Fight On
I'm coming to you from some big, fancy library at USC fresh from some big, fancy rally where Southern Cal's big, fancy football team was given a bunch of big, fancy trophies to culminate their big, fancy championship season. Notice the theme?
Seriously, though, it was cool, cool stuff. I've always been a huge football fan, kinda casually pulling for the Pittsburgh Steelers (Pronounced "Stillers" by people in western Pennsylvania) since I come from a long line of diehard Steelers' fans, but more interested in watching the game than any team. Suddenly, I'm a diehard, yelling, screaming, threatening-to-smash-the-television-when-Matt-Leinart-makes-a-stupid-decision-w/-the-ball Trojans fan, and standing at a victory rally for said team and listening to Marcus Allen and Pete Carroll gush over the team and promise to win another title next year. Pretty righteous. One of my only regrets from my college experience is that I went to a pair of schools that didn't have any bigtime athletics (CSUN's claim to fame being one, count'em one, appearance in March Madness a few years back), so it's cool to get to experience this now.
Obviously, I'm here b/c of Megan (Who's off at a work meeting, which is why I'm left in another corner of the campus unsupervised), and I couldn't have been happier to see her. As she said in her journal yesterday, she's been down and out most of this week and it's been really hard on both of us. I live fifteen minutes from here when there's no traffic, and it feels like I'm halfway across the world in situations like this. She can't really talk b/c she has no privacy to speak of in the commune she lives in and doesn't really want to dump on me for fear of dragging me down. I want nothing more than to take care of her and make her happy, but I wind up feeling like I'm accomplishing nothing and probably making her problems worse, which only makes me feel worse b/c I'm contributing to her worries so I wind up giving up and (Big suprise) only making her feel even worse. It feels like throwing gas on a campfire. Not to trivialize things, but it really is one of those moments that they write books about and use as a topic on those talk shows that are hosted by a panel of five women who spend the hour complaining about how worthless men are. Anyhow, just being together does wonders, and after finally getting to speak on things face-to-face the clouds have parted and we've had a lot of fun just relaxing and hanging out at the rally today. I really do love her more than I even thought was possible, and I'm much better prepared to help in this situation should it happen again.
I've also been frustrated by my car, which, after four months of actually behaving, is acting up again, albeit in a subtle kind of way. I wanted to head this off before it became a crippling problem, and took it in to be looked at by a mechanic I trust in my mother's neck of the woods. He ran a diagnostic, which ruled out a littany of problems, then suggested replacing the plugs and a couple related parts that looked fragged. Well, it's running a bit better now, but the problem's still there. It really was too much to take after the week I've had, and I about lost it last night on the way home. I'm going to have to take it back Monday, and hopefully it won't be an expensive problem as everything listed in this paragraph -- Computer diagnostic, tune-up, oil change and new fuel filter -- has already made my checking account $300 lighter. I hate cars. Freakin' hate 'em. All of the major cities in the world and I gotta grow up in the only freakin' one that has nothing even resembling a viable mass transportation system.
Alright, enough complaining. I'm pretty stoked about starting the new gig at "The Joe", which I believe is going to happen Tuesday, though I still haven't actually to spoken to anyone about it. I've been filling the time by playing loads and loads of VS., which is upping my geek quotient to a level that even I'm not entirely comfortable w/. Nonetheless, I think I'm actually becoming a pretty decent player, until Werner, the resident evil German genius/card-game savante who sports an IQ that hovers somewhere near 200, comes in and absolutely schools me. He's such a punk b/c he's four times smarter than I could even dream of being, and he constantly wears this smug look like he knows it, I know it and he knows that I know it. And you'd think he'd take it easy and encourage the retard, yet he still revels in throwing me a beating of Old Testament proportions. Whatever.
Jess texted me today to say that she and Matt have returned from their honeymoon, so I wanted to take this opportunity to kinda toast them "publicly", since I couldn't be at the big dance itself:
Guys, I couldn't be happier or more proud of both of you right now. You faced so many obstacles on the way to the altar this past year or so, and you couldn't have handled yourselves any better in the face of so much unnecessary adversity. You're both an inspiration to me as both a Christian and just as a person, and I am honored to be able to count both of you as two of my closest friends. No one deserves to be happier than you guys and I have no doubt that God will smile upon your marriage and the rest of your lives together. I love you both...
...Yes, even you, Jerky.