True Love?

This morning when I got to work I was checking out some links on cnn.com. After going down the list of ones labeled North Korea about to test a nuke, a New Hampshire police chief killed, three killed in Ohio restaurant shooting, two coast guard members killed in Alaska (sensing a pattern?), I finally came across one titled "A love story made at Chick-fil-A". I really enjoy reading people's stories about falling in love but this one was a video. Apparantly there is a group of people who go around and camp out for the opening of a Chick-fil-A. Now I love chicken biscuits possibly more than anything in this world but I wouldn't camp out for one because I can get them every day. I even had two before going to work this morning.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t2#/video/us/2012/04/13/dnt-md-chick-fil-a-love-story.cnn

These two lovebirds were camping out for an opening and they kept staring at each other until finally getting up the nerve to talk. When you watch the video you will be shocked at how many Chick-fil-A openings they have gone to. This love story got me thinking about random encounters. Could it be the next time I am waiting in the checkout line at Target that I find my one and only or I could be pumping gas next to my soul mate. With my luck the perfect someone is held up in a chinese prison because of a typo on her passport.

These random encounters that could lead to 60 years or 60 days of marriage can happen anywhere I guess. Another video I watched recently courtesy of my cousin Erica (Thanks Erica!) was from a show called SoulPancake. The name of the episode was chatterbox and what they did was put a ball pit on a street corner with a sign above it saying "Take a seat and make a new friend". What a great idea! I love ball pits and I could sit in one all day. I would love to put a ball pit in my house one day. Anyway to help the process along there were questions the people could ask each other written on bigger balls in the pit. (That's what she said!).

http://cozyhunter.com/musings/chatterbox/

One of my favorite references to true love was made by Westley or the Dread Pirate Roberts in the movie Princess Bride. If you haven't seen it the movie has fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love and miracles according to the storyteller. A couple of my favorite quotes from the movie about true love are "Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while" and "His true love is marrying another tonight, so who else has the cause for ultimate suffering?"

I have always thought of my grandparents as the ultimate true love example. They have been married 65 years now and are still going strong. Well they aren't as strong as they used to be because of age but they are certainly a great example for me and my siblings. Whether we follow that example or not has been another story.

I consider myself quite the romantic, using simple things to make an impression. With my bucket full of ideas and my recent urge to write a lot I have started to write my own love story. It will quite possibly be the greatest love story of all time and I am sure once the five subscribers to this blog pass the story on to friends of theirs and they pass it on to friends of theirs it will be picked up by Random House and then made into a movie by Paramount within the month. I won't provide details yet but the story will make a lot of girls cry and Pretty Woman will no longer be their favorite movie. They will have to pull this book off the shelfs.

 

Pink Flamingo has risen

With it being Easter and knowing the true meaning of the holiday, you know hunting easter eggs to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Well nobody really knows how the two are connected but I have found a way to connect them through my blog.

I would like to tell a little story about the birth or rising of my Pink Flamingo. Awhile back I found a pink egg for sale with directions on how to hatch the Pink Flamingo inside. I placed the egg in some water as directed and waited for the process to begin.

The excitement of this entire process was hard to contain. I wanted my pink flamingo to be born right then and had no idea how long it would take. I bought the egg over a weekend and each day and night I hoped progress would be made. I checked it when I woke up in the morning and when I went to bed at night. After no progress the first day I decided to try and speed the process along so I incubated the egg by moving it under the floor lamp for a little while. Sure enough the next morning there was the first crack!

Worried about the late birth of the pink flamingo I thought it would be wise to get it checked out. Since the ultrasound app on my Iphone cost money I went with the free x-ray app. Everything seemed to appear 100 percent good so I was pleased. The crack slowly started to spread over the next couple of days and you could see the neck and body show through.

When the head popped out I decided it would be good to transfer the egg over to a larger container in order to give the pink flamingo more space to breathe. Not wanting to jeopardise the egg or pink flamingo in any way I used some ice cube tongs wrapped in bubble wrap to move the egg from the glass to a bowl.

A few days later the pink flamingo had emerged from the egg. I now was the very proud owner of one of the rarest species of pink flamingo.

As most of the birthing process took place in a Guiness glass I decided to name it Guiness. Here it is in its new home next to my black bear that is trying to avoid being stabbed by a japanese knife.

Now don't you see the significance of the relationship between this story and Easter.

Case of the Mondays

Remember in Office Space when the guy says "sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays". I have heard a lot of people talk about it being Monday and them not getting the week off to a good start. Meanwhile I am as happy as a clam like this guy.

I have never really hated Mondays and let me explain my theories of why I don't think it is as bad as everyone thinks. First of all people seem to think that Monday is the start of the week. Yes there is a lot of pressure to get your week started off the right way and it is hard to do with having to go to work after the weekend but it is my belief that Monday is not the first day of the week. Stay with me here.

It makes since to me that Sunday is the first day of the week. Why do you ask? Take a look at a calendar and tell me what day of the week is on the far left .... Sunday. Doesn't it make sense that the calendar would put the first day of the week on the first column.

It makes sense because it is true. Sunday is the first day of the week based on religious reasons I don't know for sure but google it. Thus why do they consider Sunday part of the weekend? Wouldn't everyone feel better if they knew each week started and ended with a day off. What a better way to start your week then watching football or lying around on your couch watching movies. You never hear "sounds like someone's got a case of the Sundays".

Of course for us in college athletics sometimes you go months without a day off so it is really just one very long week. Even still I don't mind Mondays. I don't really even have a favortite day of the week although I mostly think of any day off as my favorite day. For some reason though I felt like I needed to write about it because so many people complained about it being Monday. I am trying to be happy and joyful at all times now so for me it is just another great second day of the week.

Closer to my green jacket

I found out today that I am that much closer to obtaining my Master's degree in Education from VCU as I passed my comprehensive exam I took in December. Now for winning the Master's don't you get a green jacket?

Green jacket, gold jacket, who gives a shit? I now only have to pass my last two classes and that degree is mine. I will have paid something like $15,000 for a sweet piece of paper that will go in the back of my closet with my other two multi-thousand dollar pieces of paper. The bright side is I will not get any more money at work and won't get promoted. So I have that going for me. My dad did tell me I would get my picture in the paper so to the town of Hugo - look forward to that.

As for passing my final two classes - it shouldn't be a problem. This spring I have a sports business class with an awesome professor. I took a class with him last year and he was great. I have a book review and a couple of open book, open notes exams so I should pass that with the flying colors of the rainbow ... you know ROY G BIV. That is made in the shade because my grandpa's name is Roy so mark it down. My other class is a two-week trip to Europe. If they give credit for how many beers I can drink in Dublin I will easily pass. If not then I should get an "A" because we are going to London for a celebrity death match between Big Ben the clock and Big Ben the red, white and blue American. Team USA always wins just like you will see again in August in the London Olympics. I might even take my shirt off, carry my 2x4 and chant USA, USA just like one of my heroes Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Paris could be my downfall although I do like french toast and french fries so if they have those I will do alright. 

Things are looking up in the world of this Big Ben. I am closer to finishing school and two buddies from High School visited last weekend to provide a lot of fun and entertainment for me to help 2012 kick off the right way.

Quite the Morning

Today started out just like any other Monday normally does. For most people it is the start of the week but for us in college athletics it is just the continuation of one really long week that seems like it starts in August and ends in June.

However, this Monday I was excited. In relation to last week's blog today was the day to get rid of my cable. The Broncos lost on Saturday, well lost puts it lightly, more like got Tom Brady and Gronkowski laid for the next week with some Boston jersey chasers. After getting ready for work I packed up the cable box and never looked back as I headed off to work.

Here is where my day became a lot more interesting. First of all it was raining slightly but as I have learned in a few months, people in Austin drive crazy when it rains like people in North Carolina do when it lightly snows. There is something that makes these people think they will wreck with the tiniest bit of moisture on the ground. Right as I go to turn on I-35 (AKA the parking lot), of course there is a wreck being cleared on the on ramp. So even with an empty lane to go around this everyone slams on their breaks and fish tail around a little.

I luckily hit the eye of the storm in morning traffic so I thought and easily cruised at 45 mph past where I normally turn off for work. I decided to drop the cable box off first thing and be done with it. Now I knew where the place was at but Austin loves its frontage roads, one-way exits and streets and divided interstates so getting there was less than easy. For some reason the interstate splits into a high/low divided interstate with some exits off the high and some off the low. My experience with the frontage roads have made me learn to get off two exits early because they are one way and you end up circling around two or three times to try and get to the other side of the interstate.

Today it didn't matter I took the low I-35 and the exit I needed was still off the high one. I went down the frontage road and tried to do a u-turn but it was a one-way street so I couldn't even turn around. I was forced to get back on I-35 and go to the next exit about four miles away. This put me on the frontage road again and another mile or two down I finally got to u-turn. I got off on the 51st street exit and decided to take the frontage road to 41st where Time Warner's office is. However, the exit just went to 51st street and not to the frontage road. Thus I turned on 51st and then made a left on Airport to try and take that road. This took me right back to I-35 so I got back on hoping the next exit is what I needed. It was but that would have been on the lower I-35 and I was on the higher so I ended up going all the way back towards my work exit. I went to get off but construction cones blocked the exit so I had to go a couple of miles down to the next exit and take the frontage road past the capital into downtown, circle around and head back towards work.

It was smooth sailing from there to Time Warner but I was cursing the entire time, flipping off every building and street in Austin and yelling at a few idiots for driving stupid because they couldn't wait to talk to their BFF on their cell phone until five minutes later when they weren't driving. I pull in to the parking lot, grab the cable box, get out, walk to the door and there it is. A sign reading "We will be closed January 16 for Martin Luther King Day"

My reply, "F*cking F*ck, chicken beaters". Yes I need to work on my language but Austin has that effect on me. But c'mon really.

Well after that I just counted my losses and headed back to work. Of course one lane was closed going back for no apparenet reason other than some jackass decided to put 100 orange cones in the middle of one of the lanes. With it for sure being a day campus would be closed and nobody with a life would be working at least I could park in the upper administration's parking spaces. I went past the street where I usually park to go there but sure enough the road was closed and there were probably 5,000 people with banners and crap walking towards me in some stupid parade.

I am now in my office for what will be about 30 minutes before I give up on this day. No matter how much work I have to do it can wait because I am afraid of what will happen next if I don't go home. 

End of Cable

The decision has been made - I am cutting my ties with Time Warner Cable. I may miss a couple of things but overall this is a good move. I decided that once the Broncos were out of the playoffs I would no longer need to watch TV. I, like many of you, don't know what life will be like without sitcoms, reality TV shows, sports or the same movie showing every two hours on TBS and TNT Friday through Sunday.

Of course the Broncos won on an 80-yard touchdown pass in overtime against the Steelers last weekend so I will have cable at least one more week. However, here is how I see my AC (after cable) years.

Netflix - I have signed up for Netflix and can now view tons of movies and TV shows whenever I want. With my limited time at home these days anyway I can easily fill a couple of hours with a movie on Netflix or one of my hundred DVDs I own.

Friday Night Lights - I have to mention this because it is the best TV show of all time and there will never be another show like it. I own every season and can just keep watching episodes over and over again. The only show I watch now on TV is Gold Rush on the discovery channel and the season is almost over.

Sports - I still will be paying for internet so with my Watch ESPN website I can catch almost all Duke games or any other college hoops game online. For any other sporting event it will make me leave my apartment to go grab a brew at a local sports bar.

Cost savings - Time Warner has ridiculously increased prices to over $100 a month so I started thinking about what I could do with $1,200 a year. Some options for where that money can go include my trip to Europe for my final Master's class this spring, buying a new car this summer, eating at Sonic four times a week instead of two or paying homage to the Landing Strip from Friday Night Lights  but that would also be throwing money away so I won't do that.

In my mind it makes perfect sense to cancel cable even though I hated not having it when I moved to Texas and didn't have a TV for a month. I feel like I need to get out more though and if I don't have TV then I really have no reason to be home other than to sleep and entertain during my dinner parties.

Oh wait I am not the Great Gatsby so really I just need to sleep at home.   

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"