Holiday Musings

Happy 2008 everybody. I hope everyone had a good holiday season and a jolly new year. The Oceanliner celebrated the closing of ’07 with 3000 of his closest friends at an open bar, 2 live band shit show on the Georgetown Waterfront. It was a very fun evening as Austin, Schling, Tori, Beercan, Emily, Kyle, Kye, A-rod and others all graced the party with their presence. There were people rubbing out left and right however, and I haven’t seen people act that primitive in a long time. Right as we were leaving, a girl was sitting on a ledge, leaned over and threw up right on the carpet. The friend sitting next to her didn’t even notice as she was about to pass put herself. No staff noticed. About 15 guests watched this girl empty her stomach and stood their silenced. Yeah, that about sums up the night.

On a more civil note, I did have the chance to catch 2 live sporting events recently, and of course, have random thoughts on a variety of topics. Do it.

With my mother’s side of the family in town for the holidays, we all decided to check out a Caps game at the Verizon Center. I have absolutely no interest in hockey, but I must say, a live game is extremely entertaining. Following the puck is not hard at all (compared to TV impossibility), the skills displayed on the ice were impressive and 15,000 cheering hockey fans is a great atmosphere to be a part of. The Verizon Center has held up very nicely for being 10 years old. It still looks state of the art and there is not a bad seat in the 20,000 person capacity building. I definitely want to make it back to a game or two more this season.

Slightly more impressive than that was the Redskins-Cowboys game I attended in the last week of the regular season. It was a game the Skins had to have to make it to the playoffs and everyone was jacked up as hell. There is a huge difference between the psyche at college football and NFL games. At UVA games at least, people drink to have a good time and enjoy everything that goes into a football Saturday. At Redskins games, people are drinking to get angry and wasted, and to inflict punishment on the opposing team and their fans. Cowboy fans walking around with kids were getting openly cussed at, and I saw many shirt that simply read “FUCK DALLAS”. It is definitely not a family environment. Which was completely fine with me I might add. I am certainly not a Redskins fans, but I sure as hell can root completely against the Cowboys. I wore my personalized 49ers jersey to the game and got many strange looks, but most figured out I was rooting against Dallas and were fine with that.

It turned out to be an awesome game if you were a Redskins lover/Cowboys hater. Dallas never got into the game and got blown out 27-6. And let me tell you, FedEx Field is probably the most impressive stadium I’ve ever been in. It is freakin humongous and right on top of the field. It goes straight up instead of outwards. The day I was there featured the largest crowd in stadium history, over 95,000 lunatics. It was awesome. I have now been to 2 straight Redskins home victories over the Cowboys, so it looks like my friend Weasel will have to invite me every year.

In non-live sporting events, the Orange Bowl between Kansas and Virginia Tech was one of the most entertaining football games I’ve seen in a long time. There was something exciting happening every five minutes for the entire game. There was a pick 6, an 84 yard reverse punt return for a touchdown, a blocked field goal, a fake punt, 4 total interceptions, a fumble at the 1 yard line, a 2nd and goal from the 29 yard line, the crazy 40 yard pass to Royal-2 KU defenders-Boone, 9 total sacks and the outcome came down the last five minutes of the game. You can ask for much more than that. Both teams played their hearts out and were hitting each other so hard. That’s what it’s all about. And Tech losing. That’s what it’s all about.

Noel Devine may be the fastest running back I’ve ever seen.

Beanie Wells is a stud of a running back.

The BCS is awesome. I’m not kidding. I love the match-ups it produces every year. Games we never would have seen under the old, political as hell bowl system.

The NCAA has got to get the length of these games under control. They are painfully slow. The BCS games lasted around four hours each. That should be a triple OT game, not a regulation game. Even the UVA-Texas Tech Gator bowl was 4:10. It’s getting ridiculous and unacceptable. Especially when they start the games at 8:15 pm. All the games last till past midnight. Get your hat on right NCAA.

Tiger Woods made $122 million last year.

Tyler Hansbrough’s dunk on 7’7’’ Kenny George of UNC Ashville was straight cojones.

SportsCenter sinks to a new low by showing the Tony Romo pictures with Jessica Simpson in Cabo, and then talking about it for 10 minutes. They had to run the TMZ logo to show where they got it. ESPN is killing the horse that got them to where they are. It’s turning into a soap opera and it sucks. Throw in all their “legal experts” and “law analysis” and it makes me want to throw up. I want to see highlights, not a cross between Law and Order and Days of Our Lives. It’s so bad that ESPN News is a better show than SportsCenter now. A sad time for the Worldwide Leader.

Well, that’s it for this week folks. Austin and I have already been country hopping in the ’08 as we made it down to Houston for one of Austin’s UVA roommate’s wedding. In a hilariously Texan move, Lee-Wilson wore white cowboy boots down the aisle under her dress and pulled it off spectacularly. Congratulations to her and Patrick. I managed to snag a Lacoste shirt at Mexican flee market for $25 while in H town, and I’m pretty sure its real, so I’m stoked about that. Thinking ahead here, if you are in the DC area then you should plan on coming to Ribrary Courts on Super Bowl Sunday, as Apt 310 will be throwing a kick ass party. All are welcome to come in from wide ranging locations as well. It is February 3rd. Until next time, stay safe, keep it real, and count your chickens.