, should be a good one.

And if the Bearcats were to advance to Rupp, I see their path to a championship being:

Elliott County
Shelby Valley
Scott County
PRP

That's no tough task, right?

Leaving For the BIG EAST Tournament

Sunday I'm heading down to New York for the BIG EAST tournament at Madison Square Garden. I'll be working a lot, but if I get a break at night I'll try to update how things are going in the city.

I'll be there until the next Sunday, so surely a week in New York for a Kentucky transplant will provide something entertaining. Best of all, it's basketball. This is the tournament I couldn't stop watching for the last three years while I was a student at Louisville, now I'm going to be there working for the conference.

Life takes a lot of crazy twists and turns. Eight years ago I thought I'd become a rock star, six years ago a physical therapist, four years ago own a coffee/tea/health store, and now I'm in college athletics. Probably everyone around me knew this is where I belonged all along, but what a fun ride it was.

On a side note, I want to point out how old school I am, that for the first time in my life I bought a phone with text messaging. I always had a phone and could pay for a text if I wanted in work situations, but I just never liked the idea of it as opposed to just calling the person. But I am learning the ropes, so look out, I just might text you. TTYL.

Blog to end all blogs...

When you go for as long as I have without updating the world...or the few people that check this...about your life, then you should have plenty to talk about.

I realized that after my great summer, work started, and since then I hadn't really ventured much out of my path from home to work. Sure, there were championships to travel to, where I got to see Pittsburgh for the first time in years and hang out in a park in the Bronx for Cross Country. But what about where I was living, what could be out there, right around the corner. So I ventured out for a routine trip to buy black socks the other night and decided to go in a direction from my apartment that I had never travelled, not knowing if there would even be a store.

The whole experience reminded me of my favorite though,

Never Underestimate the Ability to Surprise Yourself

Ok, I know that's a thought from the movie "American Beauty", but the essence of the quote comes back to my all-time favorite movie, "The Truman Show". As humans, so often we get trapped in what is comfortable or what we're used to. Why should I veer off in a direction I've never been in when I know there is a store just down the road from where I live? Easy, I needed to surprise myself.

This happened a lot in Louisville last year as I made my way though the city substitute teaching in whatever random community happened to call. Through the wonders of mapquest, I discovered areas of the city I had never been to. I've always been interested in the smallest things. I love businesses. And the fact I would bump into a new community in the Ville, full of new restaurants, Wal-Marts, whatever, thrilled me.

It's hard to explain, but take my word for it. The point of all this is that when I took the road less travelled, to sound corny, I did find my socks at a T.J. Maxx just 5 minutes from my front door, but also discovered a million other little areas that I would go back to.

AS A WARNING

This surprising yourself attitude can also get you in a lot of trouble. Once I had been subbing in Louisville for some time I got brave enough to try taking some back roads home into downtown while I was living in the best/scariest apartment I ever rented right next to 4th Street Live. Somehow I had gotten myself lost in a housing complex where there were more police cars patrolling than pedestrians. In those cases, do not try to surprise yourself.

Makes Me Thing of A Scary Moment In My Life

Just a little random blurb here in the middle of things. You know how you have those life experiences when you're pretty sure this could be the end? Maybe only I could get in these situations.

Anyway, I decided out of the blue to take a job working the graveyard shift at UPS last year to pay for my last semester of college. I went in around 11:30 and got off about 4 a.m. This isn't news to anyone from Louisville reading this, I feel like everybody who ever went to UofL tried this at least once.

I didn't mind the work or hours, but driving home was always an adventure. For the first two months I was living on a couch in my friend's living room. This was on the third floor of an older than dirt house in Old Louisville, right across from the fine local establishment The Tavern. Let's just say that around 4 a.m. was about the time the Tavern's patrons would be heading home. So the fast-paced walk from my car to the apartment door was always involved some shaking and baking to avoid face-to-face contact with anyone lingering outside.

Ok, back to the blog, but I'm just saying, if you live in Louisville and work at UPS, don't get an apartment in Old Louisville.

The Safer Things in Life, Like High School Basketball

It's that time of year when all I can think about is high school basketball in Kentucky. The problem is, this year, I have a lot more things to think about with my job, so the prep ballers have had to take a minor backseat role.

Still, this year should not lack any excitement. Wednesday night Anderson County will take on their biggest threat to the 8th Region title in North Oldham. Saturday night while I was hanging out, thinking about the brackets, I actually picked this match up as the one that would take the Bearcats to the state. They were going to face North somewhere down the road, so go ahead and send them packing this week.

I will, however, be a mess when Anderson makes it to Rupp and I realize I am 1,000 miles away. I've been waiting for my high school to return to the sweet sixteen for 13 years. Don't quote me here, but they haven't even been in the regional championship game in 13 years, so this is pretty hard on me.

I've been filling some of my co-workers in on the intricacies of Kentucky's basketball tournament, and they all think it's pretty neat. Kentucky and Delaware are the last two states that hold one tournament for all the state teams, without breaking them into classes. If this ever stops in Kentucky, riots will ensue.

Birthday In Indy

It was actually never my birthday while I was in Indianapolis for the Swimming and Diving Championships, but I went for the celebrations anyway. Family came and visited, my parents and I had a meal together at Bucca De Beppo and watched the Providence, Louisville game in my hotel room. Then my sister and her husband visited the next day, and we had lunch. Eating being the theme of both visits.

Some of them were able to come by the pool and see where I was making my office last week. By the way, who knew swimming and diving could be so fun? I had never been around competitive swimming, but those kids get pretty jacked for this stuff. Imagine the NBA finals with music blaring, cameras flashing and Kobe and Lebron about to tip it off, instead it was finely-tuned swimmers making their way to the pool. It was a good atmosphere, and I was proud to be a part of the event.

I also got to run into some old friends from the conference I had been to the month before. Theresa, or T-Pain if you will, came out to volunteer. Theresa is pretty awesome for the fact we have a similar sense of humor, and that my friends happens very rarely. We're both of the late-night TV humor breed, being able to go back and forth with SNL and Mad TV quotes (Note: Mad TV pre 2000's, when I actually laughed).

MCoyne of the NCAA also came out to volunteer. It was good to see her, mainly because of the running joke with both of our offices that we have an MCoyne as well. I'll stop there, because there is nothing less funny to talk about than internal office jokes. Awkward.

And of course, as this blog usually goes, I have to give the food a shout out. Bucca is one of my favorite places, so the pasta started the week right. Then we had a committee dinner at Harry and Izzies Steak House which had an out-of-control shrimp cocktail. Without knowing, I was told to load up some of the sauce on one of these, not knowing it was famous for it's spicyness, with Wasabi added. So I went for it, and almost lost it, coughing up a storm from the fire. Good joke though.

Facebook Birthday's

First let me preface this by saying thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday on facebook. But I have to point out how awesome it is that my page picks up with such a fervor every February. I get emotional reading some of the post, since every year, the people that send me a note are always people I either keep up with routinely, or others that I'm glad to hear from since I hadn't seen them in forever.

Miles for instance left me a passage that brought back memories of old, maybe I'll paste it to the end of this section. Ok, I will. But what I break down the facebook birthday miracle to is, people move on. I've moved 1,000 miles away, so really day-to-day, what do me and someone I was in a fraternity with three years ago have to talk about. But you can always find the motivation to let someone know you realize its their birthday.

It got me thinking I should keep up with these people more than just once a year. But, admittedly, I am pretty bad with these new-age social devices. So friends out there, just because I'm not always on your walls or inboxes, I'm thinking about you, just like Mr. Rogers (Was that one of his lines?).

Here are some highlights from Miles' facebook entry to me:

Miles Terry wrote at 3:44pm

Dan, on the eve of your birthday I would like to share some thoughts... I will number them in no particular order.

1. Pushing exchange students down hills of snow to their doom.
2. Nearly dying from tornado and floods in one evening.
4. Smoking hollowed out wood.
5. Boxing with brandon hall
6. Me hitting you with drumsticks every practice.
8. DEATH OF ME COLD DOWN DEEP
9. A whale of a sandwich
10. Never received cheese sticks from Seth
12. Taco Johns sauce
13. Fireworks in the yard
14. The 5 second game
15. Me stroking out at a regional basketball game
16. bucky the deer head
17. Ryan Hahn
18. DOG BARN
19. Tai Smile
20. Biscuits and Jelly and N/A Beer
21. Ice Storm with my Dad
23. Freddy Got Fingered.

That's enough for now.. but there are more. Happy birthday tomorrow

Miles' list brought back some good memories, it's a busy time at work, so reading that was a nice break of nostalgia.

A quick random explanation of a few numbers:

No. 23 was our bands favorite movie in high school. We probably watched it over 30 times after shows or practice, or just for a good laugh. 99% of people find it dispicable, we think it should have won an Oscar. I mean, really, do you see two LeBaron's Freddy?

No. 21 was when I found out how Miles' dad made it through college while I was stuck at their house in an ice storm with Jacob Cox. I wasn't sure what was going on at first, but luckily it was just poker.

No. 10 was a failed promise from the guitarist for our band who replaced No. 17, Ryan Hahn. Seth, who was a cook at the legendary local restaurant, Family Affair, promised us cheese sticks at every practice but never, ever came through. Ryan Hahn made the list because Miles had a penchant for just saying his name at the right time. Ryan Hahn is the man by the way, you should buy his shirts.

No. 18 was the Dog Barn down the road from Ryan's house in the country. We were equally amazed and scared of that barn in the sticks of Anderson County from the time we were 7th graders until today. I have a video we took at the site in high school that clearly shows some kind of bodily form moving in and out of the picture. Art Bell would cry on AM radio if he saw it.

No. 12 was a great moment in our bands history, where I think our dreams of fame came to an end when I spilled Taco John's sauce on Miles' computer chair and he kicked us out of his house.

No. 13 happened shortly before No. 12, when we used the money we made for playing at a youth revival to buy fireworks at a gas station. Miles and I had another fight I think for some random reason, and he threw the fireworks in my front yard, letting me know on my family's answering machine. Let it be noted that we also spent the $55 made from CD sales, after renting the recording equipment for $125, on four chicken and ribs dinners from Chilis.

No. 8 is a lyric from one of Blind Addictions, a rival local band from back in the day, songs that we used to sing all the time.

No. 20 is a real meal that we cooked at Miles' house after a band practice. It was a staple to pop open a can of biscuits to bake, but adding his dad's Non-Alcoholic beer into the mix for the beverage was a new deal. We were real rock stars.

No. 15 paints the picture of some of my favorite memories at our high school basketball games. Miles going off in the stands at every little play, especially an Erik McKee baseline dunk, made the games. He got so serious at the Regional semifinals against Grant County that I found him in the top rafters sitting with Jared Scott because he didn't think he could handle it by the court.

Oh the memories...


Baseball Season?

I can't believe I'm already keeping up with Braves baseball again. My cousin's cousin from Eubank, Ky., Josh Anderson, is playing well early in the spring. He hit a triple today and is batting .400, but those numbers are meaningless in the preseason. What matters is where he is at when opening day rolls around, and all things point to starting in center field.

How's Your News?

Sunday night are the new Saturday nights primarily for the awesomeness that is happening on MTV.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park creators, have once again lent their hands to great television. Their newest project, "How's Your News" pits a news team with various mental and physical handicaps in a tour bus, and they are financing the whole thing. The bus rolls from city to city, and the various news team members conduct interviews with celebrity's, politicians and regular citizens.

Some might consider this cruel or a joke on handicaps at firsts, but there is nothing mean spirited about the whole gig. The news team members are really funny and have great sense of humors. The fun in the show comes from their willingness to ask anybody anything. Especially when those people have no interest in answering their questions.

Matt and Trey are geniuses and their effort to put this show into the mainstream is a great idea.

It for Now

I'm sure I'll have more to talk about soon, but that will do it for now. A foot of snow is coming, so I have to go get milk and break and head into my bunker.