Finally, the NBA finals are set to begin Thursday night.  Boston Celtics vs LA Lakers.  These teams are no strangers to facing each other in the Finals.  They’ve met ten times in the past with Boston walking away with the championship eight times.  I grew up in the Bird-Magic era with a father who was just as fanatical about LB as Zac is about Favre.  No. 33 was the hero in our 80’s sports story, and I still believe today there would have been no Air Jordan domination if Johnson and Bird hadn’t have paved the way and rejuvenated the sport that I love so much. While this isn’t 1984, the NBA needs a reason to believe again: a reason for its fans to feel good about their loyalty.

Usually I’d find it hard to be too overwhelmingly passionate about a series not featuring the Suns, but this Celtics vs Lakers series is what I’ve been hoping for for the past month.  (I even cheered for the Lakers over the Spurs and felt dirty.  That’s how much I hate San Antonio.)  Can Kobe finally be the superhero in the finals and not just the trusty sidekick?  Is the PGA (Pierce, Garnett, and Allen) tour ready to start the newest Boston dynasty and get the rings they’ve coveted for the past decade?  Can this series remind us why we love this game?  We’ll find the answers out soon enough.

scrannel (SKRAN-l) adjective

1. Thin.

2. Unmelodious.

[Of unknown origin.]

“I might punch myself if I have to listen to that scrannel music bleeding through my bedroom walls for one more minute.”

I’m opening a big ol’ can of worms here, and I’m quite positive even if some of you don’t comment you’ll still be reading this and shaking your head at my slanted political views and lack of political respect. But screw it… I just have one important question I’d like answers to tonight. How is it Jon Stewart has the ability to make people seem so freakin’ cool? Take the next two clips of Presidential Candidate John McCain on Wed’s episode of The Daily Show. Yes, I know this is FAKE NEWS. No, I don’t care.

McCain is genuinely funny and seems to understand a simple fact most politicians get wrong: a large number of The Daily Show and Colbert Report viewers are not looking for a campaign speech or lecture on the virtues of one’s possible presidency. We watch to laugh. It’s that simple. Of course, McCain plugs himself. Yet, for any one who’s seen the other two candidates on fake news lately, McCain is a breath of fresh, humorous air. Despite the fact that deep down you know he’s taking this presidency thing seriously… he has fun with Stewart and plays along. I mean he chooses Dwight K. Schrute for his running mate. Did he not see last week’s episode of The Office?!?! Dwight is an unstable power-hungry leader. Honestly, Dwight’s Emergency Take-over chart reminds me of another famous second-in-command, but that’s just a coincidence, right?

Now the sad thing in this whole election year is many in my generation look to Colbert and Stewart for real news. Lately, we’ve stopped confidently deciding our views on our own and have allowed ourselves to be swept up in punditry and flashing lights. Colbert and Stewart are at their best when they work together as a check-and -balance system of our nation, culture, and thought process. and a catalyst to our own research. Maybe I’ve got this all wrong, but let’s try something new as we move toward November. FoxNews, MSNBC and all your friends, do your job and hook us up with the facts. Stewart and Colbert, you just keep entertaining us, and hopefully, each one of us will decide who we are and what we believe and stand unwaveringly. Isn’t that the change we need?

If you’ve ever spent much time with kids under the age of three, I’m sure you’ve noticed that each one of them live by a few universal toddler rules. 1) The loudest wail gets the most accomplished and the most positive or negative attention. 2) Anything and everything can be put in your mouth no matter how many times you’ve been told not to. 3) If I can’t see you, you’re not really there. It’s funny how as adults we without realizing it follow those same lifelines. Except instead of throwing temper tantrums with flying snot and tears, we roll our eyes and make catty comments or whisper our displeasure. We make poor decisions that we’ve been warned countless times against or that we should innately stay away from. Like the adorable kid covering their eyes with their own hands, we pretend that if don’t acknowledge reality it doesn’t exist.

I’ve spent the last few weeks covering my own eyes as change loomed on the horizon. I hate change. I hate the unknown. I hate not having a plan, a scheduled calendar of events six months in the future. I hate not having control. Sure, I knew things couldn’t always be the way they are now. I knew the facts and chose to suppress those natural human emotions of “what the crap am I gonna do??” Then, tonight it all came crashing down. Dates where a new existence would begin were written on a calendar. Deadlines were set. Goodbyes and hellos became more than just the inevitable, and reality become truth and not just a suggestion.

Let’s not beat around the bush. I didn’t handle it well. Panic set in. I hopped in the car and called my mom who just listened and let those emotions overflow. I hashed out possibilities and timelines. I told her how scared I was and how it wasn’t the future that frightened me but not knowing the path I was supposed to take. She reminded me that every season comes to an end, and every happening has a purpose. She offered encouragement and the reminder that this change was an answer to prayer and the end of countless struggles. She was my wise mother, a compassionate mommy, and my bff mom when I needed her most.

Change is still headed my way. I’m still gonna have moments of complete and utter collapse, and what needs to happen in the next few months will still overwhelm me. But, I’ve stopped playing the reality peek-a-boo game because I know that time marches on whether or not you want it to. For now, let’s go ahead and schedule a time this fall where we can all sit back and laugh at my drama queen distress today. We’ll watch the Arizona sun set as we sip iced tea, and I won’t be offended when you remind how we all knew deep down… it would be okay.

It’s 9am on a Sunday morning, and I’m at work. I don’t mean to spend so much time here. I do actually have a life outside of these walls, but lately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Campus is abuzz with activity as frantic students hurry to turn everything in, and while I’m no longer one of them, I still feel the strain and stress of the semester end. In the next two weeks, there are yearly evaluations to conduct on my 30 students, summer projects to launch and manage, an increase in the support we provide as final projects and papers are due, and my own new work project. To top it all off, I’m struggling to retrain my body that work hours are no longer 10am - 6 pm but 7:30 am - 4:30pm.

Truthfully, its not the waking up that’s the issue. (That’s why God created coffee.) The issue is the going to bed. I’m innately a night owl. If I don’t watch myself, it’ll be 11pm, and I’ll think, “Hey, I should do some laundry… go for a drive… reorganize my life.” Then, the next time I look at a clock it’ll be 3:30 in the blessid am and I’ll wonder why I’m feeling sleepy. No wonder I’m the full-time staff member who gets the ’sorry it’s midnight but we need you to come into the office calls’… everyone else is smart enough to be sleeping!!!

So starting tomorrow I’m setting up so new ground rules for my life. No more late-night caffeine, cleaning sessions, or drives to Winslow. Bedtime will be closer to when the sun goes down than when it comes back up. Work (when possible) is to be done only at work and left there. No more hauling stuff home to work on after-hours. Instead, I’ll just stay an extra thirty minutes to crank out what is top priority in the office where there are less interruptions. Also, breakfast is a must. If I discovered anything this past week, it was that going into work mid-morning without a real breakfast is no big deal. However, going into work a few hours earlier without breakfast equals a near-meltdown by 10 am.

I’m a realist.  I know that I’m not going to be able to adhere to these new rules every day of the week.  You can’t change a tiger’s stripes, right???  But, if I manage to do it at least 75% of the time, life will be much, much sweeter.

Know what that is?!?! Oh yeah, it’s a picture message from Zac of the movie poster for X-Files: I Want To Believe, the much-anticipated, ‘I’m gonna pee-squirt’ X-Files sequel. Never has there been a show that I so religiously followed and unabashedly loved as this one, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the script must be phenomenal if it could draw Gillian Anderson out of her acting hiatus. Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner, and Chris Carter are all on-board, and I’m just not sure I can wait until its July release. Guess it’s time to start watching all the old episodes again. Eeek!!!

Isn’t this the exact behavior I spend 42% of my life trying to discourage? Might as well just keep all your passwords to your email, bank account, and all other private information on a post-note beside your keyboard.