Monday, January 24, 2005

Weekends Are Just Too Damned Short

Unfortunately, there was no holiday or special celebration to cause a day off on either Friday or Monday, elongating this weekend. Most weekends aren't long ones, and even the long ones are never long enough, but it was particularly unfortunate in this case because it was one of the best weekends I've had in quite some time.

Unlike the previous Friday, when I was working in the warehouse, this time I didn't even get off work early. I was trapped in the office until 5:00, at which time I finally got to come home. No sooner had I arrived home than Brandi and I left again, heading back up to Toledo, only blocks from where I work, to do a bit of shopping. We went looking for some new bedding and other miscellaneous items. We got some extremely comfy new sheets and a comforter made of Egyptian sateen, whatever that is. Along with the new fuzzy blanket we just got for Christmas from my mom, our bed is now even more comfy than it was before. That's not totally good news, as I had enough trouble making myself get out of it the way it was. At any rate, we also got some new candles and some shelving.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner at a place pretty close to where we had been shopping. Okay, okay, it was a TGIFriday's. It was pretty busy and we had to wait over and hour for a table, but we went up to the bar and had a couple of drinks in the meantime. We finally got our table and had a nice dinner, and then we came home and rearranged our bedroom and put on our new sheets.

Brandi had to teach a class at noon on Saturday. We got up a while before that to go out and clean off her car, which was buried under all the snow that had fallen in the night. Then I came inside to play video games and do some other things around the apartment while she was at her class. When she got home, we went out shopping again, this time at a place here in town. We just got a lava lamp and some incense, and then went for lunch at McDonald's.

After McDonald's we came back and got ready for a basketball game. BG was playing a home game against archrival UT (University of Toledo), and we wanted to get there early. We got there an hour before gametime and actually had to start off in assigned seats outside of the student section due to the presence of event staff at all the locations we would normally use to sneak downstairs. It didn't matter much in the first half, as UT looked good and BG looked horrible, allowing the hated Rockets to take a 34-17 lead. I went to the bathroom at halftime, honestly wondering what kind of game I expected in the second half. I knew a team coached by Dan Dakich wasn't going to go down without a fight, but I thought it might be a bit much to think the Falcons could get back in the game. Nonetheless, I never leave early, so I went back to my seat intending to do my best to cheer the Falcons on to victory. Brandi and I only stayed in our assigned seats for a short time after halftime ended. The event staff had disappeared, and the energy the BG players showed on the first couple of possessions told me that they were indeed planning to get back into the game. Brandi and I took the opportunity to get ourselves down into the student section where we could stay standing and cheer as much and as loudly as we wanted. We watched the Falcons, spurred by the defensive play of Germain Fitch and Mawel Soler, get back into the game and finally take the lead. We watched them then hold off another surge from the Rockets and hang on for a 70-69 victory. It was an utterly crazy game, one of the best I've seen in Anderson (and that's saying something), and a whole lot of fun. Of course, it was only fun because the Falcons won. Had they lost, it still would have been a hell of a game (probably the best game I've seen at Anderson, sadly, was a Falcons loss to Akron a few years ago), but it definitely wouldn't have been as enjoyable as it was. We rushed the court along with most of the student section when the final horn sounded, then made our way out to the parking lot. We sat there and listened to Coach Dakich's comments on the radio while we waited for traffic to clear out, and then we headed home.

We thought briefly about going out for a drink that night, but eventually decided it was too cold. We just had a nice, quiet evening at home. We took some time to calm down and recover from the game (both of us were complaining of raw throats from yelling so much), and then Brandi made some popcorn and we watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Neither one of us had anything pressing to do on Sunday, so we both slept in for a while. Eventually we got up and headed over to the Wood County Humane Society to hang out with the cats, as we do from time to time. We hung out there for about half an hour, then went across the street to the mall to browse the bookstore. We also went shopping for groceries before going home.

When we got home, it was time for some football. I fired up the television, and we watched the Falcons-Eagles game. It was a little strange, because I really like both teams. I mostly wanted the Eagles to win, but I really like Michael Vick and would love to see him in the Super Bowl. The Eagles won, at any rate. We went down to my friend McComas's place for the second game, which was Patriots-Steelers. McComas is a big Steelers fan, and he's converted the rest of us, so it was a tough game to watch. This is especially true since I'm coming to hate the Patriots. I really respect the way they play and blah blah blah, but it drives me crazy the way the talking heads talk about them. I listen to these people a whole lot less than I used to, but it's impossible to miss them during the game. Tom Brady is threatening to turn into Brett Favre, and it makes me ill.

That was pretty much it for the weekend. We came home and did some typical Sunday night-type things, like laundry, but that was it for the fun stuff. Looking back, I guess there wasn't anything that stood out as being really amazing, other than the basketball game on Saturday, but it was just an overall great weekend. It was nice to have some fun stuff to do but also to be able to just kick back and relax for a while. Since it wasn't long enough, though, I just hope that this work week passes quickly so that we can get back to it. If today was any indication, I shouldn't get my hopes up too high.

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