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

Doin' the bull dance; feelin' the flow. Workin' it; workin' it.

It's been a good several weeks for me. As such, here are a few things I'm pretty pumped about.

1. Hockey is fun: I went to my first Washington Capitals game yesterday. A guy at work had four tickets and gave me two of them. So Rachel and I happily attended. Man, hockey is SO much more fun in person than on TV. I enjoy hockey on TV, don't get me wrong. But it's a completely different experience in person.

The crowd was NUTS, and the Caps are actually, ya know, good. So that helps. And I gotta say, Ovechkin is just unbelievable to watch. The things he does -- he just makes everything look so easy. The Caps won 5-3. When the Caps score five goals in a home game, everyone in attendance gets 10 free wings at a restaurant in the area.

Here's the best part: the fifth goal was scored by Ovechkin on a penalty shot. Co-worker Conor (the guy who got the tickets) said it best: "It was like being in the Roman Coliseum with 18,000 people all standing, all knowing what was going to happen and all screaming for blood. It was AWESOME."

And it WAS. He scored on a sick backhanded move, and the place went berserk. Really, really excellent. I will be going to more Caps games, for SURE.

2. I have a huge TV now! I keep forgetting to take pictures of my set-up. Here's what I've got:

-55" Samsung HDTV, 1080p, 120Hz, 100,000-to-1 dynamic contrast (hollaaaa)
-1,000-watt Samsung surround sound system with built-in bluray player and wireless rear speakers

YES. SIR. I still need to get an HD cable box from Comcast (we'd just been running it from the wall downstairs) to really take advantage of the HD capabilities, but my God bluray is excellent. Fire and explosions are bordering on life-changing experiences on bluray high-def.

I now have five bluray movies: Star Trek, Terminator, Terminator 2, Gladiator and Goodfellas. Very cool. I also got a Wii just so I could get the new Super Mario game. And it is also excellent.

Xbox360 games look unbelievable when you actually take advantage of everything the system can do. I am a FAN.

3. Skiing! Sometime in the next few weeks, I'll be going skiing for the first time ever! I'm so excited. Someone at work is organizing a day-trip on a Saturday for co-workers and significant others. Rachel has been skiing before, so hopefully I can get a few pointers.

Basically, I'm planning on spending most of the day on my ass and/or back. I feel like that's really the best-case scenario for me. I'm not exactly known for my coordination to begin with, so adding skis, snow and mountain to the mix isn't likely to improve matters. Whatevs. It'll be excellent.

4. CHICAGO!!! So here's the deal: Rachel's sister lives in Chicago and goes to DePaul. Technician sports editor emeritus Tanner is living in Chicago while he works with Americorps. Yeah, they live like four blocks away from each other. Crazy.

I don't know that it's ever taken LESS to convince me to do something, but Tanner goes, "Whoa come visit!" And I thought to myself, "Well why the hell not? What exactly is stopping me from doing this?" I asked Rachel if she'd like to go to Chicago (of course she did, she loves the city), and we booked our flights last night!

We'll be flying to Chicago on April 9 and coming back April 11 -- a nice little three-day weekend. I've never been to Chicago, so I'm extra pumped about it. HOLLA.

Like I said, doin' the bull dance; feelin' the flow. Workin' it; workin' it.