Let me tell you about my day.

Friday, February 19, 2010

A Fall of Olympic Proportions

Can you believe I hadn't watched a single moment of the Olympics until this morning, when I watched several minutes of video on the NBC website? Turns out there was some pretty exciting stuff going on there.

I watched the men's figure skating videos for Plushenko and Lysacek. Basically, I was like, "meh, that doesn't look so hard. I could probably do that." Plus, I though their landings looked kind of sloppy. This is the Olympics, gentlemen! Stick those landings!

But, oh! Then I watched the, um, bloopers(?) video with all of the falls and spills, and people crashing into gates on the slalom ski slope, slamming into the boards in hockey games, coming out of triple lutzes to land on their butts, and I thought, "oh, maybe this is kind of hard." So, yeah, if you need some perspective on the actual difficulty of the tasks they set out to do, maybe your best bet is to watch the best athletes in their respective countries fall magnificently.

ALSO. How mad would you be if your skating doubles partner fell on the ice, and ruined your chances for a medal? What about the guy you're speed skating AGAINST who trips and crashes into you? I can't imagine how disappointing that must be.

In unrelated news, snowmaggedon prevented me from leaving DC at all to go home for the Super Bowl, so I watched the Saints win at my apartment, by myself. Talk about lacking a party atmosphere. It did give me three days off of work, but had I my druthers, I would have gone home.

Friday, February 5, 2010

There's No Business Like Snow Business

If you're from anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line (and really, even if you're not), you're probably pretty baffled by the PANIC that is stirring in the nation's capitol. It. Is. Crazy. We're expecting 16 - 23" of snow. Yeah, that's pretty serious. But people are losing it.

Last night, I got off work from Retail Store and decided to hit the grocery before I go home. I figured I might want some cookie dough, cereal, or Tyson's breaded chicken patties (shut up) during my impending snow house arrest. So, yeah. Grocery. 10 p.m. ELEVENTY BILLION PEOPLE. There was no meat! NO. MEAT. People had cleared the shelves! The cooler where the beef usually sits was completely bare. It was like shopping in Soviet Russia. Or at least, how I imagine it was to shop in Soviet Russia. I stood in the express lane for 45 minutes with my 7 items. Every lane was open and the lines stretched to the back of the store. Literally, there were people standing about 8 feet from the back wall of the store, waiting in line to be rung up.

So, people are a little panicky.

I was supposed to fly home to New Orleans Saturday morning, to take in some Mardi Gras action, visit my family, and watch the Superbowl with people who were interested in the outcome. But my flight has been canceled, so I'm going to fly out on Sunday morning. This is not optimal. I am coming back to DC on Monday, so my trip will only be about 24 hours long. Still, I was so excited about this trip, and I won't really have a good opportunity to visit again for the next couple of months, so I really want to go down there.

Growing up, I saw a lot of panic surrounding hurricane preparations: people would flock to grocery stores and Home Depot, scooping up all the bottled water/candles/flashlights/plywood that they could carry. It's kind of strange that, in a situation where the biggest threat is that you'll have to stay in your dry, warm house, people are just as capable of creating chaos.

And now, some very important advice on how to handle snowmaggedon: http://snowpocalypsedc.com/

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Why I'll Never Be on a Game Show

This morning, from my strategic position on the Metro, I saw a sign someone had posted in their office window. Each letter was printed on a separate sheet of copier paper and was taped facing outward, presumably for the pleasure of passing Metro passengers. The message was, "Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day." How charming.

Anyway, the way the sign was put together made me think of Wheel of Fortune. And that made me think that it would be a little hilarious if you guessed every puzzle as "Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day, Pat."

Really, any bizarre answer with no real relation to the puzzle clues would work. Another option: guessing something very close to the answer, but not right. Like, if the puzzle looks like this:

"G_ne _ith the _ind"

You guess "Scarlett O'Hara." Maybe this is only funny to me.

Well, for your trouble, here's a picture of a baby animal. Cute, right?