Back to Work

"Maybe that's all family really is.
A group of people who miss the same imaginary place."

This is from "Garden State," a movie I evidently need to view sometime very soon, as per the recommendation of several people, and based on a limited (five-minute) viewing last week. This scene was included in the brief showing, demonstrating the main character's ("Andrew," played by the film's writer and director, Zach Braff--you may remember him from "Scrubs") longing for a real childhood and some of the many things that overtake him as he's returned home to New Jersey after a long time away. I obviously can't review the film just yet, but I'll do my best to see it as soon as possible and confirm or deny the "great movie" comments that have been coming my way.
So I'm back to work this morning after almost two full weeks off, representing easily the most time I've taken away from work since sometime in 2003. I must reflect on the goals established in the final blog of 2004 to see if it was indeed a successful break...
- finish Christmas shopping: yes, and I believe it was a successful round of presents, most notably the new bathroom my brothers and I worked to provide for my mom (purchasing the materials and carrying out the necessary manual labor) and the Rose Bowl tix for my bros (what an amazing game--one of the top two or three college football games I've ever been to, with Chad Henne and Braylon Edwards matching Vince Young's crazy legs point for point, and the contest, fittingly, not over until the final gun, as Dusty Mangum's wobbly field goal attempt made it through for the Longhorns. Great stuff)...
- finish my current book: "Fever Pitch" is done and was well worth the read. Anyone who has ever devoted themselves to a team (in this case soccer, but it can apply to any sport) needs to read this book. It chronicles the author's progression from his first soccer game as a youth to his adult status as a season-ticket holder, and all the life happenings that come along the way. It's a unique perspective on the struggles of life, using the analogy of team sports and the corresponding fan devotion to tell those stories. Great stuff. I've now started the first of several Christmas present books, that being "Fletch and the Man Who," one in the long line of "Fletch" stories, the first of which spawned the epic Chevy Chase film...
- sleep in: done and done...
- play music with Charlie and Joel: not yet, but Joel's still in town for another week, so I'm hoping we make this happen very soon...
- enjoy and appreciate my time with family and friends: easily the most fulfilling element of the break, especially with my brothers. We got to work together at Fox (I was able to finagle jobs for both of them last Sunday and for Michael yesterday), work together on the home improvement project, attend the Rose Bowl game, and maybe most importantly, took the San Diego Chargers to the Super Bowl in our Madden 2005 franchise. We got through an entire season (and almost halfway through another one) in the breaks from work and in whatever other time we happened to be in the same place at the same time. After struggling in the first half of the 2004 campaign, we gained some consistency (I firmly believe it came from handing the ball off to L.T. all the time) and made it all the way to the Super Bowl. Playoff wins over KC (easy) and New England (cut the lead to two with under a minute to play, failed on the two-point conversion, but recovered an onside kick and nailed the game-winning field goal in the final seconds--Suss as Nate Kaeding) were followed by an AFC title game victory over Ricky Williams and the Miami Dolphins, but Daunte, Randy and the Minnesota Vikings were too much to overcome in the big game. With Drew Brees not rated quite as high as his real 2004 season has demonstrated he should be, we made the bold move of drafting a quarterback in the first round and have ridden his inconsistency to a 5-2 record thus far in 2005. The defense is quite solid, led by All-Pro safety Sean Taylor and his counterpart Coy Wire, as well as middle linebacker extraordinaire Donnie Edwards and free agent signee Michael Strahan. LT is the focal point of the offense and the passing game is becoming a more balanced part of the equation with this Jake Martin kid hitting Plaxico Burress (we had to trade for him after Keenan McCardell retired) and Antonio Gates with more regularity...
Okay, I think I spent way too long discussing a video game football team, so I must once again extoll the virtues of the real San Diego Chargers, victors yesterday over the Kansas City Chiefs and holders of a 12-4 record, the best in franchise history. With what amounted to a junior varsity team (no Brees, LT, Gates or McCardell), they dominated KC (until the last half of the fourth quarter) and received several good signs for the future. Michael "The Burner" Turner looked great running the ball, and he'll be able to provide a more than adequate backup to Tomlinson if and when that's necessary. Flutie was decent and Philip Rivers got his first action of the season, even tossing a touchdown pass to Malcolm Floyd (another big receiver in the Kassim Osgood mold--one of those two guys is going to become a stud sometime soon). The defense played great as well, intercepting Trent Green three times (Matt Wilhelm, Terrance Kiel and Drayton Florence) and breaking up a pass intended for Tony Gonzalez on a fourth-and-goal (thank you Hanik Milligan). I love this team. Have I mentioned that before? So now we get a home game against the Jets on Saturday, which should be tremendous...
New format of the show continues at least until the Super Bowl, so Tom and Salley are in control and Chris Rose and Bryan Cox are out, which will be a continuing strange thing to get used to, but we'll be fine. Hopefully it'll just mean bigger and better, more opportunities to do cool things like the barbershop feature and the special olympics project. We'll see. Time to get started...