Look at the tight end on that one

For years, the Super Bowl for me has always meant one thing: an excuse to eat tons of junk food and audibly judge commercials without getting weird looks from people. In fact, on a copy editing test for an internship in college, one of the only current affairs questions I missed was which team had won the previous year's championship. (Don't worry, I got the Beyonce and Ryan Seacrest questions no problem).

But this year, I'm taking a new approach. Mainly because if my students are going to be arguing for 3 months at a time about football, I'd like to at least know how to cleverly interject to get them on task. A couple weeks ago, I ended up watching almost every division semi-final playoff game. (Granted, I was sick as a dog and immobilized on a couch in Atlanta, but what can you do.)

I watched the "beloved" Ravens go down hard to the Colts, while finally learning the name of the Baltimore quarterback. The Saints slaughtered Arizona, and I even got to educate the boys when they asked "who is the random chick jumping around in the private box?" Silly boys, anyone knows Kim and Reggie are back together. At least anyone who overdoses on E! reality shows.

It's a nice feeling to be connected to the one sport I've never really gotten jazzed about. My house was never one of the "but the game's on, honey" kind of Saturdays, so I didn't even really know how the game was played until college, when I had the "privilege" of living with a college football fanatic and also dating one. I even voluntarily watched Ohio State games this fall, including the Rose Bowl.

And even though my favorite cheer is still "just sit on him!" I feel like I can actually make educated comments about good/bad plays, the level of suckiness for a given quarterback, and mock a kicker for losing the game. Good going, Nate Kaeding.

So next Sunday, I'm bringing my A-game. Just make sure there's some nachos and terrible Doritos commericals, too.

6 miles under

Yesterday, I had an epiphany as I was trying to get to the Best Buy in the Inner Harbor. Well, 1 epiphany, 1 just organization of thoughts.

Epiphany: I hate Best Buy.
Organization of thoughts: I'm a passive driver

Trying to park in the Inner Harbor is a nightmare. It's the cool-kid tourist zone, so everything funnels into overpriced parking garages that I try to avoid whenever possible. So I circled, and circled, and circled, looking for street parking that wouldn't leave my car without a window or stereo system. No luck.

But as I sucked it up and shelled out the $7 for an hour, I realized that it wasn't just today that left me high and dry. It's all the time. I'm not the girl who guns it up at a changing light, or crosses 3 lanes at the last minute to make an exit. I only speed on straighaways with more than 2 lanes, and have never to date honked at another driver unless my literal life was in danger from being squished up against a median (and that was only that one time).

Especially on Baltimore's less-than-ideal roadways, this leaves me in quite the predicament. Around here, it's speed up/swerve lanes/avoid turn signals/ignore yellow lights, or die. Well I guess not die, but be considered a serious pansy and embarrasment to the state of Maryland. But I don't care. I would rather be the person whose passengers say "really, is my grandma driving this car?" than the one with who they grip their seats in terror. And I'm ok with that.

start with the spring rolls

I was looking back over previous year end/beginning posts, and realized I don't have any. Seems that every year I take a sort of hiatus for 3-5 weeks, and apparently this decade followed suit. My apologies to those of you who sat at work and had 1 less non-work web reading to complete.

I've been thinking a lot over the past week about resolutions. One of my friends created a trick resolution for herself, and since she is much better at goal setting than I am, maybe I should follow her lead and trick myself into losing weight or becoming a better cook.

Or maybe I should take the approach of things to NOT do, rather than positives. Sometimes I feel like avoiding things is easier then taking initiative to add something to your life. For example, it's easier to turn off the television after watching two hours, rather than telling yourself to replace tv altogether with a theoretically more life-enriching activity that doesn't involve the Kardashian family. Needless to say, this probably won't happen as long as I'm in my current job situation.

But alas, it seems that this year my resolution comes not so much in a list, but from an unexpected source. I was out to dinner New Year's Eve at a Chinese restaurant, helping a new friend forget her very recent tool of an ex-boyfriend. When it came time to crack our fortunes, I wasn't expecting much. Usually I open gems like "you will meet new people" or "riches lay ahead." Bland and not specific. And on first read, I thought this day's was another dud:

"Reach for your dreams. Start with the spring rolls."

But after the laughter wore off, I got to thinking that this was actually an interesting philosophy for such a little cookie. Lately, I've been having a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, whether that's my job or my personal life. But this slip of paper reminded me that maybe this year, instead of just complaining about the big picture, I need to take a step back and get the little things done first. After all, no good adventure starts on an empty stomach.

Although I will have to replace spring rolls with something like mozzarella sticks, as I'm not really a spring rolls fan. Small detail