Quickness

"Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy"
--59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), Simon & Garfunkel

Like Earl Boykins making his way down the lane (or like any point guard in the league going around Chucky Atkins), like Ichiro getting up the first base line and like Ed Reed breaking on a ball over the middle, I'm going to be quick today. Work this week has been a bit more involved in the mornings than usual, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. If it really does keep up like this, I might have to figure out a way to blog in the evenings or at the end of the work day, but we'll see.

In spite of the hectic mornings, there is one thing that has brought a different level of enjoyment to work these days, and I have our internship coordinator to thank for that. After a year and a half of mostly worthless male interns (with a few females sprinkled in here and there), most of whom didn't care enough about the job to actually pay attention and try to learn things about working in television, the powers that be changed strategies and decided to pretty much just hire hot girls this summer. Not a bad alteration of the plan as far as I'm concerned. Three tall blondes from USC (one of whom just so happens to be a song girl, though she doesn't ever wear the white sweater to work) and another very cute blonde girl from Iowa. The Iowan has quickly become my favorite, not only because she's probably the cutest of the four, but she's also a couple years older (not nearly as full of giggles and whatnot) and actually wants to learn. She's helped me out the last two days (and will be helping again tomorrow), and has picked up a ton already, so it's been mutually beneficial. Not only do I get to hang out with a great girl through my entire workday, but she's helping me get video, take tapes to different places, log highlights--all stuff that makes the work go much smoother and faster--and she's getting more out of her internship than most because of all the hands-on experience (no jokes here). Found out yesterday that she loves Tim McGraw (if I don't end up being able to play a Tim song for her on guitar sometime before the summer's over, I've failed), the Brewers and Packers (maybe I can work my NFL connections in the fall??) and she smiles more every day. Not sure yet about crossing the intern line, but I'm becoming less and less concerned about that as the days go by. A few other things that came up over the weekend...

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith": Saw it on the lot (mostly because, as the dude would say in one of his many imitations, "it's freh") with my friend Kristin on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very tongue-in-cheek, requiring suspension of belief, but a lot funnier than I thought it would be, and of course Vince Vaughn is great. I'm not sure about the last movie I saw Angelina Jolie in ("Gone in Sixty Seconds" or "Pushing Tin," maybe) but I still can't figure out if she's really hot or kinda looks like a dude. Obviously she has physical features that distinguish her quite well from a dude, but there's something about her face, I don't know. That confusion notwithstanding, she's as good a female action star as there is and did a great job with this role. Brad Pitt plays his typical cool guy, pretty much the same character as he played in the Ocean's Eleven and Twelve movies, except with a lot more firepower at his disposal. A good time at the movies.

Jet-skiing is probably the most fun you're allowed to have in one place at one time. I came to this conclusion after an hour-long stint on a couple Sea-Doos with your Father, Sharon and Michael on Sunday out in Marina Del Rey. After a slow trek out past the breakwater, the wide open space of the ocean is an incredible playground. I did fall off three times, but that's gotta be a good thing, right? If I hadn't fallen off, I wouldn't have been satisfied with the amount I pushed myself and tried to do some stupid things. I'm hoping this happens again sometime, no doubt.

Youth baseball concluded last week, so my work on Monday night was more limited than usual (thank the Lord). I'll be sure to bring a couple final gems to the blog very soon.

If you didn't know, Ramon Hernandez is the best catcher in the National League. I'll just leave it at that...