As the vacations end (for y'all) and work begins...

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Answers

Y'all, I seriously am about to cry.

It's 1:30. I'll be here for another hour and a half, in all liklihood. I'm back at noon. I've been here since noon.

I understand that these two months are the reason I get paid for the other ten, but this is just ridiculous. And frustrating. Y'all might get a second, special, T and D e-mail entry about said frustrations on Tuesday, if I'm not too tired.

Allison, I'm sorry about Alabama. Even in my last round of predictions, I had faith in them. They got hosed.

Please share some cool vacation stories so I can live vicariously through y'all. And don't say that after this past weekend y'all are too broke for JazzFest, or I really will cry forever.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Oh no baby. Jazz Fest is ON.

I'm surprisingly awake.

Yay for my boyfriend Ray!!!!!

Al - feel free to call me at work today.

Spain was just awesome. Dropped off my film already. Can't wait to get them back.

Viva Captain Creama!

I haven't read the forum or any of y'all's pages. Will do so tonight. How bout a summary? Any Meg sightings?

Mike - thank you SO much for the wonderful Surivivor recap. Sara and I read it in Newark and weeped for joy that we finally knew what happened.

Hmm, Jeff's gone. Guess all the Survivor I freaks were WRONG.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I wish I was a cream rationer.

I am all about Jazz Fest. We'll be there, with bells on.

Mike, you may be going to Spain?

Oh, work. Ew.

Car today? Maybe.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Okay. I'm too lazy to read most of the karaoke threads, but I need help, y'all. Fred? Latrell?! Recap, please.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

8 pages on karaoke smack? No time to read that people! But I am even more in love with pamie with all her MATH and AB link and Allison buying strappy shoes for an bei. Rove!

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Um, herro? AB still in Austin? But what's Allison's excuse, eh?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

No, y'all - you HAVE to read both of the karaoke threads. There is some comedy GOLD in there.

I haven't updated in like, six days. I want to today... but I gotz nothin'. Maybe something about sxsw over lunch.

Hannah, I loooove Ray so much. Y'all are lobstahs, for real.

I was telling some story about my grandmother and he like, sighed this huge sigh and goes "I think our family trees might be connected someplace..."

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I'm so worried about the Bermanator. Seriously. I hate to think of him, all bleary-eyed and tired.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I'm back from Austin. I came home last night, because I couldn't find Al, and Meredith was pissing me off. I so tired, too!

Bermanator needs a nap, poor baby.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Poor Bermanater. Chris was despondent about the game, but he also said that it was the best game he'd ever seen, ever. And then he told me how he almost saw the best game, ever, like, in history, when his mother almost went into labor with him at the Maryland/UNC (I think UNC) game during the second overtime. She was real excited. Instead, she just fainted twice.

But you'll make it through. Do you have girl scout cookies? I think I'll root for Georgia State.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Slow MATH today. I'm still in love with Pam's huge shout-outs to MATH. I mean, doe that get any better?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Okay, so I lied. I read all your updates.

Get on your tractor and drive to the library is my new kiss off.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I do dig the shout-outs. Although, I do wish there had been some linkage.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

You and me both my unlinked friend.

How much do I love it that some random jags won the karaoke contest.

And Leigha only got 9 votes.

And I think that Meghan person was Meg. Who else would sing Can't Fight the Moonlight? (Well, besides me.)

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Yeah, Leigha only got nine votes. You know I loved that.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

When I clicked today's active topics like 10 chatting threads came up. Wtf?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I'm in. Bleary-eyed and hating the world, but in.

T, yeah, I may be going to Europe this summer, backpacking for two or three weeks. We'll see. I can't afford it, but when else am I gonna go?

And the NCAA had better never again argue that matchups aren't determined by TV. Was there any doubt that Maryland and Lefty Driesell's Georgia State squad were going to the same region.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Y'all, my friend Dan. He pisses me off so much. He likes Chris a lot, but says "I just don't see him as your future. Something about the shape of his neck. You just don't want that guy. He's great, but he's not good enough for you."

What does that even mean?

Is it ok for him to even say that? I had NO response. I had no idea what to say. I think I mumbled something about "Well, I love Chris. I didn't say I was going to marry him or anything..."

He gave me a "you no settle!" speech. Suddenly, in my head, I was all "He doesn't even KNOW the MOC. I understand Chris. We're in loooooove." Like I'm 16 and my dad just told me I couldn't date the guy with the motorcycle.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

See, when I get something like that I just ignore it and chalk it up to jealousy. Unless everyone starts saying things like that. Which they clearly are not.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Oh, and AB, send me your address again and I'll ship out the Survivor tape this afternoon.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

"See, when I get something like that I just ignore it and chalk it up to jealousy. Unless everyone starts saying things like that. Which they clearly are not."

I know, I know. But I hate it! And I don't know what he would have to be jealous about. I've known Dan for 10 years - if he wanted to go out with me, himself, he would have done it by now, and on the other hand, he has a great girlfriend.

Stuff like that just makes me doubt myself. And then I compensate by running hard toward what someone is telling me to get away from.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Mike, I have a question. Can you buy Maryland garb online? After Chris went on and on about the injustice of not having been born at that Maryland game, he talked for about thirty minutes about his earliest memory, which was receiving a Maryland t-shirt from his father when he was two. Apparently, it was gray with the Maryland seal, and Chris is bitter that his mother threw it out (along with his second-most-prized t-shirt, which recorded the USA victory over the USSR during some long-ago Olympics. It said "USA 4, USSR 3", or something).

I must find one of these shirts for him (grown-up sized). Can I get one online, do you think?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

http://www.ubc.umd.edu/terpshop/

or

http://umterps.fansonly.com/st ore/

If you don't find what you need there, let me know and I'll run up to College Park and pick something up.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I knew you'd have a fast answer - thanks. I think I found it - gray shirt, college seal, etc.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Excellent.

He must be very torn with that Maryland-George Mason matchup in the first round. The joke here is that the Washington Post bribed the selection committee to put all the local teams in one region so they could send less people. Of the five "local" teams in the NCAAs, four are heading to Boise (Maryland, Mason, Georgetown and Hampton). Only Virginia gets to go somewhere else ... either Memphis or New Orleans. I forget which.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Allison - people are strange. I love the MOC, and do you need any more validation? Maybe your friend Dan is being like the protective father thing, and in which case he wouldn't think anyone was good enough for you. I clearly do not think Mark's current girl is good enough for him, and clearly no one is good enough for him except me, but I also know we will never date, nor do I really want to. Maybe Dan's thinking like that?

Besides, he's never met him. And until he does, you can tell him to stick it.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Yes, people are strange. Speaking of which, Mike - what do you think about our coach, Gottfried, acting like such a superfreak at every game? He is like some Wimp Sanderson wannabe. If he starts busting out the plaid jackets, I am going to be a little concerned. The students love him, though.

Oh, Dan has met Chris. Dan lives here. He's met him several times. The brutal irony of it is, Chris LOVES Dan. He thinks he is SO cool.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Oh, well, then, tell him to stick it anyway.

Tell us about this weekend! Any Stee stories?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

He's young and energetic, which makes you a players' coach when you win and a freakazoid when you lose. I know he and LSU's coach don't get along, but the SEC is filled with coaches who hate each other, moreso than any other conference I can think of (although there's one less coach to hate now, since South Carolina just canned Fogler).

What's Chris Yarborough's message board like today? Y'all got hosed. So did Richmond.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I just checked Yarbrough's site. The top thread of the message board reads "WE GOT SCREWED!"

They're going crazy.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Um... this weekend. It was fun, but exhausting. Stee is very, very funny. I enjoyed hanging around him. It was easy. Even Chris liked him, in spite of himself.

He's really nice to pamie. They weren't super lovey-dovey in front of us, or anything. I think I saw him kiss her on the forehead once.

You're really going to like him. He asked about you, said he was looking forward to meeting you.

I also met Kim from fresh-hell and Tara of MBTV. I think I said about 92 swear words in front of them and probably did not make the best impression because I was so freaking tired by the time we met.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Oh, what were Kim and Tara like?

I'm looking forward to meeting Stee, even if I do have to hate him on principle.

I have his cell # and Pam's, so I'm hoping I won't have any trouble meeting up with them. Did you go to any of the interactive panels?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

No, we couldn't get in to any panels. C and I didn't have badges or passes. But we got into several movies like big VIP's because pamie had us "on the list" everywhere with the Bad Dog Theater people. We also went and hung out in the "platinum lounge" which was not as cool as it sounded.

Kim and Tara were really nice. It was weird meeting Kim, a little, because I read her everyday. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have cornered Tara about doing Iron Chef recaps for MBTV. Of course, pamie says others have asked before and she's said no, so whatever. I don't even like MBTV anyway. I think I'm going to start writing them for HYD, just to do it. I didn't really talk to the two of them that much.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I actually saw my first "Iron Chef" the other day. It was The Conger Eel battle with the Italian chef, and it kicked ass. But the challenger was screwed.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Hmm, I was sort of hoping you could just buy daily passes for some of the interactive stuff. I wonder if Stee can put me on a list or something for his panel?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

He might be able to do that - e-mail pamie and see.

Mike! Iron CHEF! Yes, the conger eel battle was a total rip-off. But I like to see the Iron Chef's win. I have a feeling they get in trouble if they don't.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

But that was reedeeculous. They judges were all like "Uh, Iron Chef, these kind of suck," and they loved the challengers dishes, except for the ice cream thing. And yet, they voted for the Iron Chef.

Fixed, I tell you. The whole thing is fixed.

I also saw my first episode of the Power Puff Girls, since the Cartoon Network has apparently been added to our basic cable.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Best stee moment of the weekend? When AB showed up drunk to the gills at the Bad Dog and announced "You don't know who I am, stee, but you NEED to."

The look of fear in his eyes... it was the best. He is afraid of MATH, I think. As well he should be.

I don't think he knows many Southern people, for one thing. Me and AB combined make quite the primer course.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Like when Pam thought AB was going to shank her in the neck. When the little Loserana girl starts eating your rice with straws it's time to step off.

Al - I've got the hotel on Thursday still thru work. Do you want to stay there with me that night at least?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

So ... no Spain stories? Am I going to have to wait for the journal entries?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Seriously! Who cares about Austin?! We want to hear about Espana!

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Fuck! I just deleted my whole response. Jags.

Anyway. No real crazy Spain stories. We were good girls. I think it's because we were so exhausted from a day of being geeky tourists.

But the photo of Dee with the dueling crawfish is hilarious.

And we learned the Spanish word for um.... uh... ejaculate? Teri asked for more.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Can you get around with just a vague working knowledge of Spanish, or is it important to be nearly fluent to be understood?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Our scattered years of Sra. Weisman were planty enough Spanish to get by with. Except for the "Mas creama, por favor" thing.

I just went to look at my car. It's nice. All leathery and stuff. It's raining here, so I couldn't drive it with the top down. Boo. But, I know that it doesn't leak and that it brakes well in the rain, so that's a good thing.

Joh! How are your pictures! I haven't dropped mine off yet. Tio Pepe?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Joh: There's nothing wrong with girls from Loserana. Your mamma lived there, you know.

Mike: Between Maryland and George Mason, it's no contest. The Terps win C's loyalto, hands down. Mason brings home the bacon, but Maryland is where it's at for Nooley (see, because that's what he calls himself when he's all basketball-y). Did I mention that he was nearly born at a really important game? Because he has. Like seven times since yesterday. I've never seen him all basketball-y like this before.

(And actually, was that an all that amazing game? He figured that you could vouch for his near-claim to birthing fame)

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

What year was he born? I'll see if I can find historical evidence for his claim of near-fame.

That's how I am as well. I have no allegiance whatsoever to GW. In fact, I pretty much hate them. All my ties are to Maryland.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

His birthday is 2/17/71. I think the game was against UNC. "Two spectacular overtimes!" His mother was right about due, so I guess the game was in early February, 1971.

He doesn't hate GM, but he's sort of ambivalent. UVA was his first choice for law school, and he resented going to GM for the first year he was there. Now, he's glad.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I just updated. It was like pulling teeth.

I've gotten two hits from someone at Gannett in the last couple of days. What's up with that?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Wouldn't that be me?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Wouldn't Gannett be Mike? Usually he shows up as usatoday.com, but that's a Gannett paper, isn't it?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

So that's where you've been.

Mike - my no spanish turned into fairly functional Spanish in 8 days. If I'd been there another week, I'd be fluent. Seriously. You just pick up so much, especially if you've already got a working knowledge. It's amazing.

Pics are pretty good, but I thought I took more group shots. Guess not. The Tio Pepe roll is still in my camera. Sara's said she's gonna try and get them all up this weekend, but I don't see how she'll do it. Together we have nearly 400 photos.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Well, you show up as usatoday.com, so I didn't think it was you.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Allison, how can you not love an entry that references Lyle?

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Excellent entry as always.

My old roommate was from Waco (and is actually in Dallas now, with the Morning News website) and he indeed got very sick of people bringing up Koresh whenever they learned where he was from.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I'm going to have a cd-rom made with my pictures. Diaryland now offers image hosting, so I'm going to register T Goes To Spain and put pictures up there. I don't know if I have many pictures with people in them, though.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I'm oot for a while. I have about three weeks worth of work to do in the next hour.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

Okay jags, I'm going home soon.

I'll be checking in.

Viva la Espana.

Viva Hannah by Raywest.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

I just went on a world-class rant in the current DSAS. I seriously could not help myself. One more word about how boys are dumb and how much they suck and I might vomit.

You know why it bothers me so much? Not because I don't think men can sometimes be selfish, retarded bastards (sorry, M - not you, baby), and not because I don't think a lot of them have this unbelievable sense of entitlement when it comes to women (except for M, of course) - because I do think that, a lot.

But like, Angel of Deathifer and starlight... they're such whiny, stupid girls. Juts LIIIIIIIIVE, you know? I get so sick of hearing these "that boy doesn't love me, so now what am I going to do?" stories.

Just... he doesn't love you! It's sad, but it won't kill you. You have two choices:

1. Decide he's an asshole and be thankful you've dodged a bullet.

2. Decide he's human and forgive him for any pain he caused you and move on.

I mean... those are the only two choices. Right? You can hate him all you want, but one of those things has to happen. Sitting around moping and bitching and eating ice cream doesn't make anyone feel any better, and it just makes women seem like desperate, needy girls.

Anyway, y'all read it and let me know if it was harsh. I am a little worried that A of D-fer might take it personally, but she can suck it. I don't care about these people at all anymore.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001

That wasn't hard, it was perfect. Words to live by - Allison S. Lowe.

The worst thingn in the world's happend (tm Allison). My wonderful black wrap dress got eaten by the washer! The little wrap things got twisted around the spinning arm thing and I had to cut one to get it off.

Nooooo!!

Al - can you just call my cell phone with the EP's number? I probably won't get online again until I get to Austin. I can always check from the hotel, but you know.

I'll email you my cell number just in case.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2001