I love this time of year. We get that extra hour of sunshine. The sun is out, but it’s not too hot. The winds are just right. The perfect weather for me to not work on my golf game.
I’m really excited because I think this is the year that I don’t play golf better than ever before. I really feel inspired when I think about not picking up a club.
I love to drive. I actually don’t mind the one-hour commute to Baltimore each day during the week. But that love is being tested.
First of all, there are the gas prices. You know the drill – too much money, ripping us off, alternative fuels, yada, yada, yada.
Just like everyone else, I gape in amazement when I see a station has pushed its prices up 10 cents a gallon in a day. You can bet they haven’t lowered the price of hot dogs inside, helping us all make ends meet better. That would be a nice gesture.
Twenty-six years ago, an event took place that changed my life. And I wasn’t even there. The rock group R.E.M. played together publicly for the first time on April 5, 1980. The event was hardly something that signaled a long career – they didn’t even have a name and had only practiced together for a month or so before playing at a beer-soaked party.
But that night changed my life, even if I was probably at home watching television or making a fool out of myself at a junior high dance.
I don’t make a habit out of making heroes out of celebrities. I have a low tolerance for those who see entertainers as anything other than just that.
I suspend that rule for R.E.M. In reality, I don’t think they have done anything extra special. But the fact that they have achieved great success while not doing anything special is what makes me feel the way I do.
I had to go to a lunch presentation for work the other day. Everyone loves a free lunch, right? Wrong.
I could barely recognize the stuff that filled my plate as a proper lunch. I should have expected as much when I saw the “salad” that started the meal – a bunch of spinach leaves and a few stray onions. I don’t eat many salads, but I don’t know how that can qualify as food. First off, it’s not a salad unless it has croutons. And spinach can’t ever serve as the primary attraction in any food.
I love the movie “Groundhog Day.” One of my favorite scenes comes when Phil Connors, the irascible weatherman played by Bill Murray, tries to explain his predicament to his producer. “It’s the only possible explanation. I’m a supernatural being.”
He was talking about living the same day over again. I don’t have that problem, but I know exactly how we felt when he came to grips with his power.
It’s my fault we haven’t had rain for so long.
Sometimes when you spend money, don’t you feel like just throwing it down the sewer? I mean, aren’t there purchases or investment decisions that you know will go wrong even before you hand over your money?
That’s exactly how I felt when I turned in my NCAA basketball brackets a little more than a week ago.
Apparently, the people in charge in the Netherlands have the funny feeling that new immigrants to the country have a little bit of trouble adapting to their liberal ways. They have developed a new immigration test that will try and make sure people entering the country have a grip on how things work in Holland. Oh, then there’s the video.
The government gives all new candidates for immigration a two-hour movie that sheds light on things that are normal to Dutch citizens, but not so much to those entering the country, particularly from Muslim countries.
I don’t want to use this space to argue the values of showing a video with a woman sunbathing topless or two men kissing. That’s for the freaky, deaky Dutch to decide.
We need to make our immigration test better.
I fear for my sanity. Can anyone tell me what I have gotten myself into? I signed up to coach my daughter’s soccer team.
I entered into this fray willingly. I actually ticked off several boxes for volunteer options when I signed Bridget up to play a month or so ago. But it all hit me as I stood at the front of the room with the other coaches earlier this week.
Do you know how some years, film experts talk about the lack of good candidates for The Oscars? Well, it’s that kind of year for The Brians, now celebrating their fourth year. Actually, the quality of the films eligible remains very high. The number of films, not so much.
In fact, I have had to expand the rules beyond the original concept, which was movies I saw in the theatre. This year, all movies released in 2005 that I saw in any form were eligible.
I only saw three movies released in 2005, however. Pretty sad, huh? “The Wedding Crashers” (we ordered that on the TV while on vacation), “Hitch” (cable) and “40-Year-Old Virgin” (we actually saw that in the theatre) will battle for honors.
People sometimes develop unhealthy obsessions with entertainment figures and fictional characters. I have never really understood it, but I don’t let it bother me. Well, I didn’t until recently when this hero worship hit a little too close to home. I don’t really care if people spend their days obsessing about James Bond, but they don’t have to insult me in the process.