a plea. May 10, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : ye olde sporte , 2 commentsDear Chicago Cubs,
Please don’t make it to the World Series this year.
Don’t get me wrong. I like you, Cubs. I really do. You are tied with the Mets to be my NL favorites. You may even be beating them a little bit, just because I live in your fan zone and can see your games on television all the time. I’m going to see you play on Tuesday, and I will be cheering for you the whole time.
But here’s the thing. I need you not to make it to the World Series.
Next fall, I’m stage managing a show whose title I can’t say on the internet because of dumb legal and licensing reasons - but I will say that the tagline may or may not rhyme with “the screamin’ arbor of sweet feet” - and it opens on Halloween. Halloween is probably going to be right in the middle of the World Series. And if you make the Series, dear Cubs, nobody is going to come to our show.
When the Red Sox aren’t playing, I will be behind you all the way until October, dear Cubs. I am behind you until Game 7 of the NLCS, should you get there, knock on wood, at which point, I will have to cheer for your opponents, whoever they may be.
I hope you understand. Can we still be friends?
Sincerely,
Abby
——————–
Dear Chicago White Sox,
I don’t even have to ask.
Go Red Sox,
Abby
-@
hoooo boy. April 9, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : misc. adventures, rants & raves, ye olde sporte , 4 commentsI don’t have school on Wednesdays, but I sure did learn something: ice and pavement are not the same thing. Brilliant!
Backstory.
Almost two and a half years ago, I fell off a bench and landed pretty squarely on my left knee. I broke neither the bench nor my knee, but the latter did bruise pretty badly and the nerves at the surface were temporarily deadened. The bruise healed up pretty nicely, even considering the fact that a few weeks later I started playing hockey for the first time and found myself on my knees more frequently than my skates.
Fast-forward to a few weeks ago: the nerves in the skin on my kneecap were just starting to heal or regenerate or do whatever it is nerves do. Then I was struck by inspiration! I said to myself, “Self,” I said, “I know what you should do! Throw yourself down a flight of stairs!” “Okay!” said my body in return. “Sounds great!” My feet contrived a way to trip me and down I went, a-tumbling to the bottom of the stairs.
On my left knee. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. I was kissing my nerve endings goodbye.
Long story short, I went to the doctor, they told me I was an idiot and put me in a knee brace. Fast-forward to a few days ago. I was in the Sports Authority shopping for a new bike helmet (because my old one got stolen which is SO COOL GUYS REALLY) and I saw a display of hockey gear on sale, I guess ’cause apparently the season’s over? So that got me thinking about ice skating and how I should probably wear knee pads when I do so, because of this knee thing. So then I was in the rolling sports aisles getting these knee pads and I spotted some rollerblades on SUPER SALE:
Admit it. You’re into them. It’s okay. I won’t tell.
They’re technically roller hockey skates, but they were at a really good price - less than my helmet and set of pads combined - and I don’t know what the difference is between roller hockey skates and regular in-line skates, and I figured I used to play ice hockey anyway. So I bought them.
Over the past few days, I’ve been taking them out around the parking lots behind my building and it’s super fun. So today, I had to drop by school for a quick meeting, and I figured, why not skate there? The reasoning: if the distance between my apartment and school were flat ice as opposed to flat roads, I could skate there easily in about seven minutes.
However, my friends, I will say it again: ice and pavement are not the same thing.
The trip was hard. Way more fun than walking there, but it took a lot more out of me than I had expected it to. I didn’t think I’d have such an immediate, pressing need to shower when I got home. There was increased friction, there were spontaneous route changes due to potholes in the sidewalks, there were trillions of little tiny pebbles and sticks looking only to bring about my certain death. It was ridiculous, and now I’m tired.
And whiny.
-@
This is my most sincere wish. April 6, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : academic pursuits, technophilia, wish list, ye olde sporte , 1 commentI want a pressure-sensitive keyboard.
I’m not sure they exist. The idea just came to me when I was in the kitchen making a sandwich - literally, sixty seconds ago. I haven’t even bothered to Google the concept yet. But this is what I’m looking for in a pressure-sensitive keyboard: the elimination of the shift key.
This imaginary keyboard of mine would just know when I wanted a capital letter. I don’t think it would take much of an adjustment to learn to hit the first letter of every sentence just a little bit harder. In fact, I’m trying to be conscious of my typing pressure as I write this and I think I do that anyway. Having to hit two buttons for a capital letter adds a rhythm to my sentences that involves a slightly emphasized pressing of the desired letter’s key.
Maybe that’s just me.
This keyboard that I’m envisioning, though, would sense the harder tap and capitalize the letter for me. Maybe it could even have some sort of toggle switch or selection of buttons, so that I could tell it that harder taps should be bold text, instead, or perhaps a little bigger in size.
I think it’d be super cool.
It may seem like I’ve been neglecting this blog lately, but I assure you that is not the case: I have simply been neglecting the entire internet. At one point my Google Reader Watcher was reading in the 500s. I blame rehearsal. I’m rehearsing 5 hours all night, plus another 4 on Saturdays, plus the work I have to do outside of rehearsal for this show. The Bacchae is adding up to about 35 hours a week: almost a full-time job. On top of that, I’m still a student! I’m loving three of the four classes I’m taking this quarter - the three English classes - but the fourth, Intro to Slavic Civ, is unimaginably dull so far, but I’ll survive.
In other news, the Red Sox are losing. Baseball is the only sport I really care about. Though I live in Illinois and until recently all four of my parents were in Manhattan, my Connecticut upbringing has shaped my baseball fan tendencies. I even sprang for the MLB.com Gameday Audio deal this season: I paid $15 to listen to a whole season of baseball games, which is handy since Sox games aren’t aired on TV around here. Moral of the story is, I’m bummed that the boys are 5 runs down and sitting on 4 errors. Rrrrr.
Oh, and lastly: I’m trying to fix the comments thing. By “the comments thing” I mean the fact that the link to leave a comment is at the top of the entry. The problem is that I’m CSS-tarded. I’ll get there eventually, I hope.
-@
you probably thought i was kidding February 20, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : (pointless) humor, fun with google, the idiot box, ye olde sporte , 1 commentLadies and gentlemen, I did it.
I just submitted the form to register for the upcoming tryouts for Rockstar Curling. The registration form asked me about things like my previous athletic achievements and why I think I could be a great Rockstar Curler (Answers: I played a year of JV hockey in high school, and I think curling is underappreciated as a ridiculous-looking sport and I want to bring national attention to its merits, respectively, tongue planted firmly in cheek). I also may or may not have an RSS subscription to the Rockstar Curling blog.
I was mostly kidding when I filled out the form, but at the same time there’s definitely a part of me that thinks it would be totally sweet to go to Lake Placid and learn to curl for free and become an obscure, useless television star.
In other news, I’m irrationally amused by Google search terms. Here are the two winners of today so far.
-“is Ryan Seacrest vapid?”
Even though this one’s a plant by my sister, I still think it is search-term gold. It’s an excellent question and a thoroughly comedic sentence. The answer, my friends, is a resounding “yes”.
-“lobsters having fun”
I’m relieved that someone out there is concerned about whether or not lobsters have fun. The first Google result defines “fun” in a way I wasn’t quite expecting, but the first Google image result is even better:
Anybody see any lobsters in this photo?
-@
my new calling. February 12, 2008
Posted by Abby T in : (pointless) humor, rants & raves, ye olde sporte , 2 commentsI’m going to try out for Rockstar Curling.
From the article:
The show would involve U.S.-wide tryouts starting this year, open to anyone 18 or older. A panel of coaches will select two teams – five men and five women – to train for six months, all expenses paid, at Lake Placid, N.Y.
They would train eight hours a day under professional coaches before going to regional playdowns for the 2010 U.S. Olympic trials in February 2009.
If they win, they’re off to the Vancouver Olympics, unlikely as that may seem.
From TheStar.com, found via Dave Barry’s blog.
-@