Of Turkey Plays and Basketball Dreams...

It's the day after Thanksgiving.  I am still sufficiently wined and dined and probably earned a good week's delay from that eventual fabled perfect stomach, which is of course never perfect because once you reach one goal you've already got another one in mind.  Getting addicted to working out and trying to figure out how to have that perfect body is a really easy thing for someone like me to do.  But I digress.  Being home in small doses is nice, and you sometimes forget how wonderful those friends who know you like the back of your hand can be.  When you've known some of them for sixteen of your (almost) twenty-two years at the most and for maybe four of those at the very least -- it's a nice thing to return to sometimes.  It's perspective, and love, and a number of other things.  We all got the tattoo consultations done, too.  We's getting inked on the local graduation weekend.  Happy Graduation, B.

And then Syracuse Basketball.  That loss to Ohio State was not a complete surprise to me; Madison Square Garden is a lot different than the Dome and Ohio State, even without Oden, is not like St. Joseph's.  But it's good for the (many, many) freshman on the team to learn that high school defense and showmanship needs to be left to high school.  While they might be great players and recruits, there's nothing that Donte Green or Johnny Flynn can do that hasn't been seen in NCAA ball before by someone.  Not to detract from a lot of talent, because they've both done some pretty incredible things already, but still, Sienna and St. Joe's are no Ohio State.  Also, how about Devendorf starting to play like a mature basketball player?  Never thought that would happen, but he's starting to not just look to score and also making some really good passes.  Way to go, Devo.  I want to see Ogenaut (I know I spelled that wrong) with a bit more playing time.  I feel like he could be a pretty solid guy to go to off the bench eventually, and lord knows we need a good bench to survive something as tiring as the Big East Tourney.  We will see how the game against Washington goes tonight.  Can't wait for women's ball, either.  They're recruiting class is hopefully good enough where I won't feel like 5'2 me should have trained to join the team as a walk on.  I'm not that impressive a player, but they've NEVER been that impressive a team.  I remember going to a game against Villanova with my sixth grade travel team, and it was bad then.  I know Syracuse ball on both ends with more history than anyone on any of these teams, and it makes me chuckle a little bit.  That's pretty inevitable if one grows up in the area with an affinity for basketball, I guess.  I remember going with Eric Hillman and his dad to a game sitting in a third tier seat and seeing John Wallace, and a couple years later being so excited that he was drafted to the Knicks.  Now that's some history.

I can't believe that this turned into a long blog entry about basketball.  Anyway, it will be back to the 'Cuse tonight because I must be at the football game tomorrow by requirement (trust, not my idea with a team this bad -- don't even get me started on how SU paid $1 million to terminate Coach P's contract, got a worse coach, and how the desks in my building of classes are fifty years old and we don't have enough practice rooms).  I would love to celebrate Buy Nothing Day as underground liberals are wont to celebrate, but I'm afraid that I may be too poor to buy good Christmas presents if I don't.  Maybe I'll at least do it by going local.  Businesses like the Soundgarden, or coffee from the Sugar Pearl, since I have some friends addicted to French press, or maybe the food Co-op or Second Story Books.  Syracuse is really a pretty interesting little city if you just know where to look.    I don't exactly have the time to make anything either.  Oh grad school applications, how you get in the way of life.

Hooking up in college and why I keep starting these...

I have a teacher who I respect greatly who recently expressed his amazement that people could express all the thoughts in their head for the entire blogosphere to see but not confront a person when it really matters and tell them what they think. This is a pretty true insight on his part, so hats off. But it doesn't change the fact that computers seem more readily available than my journal when I'm really reflecting on things. There's something about the anonymity of SU's own Schine Student Center when the only people gathered around are the ones that either need to use the internet or want to watch SU's incredibly mediocre (read: pretty bad) football team play Pittsburgh on ESPNU. I like gathering here to think on Saturdays because if I don't answer my phone, people probably won't find me, and it's getting to be that half of the year where everywhere is warmer than my apartment. And I like writing for me but as if I'm speaking to an audience. It's a good way to be able to coherently verbalize what's going on when someone asks. If someone reads this, someone reads this, but I'm not going to fool myself into thinking my writing is that captivating.

I've had this feeling lately that I'm living life, but it's in a funk. This is probably the fact that I'm getting ready to walk the aisle in May and am looking at grad school elsewhere, while most of my friends here are considering the possibility of staying here to finish grad work for a number of reasons. Still, that funk. The best metaphor I can give is that I manage to get out to the bar with my friends but I'm getting out to the wrong bars, and in some cases, with the wrong friends.

And to the pros and cons of hooking up in college. Pros: one gets sex out of the way so they can stop thinking about it without dating someone. Cons: I'm observant enough to notice that it always becomes more complicated than it should. As Perry Farrell (as in Jane's Addition) puts it, "Sex is violent."