Shorts in November

It had been a month since I'd been in Watauga County, so I figured it was about time to head back up the mountain. Lucky for me, Appalachian State grads Jeff Crum, television's own Kris Cook, and Crum's pal Greg Elmore invited me along for a 1st round Division 1-AA playoff game in Boone. The Mountaineers were hosting upstart Coastal Carolina. Coastal's mascot is the Chanticleers. Evidently a Chanticleer is a rooster or a gamecock. I think a rooster would have served as a better name for a mascot, but I went to a school that didn't even have a football team so what the hell do I know?
We got to Boone early, parked, and moved along to Boone Drug for a Parson's special. We then retreated to the parking lot for pregame festivities that consisted of tossing the football and drinking beer. Before the game we noticed Chancellor Kenneth Peacock walking around the parking lot with an excited look on his face and the National Championship trophy in his arms. We stopped him and he gladly took a picture with Elmore and Cook even giving Greg the championship ring. Chancellor Peacock appeared to be half cocked like the rest of us and was ready for a good time. He would eventually lead the band in the fight song and do some cheers on the sidelines.
Kickoff temperatures were more than 60 degrees which meant we could wear shorts. Not that the temp really made a difference, but we got fewer weird looks than we typically do. Former co-worker Steve White hooked us up with some sweet tickets around the rich folks. That was weird since we aren't rich folks and we were trying to sneak mini-bottles of Crown into our Cokes. I don't think anyone saw us. I don't normally drink liquor, and I don't plan to drinking it again anytime real soon, but I enjoyed the medicine Saturday.
The Happy Appies dominated the first half and tried to let the Chanticleers back in it in the second half but went on to win and will host Montana St. this coming Saturday in Round 2. Kidd Brewer Stadium is a fine place to watch a football game. I hadn't been there since 1995 when Marshall came down the mountain and got whipped, so it was nice to be back.
Following the game we found a nekkid lady statue. Kris Cook was pretty happy about it. Thanks to Elmore's no less than 90 mph yet safe driving style, we were back in Chateau de Crum in Huntersville by eleven. Saturday didn't suck. I'm glad three Mountaineers didn't mind a college dropout like myself join in a day of good times.

You can take the Radio Guy out of Radio Station, but you can't take the Radio Station out of the Radio Guy

Many of you know my pal John Homa. You may also know my pals Captain Jim Slade, Big Jim Slade, Greg Worth, John Carter, and John Collins. They are all the same person, just names John uses on multiple radio and television stations giving traffic and sports reports. He came in Friday to fill in for our vacationing traffic reporter. John's been in radio since he was in college and is pretty old school despite his young age. He does have to do television on occasion, but I don't think he really enjoys it as much as radio because you have to change cameras and maps and stuff instead of just giving the traffic and reading a spot.
John said he didn't feel comfortable just clipping a microphone on for every report so he decided to make himself feel more at home today. He took your classic television lavalier microphone and turned it into a radio station style boom mic courtesy of an ink pen. That's bad ass.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Was getting a cup of coffee at the Dilworth Coffee House this morning on my way to Lincolnton for Thanksgiving festivities and saw this bumper sticker. I couldn't agree more.

It's Not August

It's cold outside. You'd be a real asshole if you played golf today, so naturally Scott G and myself made good on our 8:30 tee time at Firethorne Country Club this morning. Scott is doing some work for them on his new website so we got to go play a nice private course for free whilst recording commentary on each hole. I didn't play well. It's hard to play well when you suck. It's really hard to play well when you suck and it's 38 degrees with thirty mph gusts of wind. It really was brutal. On #14 it started sleeting. Sleet was actually accumulating on the greens. We pressed on and finished despite the nasty conditions as it started to rain like hell. I'm glad we finished.

This was one of about two easy holes on this course. The first to guess which direction this particular tee shot went wins the free bowl of soup I got for wearing a black windvest on top of a navy shirt.

This Blog Definitely Sucks

I must sincerely apologize to all four fans of This Blog May or May Not Suck. For whatever reason, I've not really felt inspired to write about much. Even my daily work shenanigans, Monday Night Football, or even the red carpet at the BET Hip-Hop Awards. There's certainly not a lack of content. I reckon I just looked back at some old posts and realized the blog is pretty selfish. It's just a big, ''Look at me! Here's what I'm doing!!" I know that's what all blogs are, but it struck me in a weird way. I've really enjoyed these first few months of the blog, and I honestly think I'll enjoy several more. Just not right this second. It may be a week or two or three. Maybe even tomorrow.

Things are well. They honestly don't suck. We didn't go to the Panthers game yesterday. Anna and I threw a party for my parent's 30th anniversary. It's nice to see them so happy after so long. They've been through two kids, one of which damn near died at birth(Anna.) They've been through Dad's two heart attacks, Mom's multiple sclerosis, and ton of happy times, too in thirty years. It was a good party.

And a big thanks to Mark Smith for Always thinking of the blog. Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane was at the station last week promoting something. She didn't quite catch on to the thumbs up thing.

Ireland Doesn't Suck

Jim Travers went to Ireland for two weeks. He went to a wedding that lasted for three days that consisted of nothing but beer drinking. He also traversed much of the country including a lovely town called Muff. That's right, there is Muff in Ireland.
Jim also hung out with Kathy for a few days. Kathy lived right here in Charlotte USA for a while until the laws forced her to return to her native Dublin. She's a loyal reader of This Blog May or May Not Suck, likely the only overseas reader. She's been trying to make her way onto the site and figured out a great way to do it. She and Jim drove two hours to the Smithwick's Brewery. It was a great idea except for it's only open for tours during the summer. Nothing cool about that, but Kathy whips ass and should find an American quickly and marry them so she can move back.
Jim did bring back two cans for tailgating Sunday, and they were spectacular. Thanks to Jim for keeping the blog in mind whilst in his homeland.

In the Minority

My friend Avani married her sweetie Ajay earlier this year in India. She then married him again Saturday afternoon. They then recreated another ceremony Saturday night for friends. At least, that's how I think it went down. I'm not sure, but I do know that I attended something Saturday night that resembled a wedding.

I've known Avani since high school when we were in chorus. She went to DC for college and we didn't keep in touch very often. She then took off for India and worked with orphans for two separate stints. Whilst helping children in Gujarat, she met Ajay in Ahmedabad. I'm pretty sure that's where she was volunteering and where she met him. I may have them switched around or completely wrong, but I think it's close. Avani came back home to Charlotte shortly after she met Ajay and said she met this guy who she'll likely marry and she did when she got back over there.
Way back in the day I went to Avani's parent's wedding anniversary party where they reaffirmed their vows and stuff. I remember being one of about six white people out of a couple hundred people. It was great. I remember the food being terrible, and sneaking out to the parking lot to smoke cigarettes. Oh, the memories. I also thought it was weird because they rented out a church building. So it made a lot of sense that Saturday's wedding took place at the Levine Jewish Senior Center! Anyway, it was beautiful. They had a non-denominational minister doing the ceremony which consisted of seven different steps. Kind of like seven different vows. It was cool.
I don't know much about Ajay except for he's one hell of a yoga instructor and artist. In fact, he and Avani did all of the decorations for the wedding. This is what you saw when you walked in the front door. There were decorations on every table, they even did the place mats. After the wedding was a big Indian buffet. Just to the right of the buffet was a table with spaghetti and meat sauce. I was tempted, but stayed on the Indian side and actually enjoyed all of the food. That's what spending the majority of the last four years with a vegetarian does to you.

It's great to see Avani happy. She's working for the North Carolina Minority Support Center in Durham where Ajay's in teaching yoga.
The first person I saw when I walked in was Sonia. I've known her since the 4th grade. She whipped my ass in the Spelling Bee one year. She's now a doctor, and I'm a news photographer. The summer after freshman year in college, Sonia and I hung out every night. We had a lot in common then. We both hated being back home, and were both smoked a LOT of cigarettes and were trying to hide it from our parents. So we'd go on walks or go get ice cream so we could smoke cigarettes. That was a good summer. She's finishing her residency in Birmingham and who knows where she'll go after that. It was good to see old friends Saturday. There's been a lot of good weddings this year.