Cleveland Calling

Admittedly, this is a bit late, as it's been nearly two weeks since this all happened. But hey... I've been busy. First, I had to do what I'm actually writing about, and I to take finals, and I had to come back to Twinsburg and be bored for a while before I actually got around to writing this, so... yeah. So much to do.

Two weeks ago, I made the trip up to Cleveland for the MAC tournament. When the Bobcats have a chance to punch a ticket to the Big Dance, I'm going to make sure I see it. The conference changed things up a bit this year. Previously, the first round was held on Monday with the games on the higher seed's floor. Starting with this year, they moved the first round games to Cleveland... and on Wednesday, with the quarters on Thursday. That's a big change. It also sucks because we lose out on one last game at The Convo.
Another change was the times for the quarterfinal matchups. For the last couple years, the game between the #4 and #5 seed was the final game of the evening, at 9 p.m. But because the MAC wanted Kent and Akron playing the late games, they moved all the times around. The 4/5 game was put at the 2 p.m. time slot.
This was a problem because I had class on Thursday afternoon. If it was at the normal late spot, it wouldn't have been a problem because I could have gotten there with plenty of time after my last class of the day. So what to do? Beg the professors, of course. I pitched them that I needed to be there to support the team because of "organizational commitment" as president of the O Zone. I don't think they bought that argument, but they let me off class for Thursday anyway. Hooray!
So I got ready after my final Wednesday class and got in the Escape and headed for Twinsburg. I had the dulcet tones of Derek Scott playing on the radio as the Bobcats were taking on Bowling Green in the first round of the tournament. I was confident that Ohio would handle the Falcons without much problem, as they had destroyed BG in both of their previous games. I was a bit concerned, however, as BG led early on before Ohio took the lead. They nearly blew it at the end, but they pulled it out. I would have been none too happy to make the drive up to Twinsburg for what would've turned out to be no reason.
Thursday came and I was so excited, I got up at about 7 a.m. and couldn't sleep after that. Lots of energy. I met up with Ross before the game at the Winking Lizard. The turnout wasn't great, but what can you expect on a Thursday afternoon? A win against Miami would put us in the 7 p.m. Friday seminal against Toledo, and you can bet people would turn out then. But first things first, we had to dispose of Miami in the quarterfinals.
It was safe to say that I was feeling good about our chances. Miami had lost to Bowling Green (the conference's worst team) on Sunday in the season finale, and it looked like they were heading to their usual end of the season skid. Furthermore, we had knocked Miami out of the tournament three out of the last four years, including a drubbing in last year's quarterfinals. They knew it and we knew it: Ohio owned Miami in Cleveland.
Before the game, I met with some people that I knew and met a lot of new people. And a strange trend continued. All the season, people have been asking to take their picture with me. It's really weird. I guess it's the face paint and the hair, but for me of all people, it's a weird thing. I'm not used to people I know wanting to take pictures with me, let alone strangers.
A bit before tip-off, one of the promo workers came up to me and asked if I wanted to do the free throw contest at halftime. Sure, why not? I signed the form and got a pass to go down to court level. About five seconds later, I got nervous. I told Jeff McKinney, one of the moderators of Bobcat Attack, that I was nervous. He said I'd do fine. I ran into Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt and mentioned that I was doing the halftime contest. "Oh, well, we won it yesterday, so you gotta keep it going," he said. Wonderful.
When the game started, the handful of O Zoners that could make it and some displaced 110 members (apparently they brought too many) sat in the front of the Ohio section to cheer our boys on. I got to set next to Leon Williams' dad, which was a lot of fun. I met him last season at the UK game, and he's a firecracker. The exact opposite of Leon, who's a very laid back dude. It's nice to be able to sit and talk with someone who has a unique perspective on the team and the game.
Like I said, Ohio has owned Miami in recent years, and the RedHawks knew it. They came out charging. They were attacking on offense and defense, and we didn't have an answer. It looked dire almost immediately, and Miami opened up a double-digit lead fairly quickly. Uh oh. This isn't what we had in mind. The Bobs didn't look like they had the fire or the willingness to put up the energy necessary to beat Miami back. The crowd knew it, too, and that depressing feeling started to sink in. We weren't going to lose to Miami, would we?
I had to meet the promotions girl down on the court at about the four-minute mark, so I excused myself from my seat and made my way down there. The view from there didn't look much better, either. By the time the first half ended, we were down 16. More dishearteningly, the team walked past me on the way to the locker room and they looked like dead men walking. They didn't look tired or fatigued (the excuse O'Shea would later fall back on), but they looked defeated. Shoulders were slumped. Their eyes told me they were beat. Even coach Rhodes appeared as though he wanted to get on the bus back to Athens right then. Suffice to say I wasn't encouraged for the second half.
My friend Brandon was talking to me before the contest started. Apparently he was the one that did the contest yesterday and won. He said something about not air balling and embarrassing yourself. I wasn't really listening. I was too busy worrying about my palms sweating and the fact I hadn't eaten since about 9 a.m. and it was about 3:30 p.m. and I felt like I was going to pass out because of hunger. So I really did a poor job of preparing myself for the contest.
Now, I have to say that I don't do a whole lot well in basketball. I'm short, I'm skinny, I don't shoot well from the outside, and my dribbling doesn't impress anyone. But I do shoot free throws well. In all honesty, I think I can beat a sizeable number of NBA players in a free throw competition. How people getting paid millions of dollars to shoot 60% from the line is beyond me. But I had never done it in front of a crowd before, and I never had a time limit before.
I'm hoping that explains why I completely missed the rim by about a foot on the first shot. I mean, I shot it fine, but my legs gave me absolutely nothing on the shot. My wince was probably priceless. There's nothing like the sound of a couple thousand people groaning because of you, by the way. Fantastic feeling. I think that initial air ball jump started me, though, because I found a groove after that. I had hit something like 6 of 7- I wasn't paying complete attention to whether they were going in or not- when the PA guy said there was 10 seconds left. That completely wrecked my concentration, and I didn't make another one after that. The nice thing was I had already made enough to beat the Miami student, who apparently wasn't sure was a basketball was. I won a $50 gift card to Aeropostale, which is a store I've never set foot in in my life. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the thing. Anyone want it?
The second half was more of the same, really. Miami outhustling us on both ends of the floor, the Bobcats looking like they'd rather eat a cactus than try and mount a comeback, and Leon's dad complaining about the lack of three-point shooting. Like I said, it's good to talk to a guy with his perspective on things. I asked him about O'Shea. He just shook his head and reaffirmed the notion that nobody likes him as a coach or thinks he's fit to do the job. He also said- repeatedly- that Leon needs the ball more. I agreed and asked him if Leon would ever say anything. "No," he responded. "That's not what he does."
So Ohio's season ended with a 19-point beating at the hands of their main rival. Awesome. On the brighter side, I got to talk for a bit with Kyle Whelliston, he of the midmajority.com and ESPN mid-major wunderkind. I always enjoy talking to him when I get the chance. He commented on my face paint and we talked shop for a bit. He said the offense looked like "a mess" on the court and asked what the fans thought of the job O'Shea was doing. We also conversed about the tournament and the MAC in general for a while, which was fun.
Brandon offered me his extra ticket for the night session, featuring Akron/CMU and Kent/WMU. Why not? Interestingly, we were seating very close to the AK-Rowdies, the Akron student cheering section. And man oh man are they lame! Seriously, this was like a convention of dorks assembled to watch a basketball game. It was baaaad. The cheers, the taunts... it was almost comical. I'm not even going to get into it in detail.
We moved to the other side to sit with the WMU fans for the second game, which was much closer than the blowout Akron subjected the Chippewas to. A number of the Bronco fans were quite drunk and yelling about an "Ohio conspiracy" with the referees. I resisted the urge to tell them these were the same refs the conference had used all year, and most of them weren't from Ohio. But whatever.
Somehow, we ended up hanging out with the players and families after the game. And I have to say, they seemd a lot more upset about losing than the Ohio players did... and they didn't even lose to their rival. So I have to wonder, has their fire been taken away? I think it has. Another indictment of O'Shea.
Both Whelliston and Brandon were trying to coax me into going to the semis the next night, but I didn't want to pay the money for tickets. As Ohio had been knocked out of the tournament, I no longer got the student discount on tickets. Whelliston parted with a "I'll see you tomorrow." I groaned. Well, he didn't. My dad bought a XBox 360 the next day, so I stayed home and watched Kent collapse in the second half against Akron and his subsequent foul mood. Unfortunately, Akron and Miami played for the championship, which made me feel like I was being cosmically punished for something. When Penno hit the buzzer beater, I fell to the fround screaming, "Nooooo!" Feel free to laugh.

It was cold in Cleveland (surprise!), but when I got to Athens, it was nice and warm. Apparently it had been the whole time since I left. Sigh.

Only 10 and a Half Hours...

...until the month of Madness. Are you excited? I'm excited.

(And yes, I know, I haven't posted in forever. But I will soon. Really. I'm just working on very little sleep right now and I ramble on incoherently enough as it is.)

The World is Not Making Sense

I give up. I've thrown the towel in. I'm done. Apparently I wasn't completely off the mark earlier, as Jessica told me she's getting back together with her ex. Awesome. So really, I've learned that doing things the "right way" is just a quick path to pain and misery. Don't treat women with respect. Don't compliment them. Don't do things for them and let them know what they mean to you. Instead, you should cheat on them, abuse them, lie to them, mess with them... these are the things that women apparently like. The good guys sit on the sidelines while the losers get chance after chance after chance.
So I'm done. I can't take this anymore. I've taken my hat out of the ring. I don't even want to talk to women right now. If you see me considering dating a girl, punch me in the nose. The same crap happens every single time, so I'm not even going to try anymore.
On a related note, I was having a conversation with Nate and Carolyn the other night. I somehow got to talking about my sister and mentioned she was dating some guy at Kent. I said it was one of those things where you go to school, meet some idiot guy, and date him for a while. After I said that, I looked at Carolyn and realized that was exactly the same thing with us! I am an idiot! How did I not see this before? It never meant as much to her as it did to me. It astounds me how much of a moron I am sometimes. Really, I should get an award for it.

As much fun as perpetual whining about women is, there are other things going on in my life. For instance, I'm on the verge of murdering my roommate. I don't know what the deal is with this kid. For the weekend, he wasn't getting up until about 6 PM! 6 PM! Who does that? So of course he's going to bed at insane hours; today he got up at 6, went to bed at 4, then woke up again at about midnight. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it. It drives me nuts. Of course, I guess when all you do is sit at the computer like a waste of humanity, you don't need a regular sleep schedule. And I thought I was unusual.

The Australian Open has started, and it's awesome. Live tennis at three in the morning is a thing I am very much in favor of. James Blake looked good in his first match against Moya; we'll see if he can make a significant run in Melbourne.

I love the Taco Bell commercials with Carmen Electra. I guess now that she's not with Dave Navarro anymore, she's more willing to debase herself again for money. Good for her.

I finally took advantage of the Little Caesar's $5 pizza deal. I'm going to have to do that more often. It's particularly fantastic. I mean, why didn't I do this before? Walk in, hand them a Jefferson, walk out with a pizza. Genius! Everyone should do this. It's amazing.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but I love the rock garden fountain Tim and Fi got me for Christmas. It's great. Sometimes, I'll just stare at it for several minutes. It's a great de-stressor.

In case you didn't read "The Christian Paradox" that I linked to in my last entry, I'm going to do it again and urge you to read it. This article spoke to me about a few things that had been in my head. This is a country that claims to be Christian, but it just doesn't follow through on its words. Religion- Jesus- is not words. It's life. I can say I'm left-handed, but it doesn't make me so. Too many seem to regard this faith as a moral code. It's not. And honestly, I'm sort of tired of this country. I want to see what else is out there. Europe may be more "explicit," but it is probably more honest, too. That's the thing here in the US. We're hypocrites. We do stuff we claim not to do. I'm not saying we should do whatever, but at least we ought to stop lying about it. It might be easier to raise children in a culture of honesty than one of deceit. You know, I don't think I'm going to refer to myself as a Christian anymore. I don't think the word accurately describes the path I have set out on anymore. Thoughts?

Close Your Eyes and Say Good Night

So I think Nate is getting tired of me destroying him in Smash Bros. I don't even remember the last time he's won a game. Speaking of games, I've been playing Betrayal at the House on the Hill, which is a lot of fun. Basically, it's a board game in which 3-6 players are exploring the neighborhood haunted house. The twist is that one of the party is a traitor. At some point the game, the traitor is revealed along with his plan. The traitor tries to accomplish whatever goals s/he has and the heroes try to stop him. You don't know who the traitor is or what the scenario is in advance; it's all random. Good fun for a group, and just about anyone can enjoy it.

Basketball plays Kent Sunday at 2. As it turns out, Kent chose their home MAC opener for their "let's try and sell out the gym" promotion, so it looks like the Bobcats are going to be playing in front of a full house on the road. Ohio hasn't played well at the M.A.C. Center recently, so I'm not too optimistic on this one.
On a vaguely related note, I owe a friend of mine a high-five and jealousy because he achieved the Impossible Dream, dating a volleyball player. I'm pretty sure his life is more awesome than mine now.

At the moment, I'm listening to "Story of a Girl" by Nine Days and it makes me feel good and sad at the same time. I'm weird.

Met Emma's boyfriend, Noah, today. Nice guy. We seem to have a lot in common, so we've gotten along pretty well. They seem pretty good for each other. Hope they are; she deserves a break to go her way.
A quick thought about relationship-esque things: I'm pretty sure TV and movies are to blame for this, but I realized at some point in the recent past that I'm terrified to do anything physical with women. I'm completely convinced that they don't to be touched, don't like to be kissed, don't want to have sex... none of that. Yes, it's insane, but whenever I'm trying to touch, kiss, whatever, I'm always thinking she doesn't want to, that only guys like this and girls just want to... talk or something. On a related note, I always like it 500% more when a girl is the one to initiate a hand holding or whatever. I'm pretty sure Shasta likes it when I pet her, though. So I do it a lot.

Anyone who's known me a while knows that for whatever reason, my roommates typically don't stick around for a while. Well, I have one that doesn't look like he's leaving anytime soon... and I can't stand him. He's a slob, he's dirty, and he doesn't do anything. The other day, he was smelling the room up so bad that I had to leave. And this is even with an Air Wick and employing Febreeze. He doesn't put his dirty clothes in a hamper or bag or anything; instead, he throws it all into one giant pile. Mind you, he has a clothing bag or two, but they've been incorporated into the giant pile. He moves it from his bed to his chair depending on which he's using. He's been sleeping in until about 6 p.m. He doesn't go anywhere, doesn't talk to anyone, just sits at his computer and does... whatever all day. Seriously. He doesn't move. Nobody other than his twin brother has ever come to visit him. I mean, is he even alive? Oy.

But hey, it's not all doom and gloom. The Australian Open starts on Sunday! And here is a very cool game that I discovered at random a little bit ago; it got Cheryl Sadler completely hooked.
Food for thought: Is Christianity in America a lie? Honestly, I think it is. A former professor once put forth the theory that there are two Christianities, a religious Christianity and a social Christianity. The people that belong to the latter don't really know or really care about the tenants and lifestyle of the faith, but use it as a rallying point for whatever it is they want to accomplish (see: gay marriage). The Religious Right is a pretty good example of this. Is their mission religious or political? It's hard to argue in earnest that it's God directing them when a lot of what they do flies in the face of the teachings of Jesus.

And I can't remember if I mentioned this, but some jerk has been stealing markers or breaking the tips off them from my whiteboard. Honestly, who does that? Why? It's not funny. I don't get people. If you have a problem with me, just come to me. I'd like to think I'm reasonable.

Really Trying Not to be Emo

I feel really emo sometimes. I can't help it. It's just like... everything goes out of its way just to kick me. I don't get it. I really don't.

OK, some happy stuff first: The basketball team smacked around Bowling Green tonight, 69-47. BG was never close, and the defense played quite well. The 'Cats are now 2-0 in the MAC and 11-4 overall with a date with Kent on Sunday. A win there and the sky is the limit. I said before this is the best team in my five years at OU, and I haven't seen anything to change that. Also, the first Dervish of the quarter is up.

Some introspective stuff: I still feel trepidation/am a little afraid around Carolyn. A little bit with Kat, too, but that's different. With Carolyn, it's like I fear that I'm going to start liking her again, or that I never really stopped liking her in the first place... and that's only going to cause the both of us pain. I'm so paranoid. I mean, I don't feel like I like her anymore. It's just... weird, seeing her, being around her, remembering how we were at each other's throats last quarter. And that's just supposed to be forgotten? Well, probably, but it's not how I'm used to going about things. I'm not sure where she fits in, or where she's supposed to fit in. And I guess with Kat, it's just like our relationship. I'm waiting for something bad to happen. It just doesn't feel right. The other shoe should be dropping (remember the paranoia?) for some reason, even though there's absolutely no reason to expect it to. And that's my problem, really. I'm always convinced I'm going to get hurt or I'm going to hurt someone else.

Bad stuff: Speaking of, I hadn't mentioned Jessica in... um... some time. I had sent her a little thing for Christmas with a card, a bookmark with her name and a Bible verse, and a poem I wrote her. I hadn't heard from her in a couple weeks, so I was getting afraid that either she didn't get it or that she did and did not like it. Well, I finally got a hold of her a couple days ago. She said that she did get it, and that it was totally sweet and that she loved it. Awesome. I message her tonight and she tells me she's having an "intense" conversation with her former boyfriend... the one that cheated on her. So, based on recent events and my own protective nature, I naturally jump into defense mode. And boy did that conversation not go well. She said it was weird because it had been so long but he's the only guy she's ever truly loved, and they've been hanging out now that she's in North Carolina, and he's planning on enrolling at BYU-Idaho in the future, and he might be angling for something... during the course of the conversation she said I was making her feel dumb and that I was jumping all over her (which really just made me feel terrible, let me tell you). Ugh. That could not have gone much worse.
I mean... if when everything is said and done she gets back with this guy, that's pretty much the worst case scenario. I would be completely devastated by that. A guy throws away the one thing I never and he gets it again? I couldn't take that. Am I getting ahead of myself, jumping to conclusions? Absolutely. Is this the sort of thing that happens to me? It totally is. (Remember the paranoia?)

In other words, I hate women. I think I should just move out to California with Mr. Chesnut and start over or something.

But I should think positively, right? I mean, after all, this whole thing just means that the door is open for someone else.

Three day weekend coming up. That'll be nice. Maybe we'll head up to Kent for the game Sunday. I don't know. I do know I have a lot of work to do. I want to work on my AmeriCorps apps too. It's only the second week of the quarter and Kat already looks quite tired. The girl does too much; she only gets three hours or so of sleep a night. Why work like that? I said she should drink a lot of Red Bull. She said she doesn't want the crash and will fuel herself with "personal motivation." Right. I think the body will just refuse at one point.