Great Human Interest Story

Last night I experienced possibly the last ever Hex Rally. It is a pep rally for Texas held at the tower before every Texas-Texas A&M football game. The experience was really cool and was easily the best pep rally I have ever been to. There were about 10,000 people there, all going crazy when the team walked through the crowd and two seniors spoke. My man Fozzy Whittaker got a huge ovation when he crutched his way through. It was great to hear Mack Brown address the crowd and see everyone in the crowd lighting red candles to put a hex on the Aggies. It was a one-of-a-kind event in collegiate athletics.

As great as the Hex Rally was it was what came after that really impressed me. I was trying to get coach Brown through the mob of people who wanted to take their picture with him or have him sign an autograph while still trying to keep a watchful eye on the Longhorn Network cameras and our players. Mack is way too nice and wouldn't stop greeting people and I lost the crew so things were not going well.

After I finally found the LHN guys I escorted them from the football facility and went back to see if any players or coach were getting hounded by media. As I walked down the street I found Coach Brown and two of our offensive lineman, Luke Poehlmann and Sedrick Flowers, with a little girl who was crying. The little girl was around 8-10 years old probably and had been separated from her dad amidst the chaos of 10,000 people trying to exit the rally.

Coach Brown was on the phone with the girl's mother because amazingly enough the girl remembered her phone number. Mack was trying to get a number for the father but the two were divorced and the mom didn't know his number and hadn't seen him in a year. It was a weird circumstance but all along the two players were talking to the little girl and keeping her calm and comfortable. It was the two players who originally found the girl by herself crying and stopped to see what was wrong.

Eventually I assume the dad was located because he found his way to where we were at and all was well again. This entire thing was really eye-opening to how great coach and the two players were. They had been on campus since the 6 a.m. team meetings and through a day of press conference, practice and the pep rally it was at this point 10:30 p.m. and yet they still were willing to do the right thing. I applaud them for that.

I will end this blog with two quotes from the dad who did not leave the greatest impression when he arrived.

On finally locating his daughter
"This is quite a way to get to meet coach Brown"

Response to Coach Brown telling him he had to buy the little girl ice cream
"Only if you beat Texas A&M"

Fear of the Drive By

For starters I have never crossed anybody in the wrong circle that I know of but for some reason I have always feared drive-by-shootings. The fear first came about when I was living in Alabama probably. I was sitting on my couch in the living room which was even with the big glass window that led out to the patio of my apartment. I heard some loud noises outside and started wondering if there was some shenanigans going on. Then I started to think what if there was some fighting and someone pulled out a gun and started shooting. An errant bullet could easily come flying through my window and I would be the broad side of the barn chillin on my couch. Boom ... donezo.

I am never afraid of someone coming after me but when living in an apartment or housing complex with minimal distance between you and your neighbor you never know. The neighbor could be involved in trafficking drugs or is in deep with a bookie and owes a lot of money. He/she may have slept with someones spouse or committed a crime that would end in a police standoff. It is my extreme lack of faith in the character of the general population that has driven my concern for such things.

Part of this all may stem from watching movies where this happens. The car full of gang members creeps up on a place from around the corner and opens fire, peppering the walls of a rival gang's house with rapid fire bullets. Most likely holding the gun sideways they are either out to send a message, defend their turf or get revenge. At least that is what is the usual for movies.

My answer has been to be out of harms way. When I lived in my first floor apartments all these years I would place my couch somewhere so it wasn't directly in front of the window. Either that or I would lay on the floor to watch TV, being underneath the window sill level and away from the glass. In my Durham Townhouse I felt much safer because the street was almost like a full room away from the areas where I spent all my time as the dining room and kitchen were behind the garage, the living room on the backside of the house and the guest bedroom facing the street instead of my room. Because I rarely have guests, I was never concerned for their safety with the guest room. Now I live on the second floor and would be more worried about an idiot living below me setting a fire and being unable to escape then I would be a drive by.

I wonder if the best thing to do would be to decorate my house year long with Christmas lights and decorations. I have never seen a movie where someone's house was shot up in a drive by during the holidays. If someone knows of this happening let me know so I can withdraw this idea from my bank of thoughts. 

Golden Girls was legit

The Golden Girls was a great show. I may take some slack for saying it but I don't care. It may not have been everyone's cup of tea but what other show compares to it when you sit down and think about it. How many other shows are based solely about the elderly population. When I think of sitcoms only three categories really come to mind. Either shows about families, crime shows or hospital dramas. Since I don't like crime shows or hospital dramas those two are elminated and most family shows are all basically the same thing. Then you have the Golden Girls.

Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sofia were the four main characters on the show. As my grandfather once put it there was an idiot (Rose), slut (Blanche), funny old lady (Sofia) and Dorothy. These four characters experienced many of the things that most elderly do experience I would imagine but the comedy was underrated.

The storyline was great as it had four older ladies living together in a house. All four had been married at one point and were either widows or divorced. I would like to say I had a favorite character but they were all equally great. Betty White played Rose and she may be one of the funniest women in TV history. Lake Placid is a stretch for a storyline but she is hilarious in it. Blanche enjoyed her men and had many suitors. She was a southern belle which is about as good as it gets in my mind. Sophia was Dorothy's mother. She was sarcastic, humurous and spoke her mind but you could tell life experiences made her very wise and her comments to Rose were some of the best lines on the show.

Think about the show in today's world, 20 years after it ran its course. If they did a remake who would you get to be in it? Meryl Streep could be in it, maybe Helen Miron or Jane Seymour. None of them really compare though. Then think about 40 years down the road ... would you have Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Brittany Spears and Miley Cyrus as the cast? I don't think so.

I strongly believe that there will never be another show quite like the Golden Girls. There will always be another show like friends or modern family, or ER and CSI-Any City in the Country, but who would have the guts to make a show using an entire elderly cast? Thank you Susan Harris for creating the show.

Why should I shave?

Lately when I wake up in the morning I have less than zero interest in shaving. I am not sure if this is because I don't get much sleep with all the hours I am working, if I just don't think about it or if I am at the point where I honestly don't care what I look like. This is a question I started asking myself on Saturday.

We had an 11 a.m. football game so naturally I had to be up by 7 a.m. I had worked the night before until 10 p.m., extending my 12 hour day streak. If this continues my streak will be way more impressive than Cal Ripken's. How many hours a day did he have to work, 5-6? Anyways on Saturday it was 7 a.m. and I was out of it, seeing things about as clearly as if Iwas running full speed through a pitch black night in the middle of a rain forest. I had gone several days without shaving because for a lack of a better reason I didn't want to take the time. My face was no longer like a babies bottom and more like sand paper. What I should have said to myself was "I should shave since it is gameday" but instead I said "Who gives a crap? Nobody will say anything anyway."

My real time voice was correct because I didn't shave and nobody said a word. About 10 minutes before kickoff I happened to see the end of College Gameday and the guest picker was Brian Wilson. He is not only one of funniest men I have ever seen but also has a really great beard. Seeing him got my thoughts way off track of college football and I started to think about what might happen if I just stopped shaving for good.

I have never really been able to grow great facial hair. The hair on my neck and side burns grow really well but my mustache comes in blonde and the rest brown. I also can't grow any hair beneath the corners of my lower lip either so a full beard is out of the question. But since I didn't really care what I looked like Saturday, maybe I won't care what I look like the rest of the year or even the rest of next year.

In fact I might decide to let myself go. It is for instance the time of year when swimmers don't shave their legs because they want slower times now than in March. It is also starting to get colder so men like to grow facial hair to keep themselves warm and go hunting (facial hair and beer are necessary to shoot animals is what I have learned). I know my beard would not be considered one of the greatest facial hairs in history (see below for my top 10) but I do think I might just it go.

Ben's Top 10 Facial Hair
1. My dad - had a beard ever since I have been alive and would look strange without one

2. William Lee Golden - Oak Ridge Boys singer with deep voice who is similar to ZZ Top

3. ZZ Top - the longer the better

4. Brian Wilson - comedy and a beard is a win-win combination

5. Every single person who entered and tried to win the World Beard and Mustache Championship
http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/
6. Uncle Jesse from Dukes of Hazard - all white and full of wisdom

7. Sean Connery - the best James Bond and a great beard

8. Zach Galifianakis - see reason for Brian Wilson

9. Rollie Fingers - played for the Oakland A's

10. Ian McKellen - Lord of the Rings white wizzard

Honorable Mention:
Abraham Lincoln - famous beard but not one of my top 10 although he kind of counts in the civil war
Sam Elliott - from the movie Tombstone which had a lot of great mustaches
Hulk Hogan - great mustache and loved him growing up
Alexi Lalas - would have made the top 10 if he wasn't a soccer player
Conan O'Brien - he shaved it for awhile so lost points
Chuck Norris: Walker Texas Ranger

Not sure how I got to the list but it may have saved this blog topic.