On a cloud

This past week has been weird. It flew by really fast, a good time was had by all, but it seems that I've had my head in the clouds for some reason. I'm finally to the point where I'm happy with everything, or have come to accept everything for now, and all of the sudden I feel like a friggin' space cadet. I've never claimed to be some rocket scientist or anything, but I usually do a great job of paying attention, or thinking things out. This past week though has just been totally weird and not usual for me.

We played poker on Wednesday night, like we always do, I wasn't there though. I mean, I was there physically, sitting in the best poker chair I've ever had, but I wasn't there upstairs. I was catching on to things about 10 seconds too slow, or not paying attention to things going on around me. As usual, I didn't win any money. As a matter of fact, I didn't win a friggin' hand. The Ingram crew was completely shut out. I think those Kerrville kids have some strategy to knock us out and take our money. Not a big deal though, 3 hours of poker at $10 for the total time usually beats 3 minutes at the bar and $10 for just that 3 minutes.

So there have been several other instances in the past week. At work when doing all the paper work and stuff, I've had to concentrate more than usual to make sure I don't leave out a step in processing a kid for the summer. Today was a big one though. After a pretty fun time in Austin last night, Chuck and I decided we'd go down 35 to Cabellas. We spent about an hour in the store. It's funny how when I'm spending my own money, there aren't near as many things that I have to have. Anyway, after leaving Cabellas, we decided to go further down 35 to San Antonio, and eat at this Mexican food joint that I'm in love with. I got off of 35 and was cruising down this street, headed towards the best enchiladas I've ever had, and Chuck turns and looks at me and says, "did you see that?"

Me-"See what?"

Chuck-"that red light you just drove right through?"

Me-"What red light?"

Chuck-"The one right behind you."

Me-"oh crap"

Nice dialogue I know. I sometimes get made fun of because I'm too cautious of a driver. I'm actually cautious in just about everything I do in life. I'm not the most aggressive person you'll meet, and that's obvious by the way I drive. I brake on yellow instead of speed up, I slow down when I don't have a stop sign to make sure that no one is going to run theirs. You get the picture. Today, I say screw you to a red light. Thank goodness no one was coming the other way. I don't think I would have been able to explain to my Pops about the new beauty marks in his truck.

My goal for this week. Snap out of it! I don't mind being a space cadet every now and then, but this 24 hours a day thing for the last week sucks!

WBC, NCAA, and 1 year!

I'll probably approach this in the opposite order of the title up there, but they all will be covered by the time I'm finished. I got to thinking last night about my little blog thing I do here, and how long I've been doing it. I was thinking I started last year around this time. As I looked back though, I see that I actually started in February of last year. So while I was off not paying attention, the Hacienda del Gringo celebrated it's first birthday. I don' t know how many more birthdays are to come, but as long as I have these random thoughts in my head, this is where I'll be jotting them down.

A lot has changed in this past year, relationships, friendships, location, etc... I still find this one of the places that I can call my own, and come to and be myself, so I appreciate it. I just put a counter up about a month ago, and sometime in the last week or so, I got 300 hits. I wish I'd been computer savvy enough to put in a counter when I first started, I wonder where I'd be now. No telling I guess! Thanks for those of you who come and read what I have to say. I know it's purely for entertainment, no one is going to get rich, or smarter from what I have to say. Hopefully though, people have learned from my mistakes, and just enjoyed what's gone on from day to day, or week to week, or however often I got the chance to put my words on the internet. I'll never claim to be smart, or a role model, but I like to think that my rose colored glasses view of the world and things happening around me stirs the thoughts in people's heads.

On a completely different note, I'm happy, oh so happy. If anyone could see what channels I've been watching on television, and my history on my computer, they'd see basketball games, arena football games, and my favorite baseball games. I enjoy football season immensely, college football and major league baseball run neck to neck for my favorite sports. March madness though, is a wonderful time of year. The teams that have worked hard all year are rewarded with a trip to the big NCAA tournament, and get their chance to advance on to the finals, and hopefully the NCAA championship for that year. In my last blog I talked about the little competition we've got going with some friends. Doing that makes the basketball games even more interesting. We don't have money on it, but the competitiveness in us makes the bragging rites worth more than any amount of money.

My brackets were pretty messed up from the get go. A first round loss by Michigan State, and a few others are to thank for that. However, I still have the chance to get all 4 teams that go to the final four. I don't think I'll be winning the brackets, but hopefully I'll at least win bragging rites in the office! While all this is so much fun, I have one major gripe with the way things are done in college basketball. It's the one and done aspect of it. A team can have a fantastic year, run the table, go undefeated, and have a number 1 seed going into the tournament. When they lose that first round match up to Podunk U, what do they have to show for it? They'll always look back at their year of basketball as a what might have been situation. If there was some way to award a regular season champ, and an NCAA tournament champ, I'd be great with that. Too much emphasis is put on the tournament, and great regular seasons can be ruined by a team that got hot at the right time of the year. So that's my gripe, I really do love the tournament though!

Now, next, the WBC (world baseball classic), or CMB (classico mundial del beisbol). I friggin' love baseball. I love the Astros, I love the Red Raiders, I love team America who actually took part in the WBC. After watching around 10 games of this thing, I think it's the best thing since sliced bread, and it should be an event every four years that the world cherishes, just like they do the World Cup of Soccer. I realize that baseball isn't as globally popular as soccer, or futbol, but I feel this is the best stage to really market the game, and make it the powerhouse that soccer is. Out of all the games I watched of the WBC, I have to say that the Latin teams are by far the most entertaining. They play with a gusto and pizazz that is unmatched by any of the other teams. I've watched probably thousands of baseball games in my life, but have never seen a game as awesome as the one between Cuba and Puerto Rico about a week ago. It was so much more than a baseball game, it was my homeland against your homeland. After every out, you could see anguish in the eyes of the hitting team, and the joy in the eyes of the defensive team. If you looked into the crowd of Puerto Ricans, you could see a real sense of let down when Cuba was victorious. With the present day MLB, which I love dearly, you see guys who are more worried about their pocket books than who they're representing. These Latin teams though, they were there for one reason, to represent their country. There was no personal gain in it for them at all. Maybe the American team could have made it further if they had that same type of passion as these Latin players had.

Now, the only bad thing I see with the whole WBC, the system in the final round needs some revamping. The finals tomorrow night is going to be Japan vs. Cuba. That was decided in a one game playoff, after two round robin stages. The two teams that were eliminated by those two teams were the Dominican Republic, and Korea. It was a one game playoff for the finals, and they lost. Which is disappointing because they were the best two teams by far up to this point. The D.R. had lost a couple of games in the two earlier stages, but still were the best team each time. Korea though, had yet to lose a game, and were pushed out after only one loss. Here's my thought, play one more round robin with those four teams, and then have the best two teams play a 3 game series to decide the champion. This one game thing doesn't work for me. It tarnishes the great performances put in by these two teams!

So that's it for now, a long blog over nothing important! If you're still with me after all of this, I hope everyone has a good week!

Highs & Lows

This week has been full of highs & lows for me. Everything is going great at camp right now, with the exception of the male counselor situation. Most of the week it was just three of us in the office, but with the NCAA tournament and other random things to chew the fat about, I actually looked forward to work! During the summer I always look forward to it, but during the off-season, its just so slow and boring its not all that enjoyable.

I would guess sometime around Tuesday something in the air caught my allergies and hasn't let go yet. On Tuesday though I felt like death rolled over twice. I got home at around 5:30 from camp and watched television for a bit. I was burning up and came back to my room to change into some shorts. Then I saw my bed, so at 6:30 I was in bed, just laying there. I just figured that the less I moved, the less I had to worry about. I was in the same spot until around 11 the next morning, with the exception of potty breaks and water runs. Fever, allergies, all that fun stuff. My Dad finally shoved some pills down my throat that must have knocked me out, because I was donesky at like 9:15. I went into work around noon, and stayed 'till about 4:30 that day. It's funny how some days there is nothing to do, then others you're swamped. I was pretty busy for a couple of hours, so I'm glad I ended up going in.

Seth James was playing in Fredericksburg yesterday, and since I was feeling a little better I decided to go. I'm glad I did. We had a blast. I don't know if anyone who reads this has heard of Seth James, if not you should. He is a blues bad ass. I'm not as big into the guitar as a some of my other friends, but even I know when someone is good. This guy is amazing. He's got a unique sound to his voice too. We had dinner, and a few beverages, and listened to music, talked about college days. Just an enjoyable night all around.

Then today was actually a lot of fun. Some of us in the office and some other friends and past counselors got into this NCAA tournament pool. No big stakes, just the satisfaction of winning! That doesn't mean we're not high rollers though, cause we are. We spend major Hamiltons. We had things here and there to do, but we ended up playing on our computers and talking about basketball and music most of the afternoon. The obligatory Friday LaFour's lunch was also entertaining. I feel blessed to have such good friends.

Now here I am, Friday night, not much to do. I decided home was the place to be. It doesn't hurt that my Dad decided that a Ribeye would be good for dinner. I'm not one to turn down a steak. The dogs have been going at it hard since we got home, hopefully Gus will decide to crash out tonight and not wake up until like 10 in the morning. I haven't slept that late in ages! We'll see I guess. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wedding Bells

No not me, not even close, are you crazy. The lucky lady hasn't been found yet. When I say lucky, I mean...Lucckkkkyyyyy.

It seems like the end of this week has had to do with weddings! It's kind of a joyous thing. It makes me happy to see my friends happy. Yesterday I went and got measured for a tuxedo that I'll be wearing in a wedding in May. Big guys like me who wear over a size 50 jacket get to pay a little extra for their coats. Not a problem, I can't help I've got broad shoulders (and an expanding waistline). The real kick in the sack was when I had to size up on my pants. I told the lady my waist size and she said that I might want to try on the next size of pants because these run a little weird. That does a lot for my sense of self-esteem. Plus the fact she wasn't all that nice. I mean sheesh lady if I'm going to let you run your little measuring tool all over me, the least you could do is partake in a little conversation. I might not be that friendly either if I was like 8 months pregnant and having to bend over and measure people's inseams. Oh well. Oh well, all was good!

So as we get further along in life, I guess its inevitable that my friends start going off and getting married. Not a big deal, I like it. Weddings are fun, usually some sort of booze fest, and you get to see a lot of people you haven't seen in ages. I've got two weddings to go to in May, and one in early June. Now today, I figure one of my best friends from High School was engaged yesterday. He's putting things on the fast track, and they'll be married in July! How crazy is that? I'm really looking forward to that one, because it'll be tons of fun, and he's marrying a keeper. I don't know her real well, but every time I've met her she seems wonderful! Super sweet!

Everything is fine and dandy with me right now. Things were a bit stressful this week at work. We had a conference the first part of the week. Actually, a CAMPference. Not much of a difference, but a fancy name! Then after that it was a bunch of catch up. Today was the first day I was actually able to check myspace all week. Crazy 'eh? I like being busy, but hate the fact that I'm starting to stress myself out about things. It seems like I've either got nothing at all going on, or about 10 at a time. I don't do well with the multi-tasking thing. I can't wait until the summer though. I know I say that on just about every blog, but I'm looking forward to it so much. I'm not counting down the days, but I might start sometime soon.

So back to the weddings. I was talking to someone..hmmm...can't really remember who yesterday, and we were talking about all the weddings coming up, and how crazy it is. I don't feel that even if I was in a serious relationship right now that I'd be ready to tie the knot. I guess I have the maturity to do so, but sometimes I wonder. Then I get to thinking if I'm gonna' be the opposite of an old maid. What would you call that? An old-butler? Surely not, hopefully not, I mean I've got a lot to teach. I've still have a lot to learn too though. I don't like the fact that people these days often rush in to things. Things like hey we met yesterday, let's get married today, and if that doesn't work out, we'll just get a divorce tomorrow.

I know people don't go into their nuptials thinking that, but a lot of people see that as the easy way out, other than working through things. In my mind, it's gonna' be a one and done thing. We both better be sure before taking the big leap.

I'm not saying that these upcoming weddings represent anything that I've said here. Not at all, actually they've all been dating for years, and by this time know what they're getting themselves into. It's those who meet one day, and are married like 3 months later. Some of those turn out great though. I don't know, maybe it's just me being too conservative.

Well I know this is a long one, but it's been a while, and these weddings make me want to put some things out there to see what everyone thinks.

Spike, I don't know if you still check in on my blog, but I wanted to tell you that I feel your pain. Your blog from I guess today, or late this week, don't know for sure what day it was. I think the same thing all the time, and have never been able to put it in words as well as you did! You're not alone, just know that!

Have a good one all...I'm out!