Today, So Far

Just keeping a running tab for Rachel Potempa, since apparently my life is her business:

11:00 AM: Woke up. I wake up late now because the anti-psychotic I take before bed puts me into a deep sleep. It's called Seroquel. I don't want to forget any details.

11:01 AM to 12:15 PM: Read up on the sources I check every morning for the soccer job. Wrote a few updates. In case you were curious, Freddy Adu may be moving to another European club and Arsenal's ownership may have to sell Adebayor and Fabregas because of a budget crunch.

12:15 PM to NOW: Journaled and read the current book that I am reading to get through my mind-numbing, suicidal depression. The book is titled "Unstuck" and is penned by Dr. James S. Gordon. So you know Rachel, I did forget my morning meds today, and I am thinking of not taking them and just taking my Inderall (for high blood-pressure) and Klonopin (anti-anxiety) at dinner time, and of course my Seroquel tonight at bed time.

So that's my day so far, feel free to share it with everyone since my personal business is apparently yours now too. Tell DJ Anthony I said hello, but I doubt you guys exchanged personal info, so call him at the radio station later.

Everyone else -- we can get through this together with you guys or without you guys. I could care less, but Kristin would prefer that we get through this with you guys...so mind your own business, you have NO FUCKING IDEA what this is like to live through day to day, you have NO FUCKING IDEA what the truth is, and stop judging because Lord knows there are a lot more skeletons in y'alls closets than there are in mine.



...and that's all that matters.

Amazing New Music

The CD is dead. With that, everything now is singles. The top 100 on iTunes is all pop, one-hit wonders. Flo Rida...seriously?

Album sales are at the lowest point they have been at in the history of the recording industry, and record labels are crying poor. So, it's hard to find great albums, but please do yourself a favor and download Amos Lee's new album "Last Days at the Lodge." It's pretty near flawless.

While you're banging around iTunes, check out his other two albums, they're also phenomenal.

P.S -- Why do people like this "I Kissed a Girl" song? GO AWAY

I am aching for a road trip -- if you can get to Kitchener, Ontario tomorrow, holler at me.

The All-Star Game

Jason Varitek in the All-Star Game is a disgrace.

Here are his "all-star stats":

Batting Average .219
On-Base Percentage .301
Slugging Percentage .360

What a fucking joke.

Hancock

People's expectations are WAYY too high. Hancock gets 3 out of 4 stars in the newspaper, but thre review says it didn't match expectations. Well -- ya gave it 3/4, that's pretty good...

Dudes in the bathroom after the movie too. Always the best indicator of whether a movie did the job or not, saying "it was good but I expected more."

That word's invention is the death of civilization. BUT.

You just said the movie was good brother!!!! Why do you have to qualify, AND, what the hell were you expecting? It had a ridiculous amount of cool CGI, incredibly funny scenes, violence, and a scene that made you feel, for five seconds, like you knew what it might be like to wake up next to to Charlize Theron.

$9.00 is making people expect The Godfather every time out. Hancock was good. It entertained the hell out of me for 2 hours, it made me laugh out loud, had me say "wow" at some of the effects, and I walked out feeling justified for choosing that flick over a couple of other ones (see Baby's Mama).

It's definitely the kind of movie that you need to see in the theaters, so go see it, it's entertaining, Will Smith is the man, Charlize Theron is the perfect female specimen, and you'll laugh. It won't change your world, but it beats the hell out of Adam Sandler character-acting.

Dollar Beer Night in Erie, PA

Spontaneous road trips are my thing. We've established this by now. So, laying around on a Monday, with Kristin having the day off and Lil' Rubby in town, we gotta do something cool. I bumped around on the internet a little bit and saw that Erie was home, and yeah, that's awesome with them being the AA affiliate of my Tigers and all, but there was a hell of a lot more reason to go to Erie on a Monday than that.

At first I thought it was a mis-print or somebody messing around. The site said Mondays in Erie's Jerry Uht park are "Buck Night." Reserve tickets are 3 bucks, and ridiculously, 12-ounce beers and hot dogs are a dollar. ONE DOLLAR.

We got to Erie in 90 minutes, messed around at their mall, then went to find the ballpark, which, for a AA stadium, is reallllllly nice. The sight-lines are terrific, it's clean and modern and smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood.

We got our first two beers (any beer too, not just one particular kind), and went up to the rightfield picnic pavilion to grab our one dollar dogs, drink our beers. and relax before the game. It was a crisp night, with the doubt of rain always hanging over head, but it was solid. A nice break from 90 degrees.

In the picnic pavilion a guy from a local radio station came up and asked us if we wanted to throw out the first pitch. We were like "hell yes," so he had us fill out entry forms to see who would win the "honor." It was deader than dead, so we were pretty sure our three entries were the only ones they had...We felt confident one of us was going to be chosen...Thank God for all of us they chose the only one who actually cares about the SeaWolves and the Tigers organization...yours truly.


...us with the aforementioned "guy from local Erie radio station."

So I was jacked up, but also four beers deep at this point. I might add, four beers deep on Klonopin and Cymbalta, a fairly empty stomach, and wearing sandals. Two other kids went out with me, they were terrible, the one kid did his best Steve Blass impression, while the other one had the personality of Mike Mussina (sorry -- inside joke ).


...is this heaven? No, it's Erie, Pennsylvania on a Monday night.

My first pitch was as shoddy as this pic (both results of dollar beer night). I got it there, but bounced it deep in the left-handed hitters batter's box but my catcher, Erie pitcher Casey Fein, scooped it. On the way off the mound I lost my left sandal briefly and felt like an ass, but Casey gave me props for getting it to him in sandals. I threw out the first pitch at a Erie SeaWolves game!!! Flippin' amazing!!! As corny as it sounds, it was kind of like a dream of mine that came true. As much as I LOVE baseball, and the fact that it was one of the Tigers' affiliates...It was amazing.



The game was really a well-played game too. It came down to the final pitch, Erie had a chance for a walk-off, but it wasn't to be. I would say between the three of us we came close to killing 20 beers, 9 hot dogs, and making really good friends with the people around us. The one kid, Jackson (6 years old), was a pistol, and we were trying so hard to get him a ball all game. His parents left without him getting a chance to say goodbye to us, so his uncle brought him all the way back to the seats just so he could say good-bye to us. It was so freaking cute that I melted a lil' and ended up giving him my first-pitch ball.