What I want this week

I have been known to be impulsive from time to time. I've also been known to become obsessed with things that I want but don't yet have. The sad this is that it's not that I can't afford these things but just that I know that I don't need them, so I try not to buy them until they are all I can think about.

Take my new purse for example. I went to visit it in the store on a Friday. Then spent the whole weekend stalking it via the Guess website until I couldn't take it anymore and broke down and bought it.

This week's new obsession is these earrings. I found them yesterday while I was digging around the NCAA store. It's not the greatest picture in that you can barely make out the Musketeer in the middle of them, but that's what it is. It's the mascot of the Xavier Musketeers. I have absolutely no connection to Xavier University, hell I don't even know anyone from the state of Ohio but I love these earrings. The closest I come to a connection with Xavier is picking them to go one round too far in the NCAA tournament every year and cheering for them simply because thier mascot is D'Artagnan. This makes so much more sense once you know that my favorite book is The Three Musketeers. There was a similar pair for Purdue, which would make so much more sense given that I still harbour a dream of going there for grad school but they didn't have the Musketeer awesomeness. They aren't terribly expensive either it's just a matter of convincing myself that it's okay to spend $12 on shipping for a pair of earrings that only coss $16.

We Start Volleyball Today

I've been trying to come up with something to post about that didn't involve Jon Scheyer, Gordon Hayward or Kyle Singler gobbling like a turkey (don't ask). But ever since that crazy game on Monday night I haven't really thought about much else.

Until today. My brother and I signed up to play rec co-ed volleyball for the next 8 weeks. I'm really excited. My brother is really good, he even played in college. I on the other hand haven't played volleyball (or sports in general) since I was in high school. So I'm terribly out of shape but hopefully I don't totally suck.

I'll keep you posted.

Butler is just too adorable

I was going to try not to post until after the national championship game but I felt that I needed to tell you what was going on in my head.

First of all I find myself cheering for Duke mostly because it's Scheyer's senior year and I'd like to see him win a national championship. Most of the Bulldogs are still in their early years so they at least have a chance to make it back to the final, regardless of how unlikely that is considering how tough the tournament is.

But Butler is just too cute. Everything from the bulldog logo to the actual bulldog is just adorable. For a school of just over 4,500 just getting to this point is amazing. Then there is Gordon Hayward, he really doesn't photograph well so finding the right picture to capture his cuteness is not so easy but this one is not bad (right). He's only 20 and super humble. Also he's apparently a computer engineering major (thank you wikipedia). And then there is the Butler coach Brad Stevens. He's only 33 and pretty cute in his own right.

So mostly I've just been cheering for Hayward when he has the ball and cheer for Duke the rest of the time. We'll see how it ends up. Right now it's a really tight game.

Everything's coming up Milhouse

If you didn't get it that was a Simpson's reference. There aren't many times when I can say that things went exactly the way I wanted. Especially when it comes to sports. Mostly because I have no control over them. But today turned out pretty much perfectly. Sorry I'm talking about the final four here.

Frankly I didn't really care whether Michigan State or Butler won the first game. I probably could have been equally happy regardless of the result. But I am glad that Butler won. I've already decided that Gordon Hayward is going to be my college basketball boyfriend next year once Jon Scheyer has graduated. Provided he doesn't go to the NBA next year. I might cry.

As for the Duke/West Virginia game I was totally pulling for Duke in that game. I think I've made it pretty clear that I love Jon Scheyer but it never hurts to keep mentioning it. The rest of the team is growing on me too. But besides being the home of my basketball boyfriend I kind of share the rest of the world's hatred of Duke, just on principle.

So now I'm not quite sure who to cheer for. I fully expect Duke to win the National Championship and I'd love to see Scheyer win the title in is senior season. But Butler has the sort of Cinderella story going on. I might just have to see what happens and be happy either way. Or I just go with the Bulldogs. But I'm not going to cry if Duke wins. Go Bulldogs!

The funniest thing I've seen so far today

What's a girl who isn't working and doesn't have anything to do all day going to do to waste time? Apparently read the CBSsports one blogging moment blog. Not everything on there is hilarious but some of it is good. And sometimes they find social media (youtube, twitter, facebook) source material that is worth sharing.

Like this gem from the Duke basketball team:

Granted it's terrible but it's got some things going for it. For one the production value, it's well done even if the acting is terrible. And two, it features Jon Scheyer who should probably not take up acting as a career but makes me love him more every time I see him. Third, the sweaty johnson! And Kyle Singler being attacked by lemurs. This is great stuff.

I'm going to miss the tournament when it's all over and my basketball boyfriends retire from college hoops.

Your NCAA basketball update

Just in case you were wondering why you haven't gotten any bracket updates this year it's because both my hotness bracket and my actual bracket were horribly busted after the first weekend.

Last night's Duke-Purdue game pit my two current college basketball boyfriends and seniors, Jon Scheyer and Chris Kramer against each other. Why do I have two college basketball boyfreinds? Mostly because I couldn't decide between the two. Duke won and so that's the end of Chris Kramer's college career. Poor Chris Kramer, but if he's in need of some comfort I'm available.

As for the teams that are left. I'd like to see Duke win if only so that I can continue to see Jon Scheyer. Butler because thier mascot is a bulldog and come on they are adorable, also because Gordon Hayward is the leading candidate to become next year's basketball boyfriend he's also adorable. Michigan State because I just prefer that they win than Tennesee. And I could really care less who wins between Kentucky and West Virginia although the Mountaineers have provided some entertainment this week with thier twitter videos which I found while incredibly bored yesterday.

Everyone else leads such interesting lives

Hey sorry I know it's been a while, I just haven't had anything to say. My life has been pretty boring lately.

Last week started with me finishing off my hotness bracket, just in time for games to start on Thursday. Which lead to a weekend of me watching college basketball. I'm super excited that both Duke and Purdue made it to the Sweet 16 and will be facing off against each other on Friday night.

On another front I've been trying to decide the extent of my feelings for office crush. This crush has been going on for far too long and it hasn't really followed the pattern of previous crushes. Usually once I tell a friend about a crush it quickly dissipates and becomes a non-issue. This one has managed to stick around for much longer than I would have ever thought possible. So what's with the sudden need to define my feelings? Well it has to do with moving forward. Something someone said to me in the other day about how nothing good happens unless we take chances. Whether I'm willing to take that chance or not is yet to be seen.

It's College Basketball Time

It's that wonderful time of year again. The time where I spend 4 days a week on my couch watching every possible college basketball game I can get my eyes on.


Although for some reason I'm not quite as excited this year. Yeah I filled out a couple of brackets and yes I did do my "hotness bracket" again this year but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same. Both my hotness bracket and my real bracket predict a Kansas victory.

And who is this year's hottest player? Purdue's Chris Kramer. You may remember him as the guy who looks like Keith. There are actually a lot of look a-likes this year. I pronounce "he looks like..." several times as I made my way through the teams.



Anyway I'll be sure to keep you updated as to how my bracket is doing. Are you doing anything to celebrate the NCAA Tournament?

It's finally here...

... well almost. And it is football season. The first game is tonight and it's Pittsburgh vs Tennessee. It always seems so long between football seasons and being sick all this summer didn't exactly help either.

I am participating in the fantasy pool this year with the guys from work and this year we have another girl playing with us. Look like maybe I should be thinking about organizing a girl's pool for next year. I thought about doing one and a whole draft based on hotness but everyone else would have to share my level of commitment to make it work. I'll try to get it going for March Madness and the hotness bracket this year. Of course now it's getting to the point where it's creepy for me to say that Freshmen are hot. So this will probably be the last year for hotness bracket... sigh.

Bracket Update

For those of you have been living under a rock for the last week it's NCAA tourney time. Which means I have put together some bracket-y goodness. This year I decided not to do a hotness bracket. And the later decided to do one. I also did a serious bracket, for bragging rights at work. So here's your Janalee bracket update as of this moment with 2 games left to come tonight:

Hotness bracket - The only reason I still have teams in the hotness bracket is because only half of the Sweet 16 games are played tonight. Teams left: Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Kansas and Louisville.

Actual Bracket - This one looks a little better. Mostly because I didn't have any crazy upsets picked in the first couple of rounds. Teams left: Louisville, Kansas, Michigan State, U Conn, Missouri, Memphis, UNC, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Pitt, Villanova, Duke.

I'm currently 3rd and 6th on 8 in our office pool.

Connor Atchley, you will be missed.

One of the problems with college sports this that eventually the players that's you've grown attached to graduate or leave college. Sometimes they join the pro ranks and you might see them play again. Sometimes they decide that it's time to move on with their lives.

In any case the Duke-Texas game was going to end badly for me either way as both Connor Atchley and David McClure were playing in the game. Neither of them are big names so I somehow doubt they'll end up playing pro but you never know. Both of them are seniors this year so this is the end of the line for them. Duke came out on top in that game and so today I say goodbye to Connor Atchley.

I'm boring

So I had set up some goals for the month of February . Let's see how far I got.

Finish reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. I'm currently on page 135 of 1070. I'm probably about half way through now. I actually lost my book for a while so I couldn't read it and I also read another book in between. Haven't really been in a reading mood lately to tell you the truth.

Finish watching Season 4 of Weeds. Done and Done. I finished this, caught up on The Tudors and have started watching Big Love. Yeah I'm weird and clearly have a lot of time on my hands.

Research and determine 3 grad schools to apply for. This one amuses me since I'm almost ready to give up on grad school. Taking the monetary hit, plus the whole fear of not finding a job when I'm done. But we'll see what happens. It depends how the next couple of weeks go I guess.

Set a tentative date for the GRE. This one goes right along with the last one.

Watch some college hoops. Done. I watched the Duke-UNC game a couple of weeks ago, the Texas-Oklahoma game and one other Duke game this past weekend. Other than that I've spent a lot of time watching curling.

Finish sewing the dress I started last year. I've thought about this a couple of times but I never did pull it out to finish it.

Buy and elliptical machine or a bike. I'm now waiting until I move to do this one. No point in buying something just to move it 2 weeks later.

So that's how I did for February. I'm planning to go back to the regular goal of the week, for March. So we'll see how that goes.

How to get over a bad day at work

1. Check out apartment building in different area of town to remind you that you are moving in just over 2 months.
2. Blog about how to get over crappy day.
3.Remind self that the Duke-UNC (aka evil and evil-er) game is on tonight and that you must watch to see if blood will be shed (answer: god I hope so)
4. Re-read (or read if you haven't yet) baby punching post as this is possibly the most hilarious thing you have read this year.
5. Find baby to punch.

Well okay maybe not that last one.

Just 4 Days left

There are only 4 days left in this month which means only 4 days left of the NaBloPoMo. Thank god. Also 4 days (well 3 actually), until my nearly faithful reader KEG is off on vacation. Am I jealous? Hells yes. 

Today I'm going to focus on all of the things I want to do over the next month: 

1. Finish reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. I'm currently on page 135 of 1070. 
2. Finish watching Season 4 of Weeds. Is it weird that I'm 2 and a half seasons in and I still haven't decided if I even like the show? 
3. Research and determine 3 grad schools to apply for. 
4. Set a tentative date for the GRE
5. Watch some college hoops. It's almost March and I need to get myself caught up. 
6. Finish sewing the dress I started last year 
7. Buy and elliptical machine or a bike. I'm more likely to use the bike but have you seen the thighs on cyclists?

Yeah that's enough for 2 goals each week which is far more than I'm likely to complete anyway. 

So hotness bracket was right.

It predicted Kansas and that's what we got. For the record it also predicted the Davidson run and it's ending by Kansas. It didn't do so well anywhere else though.

Teams left in my bracket:abso-freaking-lutely none

way to fall 20 points behind and then have to attempt to climb out of a rather large hole UNC. And what the hell the National Player of the Year doesn't have to block shots because he's National Player of the Year or what?

I think that deserves more Tyler Hansbrough crying:


I don't blame UCLA though, Memphis was just better. That's all.

Well That makes me feel better.

Just yesterday I was saying how bad I felt about changing college basketball boyfriends so quickly. But today not so much. This is a story that even the boys at work could enjoy even if they don't understand the full implications of the story.

As you know I had chosen David McClure of Duke as my college basketball boyfriend. I've since switched but that doesn't really matter to my story. So today I got off the bus on my way to work and walked through the square as I always do and there was a pretty grubby looking guy (I want to say bum but he wasn't really) wearing a Duke jacket.

Even funnier though was on the back where it was supposed to say Blue Devils, Devils had been cut out. The word had actually been cut out of the jacket leaving a rectangular hole in the back where the jacket lining was showing.

Teams Left in my Bracket: 3

Being somewhat of a stats/history geek I figured that since no 4 number 1 teams have ever met in the final four I'd better pick at least one lower seed. My lower seed was Texas. They messed it up. Thanks Longhorns.

I did discover though that I may be in love with Connor Atchley . Sure I've never met him but that doesn't really matter. I feel bad about changing college basketball boyfriend's so soon.

Teams left in my Bracket: 5

Freaking Tennessee. But good for Xavier that was an awesome game.

Dream Diary Episode 1

I’ve often wondered where dreams come from. One of my friends once hypothesised that dreams were really a collection of things that you subconsciously thought about throughout the day but didn’t have time to actually deal with.

Occasionally I’ll have dreams about people that I haven’t seen in years or places that I’ve never been but more often they are about people and environments which I deal with everyday. So I’m really not surprised when I dream about co-workers.

I am surprised (and worried) that I’m having recurring dreams about the same co-worker. Typically this dream occurs sometime between 5:30 and 6:15. So it’s likely (and hopefully) just that I’m thinking about having to go to work in the next hour or so and that works itself into my dream.

If dreams were really a reflection of what I’m thinking about during the day then my dreams should probably be focused on Tyler Hansbrough. However I have avoided that one so far.

Edit: I've now posted more entries in the month of March than I did all of 2007.