Jackaroo

Jack Arute, telling it like it is.

Carburetion Day 2007

Last night I went to a hockey game--there's nothing like ritualized harrassment to make you feel better about life. Well, it's a little troubling watching 6-year-old boys learn how to chant "Hey, you suck! Hey, you suck! Hey, you suck, too!" but hockey crowds are so predictable in their reactions that it's almost a soothing experience. And really, it's the individual yelling that gets to me, that one, loud obscene fan who obviously needs anger management classes. In general, though, Illinois crowds are much better behaved than Indiana crowds, maybe because the University has much greater oversight at the games here than the games at the rink in Bloomington. Also, Illinois wins all the the time, so the crowd never really gets angry.

Tonight's my last big emotional challenge for the semester. I have two papers and one presentation left to go, but if I can get through tonight's function without having a meltdown, I should at least be able to finish the semester without too much trouble. Right now I'm just dealing with regular old end-of-the-semester inertia combined with a poorly insulated apartment. It got down into the single digits for the first time last night, and I woke up at 3 a.m. shivering under my FOUR BLANKETS AND A COMFORTER. Did the radiators even come on last night?

Things I'm at:

1. We may have attended a WNBA game in early September, I can't remember. If not, I haven't watched any basketball--live, televised or otherwise--since July. This weekend we saw three games, and that was probably three games too many. Two women's games, one men's game, and all were so incredibly dull I'm thinking of skipping the rest of the season. Except Catherine probably won't let me.

2. So, the roadkill situation in Yellowstone is getting out of hand. One roadkill death a year is too much, in my book, but damn, I wish I was living somewhere with such low numbers. I saw 5 dead deer today. I usually see "only" one or two new dead deer a day, occasionally as many as three. I'm guessing the dead deer truck didn't go out on Friday, so those five probably add up to the average one a day over the weekend. I've seen more dead animals in the last six months than most people see in their entire lives, and some. Take as many dead animals as you can imagine, and double or treble it. Maybe do it again. That's how many I see. No kidding.

3. Work is disappointing. It's typical, though. I've been talking to some other intern architects, and they are experiencing the same thing. Paying your dues architect-style is one big, boring waste of time. I should be glad I haven't been laid off, though. I haven't the faintest idea what we're going to be doing with ourselves for the next couple of months. My boss turned down so many projects in the fall that we're now without. Just in time for Christmas.

4. If I was judging a university by its online application system, I'd have a very short list of potential graduate schools right now. One system is so bad, I'm thinking of sitting down and filling out the paper application instead, even though that would mean writing out the information for the six institutions previously attended plus four more pages of garbage someone probably already has in a database somewhere.

5. Nothing says winter in Columbus like the smell of raw sewage.

Catherine ran in her first 5k today, and she kicked my ass. I struggled the entire race to keep up with her, and now I'm wiped out. She, apparently, feels fine and is very much looking forward to the next race.

Just got back from downtown. We wandered around the free part of the Lotus Festival this evening. Had a good time watching Kepa Junkera. Actually, I mostly watched the drummer, Blas Fernandez, and the txalaparta players, Igor Oxtoa and Harkaitz Martinez. Wish I could get me one of those things (the txalaparta, not the Oxtoa or Martinez). Very nice way to pass an hour.

I recommend the sports massage.

Catherine has decided she wants to run a 5k this fall. She could probably go out and run one next week if she wanted to, but it seems to be a confidence thing with her. She runs on a regular basis, but when it comes time to sign up for a race, she always chooses the walking option instead of the running option. But now she's decided she's going to run the Jill Behrman Run for the Endzone in October. I'm probably going to do the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer run in September, and then the Jill Behrman run. The running goal for 2004 is the 10k, though, since I didn't make it last year. I'm thinking that the Wabash Valley Runners Indiana Fall Classic might be the one, barring any new injuries.

Sign of the 'L' on her forehead.

That's right. We've been looking forward to Midnight Madness for a year. Yeah, a full 365 days. I even took a two-hour nap yesterday afternoon so I could stay up late for a change. About nine o'clock, my head was nodding, but Catherine said she would wake me up at 10:45 if I fell asleep. Plenty of time to get over to campus.

10:45 arrives, Catherine wakes me up, and I try to figure out what I'm going to wear. Next thing I know, I'm waking up out of a nightmare about being chased around campus by some unknown menace. Look at the clock, and it's 3:15. And there's Catherine, sound asleep beside me, fully dressed--including her IU Women's Basketball sweatshirt. We slept through Midnight Madness! Someone should be calling us losers, alright.

How embarrassing.

Today, I missed the green left-hand turn arrow because I was thinking about baseball, of all things. I glanced up and saw the arrow turn yellow, and finally realized the car behind me was honking. I wanted to apologize, but what would I say anyway? "Sorry about that left turn thing, I was thinking about the World Series." Right.

When I was a kid, we lived pretty close to Tacoma. Some of my best memories are of my mom popping up a big grocery bag full of popcorn, and then my parents loading us all into the van to go watch Triple A ball at Cheney Stadium. I still think fondly of that greasy paper bag being passed up and down our row of box seats behind home plate.

Tacoma was a farm team for a lot of different clubs and they had a lot of different mascots--they were the Twins when we first started watching them, and then I think they became the Tugs. They were the Tigers the last time I saw them, part of the feeder system for the Oakland A's. I loved that last season--it was Jose Canseco's last (and I believe first) year in the minors. He showed up mid-summer, and our attendance record went up accordingly. We were all about seeing Jose play.

The last game I went to in Tacoma was Canseco's last game in the minors. We were bitterly disappointed when we arrived and saw that he wasn't dressed--we came to see him! But then this rumor started going through the crowd: he'd been called up, he was going to the Big Leagues! Ah...I get a sports tear in my eye just remembering the feelings of anticipation and excitement because of one of *our boys* got called up. He didn't play that night, but he did step out and hit a few home runs for the fans. Bashed three over the wall at center field, then stepped across the plate and did the same thing batting left. It was awesome.

Well, he was great to watch, he was the 40-40 man, after all. Before everything started going wrong, before he became a perpetual member of the disabled list and/or police blotter. Somewhere in there, around the time he was traded to Texas, I stopped watching baseball, and the strike made that a more or less permanent decision for me. Yeah, I've still got my collection of baseball cards hanging around, and I still think they're cool, but I guess I don't really watch much ball anymore.

Well, this is a long-winded explanation of why I've decided to go for Oakland to win the Fall Series. I know that "chicks dig the long ball" and all that, but that small-ball moment Oakland had the other night against Boston reminded me that I really need to be rooting for the home team, and for me, that would still be Oakland. So, I apologize to my partner, who is backing the Cubbies, and I apologize to my friend, who is going for the Giants, but I'm all in it for the A's. Or, as the t-shirt says, "My favorite team is Oakland...and whoever is playing against Atlanta."

Play ball.