The Breakdown

"I'd love to sit and rationalize
But my tongue's become dry
It seems I'm losing ground
Welcome all to my disciplined breakdown"
--Disciplined Breakdown, Collective Soul

In poring through the avalanche of comments (4) that have come down in the last couple days, it appears that a slight reevaluation of this writer's motivation and content is in order, and it's a worthwhile process to undergo, no doubt. The subject matter has been roughly 95% sports (with exceptions here and there: music, movies, bible study, books), and so I thought I'd first attempt to ascertain the involvement percentage of sports in my daily life and then proceed to expand my horizons as we move forward. "Moving forward" is a phrase thrown around all the time here at work, encouraging us to learn from mistakes and from things that don't work on the show in order to make it a better product from here on out. I vow to do the same with the blog, thanks to Suss and Side (and other Suss for the affirmation of the sporting element), moving forward.
On a typical weekday, here's the hour-by-hour breakdown:
5 a.m. - wake up, breakfast, quiet time, dress for the gym (I can't look at this word without thinking of Homer asking, "What's a gime?," then walking inside, seeing all the weights, and still mispronouncing it, "Oh, a gime."--spelled incorrectly so you get the mistake made by Homer)
5:30 a.m. - depart for the gym
6:00 a.m. - work out
7:00 a.m. - shower, get dressed, purchase breakfast burrito (not even close to the Lucky Boy variety; it's a much smaller mix of egg whites, turkey and avocado)
7:30 a.m. - arrive at work, check e-mail and voicemail, attempt to blog
8:00 a.m. - morning meeting, followed by a nice long work day
7:00 p.m. (or thereabouts) - depart from work, utilize drive time for cell phone usage
7:45 p.m. - arrive home, make tomorrow's lunch, pack gym bag for tomorrow, watch Lakers or Bruins or Clippers or other game (if no game, then no TV)
9:00 p.m. - eat final meal of the day (microwaved taquitos or lean pocket, occasionally followed by a strawberry popsicle for dessert), watch 24 or West Wing (if Monday or Wednesday; if not, then no TV)
10:00 p.m. - write in journal, read (currently Red Auerbach book)
10:30 p.m. - sleepy time
Wednesday nights vary slightly because of bible study (7:30-9), Tuesday nights occasionally include church (8:30-10), and there's probably one or two nights a week (more like one now without the dates) with various other activities--LC or UCLA basketball, out with guys from work, etc.).
In the most basic of days, work occupies more than 50% of my waking hours, and I'm only home (excluding sleep) for three hours a day at the most, often less than that. It's an interesting view to step back and look at the life I'm living, realizing how different everything was 18 months ago (at Ralphs) and then three years ago (at LCPC). I know I couldn't handle doing either of those jobs to the extent where I'd only be home (or accessible to friends) three hours a day, so this must be the right path for me, because I'm still loving every day of it.
Today at work (and every Friday for the forseeable future), we get Carls Jr. catered for lunch, because Hardee's (same company, evidently) has become a sponsor of the show (the "Hardee's Hot Topic," which today revolves around Randy Moss). Part of the agreement, evidently, was having them feed the whole staff every Friday, which is a pretty cool deal--free food always is--but a struggle for me and my ridiculous eating habits.
As I packed my lunch last night (which actually is much more than lunch; it's a post-workout protein bar and three more meals for the rest of the day, all coming after that breakfast burrito), I thought about leaving one of the meals out so I could have some Carls, but it's a strange thing--I honestly can't convince myself to want that fast food. It's in the same category as desserts (those Trader Joe popsicles excepted), which have been excluded from my diet for years. There's some pyschoanalysis that could go into this process, which deserves some space at some point, but not now--meeting's about to start.
My quick sports thought for today, before I go: Debate raging today about the relative merit of Allen Iverson and Scottie Pippen on the list of the NBA's all-time greats. I am of the opinion that Scottie is the greatest defensive swingman of all time, and therefore deserves mention with the very best small forwards ever (Larry Bird is obviously better, Elgin Baylor also; not too many others can be unequivocally considered as such). AI is the second-greatest (maybe third) little man ever, at this point behind only Isiah, but until now, he's never had a teammate as good as Zeke's Bad Boys (I don't include John Salley, but Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer and Mark Aguirre--heck, even Rodman--are all better than anyone Iverson's played with). He got Philly to the Finals in '01 with nobody--Eric Snow and Aaron McKie were his two best teammates, right? Certainly not Mutombo. Both guys don't get the proper respect on the all-time spectrum, and I hope that the arrival of C-Webb means the Sixers not only win the Atlantic Division, but make some noise in the playoffs as well. The little guy deserves it.