Sunday Reflections

Here are my reflections while wondering how the heck is ESPN College Gameday coming to Nashville, Tenn. this Saturday…

-Seriously, this love for Vanderbilt football needs to stop. Not only are the Dores ranked, they sit atop the SEC East alone, they will now be in the only matchup next week between two ranked teams not in Wisconsin. I had a feeling that Gameday would come to Vandy looking at the schedule but I would have bet the farm that they would have gone to Camp Randall in Madison to do the Wisconsin/Ohio State game, especially since it’s the late-night ABC game.

People try to figure out where College Gameday will be every week, but its easy to figure out. Look at the late night ABC or ESPN game and they will probably be in one of those locations. The only exceptions are three situations:

1) Florida/Georgia which is always the afternoon game on CBS.
2) Texas/Oklahoma which is always early afternoon at Noon eastern or 3:30 eastern on ABC.
3) If Notre Dame is decent and has a home game that is on NBC.

Since this Saturday has none of these scenerios, Lee, Kirk and Chirs and can’t forget Desmond are coming to Nashville. The game is on ESPN, so that helps.

Now the question is, do I attend the show. The show is usually on way too early on a Saturday for me. It’s a two-hour show that starts at 9 a.m. central time. Furthermore, I’m working the game, which starts at 5 p.m. That would mean that I would have to head out to gameday while waking up early and then having to stay up to work the game which drains me. What to do?

I’ll see you at Vandy at 8 a.m., come on, its Gameday, I have to be there.

-I was supposed to go out with some friends on Friday night but that didn’t happen. Here’s what happened. I knew that people were planning to go out at some point. I worked a night soccer game and was drained. I was watching highlights of the Presidential Debate, which I’ll get to in a second, and laid down on my bed and just passed out. I was so tired and this was the first night that I didn’t have to go to class or do homework or think about anything for the next day. I just didn’t move and let McCain and Obama soothe me to sleep. I woke up later and texted my friend that it wasn’t happening that night. Wish I could have made it because I saw pictures from the festivities and it looked like a good time, but when the body is telling you no, you have to listen.

-Speaking of debates, my current school, oh what the heck, ya’ll know where I go, Belmont is hosting the next presidential debate next week. Since I work for the institute, it has caused many changes at the office, including my department being out of our offices for the next week or two. All of us have opinions on this topic and I’m not going there because I’m too smart for that. However, it will bring attention to the school.

The interesting thing about the debate is that I’ve been driving around Nashville and I’ve seen signs for both the McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden ticket. I think this election is going to be close because people are tired of the bullcrap that’s going on in our country.

No matter who you support, things have not been going well here. Even hard-core Republicans are mad at President Bush. The point is that I think that Democrats will vote for McCain because they don’t trust Obama, especially his experience and tax plan which is understandable and Republicans will vote for Obama because that party has been atrocious the past few years.

My vote is wide open right now, seriously. My theory of DTA (Don’t Trust Anybody) applies to all things in my life besides my Ma, because if you can’t trust your Ma, who can you trust? Besides that, my guard is up, even for this election. I have until November to decide so why rush my decision. I’m going to watch the debates, review their policies and make an informed decision.

-On to some college football.

1) When I was watching that travesty of a football game, aka Tennessee/Auburn, when they showed Peyton Manning on the sidelines, my first words outloud were, Fu*k Peyton Manning. I said this without a thought and felt good about it. For those of you who think that my distain for all things East Tennessee Community College is contrived or something made up, its real and internal.

As I said last week, you’re not better than Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Auburn and LSU. Your expectations are too high. The late 90’s was an abbiration. I’m about to say something that’s hurts me, but I don’t dislike Phil Fulmer as much as many other people and don’t understand how the guy can average eight wins a season, win a national title and people are still pissy at him. Help me out with this one.

2) USC, how do you lose that game? Conference play is so much different than anything else. We all look at USC as an incredible team but to a team like Oregon State, those dudes are just another opponent like UCLA or Washington State.

3) Oklahoma looks good and I guess that they are #1 in the country, but Alabama looked scary good against Georgia. I thought that Saban would have them competing for an SEC title next year, but that’s out the window. They can compete now. The worrisome part for opponents is that Saban isn’t going anywhere, he’s focused and all of his players are first and second year guys accept for the quarterback and some offensive linemen.

4) Crappy Midwestern football. Hate it. I watched some of the Notre Dame game against Purdue. Slow, predictable, not impressive. Pretty much the only Big Ten team that I’ve seen that I think can compete nationally is, and I can’t believe that I’m saying this because I make fun of their coach, the team, the uniform and their gimmicky promotions, but Penn State, you impressed me on Saturday.

The Nittney Lions, and btw, can we get a confirmation on what exactly that is, are doing work right now and should beat Ohio State and Wisconsin.

Besides them, I hate crappy Midwestern football.

-The Goddamn Mets did it again! When I do my final MLB predictions review (go Mariners, wait, what?) you will see that I called this finish from the beginning of the season.

-This is what I get for missing General Hospital episodes. So, I’m about to check out at Kroger and I catch the cover of Soap Opera Digest. If you watch General Hospital like I do, spoiler alert, I guess Kate dies and doesn’t marry Sonny because that’s on the frickin cover! I’m a week behind on shows and see what I miss. Not happy about this at all.

-My favorite band maybe ever, The Mars Volta, played in Atlanta on Wednesday and I missed it! I’ve spoken about my love for this group on this site so I won’t go into it further. I’ve been so busy in my life that I haven’t been on the band’s site to follow updates. So I happen to be on their site tonight for the first time in a few months and see the show.

Now, I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it because I had class that night and my schedule wouldn’t have allowed it, but those are my boys and I would have tried to make a way.

The thing about these dudes is that they play all over the world like its nothing. They were in Europe for a few months, then come to America for about a month, then go to Australia for a stint and then go to Europe for some more. They will also add a show or two without much notice.

They play in New Orleans in late October, I gotta try to make that one I guess.

-There’s probably a lot more I can get to, but I’ll end it here. Oh, I promised Watson that I would give her a shout out on the blog, so Watson, you’ve been mentioned. You would be part of my top-five, but it violates several of my rules. In May, maybe we can revisit the issue.

Until then, I’ll have to stick with President/General Manager Ashley Judd and the starters, Maria Menunos, Sarah Chalke, Gabrielle Union, Mila Kunis and Ciara. The sixth woman is Katherine McPhee.

Here’s some Massive Attack that I was listening to this weekend. Also, since I missed seeing them live this week, I’ll settle for some concert footage of the Volta.