Background Noise: Family Guy, Mr. Saturday Knight
Last website visited: evening rounds
Mood: relaxing, getting ready for bed
Right now i want... a differnt family guy on... ding!

today's lunch was fairly generic for the past few months: the cafeteria, a sandwich, creed, andy, and walter at the table. anyways, everyone was tired and out of it... to the point of painfully stifled conversation. so, trying to not be in a group of four people sitting in silence, i started rambling on the national football league hall of fame inductions this weekend. i saw john elway's acceptance speech, where he thanked his father for instilling in him the values with which he lived his life and played the game. it was surprisingly moving, actually. anyways, one of his father's "values" for a quarterback was "and when you go out to dinner with your offensive line, pick up the tab." funny stuff, and really, if you think of it, a damn good idea. these are the guys that keep you from getting your ass pounded into the turf, after all, one would hope they want you to stay in one piece.

anyways, to get to the point of this back-story, NONE of the guys at the table knew what the hell i was talking about. they didn't know who john elway WAS. i mean, how can you pay any attention to the news in the past 15 years or so and NOT know who john elway is? andy got close... basically he heard "NFL hall of fame inductions" and "john elway" in the same sentence and figured he played football; smart guy, that one. sheesh.

and, just as i was sitting there, befuddled and slightly amused at the blatant example of the girl knowing more about sports than the guys, when, creed opened his mouth and admitted that it might be an old sexist opinion, but he was surprised and just a tad upset that i, the girl, was able to spout the basic stats about a football player and the boys at the table knew nothing. and i have to say, for the briefest of moments, i was a bit annoyed, a bit offended. it's one thing to laugh at a stereotype from the other side and quite another to be labeled by it. i thought i had let it pass... but obviously not if i've now written three paragraphs about it.

here's what this little story comes down to: one more example of toto, we're not in kansas anymore. i may have been around a bunch of engineers back in ann arbor, but god damn, even if they didn't care about football, they sure as hell knew who we were playing, how we did, and who our quarterback was. most of them, when pressed, could also tell you what movies should be playing, or what one could do on a given day on campus (read: theater, concert, etc), let alone know the restaurants to go to, and, my favorite, the order the bars (specifically sports bars) closed, how far away they were, and when they stopped serving food and beer. there was a life outside your apartment, your terminal in the media union; the question was when and if you decided to step outside, not where the hell is there to go.

i'm running out of steam. and sleepy, did i mention sleepy? ::sigh:: i don't mean to sound ungrateful for what i have. i am. but, to quote alan meinken (stop laughing) 'i want to be where the people are; i want to see, want to see them dancing....'

it's true, the grass is always greener.