Surprise Visits!
This afternoon, I watched the Eagles/ViQueens whilst catching up on the ol' blog. First of all, Freddie Mitchell made me say "holy shit" out loud twice in the game. Secondly, I will say this now: The Falcons can beat the Eagles. I think the Falcons are a better team than the Owens-less Eagles. And, if the Falcons can 1) Protect Michael Vick and 2) Score first and keep the lead through the first half, the Falcons WILL win. Those two things I mentioned are HUGE though. Either one of those is a reason the Eagles can win. If the Falcons get behind, and Vick has to try to catch up by passing, the Eagles will win. But if the Falcons run the ball, and can keep Vick from getting KILLED by the Eagles aggressive, blitzing defense... the Falcons should waltz into the Super Bowl.

As I was watching the Colts/Patriots, it became pretty obvious to me that the Patriots were clearly the better team. You simply can not run the ball against this defense. Either side OR straight up the middle, it doesn't matter. Even a great running game like the Colts' with James was so completely unable to run the ball on the Patriots. It's also clear to me that I HATE the Patriots, and ESPECIALLY Tom Brady. I feel pretty bad for Peyton Manning, too (whom I like). Favre and my Packers know exactly how you feel. During the mid-90s, the Packers had to go to Dallas to play the Cowboys what seemed like every year. And every year we got smacked around by the Cowboys. And I hated the Cowboys SO much. Under Mike Holmgren, the Packers went to Dallas and lost in 1993, 1994 twice, 1995 twice, and 1996 TWICE before playing them in Green Bay and winning in 1997 (in a game my father and I attended! W00t!). That's 0-7 Favre vs Cowboys... so don't worry, Peyton. You'll do it eventually. When you play the Patriots in Indy.

Tonight was week three of Basically Awesome! The interesting news that we got as my crew got to the Skybox to rehearse was that we were effectively sold-out. We had been sold-out, in that they were taking no more pre-sales... but they were going to be taking some walk-up ticket sales. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, the show went pretty well, but we were second again this week. And, after watching the tight, funny, and experienced Poppyseed Lane crew, our show is less than spectacular by comparison. But, I'm learning that we can have a better show on stage, and the audience can react to it less enthusiastically. A run of shows is an interesting thing... to be sure. So much to learn. Anyway, after the show I took my sweet time getting out to greet people because I had no one to greet. Boy can I be wrong sometimes. Waiting outside was Mr. James P. Shilander! With a surprise visit! He came up to see the show, and then spend some time with his brother. He's delayed on his move to DC, and--in the meantime--is sending out resumes and seeing my show! Hooray! We talked for a bit, but then had to go our separate ways. He to his brother's, me to a bar (of course!).

#6 Best of 2004 - Visits and Surprise Visits to Chicago!!! How apropos! The sixth best thing about 2004 was all the visits and especially the surprise visits by my friends to Chicago. Sarah, Amber, and Randi came to see one of my shows; Nick showed up out of the blue; Nate came at the beginning of the year; Ken was here in 2004; Jason came up to hang out a bit; Jim was here to pick me up at, seemingly, just the right times; and then my parents came to see my shows and take me places and buy me things. Moving to a new place is... well... scary. It's hard, too... to not know anyone. It's even harder if you aren't in school (I'm taking a university with thousands of people, not my classes of 12 or less) or have a job, so that meeting new people is difficult and tedious. This makes it even MORE important for friends and family to show support by showing up... asking how things are going... and buying me food (heehee). But, seriously, moving to a place where you don't know anyone, don't have a job yet, and aren't forced to live with other people (like college)... is very difficult. So having people visit me while I was trying to transition from old life to new was very important to me. It really helped... probably more than I could express here on this ol' blog. Thank you, everyone.