Halloween candy

I'm rejoining the Halloween ranks.

I haven't really done anything with Halloween since high school, when I handed out the candy at my parents' house. Through college, it just wasn't an issue. In my first few jobs, I always had to work the "Beggar's Nights," as I recently heard a woman call it.

Today is Trick or Treat night in Delaware, and I have no valid excuses to avoid this community-building event. One of the guys at work mentioned he'd had his trick or treat night in his community, and they only had two children come to their home. Always the deal-seeker, I bought his remaining stock of candy, which amounted to four 10-packs of candy bars and two half-bags of suckers. Speaking of suckers, I bought all this for $5.

But then today I started thinking about the neighborhood where I live. There seem to be a number of children here. I know of at least 10 kids just in a three-building area. Another coworker told me a lot of parents just drop their kids off at one end of my street and pick them up at the other end an hour later. So I had to wonder if 30-some candy bars and a couple dozen suckers would do the trick.

So I returned to the store and got more. I'd hate to run out. I'd hate even more to have to be one of those people who gives a kid one mini-candy bar. Now I think I have too much. I'll know for sure between 6 and 8 p.m. today.

Shopping in dad's closet

I'd been thinking about getting a jogging suit lately, mostly because it's been cold outside and I wanted to have something I could zip up and zip down prior to our softball games. Anyway, I mentioned this to my parents while visiting tonight.

Suddenly out came a whole wardrobe of that sort of thing. My dad's put on a pound or two lately and said he didn't think he'd ever fit some of these things, so someone might as well get some use of it. Given that I'm his height, I thought, "What the heck. I'll see what he has."

He had exactly what I wanted, some simple jogging suits, not too flashy, not too bland. Ended up with a decent loot of what I'd wanted.

Here's the question that comes up... Just how much of a geeky loser do you have to be before you start taking hand-me-downs that you dad has determined aren't stylish? (Those who have met my dad get double points for understanding just what that means.)

To put a happy ending on this story... since I've saved the money on a couple jogging suits, I've decided to stop being so cheap and buy some candy to distribute on Halloween.

Weird wake-up

I keep having the same really weird dream, about once a week. I keep dreaming my alarm starts buzzing.

When I hear the alarm go off, I truly wake up. I get out of bed, walk over to the alarm and turn it off. Then I head to the restroom for the morning routine.

One morning, I stepped into the shower and began thinking about how strange it was to feel so tired, like I'd only slept a few hours. I walked around the apartment to find the clocks all saying 2:30.

Since that first day, I'm smarter when I dream about the alarm ringing. Now usually I'll figure out what time it really is about the time I'm done shaving.

I'm not sure what it says about your life when all you dream about is waking up and going to work.

Random thoughts

It's been the kind of day that, even though nothing happened, I could easily generate five or six blog entries. Sometimes it's easier to say something about nothing than to talk about something. (See Exhibit A: The last three weeks of my last relationship).

* Sleep. I absolutely love sleeping. I've always known I enjoyed it, but I never knew how much until I started a job where the alarm sounded at 5:30 a.m. After staying up to about 3 a.m. Friday due to a rough night of work and an hour to come down from it, I slept until 12:30 p.m. It was wonderful. Sleep is so stressless. You're not worrying about the woes of your life. You're not anxious about how today will be better or worse than yesterday. You merely rest.

* Pretty girls. A college girl came by today to sell magazines. If she were younger, I'd tell her I wasn't interested. If she were male, I'd tell her to buzz off. She was pretty, and she said she was 18, so I bought magazines from her. I invited her in and bought magazines from her, giving her enough that she said she'd get her bonus and get to go home and return to college. This is where I'd get in trouble: She mentioned she was thirsty, so I offered her what I have: Milk, beer and Dr Pepper. It reminded me how old I've become. I'd forgotten some adults can't drink beer.

* What are you working for? I saw this ad, I assume for an insurance or investment company, that asked the question, "What are you working for?" Its message was we work for our families, to provide for them and take care of them. I don't have a family of my own yet, and I've already paid off my college debts. So it made me wonder... what AM I working for?

* Wet T-shirts. I went to a place called the Red Rock Cafe tonight, hoping to integrate into the social scene. I hate going out alone. I always have. Tonight was no different. I stuck around for three frosty cold beverages and witnessed an amusing contest, where female contestants each bent under a stick that held a hot dog in the quest for who could bite off the most hot dog. (There are perverse implications you'd better not consider.) Then they started talking about having a wet T-shirt contest among the rather attractive clientelle there. Another clue you're not in college anymore: You're not interested in a wet T-shirt contest.

* Good friends. This one belongs on Friday, but oh well. I took my friend Jeremy to the airport so he could fly to California to visit his girlfriend, who is out there on business. On the way home, I got to thinking. I bring a lot of friends to airports. I stop by a lot of houses to check on pets or pick up mail. I hear a lot of innermost thoughts and ideas. I'm entrusted with a lot. I feel lucky to be other people's good friend. I think that's a good thing. I think that's proof that I was raised well and am a good person.

I also should write about the disappointments of online dating tonight, but I'll share that for another time when I'm not chuckling at the way life works.

Raising $20,000

You really can find anything on the Internet. I've found a link for a company that handles athlete and celebrity marketing. Thus I bring you the price list for celebrities such as Mini Me, Jenna Jamison and Ben Afleck.

I noticed on the list one Shannon Elizabeth, of American Pie fame.



She can be here for two hours for a mere $11,000 to $20,000. If anyone wants to chip in on the fund, let me know.

Kickoff

I'm sitting in the press box at Ohio Stadium as we speak. The Ohio State Marching Band just finished up the "Script Ohio," and lined up in a big tunnel to greet the Ohio State football team.

The team ran in here, and the 101,000-plus fans in the stadium went nuts. Even though I'm insulated from the noise, it was still deafening to hear them roar as the Buckeyes came onto the field. From in here, it had the sound of a small jet engine flying by here.

As quickly as the cheers began, the noise turned into boos as Wisconsin wandered onto the field.

The National Anthem began, as a team of Marines helped hoist the enormous American Flag up the pole in front and left of me from my seat near the closed end of the end zone. It always sends shivers up my spine to hear that song. So much emotion in it. As the song concludes, I finished my only pregame ritual, clapping my hands twice before slapping my flat left hand onto my right fist.

It's game time. I believe in heaven, and I believe in the concept of your own personal heaven. My heaven would have a view like this and a football game that mattered for the rest of my life. If this were really my life, I'd be so happy.

What a job!

The great part of my new life is there's so much variety in what I can do.

Maybe it's your turn to design three or four pages, giving you a chance to come up with a creative way to express the sports news.

Perhaps a big high school golf tournament comes around, where you can go walk the course for a few hours, witnessing the highlights of a golfer's life. Then you can write the story in an intriguing fashion.

Some days are Ohio State days, where you get to write about the state's beloved Buckeyes. It's fun to use your carry-over quotes from a Tuesday press conference and express some insight into the football team, such as a story about how Justin Zwick's reacting to the pressure after OSU's first loss to Northwestern in forever.

Sometimes oddball stuff pops up. Maybe it's a story about the local summer league college team setting up a sponsorship with a local travel baseball league to improve the quality of baseball in your area.

One of the necessary evils is answering the phones from prep calls. It's just 15 or 20 calls, taking a couple minutes to get the relevant information and write it up. It's the nuts and bolts of high schools, really.

You have to work ahead occasionally. If you're writing about someone who will have a very busy Friday and you want to put it in the paper Saturday, you probably have to talk to him Thursday.

All of this variety is fine. It just stinks when you have to do it all on the same day. It adds up to a 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. workday with about an hour taken off to eat and do a few chores.

It REALLY stinks when it's the same day your mom's in the hospital having minor heart surgery, putting a stent into a vein. I came back to Ohio to be closer to family. First day it really mattered, and I might as well have been back in Virginia.

Something will change, and soon.

Joe Pa

I like Joe Paterno. I think he's a classy guy and a good football coach who just happens to be having a couple bad years in a row at Penn State.

That having been said, I've found some of the funniest pictures you'll ever see anywhere. I present to you "The Many Faces of Jo Pa." Just click here.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Fuzzy math

Five o'clock shadow is the nickname given to the beard growth in a man by the end of the work day. It doesn't always come at five o'clock, though.

That's something that's come to my attention. With my 5 a.m. wakeups lately and a quick run of the razor, it doesn't take that long before I look like an absolute bum. I saw a cohort from work today around 4:30 who asked if I just woke up, and I'd have to assume it had something to do with this fuzzy math.

Facial hair's always been interesting to me. Maybe it's just because mine's always grown fast. Maybe it's just because I've had full beards four times already in my relatively young life.

Truth be told, I'd probably never shave if it weren't for what a beard does to your social life. Some women really like beards. Many do not.

I recall hanging out with a friend at a hopping bar one night with a number of attractive young ladies. One of these ladies looked us over and made some comment about how old we must've been, guessing about 10 years too old. Within a week, the beard was gone. It's hard enough building a social life without people thinking you're older than you are.

So anyway, I'd never really noticed the five o'clock shadow before, and I figured out why today. Up to this point, I've always worked nights. When I shaved, it was at 2 or 3 p.m., and that shave worked all day. Waking up early, sometimes you need a refresher. So today I shaved twice.

The world continues to change...