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Cool July Nights

Posted in Augusta, Baseball, Briscoe, dogs, Favorite People, My Bed., Weather on July 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

This has been a very interesting week. In some ways, I have finally been able to settle back down into a schedule and get my life together. There is still a lot of stuff that needs to be done at my house, but my second roommate Erin is moving in this weekend, and this is pushing me to get a lot of things sorted out now. There is always something else that needs fixing. Luckily, I have some really awesome people in my life.

Last week I mentioned to Justin that I needed to borrow his lawnmower to cut my grass. Brice let me borrow his lawnmower last time, but the Wright family was out of town and my lawn was really starting to thrive. When I came home from work on Thursday, sweet Justin was at my house and had just finished mowing the lawn and edging and was about to roundup the walkway. It was super, super nice of him.

The rest of this story is pretty funny, so try to stay with me. Libby was in town, so we went to the Thirsty Thursday baseball game and ended up coming back and sitting on the front porch for a little while before going to sleep. Libby slept in the guest room downstairs, and was driving her dad’s car. Libby would have normally stayed at her parents house, but she wanted to wake up and do P90X with Sara and Kirby on Friday morning at the crack of dawn (because they are XTREME) and Bryan’s flight got into the airport at like 8.

Natalie was out on a narcotics raid in Harrisburg (I know that sounds hilarious, but she’s an ADA, and anyway, apparently it’s really fun to go on narcotic raids), so she didn’t get home until after we went to sleep. I guess I had neglected to tell her that Libby might spend the night. So I wake up in the morning and I have a text from natalie from 1 am that says, THERE IS SOMEONE IN OUR HOUSE. And then by the time Natalie woke up on friday, Libby was already gone. I felt really bad that I might have scared Natalie, but she swears she wasn’t freaked out, and once she saw libby’s toothbrush in the bathroom she figured it was okay.

Ultimately the weirdest thing that has happened this week is that it has been cool outside. Last night we went to dinner after tennis, and we left dinner, we were all cold. Granted, we all had on our ridiculous looking tennis outfits, but still. In Augusta, in July, you should be able to be in a bathing suit at any hour of the night and day and not be cold. A wet bathing suit at that. Normally it’s 90 degrees at midnight. Recently, it hasn’t reached 90 degrees at 3 pm.

Speaking of tennis, I’ve decided one of my favorite things about tennis is the fact that you get to wear ridiculous outfits that would be inappropriate anywhere else but are totally appropriate on the tennis court. It is amazing how much I enjoy wearing tennis skirts. My tennis shoes are a little clunky, but what can you do.

The biggest problem of my life right now is that I can’t get up in the morning. I would happily go to sleep at 9:30 at night if it meant I could wake up refreshed at 6:30. But I can’t go to sleep at 9:30. My body won’t let me. And forget getting up at 6:30, I can barely drag myself out of bed at 7:30. I don’t lack will power in any other part of my life, I have a good bit of self control, and I work hard at life. But I CAN NOT GET OUT OF BED. It is a real problem. My body wants to sleep from 2 am to 10 am, and not from 11 to 7. Sigh. Oh well. I think I’ve been working out too late at night.

Briscoe got her hair all shaved off last week, and she looks like a little lamb. She also looks kind of fat. It’s impossible to tell when she has long hair, but when she gets her hair all cut off, she seems to become a little self conscious of her figure. Natalie made up a new song for Briscoe’s hair cut. It goes something like this –

Bobby had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Bobby had a little lamb who’s puffy, fluffy and white!

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Go Dawgs!

Posted in Baseball on June 2, 2008| Leave a Comment »

How do you feel about baseball? My favorite things about baseball involve memories of watching the braves on tbs with my grandmother – Mama Two saw EVERY game, sitting out behind my high school during a freak march snowstorm watching my brother play first base,drinking beer in law school at turner field with the skyline of the ATL in lights, and thirsty thursdays in augusta.

Beyond that – baseball has me a little lost. In all honesty I have a hard time following sports that I never played, and I find baseball quite boring at times.

But I have been captivated by this UGA/Ga Tech baseball game tonight. I mean. We look GOOD! It is always fun to watch your team stomp on a rival. I was planning on going to sleep hours ago. But with baseball – you just never know what can happen.

It makes me miss athens in the summertime something fierce. I lived a fourth of my life there. I am not over it yet.

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Home of the Braves, Land of the Hate

Posted in Baseball, Football, summertime on August 9, 2007| Leave a Comment »

I’m really excited about football season. I really like the Daily Affirmations made possible by the guys at EDSBS (even if they do love the gators).

Let me be clear – I love the SEC, and I will fall on my sword before I let some other conference lover talk trash about ANY team in the SEC. The bottom line – we are better than you. I don’t care if you think I’m bias, I’m right. That being said – the only teams worth hating are in the SEC.

There is a lot of hate being slung around the Southeast in the fall. Welcome to hate country. I can’t tell you which team I hate the most, because I mostly hate them all, and it will depend on how the Dawgs play this year as to who I hate the most. The best part about football season is that every saturday, EVERYONE stops and has a party. Not everyone drinks, but everyone either drives to their college town of choice, or simply meets at a friend’s house for the festivities. Your team doesn’t even have to be playing for there to be a party. Someone’s team is playing. And that game might affect your team, so you don’t want to miss it. So, basically, you find a reason to hate someone you like, and a reason to hang out at someone’s house that you hate. You might even invite someone over to YOUR house that you hate.

Plus there are normally lots of fun things to eat like bean dip and cookies and pizza or chicken fingers. And beer. Mmmm. Beer. Or, Bourbon. I don’t drink liquor as a general rule. I don’t like it that much. There are two occasions when I make an exception to this rule, football season and the masters. Football season – just the smell of bourbon and coke transports me to a loud stadium full of screaming fans. It is exciting and fun, and leads to a lot of general animosity and good cheer.

The one thing that people in the south can agree on during the early fall months, is that everyone loves the Braves. The Braves are the team of the South. Even though they live in the ATL and not everyone loves the ATL, everyone loves the Braves. And even though lots of people ignore the Braves for most of the season, it is hard to ignore them when they are doing well in September. So, Go Braves, and GO DAWGS!

p.s. obviously the use of the word hate in this post is meant to be taken in the most harmless form of the word.

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One night too early…

Posted in Baseball on October 7, 2005| 1 Comment »

I went to the Braves game Wednesday night. It was fun, the Braves lost, but it was a blustery night that wasn’t too cold, and the sky, although threatening, never fell out. There is something I absolutely love about sitting in Turner Field with a beer and good friends under the lights. I love how the Atlanta sky line is larger than life in the background and it is one of the few things that makes me want to move to an enormous city and live among the buildings.

We stayed till the very end, although we were making our way out of the stadium when the game actually ended, but since we were sitting up in the cheap seats it took us a while and we did watch the bottom of the ninth from the lower level while Staci and Taylor bought t-shirts. But over all, it was a lackluster night of baseball as far as the braves were concerned.

But last night there was a better show. I was in the car with my mom, and we listened to part of the game on the radio, but I wasn’t listening when Brian McCann hit his three run homer Roger Clemens.

Seriously, click on that link, and read the whole article, because it gave me chills and brought a tear to my eye. I am so happy for McCann, I don’t even know the kid, haven’t ever even heard his name before this morning, but I’m just so excited. Here are some quotes from Jayson Stark’s article on ESPN.com:

"When a 21-year-old rookie catcher hit a home run that will be traveling for his entire lifetime off a 43-year-old living legend…"

• Never in history, according to SABR home run historian David Vincent,
had any previous player hit a postseason home run off a pitcher who
made his big-league debut in the same year that the hitter was born.

• And never, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, has there been a
bigger age difference in history between a home run hitter and the
pitcher who served it up than the 21-year, 200-day gap between Clemens
and McCann.

• Never, either, has a catcher younger than McCann (21 years, 6½ months) hit a home run off anybody in a postseason game. (Previous record-holder: Someone named Yogi Berra — at 22 years, 4½ months.)

That is just the beginning, there is a lot of amazing stuff in that article, but let me leave you with my favorite part:

Asked if he could put that feeling into words, McCann responded with a laugh.

"Well," he said, "I don’t remember running around the bases."

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October the 11th.

Posted in Baseball, Football, Thoughts on October 11, 2004| Leave a Comment »

We lost. I am upset. I wanted to go to the Braves game tonight, but I don’t think I can be emotionally involved in anymore sporting events for a couple of days. I also don’t think I want to drink any alcohol today (drinking beer is a requirement at turner field). I’m just not in the mood.
Yesterday was my birthday, which was exciting. I really had a great day, it was calm, and it was good. I was still a little upset about the game, but the way I look at it, we were going to lose as some point, either to Tennessee, Florida, or Auburn, and it is better to lose early than late. And I really hate Auburn and Florida more than I hate Tennessee. Although I still hate Tennessee. Our schedule is like a mine field. But back to my birthday. It is hard when your birthday is on a sunday, because regardless of what people say, celebrating your birthday on a different day than your actual birthday is not the same, and I was all partied out yesterday. Football weekends are draining. I hope this weekend is a little more laid back than the past two. Don’t get me wrong, I love football season. I think it is so amazing that the whole state comes into town and has a huge party six times a year. I don’t think many cultures can boast of such a ritual. Of course, the party’s lifespan is contingent on whether we win or not. This week the hopes of a state were dashed on the concrete of rocky top and the party was over. The strangest part of the lose this week is that we haven’t lost at home in somewhere around 17 or 18 games. Christy and I decided that the last game we lost at home was my junior year of college, her senior year. We think it might have been the Auburn game, but we aren’t sure. We know we lost to South Carolina at home that year. It hurts when you get used to winning.
This brings up a topic that I have been thinking about lately. Why is it that one negative comment, or one rejection, can black out a hundred positive comments or successes? Does it have to do with the fact that people are cynical? Or overly sensitive? What makes us believe the bad things and disregard the good? It could be as stupid as this. Lets say that you are getting dressed to go out, and your roommate, or best friend, tells you that you look good. You trust your roommate (because you have every reason to trust her and because you know she care about you). You are secure in the fact that your roommate likes your outfit and that your roommate has good tastes. Lets even add the fact that your mom was with you when you bought the outfit, and you know your mom does not let you buy things that look bad on you. Now, you go out, and see a girl that you don’t like, whom you don’t trust (with good reason), and who dresses in a way that you would never dress. This girl could make a sly comment indicating that something is inappropriate about what you are wearing, or in some other way implant in your mind negative thoughts about your clothes. This is the sort of thing that mean girls do. And they are good at it. Even though in your head, you know that this girl is mean and that her comments and criticism are the product of the way she feels about herself and have nothing to do with what she actually thinks about your outfit, such a comment could ruin your night. Or it could ruin my night – or at least ruin the outfit for me. Even though my roommate and my mom are the one to be believed.
I almost think it is worse when it is something that everyone likes. In the above example, if it is an outfit that everyone has complimented you on, and one person disapproves of, it is difficult to get the negative comment to disappear. My name is a good example of this. When I meet new people, my name has a tendency to need explanation, or at least invokes comment. Most of time it is good feedback – people say they like it, that it is pretty, that they haven’t ever heard it before, that the know one other Charlsie, etc. But sometimes the comments are less overtly positive. Sometimes I will meet someone and the person will say, "Charlsie, well….that is different." Or, "Charlsie, huh. That’s interesting." Now, most of the time, it is said like this: "Charlsie, wow, that’s different!" (with enthusiasm). With certain women, the, "That’s different" carries with it a negative connotation (this is just my experience, but men don’t use different to have a negative connotation with regards to my name, and most women don’t either, but some women do). "Different" and "interesting" are good things in my opinion. But some people are able to use these words to hurt my feelings. Now, let us be serious here for a second; I LOVE MY NAME. And I don’t let the handful of people who don’t like my name get to me. I need no positive re-enforcement that my name is cool. I am totally secure in my name. But at the same time I do notice when people don’t warm to my name. Is this because everyone likes my name and I am used to it being liked? Have I become dependent on the fact that people are going to think my name is cool, and I lose a part of my identity when I don’t get positive affirmation? I hope the answer to these questions is "no", but I think there is a large possibility that the answer is "yes." I am rambling, I have to go to class, but it is something to think about.

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Georgia Sports

Posted in Baseball, Football, Georgia on October 8, 2004| Leave a Comment »

I have good feelings about the state of Georgia and our flagship teams. The Braves won last night, and the Dawgs are going to win tomorrow. I almost went to the Braves game last night, but I didn’t. I think I am going on Monday. But that will involve missing some class, and I need to decide whether it is worth it or not. You just neve know how long the Braves are going to last in October, and it is fun to go while you can. There has been a chill in the air and Turner Field is a lot more fun when it is chilly than when it is 105 degrees.

With regards to the Dawgs, my current hero is Thomas Davis. I love to watch UGA’s defense on the field. In addition, he is a free safety. And I would love to be a free safety. Growing up in a football family is fun, except if you are girl you are inherently left out of things. I always figured that if I had been able to play (I never really considered if I had been a boy, just if I COULD have played football, I would have wanted to be a free safety). On the other side of the ball, I love this quote off of ESPN.Com by Ivan Maisel:
Friday, Oct. 8
Phil Fulmer said this week that he felt as if David Greene and David Pollack had been at Georgia as long as he has been at Tennessee. That brings up this point — Greene has won 36 games in his college career. No. 37 comes Saturday, and the record for wins by a college quarterback is 39, set by Fulmer’s own Peyton Manning.

I would love David Greene to break some records. I read the other records that Greene is about to break the other day but I can’t remember all the numbers, but Greene threw 5 touchdown passes last weekend, which was a school record I believe. People don’t appreciate him like they should in my opinion. At least last week we learned that Shockley is shaping up well himself. I’m telling you, this weekend is going to be wild. I can’t breathe I am so excited.

I don’t actually know anything about any other teams in Georgia, mostly because I don’t care much about Tech, I mean, they are in the ACC. But, GO DAWGS and GO BRAVES!

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