Interesting times in North Georgia

Whenever I make the mistake of thinking my life is boring, something happens to remind me how interesting my life is. And when I say "interesting," I mean in the ancient-Chinese-curse sense of the word.

Late last night I was driving home from gaming in Athens. sujata had written out reverse directions for me. This would have been great, except for a few factors: it was pitch-black, raining (at times heavily), foggy, and oh yeah, the biggest one: I have been described as "unable to find her way out of a wet paper bag." I have no sense of direction whatsoever. I get lost so easily that the first time I made it to a Club Atlanta event less than an hour late and without having to call for directions, it made the club newsletter.

So I almost immediately made a wrong turn.

I quickly realized I was not headed back to Atlanta and began to panic. alanator had just called, and his glee at the situation didn't help matters. I believe his exact words were "You're gonna get butt-fucked by rednecks!!" This is why you don't let young children watch Deliverance, folks. You end up with either Quentin Tarantino or alanator.

Seriously, I was freaked. I get lost in Atlanta all the fucking time, but that's Atlanta. I know eventually I'll find a sign for 75 or 85 and figure out where the hell I am. But this time there I was, on backroads I didn't know, going to towns I didn't know, in the dark and fog and pouring rain and lightning. In short, I was about to barf.

My salvation came from an unexpected source: sujata's mom. I called Molly's house and she wasn't home yet, but her mother took pity on this strang hysterical girl and guided me to 316. My gratitude knows no bounds.

And I even got home in time for my Sunday night ritual of watching Adult Swim, which greatly improved my mood.

Time to mock the Lakers!

The NBA season starts tomorrow. For me, this means it's time to root for the Celtics and Mavs, watch the league embarrass itself, and boo the Lakers.

It rather runs in my family that it's not enough for us to simply root for the teams we love. No, we must also hate our favorite team's rival with the passion of a thousand white-hot burning suns. This is why my parents and I loathe the University of Tennessee -- though really, the Vandy/UT rivalry is mostly in Vanderbilt's head. And since my parents raised me as a Celtics fan as well as a Vandy fan, well, we all really, really hate the Lakers. I mean, really hate them.

scarcrest recently told me that "Schadenfreude is a very human emotion." Well, I sure hope so, because that makes me feel a little better about being positively gleeful about stuff like this:

Shaq, Kobe in yet another pissing contest

Seriously, I'm fascinated by the business and psychology of sports. I find the halftime show just as interesting, if not more so, as the game. And this is shaping up to be a very soap-opera season...