April 2010 Archives

Back from My Sleep-Deprived Abyss

Wow, it really has been awhile since I last updated all of you … but not without good reason.

You see, since my last entry here I have spent all of my time either working or sleeping. Well, almost all of my time — the rest has been devoted to baseball. (And, yes, someone turned thirty in there as well, but we’ll go ahead and leave that topic for another day.) My work schedule was changed on April 11 from 5–9 PM (my previous work schedule) to 4:30–8:30 AM, a change which completely screwed up my sleep schedule. Sure, it was nice being done with work at 8:30 everyday, because, theoretically, you have the rest of your day free. Unfortunately, the reality wasn’t so pleasant. Most days I came home from work, read a little, ate lunch, and then passed out from exhaustion. I would typically wake up from my daily unplanned nap late in the afternoon or early in the evening, eat dinner, listen to the Twins game on the radio, and then go right back to bed. My alarm went off at 2:45 AM signaling it was time to do it all over again. Ugh. I’ve long believed that if you have to be woken up by artificial means (i.e., an alarm clock) then you probably didn’t get enough sleep, and the previous two weeks only confirmed my belief.

But now it’s over.

Yesterday was my last day working early in the morning, I am off today and tomorrow, and then I start my new schedule on Wednesday — 3–7 PM. In the end, I think it worked out quite well for me actually, because two important and positive changes came out of this. For one, I was exposed to “how the other half lives” — I got to experience first-hand what the morning crew did and didn’t do, — whereas all I had to go on before were stories from others who had worked on that shift. And for two, my new afternoon shift is actually about a million times better than my old evening shift, as I get started earlier and get done earlier. Getting out of work at seven o’clock means I might actually get to experience a social life again (when I can afford it) for the first time in years. Win!

I slept in today until 9:30, and I’ve done absolutely nothing so far but sit around sipping coffee all day. I have every intention of being more ambitious tomorrow — I have laundry that needs to be done, dishes that need to be cleaned, and an apartment that needs to be picked up, after all — but my plans for the rest of the day today are to do nothing more than continue the recovery process. We’ll get this sleep schedule thing back on track in no time.

k!

Who ARE These People?

I first signed up for Facebook back when it was in its infancy. No, I’m no Harvard grad (obviously), but I was part of that next wave when the site expanded to other private East Coast colleges, meaning that when I signed up there were roughly zero of my former high school classmates from Wisconsin on the site. In the years since, quite a few of them registered as the site expanded first to other colleges and universities around the country, and later to, well, everybody.

Why do I bring this up? Because on occasion I get curious as to who else from high school is on the site, so I take a little peek. Browsing the list of people claiming to be part of my graduating class, all I can ask is, “Who the f–– are these people?!” Yes, yes, I know that many of the ladies have married and adopted their husbands’ last names, but that’s not what I mean. I wasn’t exactly popular in high school, per se, but I at least knew who most everyone was, regardless of whether or not we were friends. Nevertheless, I have no idea who these people are. What I do know is that they definitely were not part of my graduating class.

That being the case, I just have to ask: why? Why would you claim to be part of the graduating class of some random high school in Wisconsin? I don’t know who you people are, but you were never in any of my classes or anything. Then again, as was always my response when my parents asked me why I wasn’t among those listed in the paper each semester for having a GPA of 3.7 or higher: “Umm, probably because the people on that list aren’t in any of my classes.” Are all you people among the random folks who were part of our graduation ceremony but never actually attended our school? I seem to recall people at our commencement ceremony who didn’t even go to our school and being quite confused. Whatever.

k!

Thank Goodness for Joe Mauer

I should preface this entry with an apology — I’m sorry. I’m sorry for writing about baseball. I promise not to turn this into a baseball blog again, but what I have to write this evening just had to be written.

Did you see the Yankees–Red Sox game tonight or catch the highlights? Seeing Victor Martinez and Jorge Posada in action just makes me as a Twins fan appreciate Joe Mauer that much more and highlights so many of the reasons why the Twins were willing to make Mauer the 284-Million-Dollar Man.

Take, for example, Martinez’s decision to attempt to throw out Derek Jeter at second, down 4–1, and with Brett Gardner on third. What the f—— was he thinking? Did he even look at Gardner at third? Clearly not. As if his decision to even attempt to throw out Jeter at second weren’t bad enough, worse still was the throw itself. I could make a better throw to second than that, and I’ve never seen anyone in my life less capable of making an accurate throw than me.

And how about Mr. Passed Ball — Jorge Posada. He, of course, being among the top-ten all-time in modern baseball history in passed balls. Unlike most of the other catchers on that list, our Mr. Posada has never caught a knucklerballer — he’s just an awful, awful defensive catcher whose pathetic defense has been ignored because he averages 25 HR / 98 RBIs / .277 AVG. He had yet another passed ball tonight that conceded the winning run. Poor Chan Ho Park got charged with the loss, but the loss should really go to Posada.

(And, unlike Mauer, who has won three batting titles — and last year also lead the league in slugging percentage and on-base percentage — the only offensive category Posada has ever lead the league in is Double Plays Grounded Into.)

I guess all I mean to say is that seeing Posada and Martinez play makes you appreciate Mauer and what he gives the Twins that much more. Even with their outsized payrolls, that's the best the Yankees and Red Sox can get for catchers. If Mauer had tested the open market after this season, his annual salary might well have challenged that of Alex Rodriguez, but by accepting “only” $23 million per year to stay with the Twins he̵ll instead be filling the heads of New Yorkers and Bostonians with dreams of what could have been.

Thanks Joe for staying home.

k!

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from April 2010 listed from newest to oldest.

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