Beauty of a Sunday

There's an air of detachment that hangs around Sunday that I've always enjoyed drowning in. When I sold homes, Sundays were for open houses and most of the ones I held were in out of the way streets in down market years where if I got one or two people coming through in the two and a half hours I was there, I'd count myself lucky. But this wasn't time wasted. In the homes of other people, the stillness of Sunday afternoons with the sunlight filtering through the windows and settling dust took on a noise of its own. A distant dog barking from the neighbor's yard, lone cars returning to driveways after church or time at the beach, the house kneeling down and taking a rest in the heat all became whispers of the fullness of the passing moments.

At times, the normally busy street outside my apartment patio falls dead in the waning moments of the afternoon, like the world has disappeared and left me with a vast and empty concrete playground. But it's a fragile illusion, held in place only as long as I don't step out the door and into the space of others. The phone falls silent, the birds take up residence in the tree outside and the wind brushes leaves down onto the sidewalk with soft taps.

And then, for maybe five or ten minutes, I can be truly alone.

Too. Much. Food.

I never really thought those were words I'd say, but the Super Bowl party yesterday just about broke everyone in the room. It wasn't just that almost everyone who came brought two dishes...it was the overall immense pure richness of the food. Check out the menu:

- Magic Bars. I made these, a combo of chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, graham cracker crust and other sweets. More than one may suffocate you.

- Chicken Masala. Glace made these and they were delightful. The cilantro really brought everything out.

- Chocolate cake. CellaGood brought a homemade one that looked like a football.

- Pigs in blankets. Dad and KC brought these...delectable morsels.

- Mac and 4 Cheese. Another Dad dish, but not just any Mac and Cheese...try gruyere, romano and two others. This was the consensus appetite killer at the place.

- Chili Cheese Dip. Laura brought this, a recipe from former roommates. I almost had a heart attack. Not new for me, but still.

- Mini Swiss Mushroom burgers. Short Round grilled out. Even though her skewers caught fire because forgot to soak them, these sliders were super tasty.

I'm going to have leftovers for a week.

10 Things to Think About on a Friday!

It's been far too long. I'm sure you've been bored at work on Fridays. Meanwhile, I skated through the great out of doors and the inner halls of books, shunning blog, Friday and 10 things. No longer.

1) I wrote earlier this weak about the circus that surrounds child athletes. Well, no sooner had the class of 2010 been signed than news broke about a 13 year-old quarterback who has verbally committed to USC. And, scarier yet, he's already got a youtube highlight video...From the guy who brought you Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Jimmy Clausen...meet David Sills.

2) Of all the places you've been in the past 6 months, which place do you most wish you could go back to?

3) Colts or Saints?

4) Have you had the throwback Pepsi products yet? The Mountain Dew is out of this world. Imagine everything you love about Mountain Dew with none of that gross sugary aftertaste.

5) I'm tired of being asked to be a fan of things on Facebook. What is the point there folks?

6) When was the last time you woke up in a cold sweat?

7) What's your favorite recipe? Yes, this means I want you to send it to me. I'm collecting.

8) If you had to choose, for the rest of your life, between only garnishing dishes with garlic and only using onions, which would you use?

9) I've been wondering...how can Peter Piper ever pick a peck of pickled peppers? To be pickled, wouldn't they need to already be picked and in jars?

10) And my favorite thought of the week from Twitter...

Kathleen: "Dude, how old is he?"

Me: "Hot." - @arundo_donax

Where TV Shows Go to Die

I'm watching Nip/Tuck right now. An easy show to watch and blog during. I'm not proud of the fact that I watch it...it's more due to an OCD to finish what I start, and the show was decent when it started. Now, it's eroded into a gross mix of soap opera and sensationalist plot lines, a shadow of its former self. Not to mention that it's about three seasons past flatline. Now in the final episodes, the show has gone to the very fringes of absurdity with story lines so crazy that I'm convinced the writers are suffering fits of paranoid delusions in their own life.

So what happened? When it started it was just about on the edge plastic surgeons who took on tricky surgeries. Somewhere along the way, it devolved into pornography, serial killers and so many family lines that it feels like the Brady Bunch, Modern Family and Arrested Development jumped in the sack together.

And as dark and twisted as it has gotten, every week I'm reminded that it was created by the same guy responsible for the up-beat, fantastic and rather "normal" Glee. Now how the hell does that make any sense?

Gotta run...Christian and Sean are about to perform a surgery to give a chimp some thumbs.

Signing Day

Today, I saw for the first time the frenzy that is National Signing Day for football recruits. Having never seen the spectacle on ESPNU before, I was a little freaked out by the parade. Here we have national television crews, on-air interviews and what basically amounts to bounty hunting for 17 year-olds. Think about it. Before most of these kids can even drive, they're getting text messages and visits from college coaches across the country. Forget the regular high school experience...most of these kids were having press conferences in their school libraries and gyms today. We've taken sports and celebrity to such a level that adolescents who can ball are seen as future cash cows for universities that don't have to pay them a dime outside of tuition, which, let's face it, the overspill from full tuition students easily covers.

So you've got merchandising, TV contracts, ticket revenue, concessions, bowl appearance fees and who knows what else all pouring millions into the university for a few free class spots. It's about as close to legal slavery as our country gets now, which is evident in the rules that forbid free meals or transportation or anything else to these "student-athletes" at risk of NCAA sanctions. Of course, the NCAA, at the head of all of this, sucks in money. But hey, that's why they're called "amateurs," right?

The kids love signing day of course. Playing right into the frenzy, you have them sitting at a table with four baseball caps, like they're about to play Eenie-Meenie-Meinie-Mo with them before they put on the school they're going to. Even more showman were the few that pulled other school hats out from under the table to trump all the ones they led on.

But I'm thinking about after all this. After the cameras have gone, the torn ACLs have added up, the concussions have ripped through the grey matter and the paychecks have ended, if they ever started. What happens then? For some, the fame is enough to ensure security through the rest of their lives. But for more, what are the options when the only thing we valued them for between the ages of 13 and 17 was what they could do on a field? Hopefully educations have taken hold, but I'm not sure that goal can be helped by all the focus on football. Have we really taught these children the right values when their draft number or ESPN ranking is more important to their future success than their GPA or Major?

Bunch of Savages in This Town!

Of course, Dante meant this as it referred to the gum jammed in his Quick Stop lock, but hasn't it really become applicable to almost everything? Our government is so irresponsible with money that on all levels, enforcement of petty laws, skyrocketing fines and an increase in the cost of everything is running rampant to cover shortfalls in funds. Years of federal bickering have crescendoed into a partisan stalemate that has all the politicians pointing fingers instead of lifting any to actually solve problems. Sure, we're all different and have different visions of what our country is supposed to look like, but have our elected officials really solved anything with years of finger pointing and media mud slinging?

I watched the 10 o'clock news the other night (I know, a big mistake, right?) and was shocked at some of the headlines. An elementary school in Oakland was broken into and 40 brand new laptops were stolen. From children. In an already economically depressed community. I know the recession has to play a factor in here, but when did things become so desperate that stealing from youth in your own community was the answer?

Then, you have Bill O'Reilly, king of all things deaf, dumb, white and blind, spouting off at Gavin Newsom about panhandling in San Francisco. He was ranting about how he went from his hotel down the street and was "accosted by seven different men." I'm not sure what street he was on, but regardless of the merits of his claim, the entire Republican population now believes it about our city. Of course, Newsom had some shmancy stats of his own to chuck back at O'Reilly about the decrease in homelessness during his run as mayor, yada yada yada.

The problem here isn't that there's panhandlers in San Francisco. The problem isn't that we can't trust a word Newsom or O'Reilly says because they're just politicians trying to spin stats to their own advantage. The major problem here is that they're actually fighting about it rather than brainstorming any ideas that might actually work to cure the problem.

But hey, an earthquake in Haiti rallies politicians of all stripes, massive text message donation campaigns and a strong stand on "doing the right thing." Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't help the people of Haiti, I'm just wondering why we can always agree on what we need to do to jump in and save or help people from other countries or cultures, yet we're content to scream about how the other guy doesn't want solutions when it comes to the problems facing the people within our own border. Is it that hard to do the right thing?

I'm gonna call this the "No Other Country's Children Left Behind Act" or possibly WSS - White Savior Syndrome...the need to feel like we are rescuing other countries from their disasters, their politicians, and in the end, because only America can know best what's best for others, from themselves.

One thing I know for sure...whether it be the abusive police, the partisan-sick politicians, the local thieves, the rappers glorifying drug dealing and murder or the white power base of our country convinced that we should save everyone else from themselves...there's a ton of savages in this town.

Where Did I Go Just Now?

So, it's February 1st. I know most people started their New Year's Resolutions a month ago, but given that I've kept to my 2006 resolution to never make another resolution, I couldn't very well do that now, could I? What I did decide, however, was I needed to have more consistency in my life. I figured I could eat more fiber or commit myself to writing a blog post, however brief, a day, and making sure to change my quote of the day, which I obviously haven't done in months.

Just where have I been? Where haven't I been?

I left work in September to return to school full time. I'm pursuing a Master's and enjoying thoroughly every class and minute. I feel like I'm back in college, which fits how I've always felt age wise, so it's a good thing. All the parties, the weekends, the yearly events (Pumpkin Festival, Thanksgiving, birthday, Christmas) all happened with the same amount of wildness I'm accustomed to, I just never got around to writing about any of it. So, it all happened, you just don't get to hear it. There were some outstanding things that took place, some of which I'll recount in hilarious and slightly unbelievable stories later, but for now, we'll stick to getting up to speed. I've had two roommates since we've last spoken, both of which have been fantastic and a ton of fun. I'm on the search for a new one right now, with more news of that later in the week.

Triumph and heartbreak, school work and play, friends and lovers (though you know I don't talk about that) I've had it all in the past 4 months. Of course, the "Right Now" on the side there was constantly running with my Twitter feed, but I doubt many got around to checking that with any frequency, and why should you?

What's to come? Well, since I'm going for daily, even if it's brief, it'll be something...a thought, a comment on something that happened, a suggestion for some music, anything. The quote I'll attempt to change first thing in the morning. The weekend debauchery will be a given, and I'm going to be working on incorporating some of the writing I've done offline into the posts...some essays and stories I've prepared for school, as well as some spoken word pieces I've written over the past few months will make appearances. I've also found some old journals and think that might be fun to mix in there. I'll label any of those with "Old" or something, so you don't waste your time on anything that's not a new product if you don't want to.

This is my welcome back party. Thanks for coming. The quote of the day today comes from a class I took in early January about educating exceptional children, and it's about what is called "the curse of knowledge":

"Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like to not know it." - from Made to Stick

Where did I go just now? Who cares. This is about where I'm about to go. Cheers.