An unexpectedly great weekend.

Thursday night, I drove up to Indianapolis to visit my friend Kim. We met at the downtown mall again, and after driving around for awhile trying to find something to do, we settled on the Indiana/Illinois game in the Big Ten women's tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse. The game was fairly boring, but I really just enjoyed getting to sit next to Kim and talk with her. We left with a few minutes remaining and then we walked to Steak and Shake for dinner. After that, we walked down to the Slippery Noodle Inn. After talking some drinks for awhile, a local blues band, The Elect, started playing. They were really quite good. Some songs they did were Soulshine and Red House. But of course the best part was just being with Kim. I hate how she's decided to join the Air Force for the next four years; but, if that makes her happy, then I wish her the best, and will continue to try to hang out with her whenever she'll have me.

I left Louisville on Friday morning around 7:00 a.m. In Nashville, I was involved in an extremely minor auto accident around 9:00 CST. I clipped a guy's truck that was next to me with my mirror and cracked his passenger taillight. Well, that sucked, but get a police report and we'd be on our way. So we waited...and waited...and waited. A policeman didn't get there until just before 11:00, TWO HOURS LATER. Because of that, I knew I would miss Kyle's funeral. I didn't get out of Nashville til like 11:30. I went between 80-90 mph between Nashville and Brinkley and got there around 3:00....10 minutes after Kyle's funeral had ended. I'd been texting Sarah Warren and Candice Hoke along the way. Well, I missed the funeral, but I was able to make it to the interment. I found out I was horribly underdressed; I was in jeans and a rugby shirt and everyone else in dress clothes. Did I miss a memo about how formal funerals are? Oh well. The whole thing was a bit awkward. I went for Kyle, but I was reminded that I never really felt comfortable in Sigma Nu. Way too many awkward moments with my old "brothers." It was nice getting hugs from Sarah and Candice, though. And I enjoyed talking to Ben Fairchild and Jonas Donson. But regardless of my experience there, I hope Kyle is at peace now. He'd been battling demons for years, I know, and hopefully he's resting now.

After forcing a few conversations with people, I left the cemetery around 4:00 and went over to Subway, where I met up with Ben Martin. I couldn't believe it, but I hadn't seen him in over five years. How friggin fast does time fly?? It was nice to see him and chat awhile about a whole variety of things.

Around 5:00, I headed up to Jonesboro and, after driving through great towns like Fair Oaks and Weiner, I got there at like 6:00. Anyway, I met up with Josh and some people from his church at Blue Coast Burrito for dinner. It was pretty good, though not as good as Chipotle, Moe's, or Qdoba. After eating, we all went to the bowling alley there in Jonesboro. I finished last in our group of five the first round, but first in the second. Overall I had a really good time. The people in his church group were pretty nice.

The next morning I'd planned to leave Cooke's house around 8:00, but ended up not getting around til like 9:30. Since I didn't want to miss the Louisville v. Syracuse game, so I ended up staying at his house until 4:30. Josh got around at like 11:00 when his dad made us all (me, Josh, his mom, his sister) breakfast. I spent my time until the Louisville game talking to Josh, working on homework, and watching various soccer and basketball games. Then came the Louisville/Syracuse game. Syracuse was ranked #1 in the country. It was the last-ever game at Freedom Hall. And it was absolutely glorious. The Cards were down five at halftime; then the world was introduced to Kyle Kuric. The 6'4" white sophomore guard from Evansville, IN had been averaging 3.5 points a game. In the second half alone, he scored 22 points, including four three pointers and three alley-oops. It was absolutely incredible. He was the main story on Sportscenter the next morning. Oh yeah, Louisville won 78-68. What a way to close out Freedom Hall.

I got back to Louisville around 11:30; I somehow missed my turn on the Western Kentucky Parkway and ended up driving to Nashville instead of Louisville, adding two hours to the trip. Oops. Holly and I texted each other most of the way back. I stopped in Bowling Green and redeemed my Denny's coupon for a free burger and fries.

I think I have decided to become a vegetarian for as long as I can stand it.

I bought a crap ton of CDs and a few DVDs today from the Great Escape. I spent like $280 but got soooo much music.

Now, I am watching the Oscars and tweeting about them with Cory and Quetta. I'll post the list of winners when it goes final.

2010 Winter Olympics = epic win

I followed these winter Olympics more than I have any other. I absolutely adored them. It probably helped that I sent and received texts/tweets/facebook statuses from so many friends throughout, such as Ryan, Kirk, Josh Cooke, Justin Lovelace, Cory, and Stephanie McCullough. What will I remember?

• U.S. hockey's unbelievable silver medal run. Led by Ryan Miller, Brian Rafalski, and Zach Parise, the Yanks exceeded ALL expectations, and took Canada to overtime in the gold medal game. In the preliminaries, they dispatched Norway and Switzerland before pulling a stunning upset over Canada. They were the #1 seed overall going into the tournament, and after once again defeating Switzerland in the quarterfinals quickly put away Finland after an astonishing 6-0 lead 13 minutes into the semifinal game. In the gold medal game, they fell down 2-0 to Canada, but came back and tied it when Zach Parise got one past Roberto Luongo with 24 seconds remaining in the third period. Sidney Crosby would hit the game-winner in overtime, but that took nothing away from a superb run by the Americans. Goaltender Ryan Miller was named tournament MVP, and deservedly so.
  
• Nodar Kumaritishvilli, a Georgian luger, tragically died in a practice ride on the day of the opening ceremonies. He was thrown from his luge and hit a steel beam head first at 90+ mph.
  
• Watching probably 80% of the hockey games on NBC, CNBC, or USA. The only ones I didn't get to watch were the ones shown on MSNBC (though I did make an effort to watch the first US/Canada game online).
• Other hockey memories: Jaromir Jagr getting demolished by Alexander Ovechkin in the Russia/Czech Republic game; Jonas Hiller's unbelievable performance in Switzerland's 0-2 loss to Canada; Slovakia giving Canada all they wanted in the Canucks' 3-2 semifinal win.
  
• Sweden's Johann Olson coming out of nowhere to win three medals in the long-distance skiing events. He had a HUGE lead in one event before his countryman Marcus Hellner overtook him in the final sprint. But he'd never even come close to a top-three finish in any world-class calibre event.
• Norway's Petter Northugg, who was apparently the #1 long-distance skier in the world, had a horrible start, but ended up winning some medals, including gold in the 50k on the last day
  
• Norway curling team's awesome pants.
• U.S. curling team absolutely choking largely thanks to skip John Shuster. We finished dead last.
  
• Naked Danish curling girl! One of Denmark's curling girls appeared topless in a Norwegian calendar, it found its way to Deadspin, and subsequently blew up.
  
• Actually understanding the rules of curling thanks to Ryan's explanation after 12 years of being clueless.
• Johnny Spillane winning the first American gold in one of the Nordic events ever.
  
• Simon Ammann absolutely dominating the ski jumping field. Also, it was the first time I'd ever seen ski jumping; that sport looks so much fun!
  
• Apolo Ohno, the face of America's winter olympics team. He was DQ'd in the 500m after pushing a Canadian skater. In one of the qualifying rounds he hurdled over a couple of guys that had taken a spill. And in his first race, he got silver after trailing the two Koreans that crashed around the last turn.
  
• Sven Kramer, a Dutch speed skating beast. He dominated one of his races to get one gold, but was controversially disqualified in another for a lane infraction.
  
• Alexandre Bilodeau, the first Canadian to ever win gold in a Canadian Olympics thanks to his winning the men's mogul. He has a brother with cerebral palsy or something. Very inspiring stuff.
  
• Lukás Bauer, one of the Czech long-distance skiers, did well.
  
• Marit Bjørgen, a long-distance skiing Norwegian girl, had the best individual Olympics of anyone, winning five medals.
  
• Lindsey Vonn, America's skiing darling or something. She had a bruised shin just days before the Olympics but ended up being able to compete in all five of her events. She won one gold and one bronze, but either crashed or didn't medal in her other three events.
  
• Bode Miller, who was a major disappointment in Torino, actually got gold in one of the downhill skiing events. I think he competed in a couple of others but only won one gold.
  
• A Canadian figure skating girl competed in her event like two days after her mom, who had made the trip to Vancouver from Quebec, died.

Titan Spirit was the song used in the final montage by NBC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU0mu-qmy-U

At some point last night, I had perhaps a life-changing epiphany. I may or may not have figured out what sort of career path I wish to pursue. During the closing ceremonies, they had segments about the next games in London and Sochi, respectively. That got me to thinking about just how much planning there is that's required to put on an event of that magnitude. And then I realized...someone has to do it! I could be that someone! How cool would that be? Planning events like that, making site visits to the different cities and venues involved, marketing, etc. Therefore, I've decided to think about some sort of job with the Olympics or World Cup or some sort of major global sporting event. It would be perfect.

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On an unrelated note, I went to the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band show at Skull Alley on Saturday night...incredible. I caught one of the drumsticks Cuz threw into the crowd after the show! Then after the show in the lobby, I bought a CD, had them all sign it, and then talked to the band about seeing them in Tulsa two years ago, places in Fayetteville like George's and Bikers Blues and BBQ, and about a beer that Cuz had coming out. Those guys are so down-to-earth. One of my best concert experiences ever.

On Thursday, I went over to Ben Creech's new apartment and planned how our TRASH team was going to divide up questions. It was me, Creech, Josiah, Ram, and Colton. We watched the last few minutes of a Lost episode and then played Scene It - Turner Classic Movie Edition for like two hours.

That's it for now. 11 days til I'm back in Arkansas.

Went to the Yonder Mountain String Band concert the other night; Ho. Ly. Shit. I was blown away. I'd heard of them for years now, but never really listened to them until just a couple of days ago, after I'd already bought my ticket. I decided to buy a ticket when I found out my suitemates Greg and Kevin planned on going. The show was freaking amazing. SO glad I decided to go. They're one of those bands whose studio stuff just doesn't do their live shows justice. I ended up watching it with Greg (Kevin didn't go).

Tiger Woods had a press conference today; I couldn't care less. Am I the only one who doesn't really care about celebrities' private lives?

Watched an amazing hockey game last night. Switzerland somehow took juggernaut Canada to a shootout, thanks mostly to an insane performance by Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller. It took until the fourth round of the shootout for Canada to win 1-0.

I have absolutely no desire or motivation to do my homework this weekend

I am probably 90% done with the yearly reviews I have been working on since the tail end of last year. However, with the increased traffic my site's gotten lately as well as the highly personal nature of some parts of them, I think they will remain private.

Going to see Yonder Mountain String Band tonight at Headliner's. Already been a good year of concerts here, with the Airborne Toxic Event/Calexico with the Louisville Orchestra on 30 January and Apologetix on 29 January. Other shows I'm thinking of going to in the near future include Alice in Chains, John Mayer, Reverend Payton's Big Damn Band, and the Arctic Monkeys. The greater Louisville area sure brings in some good bands, and that's alright with me.

Class (Ethical Theory) absolutely sucked last night. Kolers asked me some questions and I was pretty much a deer caught in the headlights. I've never experienced anything like it in a class before I cannot adequately describe how much I abhor that class.

Olympics started last Friday with the opening ceremonies in Vancouver. Notable performances include Johnny Spillane (silver - American - Nordic combined) and Simon Ammann (gold - Switzerland - ski jumping). The hockey is what I'm most looking forward to. Canada and Russia are the favourites. I'm taking particular interest in the U.S. and Czech teams.

I think I may have a serious addiction to buying CDs and DVDs.

Amazing thing happened on my walk back from class today. I held the door open at the bridge for a cute girl. She said thanks, and we walked up the stairs. When we were walking back on the other side, she slipped and stumbled on some ice. She laughed and said just ignore that, I laughed, and we picked up a conversation from there. She's a really cute girl from Tennessee who is a junior marketing major. We talked for like 5 minutes back to the Province. Of course, I look her up on facebook....only to find her picture is one of her and her boyfriend. Argghhh.

I think I'll keep my Xanga up as a more private place to keep my thoughts, whereas this will be my primary public blog. Yep.

That's all for now. I'm gonna go try to find something productive to do.

Hmm.

Almost a month on. Obviously, I still prefer Xanga.

I'm still willing to give this a shot, though. Maybe Xanga will be private and this one will be a bit more public. We'll see.

I wish this site had the "Currently Listening/Watching/Reading" feature.

I swear I had no intentions of this entry being so long.

(For now I am copying/pasting directly from Xanga; we'll see if I eventually transition over here full-time.)

Welcome to 2010. Or, as former Oklahoma QB Paul Thompson said on facebook, "2010 and still no flying cars? Wassup with that?!"

I had originally planned on heading back toward Louisville on New Year's night and stopping in Blytheville at the Cooke's. I made it as far as Little Rock and dropped by Ryan and Emily's. However, I decided to head back home for one more night after talking to Josh; rather than spending the night at his house on the 1st and leaving the next morning, I decided to leave on the morning of the 1st since I'd be close to Memphis for the weekend. Turned out to be a good decision. My actual New Year's was brought in driving around central Pope County somewhere between Dover and Hector. Funnnn stuff. Okay, actually, the least memorable New Year's since 1999. Since I was in Russellville I thought maybe I'd go by the 40 or the Supper Club...but then I snapped back to reality and realised "WTF am I thinking?". It seems as if all my hometown friends were either celebrating by getting drunk the bars in Little Rock or Fayetteville, spending the night alone with their significant other, or having movie marathons with their kids and struggling to make it past 11:30 (see why I worry that I've already ran out of time to find a suitable girl?). But, other than the actual New Year's night, it was an excellent weekend.

(Here's the part where I write excessively about aforementioned excellent weekend). I left my house for real Friday morning. It's always hard leaving mom and my grandparents; I really wish they didn't love me so much. I can't even count how many times they said things like "our lives aren't that exciting without you around." But aside from the guilt, I was ready to head out. Along the way, I listened to the absolutely batshit crazy insane Outback Bowl between Auburn and Northwestern. Auburn pulled it out 38-35 in overtime, but not after about 30 gamechanging plays (seriously). Anyway, J-Lo, Matt, and their friends Bob and Andrea were just ahead of me. They were in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl. Since I was headed that general direction, I decided to meet up with them before going to Josh's up in Blytheville. I met up with them at their hotel (Quality Inn Graceland, lol). We hung out there for awhile before driving up to Beale Street. Our plan was to have dinner at Rendezvous; however, after being told there was a 90 minute wait, we decided to go down to Blues City BBQ and were in in 10 minutes. Third time I've ever been there, and I've still never been to Rendezvous, but it was okay. After eating (I had the "Best Meal on Beale"), we just walked around for awhile. Andrea had never been to Memphis before, so it was cool seeing her reactions to it. There were sooooo many ECU fans in town. J-Lo and Bob started drinking early on, but they didn't get belligerent. I saw Keith and Julie Stokes; they had brought "Tusk" into town and were letting people see him and all that. Eventually, Justin, Matt, Andrea, Bob, and I made our way to B.B. King's. The band there was AWESOME; some white teenager killed the blues guitar (his cover of "Pride and Joy" was just sick) and a bunch of old hippies on drums, bass, and keyboard, lol. I was able to watch some of the Rose Bowl (Ohio State over Oregon) while the others were at the bar. We got back to the hotel at like 10:30, at which point I left to spend the night in Blytheville.

I woke up around 9:00 on Saturday morning. We left Blytheville shortly after Josh woke up around 11:00. We stopped for lunch at Wendy's in Marion, fought through traffic in West Memphis, and finally got to Memphis around 1:00. We got to the Liberty Bowl and just walked around for awhile, crashing various tailgates. Notable among them was the West Memphis Razorback Club, where we watched some of the Ole Miss/Oklahoma State Cotton Bowl game, had some free BBQ, and a beer. Neither Josh nor I had tickets, and if we didn't find any below face value, we were just going to go watch at like TGI Friday's or something. But, we found a pair for $70 (face value: $100), and were in. We met up with Justin, Matt, Andrea, and Bob (and some random people they had met tailgating) and just hung out with them for awhile before heading to the stadium around 3:30. IT. WAS. SO. COLD. Geez. The last two Bowl games I've been to with Matt, Josh, and Justin (this year's Liberty Bowl in Memphis and last year's Music City Bowl in Nashville) have both been in the low 20s. As for the game....it was a good, close one (unlike the blowout all Hog fans were expecting). ECU was up 10-0 at the half. I missed their touchdown because I was looking for a bathroom and getting some BBQ nachos. Eddie Money was the halftime show (LOLz). I saw Coach James from Dardanelle (he was trying to find his seat; he was in the wrong section, ha). ECU QB Patrick Pinkney threw a couple of awful INTs, including a pick six, and it was 17-17 at the end of the game. ECU's kicker had not one but two chances to win it with two 39-yard field goals in the final two minutes, but he missed both. In the overtime, ECU had to attempt a field goal...which, of course, was no good. Arkansas kicker Alex Tejada--who had missed one earlier and choked against both Florida and LSU earlier this season--finally came through in a clutch situation. Ugh. Josh and I would've laughed SO hard had Arkansas lost. We were in the middle of the ECU section and definitely cheering for the Pirates; the Pirate fans we met were really cool (well, except for the one guy behind us who sprinted down the stadium steps with a murderous rage and tears in his glazed eyes after the missed field goal in overtime). After the game, everyone went back to the hotel for a while. The guys then went to Popeye's and had a great time (Andrea stayed in the hotel). Shortly after returning from Popeye's, Josh and I headed back to Blytheville while the rest of the group went back out to Beale Street for the night.

Other notable bowl games this bowl season I haven't mentioned yet: Oklahoma over Stanford 31-27 (BOOMER!) in a close Sun Bowl; Navy blasting Missouri 35-13 in the Texas Bowl; Idaho over Bowling Green 43-42 in a wild Humanitarian Bowl; and Nebraska humiliating Arizona 33-0 in the Holiday Bowl. But mainly, the college football world is trying to figure out what's going on with Mike Leach and Texas Tech.

On my way back to the 'Ville today, I found the greatest radio station everrrrr. 107.5 the Pulse out of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. I was able to pick it up from Blytheville to Mayfield, KY, and didn't turn the station once (I even suffered through a horrible conservative rally advert!). Anyone that knows me knows this is a major accomplishment; I am a compulsive station changer. Check out this playlist (yes, I kept a record of the songs they played; I am seriously going to burn these onto CD to celebrate):
1. Taking Back Sunday - Sink Into Me
2. The Killers - When You Were Young
3. Weezer - Troublemaker
4. Jimmy Eat World - The Middle... See More
5. Incubus - Anna Molly
6. Alice In Chains - Man in the Box
7. 30 Seconds to Mars - Kings and Queens
8. Foo Fighters - The Pretender
9. 3 Days Grace - Break
10. The Used - Blood On My Hands
11. Crash Kings - Mountain Man
12. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
13. Kings of Leon - Crawl
14. System of a Down - Question!
15. Puddle of Mudd - Psycho
16. Vampire Weekend - Cousins
17. Spill Canvas - All Over You
18. The Offspring - You're Gonna Go Far, Kid
19. Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body
20. Cage the Elephant - Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

According to the electronic scale at the Cooke's house, I'm 231.4 pounds. Still 90 pounds less than what I was in 2002 and what I've been fairly consistently since 2003, but that doesn't tell the whole story. I'm a fat sack of shit who has got to get back into playing shape. After getting back to Louisville this afternoon, I was just gonna wait til tomorrow to start; but, I refused to fall into that trip, and spent an hour in the gym tonight getting ready for what's to come. Anything less than passing out, throwing up, or struggling to walk is not good enough. I will be in the best shape of my life soon, by any means necessary. Not only will I gain more muscle and be healthier overall, but other benefits will be sleeping less, maybe a little more self-confidence, an even stronger immune system than I already have, and just feeling good overall. My goal is to be 215 with less than 10% body fat by the end of the year, at least. Time to get my shit together.

I can't believe how many girls my age have three kids now. Jesus. I can't even imagine having one at this point.

My Super Bowl picks going into the NFL playoffs: Chargers and Packers. I've enjoyed this NFL season more than any in recent memory.

Inspired by someone else's list I read the other day, I have decided to make a year-in-review list of the year. However...since it's the end of the decade, and I'm going to be bored a lot until classes start, I've decided to play catch up and do year-in-review posts for every year of the decade. So stay tuned for those over the coming few days. I'm gonna try to churn out two a day if possible (not like I have anything else to do).

Speaking of that, my plans between now and when classes start: start to work my ass off in the gym (literally); buy books; buy groceries and such; continue my Czech studies; upload pics from Memphis; reply to lengthy emails from Kim and Jessica; finish unpacking and cleaning my room (where the hell did all these gnats come from? I didn't leave any open food anywhere. Ugh.)

For now, time to watch the Sunday night game. Go Chad Ochocinco, Go Bengals!