Summer By The Numbers

There’s a misconception from some that I’m a negative person, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. I’m a very realistic person, and when you aren’t sugar-coating unattractive subjects – Yes, your boyfriend is a loser or No, you’ve got no shot with that girl – people tend to think that’s purely negative. It’s not. I enjoy being a realist. I don’t ever get my expectations up too high for hardly anything – the 2004-2005 ND basketball campaign being one notable exception – and when you combine that with my usually laid-back demeanor, it’s a pretty nice life-style. Nothing gets me too flustered, occasionally I will set goals and I get to just take everything in.

Sadly, being a realist has its drawbacks. Mainly, when you’re facing a situation where you probably have no chance at succeeding, with absolutely no advantage over your opponent, there’s some people who would still go for it, but I will have already given up. It sucks, but I hate to put myself in a situation where I’m bound to lose. Even if there’s a slight chance of hope, I can’t concentrate on it. One of my favorite cinematic quotes of all time is from one of my favorite movies of all time, Big Fish, and goes a little something like this: ”There's a time when a man needs to fight and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny's lost, the ship has sailed and that only a fool will continue. The truth is I've always been a fool.”

I can’t stand being the fool, but my goal for the rest of the summer is to prepare myself to look more closely at that glimmer of hope, get ready to take one on the chin and be a little bit more like Edward Bloom, whose story is pretty inspiring as far as made-up-stories within a fictional movie go. Maybe being a fool isn’t all so bad when you consider the alternative, so maybe I’ll try that for once.

Summer By The Numbers

Number of Pirate Games I’ve Attended: 6

Number of Movies I’ve Attended: 8, although I thought it was nine, I can’t remember the other movie. (Crash, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Kicking & Screaming, Layer Cake, Star Wars twice and Batman Begins twice.)

Number of NBA Games I’ve Watched in Gina’s Basement: 13ish

Number of Times Nicole Has Acted Completely Insane While I Was At The Rearicks: At least 3

Number of Wing Nights at Ash’s: 2

Number of Days I’ve Worked So Far: 25

Number of Text Messages Sent Between X-Tina And I: At least 15

Number of Movies Rented While At The MacKrell Residence: 1 (The original Longest Yard)

Number of Movies I Plan To See The Rest of Summer: At least 8 (War of the Worlds, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wedding Crashers, Hustle & Flow, Assisted Living, Broken Flowers and I know I’ll see Batman and Mr. and Mrs. Smith again before all is said and done. Plus, there’s a slight chance I’ll go see Dukes of Hazzard or Fantastic Four, maybe even Stealth.)

Number of Yankees/Red Sox Games I Hope To See In Person: 1, although I realize that it’s basically impossible to get tickets, so I’m not really expecting that.

Episodes of Desperate Housewives Watched: 22

Episodes of Lois & Clark Watched: 3

Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series Watched: 15 or so, though it’ll hit 50 before I get back to school

Number of Giddy Phone Calls I Made/Received Concerning The Last Two Episodes of The OC: At least 10, I’m not sure, it all happened so quickly.

Number of Times Barcus Served LeBron James At Cedar Point: 1

Number of Pirate Wins I’ve Attended: 3, for a solid .500 record

Number of Bobblehead Dolls I’ve Gotten At Pirate Games: Two and a half, because there’s two heads on the Steve Blass/Manny Sanguillen statue

Total Rounds of Golf Shot: Only 3, sadly

Lowest Round Of Golf Shot: 48 on Sunday morning, and I’m very proud of that.

Number of Games Of Pool Played: 30 or so

Number of Games of Pool I’ve Actually Won: 4, if I’m lucky

Number of Country Songs I've Listened To: Way, way, way too many - thank you PennDOT.

Number of References I’ve Made To The Bump On Dill’s Forehead: 435

Number of Shares of Burt Reynolds I Own On The Hollywood Stock Exchange: 10,000, good for about one quarter of my total investments

Bales of Hay Unloaded: 614

Number of Times Suzi-Q Nearly Killed The Two Of Us On The Wolverine By Popping A 90-degree Wheelie Going Up A Hill: 1

Money I Won Playing Blackjack: 95 dollars

Money I Won Betting On The Horse Races: Zero, but didn’t lose any either – you suck, Giacomo

Odds I Freak Out And Drive 15 Hours to Valdosta Just For The Hell Of It, Especially After Today: 3 to 2

Number of Games of Euchre Played: Two, which is way too low.

Number of Games of Contract Rummy Played: Zero, which is just as disheartening as that euchre number

Number of Items In This Post: Way Too Many.

NBA Draft tomorrow. Get ready….WOOO!