Speechless

Funny thing about me: I'm very rarely speechless. Verbose may be the best descriptor ever used to describe me. Ask my friend Clark about the time I submitted a 1,200-word column on a football game I covered. It should have been in the 500-600 word range. Whoops.

I usually don't have a very hard time coming up with things to say or to write, and I have opinions about almost everything (even if I don't necessarily articulate them at every moment of the day [restraint, my friends -- a valuable skill]). Those are several reasons why I've always enjoyed being a "writer."

It's a wonderful outlet for when I have things to say (which is often), even if the number of people who care about those things can be counted on one hand (which is also often).

Imagine my surprise when I sat down to write for the blog today, and I had nothing. I don't have anything particularly funny or interesting to say (not that anything I ever say is particularly funny or interesting, mind you), which is both pretty funny and interesting to me, anyway. I have a list of 20 or so ideas for posts sketched out, but none of them really excited me today.

I'm honestly pretty shocked I've been able to keep up with the three-times-a-week writing schedule, with only a couple slips, for almost three full months now. Anyway.

So there you go. This post is about to get a little stream-of-consciousnessy. Continue at your own risk.

I was so blown away by the response to my story about The Cycle. Google Analytics tells me the blog received the second-most traffic yesterday behind only my (500) Days of Summer break-up post. That's so awesome. I loved writing that story yesterday. I seriously loved playing in a band, even if it was only for a brief time.

You know, maybe I should hop on Craigslist and see if there are any fun bands around here looking for a drummer. I'm not trying to join a super-serious, pretentious band or anything. I seriously doubt I'm good enough to play in a band like that. I just want to play some fun music that gets people dancing. I'm going to have to think about this one. Not a bad idea.

I just saw a new show on BBC America called "The Hour." Let me tell you this. I think it's going to be awesome. The pilot just aired a day or two ago. But it's set in 1950s England at the BBC as the network tries to launch a new news program.

Because of the time period in which it's set, it kind of has a Mad Men-esque vibe going on, which I'm obviously a fan of because I love Mad Men. McNulty from The Wire stars in the "Don Draper" role. My only gripe is BBC America is not available in HD (I know, #firstworldproblems). It's just really distracting on a 55-inch HDTV (#humblebrag, to continue the out-of-place hash tag trend). Oh well. DVR is set. I'll have to deal.

So last night, my friends and I went to Front Page for happy hour because they've got some pretty good specials there on Thursday nights ($2 Miller Lites, Corona and Corona Lights, as well as free tacos). I didn't get any tacos though. They ran out. I love when I can go out and have a really good time for like $16. And I like it even MORE when it doesn't lead to any weight gain the next day.

Yes, I weighed in for the third consecutive day at 193 for a loss of 34 pounds. I'll take it! I really wish my ribs would stop hurting so I can get back to running and lifting the way I want to. I'm just too scared to try anything in the gym with my ribs hurting the way they are.

I'm definitely taking it easy tonight because TOMORROW one of the Katies has a friend in a band, and that band is playing somewhere in Bethesda! It almost doesn't matter what kind of music it is. I just like to go listen to live music. It'll be a good time, for SHO. And then we'll likely go out somewhere after that. I most definitely cannot go out three nights in a row. So tonight is a TV/reading/walking the dog kind of night.

For privacy reasons, I have my Twitter settings such that you have to request to follow me (which you should totally do, by the way). In the past 24 hours I have received no fewer than SEVEN requests from obvious porn spam accounts. What in the world. So very strange.

Still no word on the job front, but my confidence is renewed! Google's Revenge will not allow me to speak about these things publicly, but feel free to gchat me/text me or something. I am hopeful and optimistic as ever.

Oh, my dog Allie walked into a tree today. So that happened. She gets in the habit of not looking where she's going when she sees other dogs across the street. She follows them intently with her whole head and pays no attention to what's in front of her.

Well on our walk this morning, there was a big German shepherd on the other side of the street, and Allie was, predictably, pumped about it. Well I'm so used to her going nuts for other dogs, I didn't notice she stopped looking forward. Then I heard a yelp and saw her snorting and making funny faces. Yup. She walked into a tree. Once she and I determined she was not hurt, it was actually quite funny.

I felt so bad for her. I think she was embarrassed. She didn't want to walk for a few minutes and just buried her head in my legs. Poor thing. She's fine, of course, and we were able to complete the walk successfully without another tree-crashing incident. Oh dogs. You never cease to amaze me.

Wow, look at that. I started writing this thinking I had no idea what I was going to write, and I've turned in more than 1,000 words anyway.

As always, thank you so, so much for reading and for the feedback you give me. People telling me they're reading, laughing and enjoying the blog is seriously amazing, and it always makes my day. I'll try to come up with something thoroughly entertaining by Monday. Until then!

-BG

Guilty Pleasures are Embarrassingly Fun

First thing's first:

OH YEAH JERSEY SHORE YEAH.

Jersey Shore returns with its new season tonight! LET'S GO!

My No. 1 guilty pleasure at the moment is -- without question -- Jersey Shore. I know, I know. You're about to tell me how it's such a terrible show, and the people on it are so awful and Italian American stereotypes and etc. etc.

Here's my counterargument to all of that: Bite me.

I don't care.

I normally hate reality shows. The Bachelor and The Bachelorette make my skin crawl. The Real Housewives series gives me a stomachache just thinking about them. I haven't watched the Real World in 10 years. Never watched Survivor or the Amazing Race or American Idol or anything like that. I don't mind some cooking shows like Hell's Kitchen and Masterchef.

I have seen a few episodes of Dancing with the Stars with various girlfriends over the years, but let's face it, there are ample reasons to watch that show other than the competition.

Jersey Shore, on the other hand, I just can't get enough. I don't exactly know why. But I know I'm not alone.

Here's the thing, I find Pauly D to be completely compelling and engrossing. I will watch Pauly on any show he does from now on. And here's another thing: when they first started running promos for this show a couple years ago, I definitely did NOT expect the guy who looks most stereotypically like a douchebag to be the most down-to-earth and chill of all of them. But there it is.

The show is not without its downsides. I find almost all of the girls on the show to be terrible -- especially Sammi.

Sammi, stop messing around with Ronnie. He's obviously not that into you, and he's a slimeball, ok? How many times does he have to throw your shit outside before you take the hint that maybe you're not right for each other?

I find Snooki and her friend Deena borderline OK. They annoy me, but nothing like Sammi. I can tolerate their presence. Angelina was terrible. No redeeming qualities. I'm so glad she's gone. I am, however, a big fan of JWoww. She's pretty awesome.

As for the guys, I've already discussed my mancrush on Pauly. Vinnie is fine with me, too, and Situation, well. I don't know. I liked Sitch a lot in the first season, season and a half maybe. But his act is growing old for me. Ronnie just needs to stop. We get it. You treat Sammi like shit. You cheat on her, and then somehow convince her it's her fault. I mean. What can you say about him?

With all that said, not only can I not stop watching it, but I'm incredibly excited for it to start again.

Don't judge me. We all have guilty pleasures. I just find some of the embarrassing things I like to be funny. Jersey Shore is No. 1 on the list, but it is hardly alone.

I'm also a huge fan of the MTV Challenge. Like I said, I haven't watched Real World in nearly a decade, so I'm still playing catch-up with the people on it, but this show is fantastic. Bill Simmons calls it the fifth American professional sport, ahead of NASCAR, which I have a hard time disagreeing with, honestly.

I also own the following DVDs and Blurays: Bedazzled, starring Elizabeth Hurly and Brendon Frasier; Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man (heck yes.); The Sweetest Thing (a really terrible [read: awesome] chick flick); and The Holiday.

I make no apologies for these movie choices.

And oh my music selections. One time when I was back at Technician, I was driving to dinner with a bunch of people in my car. The Colbie Callait song "Bubbly" came on because we were listening to a mix CD I'd made. One of the girls in the backseat commented how she kept waiting for the fast guitars to start. But no. It was really a Colbie Callait song.

Riding in my car has always guaranteed a really...strange?...mix of songs. My mix CDs contained songs ranging from The Beatles to Belle and Sebastion to Reel Big Fish to Mariah Carey to Tim McGraw to Third Eye Blind to the Smashing Pumpkins to the Pixies to Muse to Lady Gaga and so on.

One other time, we were riding in my car, and the following two songs played back-to-back:

"Before He Cheats" by Carrie Underwood
"Always Be My Baby" by the aforementioned Mariah Carey

What could I say other than, "well this is embarrassing?" Yup.

Want to know some more embarrassing songs I have on my iPod? Of course you do.

Ashlee Simpson - Pieces of Me
Backstreet Boys - I Want it That Way
Beyonce - Single Ladies
Extreme - More Than Words
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
Miley Cyrus - 7 Things I Hate About You
New Kids on the Block - Tonight
R. Kelly - Ignition
Shaggy - Angel

And that's nothing close to an exhaustive list of the embarrassing songs I like. Those are just the few that jumped out at me on a cursory trip through the playlist.

I would absolutely love to know what some of your guilty pleasures are. It may give me some more ideas of terrible things I need to listen to, watch or read. Because, as you can see, I love me some awful things.

Lulz.

-BG

Looking Ahead

Quite a busy few days looming ahead here. And it's all over the place, too.

Allow me to take a stroll through the next several days and check out what's going on. And yes, this post is as much for my organization and sanity as it is for entertainment. Whatevs.

Friday (today!)

OK, not a whole lot going on today. I'm mostly taking it easy after last night. That's the funny thing with age. It doesn't necessarily prevent you from going out and having as much as you used to, but it definitely takes an extra minute or two to get back to life again...haha.

But yeah, last night was a softball game followed by the customary trip to our bar afterward. The game started off rough. We were down TWO players at the start of the game. Illinois had to let us borrow someone to play catcher, and we were missing an outfielder, so there were plenty of gaps out there.

They ended up scoring 13 runs in the first two innings. Ridiculous! We outscored them something like 5-2 once our full team showed up, but lost 15-8 I think.

Anyway, we kicked some serious ass at flip-cup afterward. Indiana's team challenged us, and we immediately won the first seven rounds we played. I think the final tally was 9-3 or 10-3? Domination, son!

In other Friday news, my future wife Hope Solo will be the guest on PTI today, so I'm pretty pumped about that. And the big news tonight is the 90-minute series finale for Friday Night Lights.

A lot of people I talk to are so skeptical of FNL. "Oh that high school football show?" Well, yes. It has some high school football, but it's mostly about this coach and his family and the kids on his teams and their relationships and the unbelievable roller coaster of emotions small-town football puts them through.

Seriously, it has some of the best writing and acting I've ever, ever seen on a television show (aside from a particularly ridiculous story line in season 2). The majority of the shows five seasons have been as good as television should be and can be. I am simultaneously excited and depressed about tonight's finale.

I believe the show is on Netflix Instant at the moment, and it is so worth your time to check it out. I promise. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. So good.

Saturday

Saturday I will go running. Because I most definitely did not go running today...haha. I didn't wake up with a hangover, but I felt it would be unwise to push my luck on that front.

I've got a LOT of shit to do around my apartment because it's about time to start preparations for a temporary move to Charlotte. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but what can you do? I will do what I do: roll with it and make the best of it.

And kind of an ongoing thing for the next week or so is I'm going to be one of two acting coaches for the softball team while our main coach is out of town. For the win!

But what that means is all I'm going to do is think about the team for the next week (which includes three games). It reminds of the time in grad school when Clark went out of town for the summer, and I served as the sports editor for Technician for the summer.

The paper only published once a week in the summers, but I LITERALLY thought of nothing else all day every day. Every single day it was, "oh god what stories will I run this week." "What stories can I write this week." "Who is around to write stories this week." I'm getting anxious just thinking about how anxious I was running the section for the summer. Ha.

I seriously could not imagine being the full-time sports editor during the semester when we published Monday through Friday.

Anyway. Judging by the weather forecast this weekend, I will be spending most of it outside. Great success.

Sunday

Big TV day on Sunday, I gotta say.

I'll probably hit up some church after walking Allie in the morning. But oh boy is there ever some shit to watch.

First we have the Women's World Cup final going on with the U.S. vs. Japan. I wrote about my feelings on the U.S. women's national team on Wednesday. I can't wait to watch this game. Let's go, ladies. Kick some ass.

And then Sunday night is the season 4 premiere of Breaking Bad, which is maybe the best show currently airing on television. Top notch, man.

It's also really easy to catch up on it if you haven't been watching. The first season is only seven episodes, and seasons two and three are only 13 episodes each. There's nothing I can say that will do the show justice. It is just amazingly done in every aspect, and I am so, so excited about its return.

Monday

So what's up on Monday? Oh yeah! Job interview downtown! Again, zero percent chance I name the company here, but you know. There it is. I feel good about how the phone interview went last week, and I like the company and the work they do.

When you combine that with how good I've been feeling over the past couple of weeks -- I mean, my confidence is at an all-time high because of my kick-ass weight loss, and I've had a much greater positive outlook lately than before.

Shit's just good, man. This could be it. But I need to get down there and talk to them and see how it goes before I really get excited. I'm just happy to have another opportunity. LET'S GO!

Well that's the next few days. Thursday, we're playing Penn State in softball, and then Saturday we have a doubleheader with Cornell and Richmond. CAN'T WAIT!

I will be working with Evan to set the line-ups and run the games, and I couldn't be more excited. It really is irrational how much I love playing in this damn softball league haha. Whatevs!

Questions? Comments? LET ME KNOOOOW!

And only like six people will understand why I wrote that phrase the way I wrote it. Ha. I'm going for mass appeal here, folks.

I'm out!

-BG