Wedding Cakes and Football

Being married is definitely hard work. Celia (The girl from my previous posts) and I have gone through a lot of ups and downs in our first year as a happily married couple, but thankfully, we are still happily married. I credit our marital happiness to our beloved Seattle Seahawks. There are plenty of things that we do not see eye to eye on. I'm progressive, she's more traditionalist. I am impulsive, she likes to plan things. I LOVE sports, and she loves reality television. However, one thing that helped us through was a tradition that we started when we were dating, about a week before the proposal, in August of 2011. We got tickets to the Seahawks training camp at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC) and we enjoyed the entire day watching the team practice.

A year later, we returned to the VMAC, where we first noticed a rather short quarterback slinging the ball all over the field. Of course, this was not the first time that we'd seen Russell Wilson. We did see him at the Mariners/Giants game a few months earlier, and he is every bit as short as advertised. His diminutive stature aside, Wilson turned out to be a fantastic leader and field general for the team this year, taking the Hawks to a 12-6 record and a divisional playoff run for the second time in Pete Carroll's three year tenure. My wife and I bonded over this team in a way we hadn't before, and Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch and company became a fixture on our television. They grow on you, and a love of the town, and the team, has helped us to greater appreciate our own love for each other. Go Hawks!

denim, football and chicken

Today is an interesting day to post. It's a Sunday, my wife isn't feeling well so we aren't at church today, and I am sitting here at my computer watching the London Olympics. I'm contemplating getting rid of some of my prized denim collection. This is serious business, if you know me. I am very serious about the fifty-odd pairs of jeans sitting in my closet. I am a pretty poor Marxist, after all, given how completely I have given myself over to consumerism and wearing fine apparel. I wish such were not the case, but I am definitely a sucker for a nice pair of denim woven on a shuttle loom. I've tried to get my wife as into it as I am, but it's not working as quickly as I'd hope. I honestly probably hope it never works. It's been quite a while since the last time that I wrote, but I need to get myself back into the habit. I would like to try and share some of my thoughts with you every day, if I can remind myself to do this. Yesterday, my wife and I went to the Seattle Seahawks first day of training camp. It was quite a bit of fun. It was nice watching the new players. The defense looks miles ahead of the offense right now. The defensive backfield looks fast and the pass rush with the addition of Bruce Irvin looks lethal. I was shocked how quickly he was able to get to the quarterback against the first team. I know that our offensive line needs work, but Irvin was averaging 1.5 seconds to get to the quarterback from the snap. That's insane. He's fast enough to go outside of a tackle, avoiding him completely, and get to the quarterback right as he's settling in to his three step drop. The quarterbacks looked shaky. Tarvaris had the best grasp of the offense, but Flynn's check-downs and release were much faster. If I had to make a call, once Flynn grasps the offense, he will be the definite starter. After all, the knock on Jackson was never his talent or ability, it was his decision making. I'm really excited to see how my team does this year. That defense is going to be giving anyone that comes up against it some serious problems. After the practice, my wife and I went to Ezell Stephens' new restaurant: Heaven Sent Fried Chicken. The moniker fits. The chicken is soft and melts in your mouth, the batter is crispy and pops with just the right amount of spice. If you want to try this succulent deliciousness, I suggest that you order either a two piece dark meal, or an order of strips, in the spicy, of course. I've been a huge fan of Ezell's Famous Chicken for years, but Ezell has definitely outdone himself with this latest venture. That's it for the update, but I do have some updates with regard to some other things that I'd like to post here in the future. Have a great day!

special

So, I haven't had a post in a while, and that's a shame. I should really write more of my thoughts down. I've recently been dating someone who's become very special to me. I care very deeply for her and I find that the thought of losing her terrifies me. Which, in and of itself, is terrifying. I think the moment that you realize that you care more about someone else than your self makes you very vulnerable. That vulnerability is an anathema to me. I'm not used to it. I'm used to sharing my feelings, but I am not used to my happiness depending so fully on someone else being happy. It's a very strange feeling.

Why I'm Bad at Relationships

I realized recently, that I am not good at dating. I'm good at flirting, and sealing the deal and what not. But I'm bad at being a boyfriend, or even knowing how to go about becoming a boyfriend. Habits go with you. When you tailor your approach and your techniques for dating to only last a couple weeks, when you meet a girl you actually want to date, these methods can be particularly overwhelming. Slow is the key. Yeah, I've kissed every girl I've really liked on the first date, but then again, has that gotten me anywhere I wanted with those girls? At the moment it did, but I sit here today with no girls to steal my hoodies back from. So, I think it's safe to say, that maybe some coaching on how to get past 5 dates would be a good thing. Because I'm pretty sure, it's fast enough that any girl who'd want to stay with me after the intensity of my approach clearly has issues.

Black History

So, I almost meant to do this post yesterday, but I figured that by doing it today I could protest against feeling like there's only one month where we can focus on black history. We shouldn't have to take a particular month to focus on the history of any particular ethnicity. I should be able to learn about George Washington Carver, and other great African American pioneers in history class, rather than at a diorama at the Festival Sundiata, which is actually being held in June this year. And for all of you who feel that we should have a White History Month and a White Entertainment Television, just go to a history class, or turn on CBS.

Freedom

So, there's a series of revolutions going around in the Arab world at the moment. It's rather exciting. It means that we don't have to go into every Arab nation to bring them "American Democracy" in the Middle East. Given the proper catalyst, they can do it themselves. We no longer need to make enemies by "policing" the world. and that's a good thing.

Girls, Football, and a Little Politics

So, first off, it's been a while since I decided to put my feelings on the internet for everyone to read, that's the danger of blogging. You use it like a journal, but it isn't a journal. Everyone can read it. So, I'd like to apologize to a certain person who I'd been blogging my feelings about so I didn't actually say them and possibly freak her out, which, if she read my blog, I probably succeeded in doing, given that we hadn't known each other long at the time. But that's neither here nor there, she's a really cool, awesome person, regardless. But timing really is everything, and you can't be so excited to meet someone that you end up pushing things rather than letting them take their natural course. Things will always work themselves out in the end.

I think that my main problem when it comes to dating is that I haven't really had a lot of relationships that lasted longer than a few weeks. I have had a couple, but the vast majority of my interactions with girls have been whirlwinds of fun and passion, with little real substance, so the fact that I actually met someone who had real substance and I thought could have really gone somewhere freaked me out and I probably thought that I was going to end up blowing the damn thing anyhow, which I think I did, at least in part, even if she wasn't ready for what I felt like I was ready for. However, my reaction and nervousness clearly showed that I wasn't ready either. There's a lot of things I have to work on, patience being paramount among those things, also curbing my excitement and not building things up in my head to the point where I can't act on them intelligently. It's interesting to run into people that you dated, however briefly. It always makes you think, what if? What if I hadn't been thinking about so and so instead of actually giving you some attention when you were there for me; or what if I hadn't thought my way out of a potentially great relationship. It makes it especially difficult when you can detect a hint of their feelings simmering beneath the surface. Because those feelings never really go away. I can attest to that. No matter how angry I may be at some of the women I've dated in the past, any that I really cared about I still care about on some level. When I pray for my friends to have happiness in life, I know that a piece of that prayer is for them. So that's good I think. It also speaks to the infinite capacity of the human heart to love. It's not like everyone you love in some way diminishes your capacity to love in the future. But, sadly, it's like a stone-etched record, some feelings never really go away. You just have to cope with them. In some cases that can lead to depression, and other things. I find when I'm feeling down about a girl, the best thing I can do is to work out, it helps me feel better, and it keeps me from drinking, which I felt like doing a LOT this past month. Which shows me what a silly ass I've become. But I guess that wouldn't make me the only silly ass in the world if I climbed inside the bottle over a girl. But I might be the only one who had done it over a girl they dated for three weeks. But that was one damn awesome girl, let me tell you. She's got a pretty bright future, not to mention the prettiest eyes I've ever seen in my life. I hope I meet someone with eyes like that again in the future.

So, anyway, enough about my lamentations for love lost or never had. Let's talk about the impending lockout of the NFL players on March 4th of this year. At least it isn't March 15th. The Ides of March would be a foreboding date indeed for the assassination of the 2011 season of our beloved NFL. Honestly, I feel that the owners are being incredibly hypocritical in their advocation of an 18 game season while at the same time imposing fines for big hits that may cause head trauma. Technically it's the same number of games, because you'd be eliminating two pre-season games, but honestly it would dilute the records and everyone knows that you play harder in the regular season than the pre-season. People are going to get hurt. We have enough former football players suffering from pugilistic dementia at present. I feel that the union needs to get better benefits for former players in retirement as well. I'm very alarmed by the numbers of former defensive linemen dying in their 40s. It's more often from complications from head injuries than from heart conditions. The meetings between the players and the owners should take care of this at the very least.

And lastly, a little bit of politics. I'm going to sound off on the efforts of the Wisconsin and Ohio governors to kill unions. As a strong advocate of unions and workers rights, I feel that this is a horrible idea. These republican politicians represent the interests of the big businesses who contribute to their campaigns. Who's the enemy of big business exploiting their work force? Teamsters unions and other labor groups. Unless workers have the right to unionize, there is no way that a round of future budget cuts won't leave people out in the cold. It's all ethics, something that I feel the GOP has very little of these days. I'm not even going to touch on the stupid things that Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann say every day. Anyway, that's all for today, I'll try to update again more frequently. Ciao.