The End of an Era

Ok. A few years doesn't really qualify as an era. A genre maybe? Who the hell knows.

Anyways, today is a sad day for blogs/bloggers everywhere, particularly myself. While I know I have only a handful or so of regular readers (evidently my whining about my favorite sports teams and least favorite politicians isn't that interesting to the layman), I try to keep my blog relatively up-to-date. Obviously, this largely means posting on a regular basis. While I have admittedly taken some long hiatuses, I think I do a fairly good job of this.

Other bloggers, unfortunately, don't. And that's the other part of keeping my blog up-to-date. As you can see, I have links on the side to several of my friends' blogs, most of which are infinitely more entertaining than mine. Today, you might notice, there's a few less links than there were the last time you were on my site. A couple removals were 3rd party/commercial-type blogs. The biggest "missing link", if you will, is that to Terence's blog. Or, should I call it, Terence's OLD blog. Mofo hasn't posted in close to two months! It's really sad, because Terence's blog, which in its heyday was wildly entertaining, was my inspiration to start a blog (that, and having nothing else to do at my previous job). Over time, just as people evolve, so do blogs. Terence's eventually evolved into, frankly, not much more than a hip-hop portal with the occasional "this is what's going on in my life" post. This worked out well for T, as readership seemed to jump (from randoms all over the world), but I missed the old stuff and am not really into the same kind of hip hop that he is.

Over the last two months, everyone has suffered. I've called T out on this several times, and he really hasn't defended himself, admitting he has no excuse for the loooooong break. While he was in Africa for a while, he's been back for over a month, and the motherfucker ain't got no job! (and he doesn't smoke, so it's not like he has a valid excuse to be sleeping half the day). Anyways, T, your time has run out, and the link, for now is gone. It can be won back...maybe this will serve as a bit of a kick-in-the-ass. Probably not.

We interrupt regularly scheduled programming...

I know I still have a lot of posting to do about my vacation. But what happened last night warrants an audible.

Most of you probably know what I'm talking about. It started around 4:30 p.m., as #17 Kentucky knocked off #1 LSU in a triple-overtime thriller. Anuj, his brother Anish and Neel, who were over at my place to watch Cal-Oregon State, joined me in celebration. Part of it, for me at least, was personal, as I hate LSU Coach Les Miles for comments he has made about Pac-10 football, including my beloved alma mater Cal. But most of the celebration was because Cal, as the #2 team in the country, was in position to capture the #1 ranking for the first time since my parents were 4 years old. Rankings, to some extent, are meaningless, at least at this point in the season, but it was an exciting proposition nevertheless.

Well, any male reader knows what happens next. Cal was, for the most part, outplayed over the course of the next several hours. Angry Cal fans/alums will point to one of two things: 1) Coach Tedford deciding to try for one more play, rather than just taking the FG opportunity and trying to win in overtime, or 2) Redshirt Freshman QB Kevin Riley's admittedly inexplicable (the AP recap of the game actually used the word 'inexplicably' - you don't see that too often from one of today's most objective media sources) decision to scramble with 14 seconds left in the game and no timeouts. I, however, look at the fact that Cal's defense couldn't get off the field on 3rd down all game, or that supposed Heisman candidate DeSean Jackson had 4 catches for all of 5 yards, or that super-sensational true freshman Jahvid Best fumbled when he was (gently) bumped into by one of his own men, or that we couldn't punch it in on 4 tries after we had 1st and goal from the 2 (horrible play calling, btw). We lost that game over the course of it, not on any one decision/play.

In any event, it doesn't really matter what the reason is. We lost, and 15 hours later, I still can't think of a more painful way to lose a game and, more importantly, an opportunity, a possibility, that we might get to play for the national title in January (no matter what Aashish or anyone else says, I don't think there's a chance in hell that the title game is even a remote possibility anymore). I was obviously too depressed to go out and party last night, so I tried to cheer myself up with ice cream and a (mediocre) Chris Rock movie with Seema. Worked for a little while, but I still woke up hurting.

Now, I'm sitting and hoping the Eagles (up 10-6 on the really crappy J-E-T-S) and/or my fantasy football team can salvage the weekend. Also wondering if 10:47 a.m. is too early to numb the pain with some good scotch. I think I'll wait 13 more minutes. 10:47 is still morning. 11 is daytime.

The Vacay - Part I

OK guys. Sorry, it's been a LONG time since I've posted. But it's been a bit tough. I was traveling for most of September, and the people I consider my blogging "peers" - G and T – haven’t blogged since Britney had custody of her kids, so I haven't had that kick-in-the-ass that I sometimes need to write.

Anyways, I last posted on or around my last day of work, and the time since then has been a whirlwind of buses, planes and ferries (no, not another reference to G and T). Oh. And liquor. Lots and lots of liquor. So forgive me if I've forgotten many of the details of Year 27 Month 7 of my life.

The first weekend of the vacay was spent up in the Bay Area. After a solid pre-party at Aashish’s place, complete with mini-Reese’s PB Cups and Chips Ahoys, we headed to a lounge called Roe, where I got a chance to see every Indian I knew in college. It was great catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and doing Patron shots with old, married friends. Speaking of which, the #2 highlight of Friday night was Rishi C. pestering me to go play poker with him and some of his GSB buddies after the club, me declining, Rishi sending me a text message at around 6am calling me a pu**y for not going, and then Rishi not waking up until the next afternoon, too hungover to drink before the big game. Well played, my friend. Not surprising, coming from a GSB’er.

What was the #1 highlight of Friday night, you ask? Well, after Aashish decided to get dragged around with all the girls in our group (really not as cool as it sounds), it presented a challenge as to how I was gonna get back into his apartment when the night was over. The fact that both of us were ass-backwards drunk did not help the matter. Fortunately, after a couple 2am phone calls, I was finally able to get a hold of Aashish, who said he was back at his apartment. “Will you be up when I get there?”, I somehow had the sense to ask. “Yes” came the seemingly-honest response. After dropping off G, the cab rolled up to Aashish’s building and I called him. No answer. Fuck. I didn’t even have a way to get into his building, let alone his apartment. Hooray! A tenant happened to be getting home at the same time, so I followed her and her boyfriend in. Not recognizing me as a fellow tenant, she gave me a weird look, so I told her that I was staying with a friend (Aashish was getting dangerously close to slipping out of the proverbial ‘friend zone’) and took the stairs up to Aashish’s floor so as not to scare the poor girl any further. Maybe I’ll get lucky and his drunk ass left the door unlocked. Nope. I start ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door. Nada. Start calling his phone. I HEAR the phone ringing in his apartment. So he is indeed home. No answer. Having a well-documented travel history with Aashish, he probably can’t hear the damn phone over his snoring. I send a couple dirty text messages – not the kind of dirty messages I send Seema – but stuff like “Die slowly”. Nothing. Call Deepa to see if she might be able to help in any way whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, she just delayed the whole process by 5 minutes. Finally, I decide to suck it up and call G and see if I can crash at his place. He was nice enough to have his roommate – probably the only sober person we knew in all of SF - drive back to Aashish’s, pick me up, and I crashed on his recliner that night. Thanks G. Fuck you Aashish.

The next day was spent in Berkeley, of course, for what espn.com had pretty much labeled “The Revenge Game.” It was an appropriate name for me personally, having spent a few days and a small fortune in the Deep South (Knoxville) last year only to watch Cal get run off the field. Since the Tennesseans were generally quite hospitable last year, I tried to return the favor by limiting the inbreeding and other redneck jokes. But I have to admit I was surprised, and upset, about the sea of orange that took over the city of MY alma mater. Those Southerners really do take their football seriously. Anyways, there’s not a whole lot to write about here. Basically a lot of beer, a little Top Dog (thanks for standing in line Deeps!), and potentially the only Cal score I will remember for the rest of my life: Cal 45, Tennessee 31. (For the record, I also remember Cal 52, Virginia Tech 49, but that’s mainly because I have a t-shirt with the final score printed on it – definitely not because I actually remember the game, which I don’t). The kinda depressing part of the whole thing was that I wasn’t all that excited about the win. Don’t get me wrong – I was very happy – but it was much more ‘relief’ than it was ‘excitement’. That’s how I am with sports. I tend to assume my teams are gonna suck (having gone to Cal, and being a Mets and Eagles fan, I’m usually right) but even when they lose I’m still ridiculously depressed. And when “we” do well? Then it’s just relief. Not excitement. Maybe that will change if any of my teams ever wins a friggin championship. If.

After the game, we were all too exhausted to drink, let alone stand up, so we ate some Mario’s (best Mexican in Berkeley, hands down), and headed home. The rest of the weekend was basically drinking, a couple strippers, a fantasy football draft (Philip Rivers? What was I thinking?!), some more drinking, 3am pizza, and some drunken Wii tennis (just like in real life, my serve blows).

That’s all for now. I was planning on doing one long post for the entire vacation, but I figure this is long enough for all of us for the time being. Chicago, Croatia, Boston and New York to follow...and hopefully some pictures as well.