Sunday, March 29, 2009

This One's For The Girls...

Okay. So since I spend way too much time in front of the television watching sports-related programming, I've picked up a few noteworthy celeb crushes along the way. I feel it is now my womanly duty to pass along information about these athletic hunks that less sports-inclined girls may not know about.

Disclaimer: The pictures are not the best. All of these guys look MUCH better in live action.

Disclaimer #2: Yes, my boyfriend knows about these crushes and puts up with/condones them. Most of them anyway.


The Sportscaster
Tony "Stat Boy" Reali is the host of ESPN's Around the Horn. The show features four sportswriters debating current topics, with Tony arbitrarily giving them points. With his boyish good looks and witty charm, Tony calls me to the t.v. if I'm home at 5:00. Plus, he tweets!



The Ref
Being a sports fan, I generally don't like refs. Here is my exception. Ed Hochuli is the only NFL referee that looks like he could actually play the game. He is also almost three times my age. So what? Look at those arms! Ed got into a little bit of hot water this past season over a blown call that, due to NFL rules, could not be reversed. I blame the organization, not poor Ed. In real life, he's a lawyer, so he's gotta be smart too.




The Import
David Beckham may be some girls' British hunk o'choice, but I chose someone a little more...manly. Michael "The Count" Bisping (the one kicking, not the one with the flapping flab) is a UFC fighter with a record of 18 wins and only 1 loss. If watching two guys rolling around in a cage isn't your thing, just tune in for the pre- and post-fight interviews. That accent makes me swoon every time.

The Superstar
This category was a toughy. While I adore LeBron James, most people know who he is, even if they aren't sports fan. So I'm going to go with Dwight Howard, aka Superman. At 6'11", 265 lbs, this hunk o'man thrills the dunk contests and regular games with his sky-high athleticism.






So there you have it. A good round look at the world of sports and its hidden gems. Of course, there are many more pieces of eye candy - there has to be with that much muscle and spandex.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Am I a Sports Sell-Out?

I've followed sports for as long as I can remember. Pro football and college basketball are my favorite, and I've remained loyal to the Buffalo Bills and Syracuse Orange since I was a little kid. I'm also pretty passionate about my teams, and have been known to scream and the tv, either in joy or in pain (usually pain during football season...and seriously Buffalo - T.O.? Not happy, but that's another story).

These days, being a sports fan may also mean you participate in some kind of fantasy league. I have at least one fantasy football team per season and fill out at least two NCAA brackets each March. When choosing your players or teams, it's important to think with your head and not your heart. Thus, I don't have too many Buffalo players or Cinderella stories.

At this time of year I find myself questioning my fanhood integrity. For example. Today Siena, a nine-seed and only about two hours from my house, played Louisville, the number one overall seed and a Big East rival. It was a close game that Louisville eventually won. Normally, I would have cheered relentlessly for Siena, seeking an upset and a little retribution for SU's two losses to Louisville this season. But since I have Louisville going to the championship game in both of my brackets, I waited anxiously for the Cardinals to get it together and win.

Does this make me a bad person? Does it make me less of a fan of the sport, and more selfishly concerned about my own competitive edge and financial gain? If it does, I'm certainly not the only one - not that it makes it okay.

There are exceptions to this rule. In my brackets, I have Syracuse losing to North Carolina in the Elite Eight. Of course, I will not actually be rooting for UNC. Syracuse's victories trump any kind of competition I could personally be in.

Does anyone else go through this internal dilemma? I've considered not doing the brackets or fantasy leagues, but they're so much fun! I always think that this year could be the year I'll win it all. Think you can do better? Wanna put $5 on it?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

...The Non-Uma Thurman Type

That's right. I have poison ivy. In March.

You may be wondering how on earth that happened. So am I. It's me - I've barely been outside in the last 6 months.

Last Sunday I had one itchy dot on my elbow that I thought was a bug bite. It slowly turned into bigger and itchier patches on both arms. At that point I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something, perhaps the new brand of drier sheets we had started using. When the spots spread further still and were definitely clustering and looking really gross, I went to the doctor thinking I had some tropical disease. She simply gave me a funny look and said it was poison ivy and there was nothing I could do about it. She also suggested that the dog may have gotten into it somewhere and that's how I got it (Note: no one else in my family has it and my mom gets poison ivy at least once a year).

I've had it for over a week and it shows no signs of stopping. New spots are still appearing - I now have them on my arms, legs, stomach and back. To add to the oddity, I even have it on that one part of my back that I can't reach no matter how much I contort my arms and shoulders. It seriously looks like I found a patch of poison ivy and rolled around in it. The doctor did assure me that I'm not contagious, so don't worry.

I had poison ivy once before. I was in 4th or 5th grade and actually had a legitimate excuse - I had been in the woods at a friend's house. I am SOOOOO itchy now and there's no way it was this bad then. If there is one thing I remember in life and love to complain about, it is my personal ailments.

I've used so much calamine lotion in the past few days that I am never going to be able to look at the color pink again. Speaking of which, calamine lotion befuddles me. How is it ALWAYS cold? Wikipedia doesn't tell me, although it does tell me that in 1992 the FDA basically said, "Nothing will ever make you stop itching. SUCKS TO BE YOU!"

So now I wait. In an itchy hell. But then again, it could be worse. I could actually be allergic to a chemical, or worse, a food. That would be terrible.

Monday, March 2, 2009

I See Dead People

Okay actually I don't. But I read about them. A lot. One of the things I am in charge of at work is our huge database of donors and participants and family members and other random connections and such. Having over 10,000 people to keep track of is a lot. When I do mailings, obviously I want to save on postage as much as I can.

Therefore, every morning I scour the obituaries on syracuse.com and see if any of my constituents or their family members have died. It's actually one of the favorite parts of my day. Usually I go through the obits first thing in the morning, so I make myself a cup of tea and settle in at my desk. Scouring through the names, I usually find at least one person per day connected to us in some way.

Reading all of the obituaries is like going through all the genres of movies or literature. There are the notices of young kids that die in car crashes or stillborn babies that make me want to cry. Then there are the 97-year-old great-grandmas who died peacefully in their sleep after a long fulfilling life.

There are several important aspects to every obituary: the life story, the surviving relatives, services, and contributions. The life story is the most varied portion. Some people have one line that says when they died and where they were from and that's it. Others have novels about their childhood through adulthood and lists every club or organization they were involved with and every pet they ever had and every every job they ever held. My goal in life (or death, I suppose) is to have a nice middle-of-the-road obituary. Sorry Pongo - you probably won't make the cut.

The "In lieu of flowers" section is the other section I notice the most. It's kind of morbid, but I always hope I'll find our name listed. Memorial donations can raise a lot of money without having to do the solicitation. Now please don't get me wrong - I obviously don't want anyone connected to us to die.

Reading the obituaries every day makes you think a lot about...well, death. It's funny those few paragraphs are the way your loved ones choose to represent you to the world. But I guess it's not really important what I think when I read the obituaries about people I don't know. What matters is how the people they knew and influenced remember them.

Remember that whole getting ahead of myself thing? Here I am, thinking about my death and how I want to be remembered and all that nonsense. Probably not what I should be focused on right now - I got a long time before that comes (hopefully).

"There's two dates in time
That they'll carve on your stone
And everyone knows what they mean
What's more important
Is the time that is known
In that little dash there in between"
-Garth Brooks, "Pushing Up Daisies