moving into adulthood...

i have about 60 or 90 minutes of 'hotel' work to do after every road game. the rest of the time i'm killing time. in the past, i've done my work the night after the night game, tooling around on the internet, then maybe talking on the phone or watching sportscenter, then getting to work. generally, this keeps me up until 2 or 3, because i'm not particularly efficient when i'm working laptop-on-bed.

however, on tuesday night (1015 bus to the yard for noon game) and thursday night (friday bus at 130 for a night game), i've done the 'adult' thing. that is, i've gone to sleep at a reasonable time (before midnight both times, i think), set my alarm, called for a wake up call, and actually gotten up in the morning. 740 both days. then i've done my work, then i've showered, and all has worked out well.

it's odd, but i guess i can do this 'get up before 11' thing. not completely sure, though.

after wednesday's day game, dad picked me up at the hotel, i comandeered his car for a trip to the city, and i got a solid four hours of quality time with gurs. really, not much happened, and i can't think of any odd inside jokes to reference, but it was a really nice time. (actually, an inside joke, shared by hundreds, is located here, and is worth your time if you've got the 3 minutes to spare.) neilesh showed up as i was about to leave, which was perfect, and dave and ktb were there. it was sweet.

then i went back to glenview and, seeing that my brother had left his ps2 hooked up in the basement, i tried to recruit the cats to a national championship in ncaa 2005. i was bowl eligible at 6-6 (with a win at michigan...woof!) for the 2004 season, then went 3-9 (starting 0-7 in the big ten) in 2005, and was 0-4 when i gave up on 2006. i recruit and simulate...no need to play the games.

i shut off the tv at 5 a.m., and was up at 7. not really an adult, i guess.

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fascinating moment from 2:20 yesterday. first bus at 1:30, second at 2:30. owing to my 5 a.m. video gaming, i was tired and therefore elected, for the first time in a few years, for the late bus. because the hotel is far from the ballpark (25 minutes or so), the bus doesn't arrive back until 2:25 or so. so i went down to the lobby at 2:15, and waited there. i had been watching cubs-cardinals in my room, but the lobby was showing fox news. the lobby was empty, so i changed the channel.

as i was hitting 'channel up', the desk person said, "excuse me sir. we have to keep it on 54. i know it's boring, but we have to." i think it's a fascinating policy, and i don't know if it is a policy of this hotel's proprietor, or of best western's regional management, or of the company as a whole. if it's latter, it's particularly interesting.

i have no problem with wanting to keep a news station on at all hours - it's probably better for the populace to have an idea of what's going on. (i wouldn't have known about the pope if it wasn't on when i got in on tuesday...then i went to the room and watched cnn.) however, it's odd that such a clearly slanted network(of course, conservatives probably say that about cnn, but i think cnn's less blatant, don't you?) would be the choice. interesting, that's all.