It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year....

It is finally here: COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!! And with that comes the most awesome experience of a lifetime: The Ohio State University Marching Band Last night, tryouts were culminated with the announcement of the 2010 edition of the Ohio State University Marching Band. Due to the Thursday night game, this announcement coincided almost simultaneously with the rehearsal of the Alumni Band. Usually, the old timers rehearse on Monday, which is the final evening of candidate days...but since we're selling out and playing Thursday night in a game that is not televised nationally, the normal tryout week was turned on its ear, hence the Sunday-Monday tryouts. But I digress...

I won't speak for everyone, but Make the Band night is when my nostalgia kicks in. Tryouts, which suck more than anything on the planet, are done, and all the fun begins. The crazy stories (which, for legal purposes, I will not share) start wafting to my brain (Unum Beeum Rowum). To be clear, I don't pine for more time in the "black" uniforms. I had my 5 years and I would never choose to live that again. But there are times that I would like to live "just one more time" that the Red Blob does not provide. There are things I am NOT sad I do not have to go through again, also, like tryouts, rehearsal, 2-a-days, University "events," high school band shows during away games, home-stays, and sitting on a plane for 3 hours while student staff tries to load it OR sitting in an airport for 14 hours while the airline tries to figure out how to fix the plane. These reasons, and more, are why I do not have hopes of someday gaining a 6th year of eligibility.

The number one thing I want to do one more time I sit in AA deck, all by myself, before the sun comes up, staring at the 22 1/2 yard line, warming up.
There is truly something special and amazing about a packed house, but the magical feeling in the stadium on gameday, when no one is in it, cannot be replicated. There is no noise. You do not notice the weather, hot/cold/wet/dry can't remember any of it. It is just you, the seats, the magic, the history, the tradition, the ghosts of Buckeyes past...it is truly majestic, there is simply no other way to put it.

Along those same lines, event number 2 would be lining up to march over to St. John for Skull Session. It's no longer a completely empty stadium; the red coats and leaders of Block O are there getting ready for their days, but it's still like a secret little club inside the stadium, and outside the stadium the show has already started. The only thing I can equate it to is the feeling someone in show business must have before they take the stage: you can hear the crowd, but you can't exactly see them and they can't see you. Then, the awesome sound of Fight the Team echoing through the empty stadium, with the Red Coats going nuts....ah crap, I'm getting goosebumps and the cryball just THINKING ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!! Then the long march begins, the push shove, just the sound of the voices and drums. Then, the band emerges from the tunnel...and it's GAMEDAY. The crowd, already excited because it's Gameday in Columbus, Ohio, doubles their enthusiasm. The Band Siting can mean only one thing: the team won't be far behind and it's almost MAGIC TIME. I-6 gives the signal, the drums stop, and 225 voices break into "We Don't Give a Damn." Fan-friggin-tastic. Next, the excitement mounts, as the band prepares to enter Skull Session to the jubilation of thousands of fans, many of which came JUST TO SEE THE BAND. Sure, the team comes now, but that didn't start until 2001...Skull Session began long before that. Skull Session belongs to the band (but stop the damn commercials and play more music...just sayin). Then, of course, A-H Rows are outside marching like champs, while I-X are inside screwing around, but then the entrance is made... The place goes crazy, we battle to stay in step, on our feet, and in line (there are times that you would not believe how difficult this is, especially on a rainy day when everyone in front of you has wet shoes...St. John has a slippery ramp...). Now it feels real, no more inspection, no more rehearsal, no more "run it again on a count," it's just go time. IT'S ACTUALLY GAMEDAY!!!!!!!!! Sure, there are parts of Skull Session that are less than desirable... Moments we'd much sooner not live at all, let alone RELIVE. But overall, it's an amazing time and the start of the adrenaline rush that is: GAMEDAY AT OHIO STATE. And soft & slow?? What causes the bigger rush: playing it, or looking for that one person near the front row that is 100% clueless as to what's about to happen? Or perhaps it's Carwile's obnoxious reaction? Either way, it's pretty sweet, right?

Alright, next I have to say I wanna run down that ramp one last time. There is nothing that will boil your blood quite like waiting to be released down that ramp. There is quite a mixture of emotions: excitement, bliss, happiness, fear, anxiety...I think you could quite possibly run the gamut of human emotion. Then the ramp cadence starts and you feel that INSANE rush...and you hope to God you don't fall down, because you will be trampled to death if you do...Sure Alumni Band does ramp, but we stand outside until it's time to go, then you run like hell. There is no row cheers, no I Wanna Go Back, no TWO MINUTES!, none of that.

Now, the two other things I would like to do one more time, I will not talk about in public. But trust me when I say, they're warranted...SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! So what part of TBDBITL do you most want to do JUST ONE MORE TIME???

Retail Etiquette

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Privacy, TV, and Other Things That Don't Matter To You

I apologize for the lack of posting lately, but I don't believe that EVERYONE should be privy to every part of my life. There is alot going on and I just don't feel the need to discuss it in cyberspace. Furthermore, with everything going on, I don't have the time to sit at the computer and type a blog entry everyday. I admire "professional bloggers" for doing whatever they do, but honestly, who in reality has the time for that? And some things, I just don't need to know.

What I will share with you, and in great detail, is our odyssey with cable tv. See, we rent. We probably "could" buy a house, but in the interest of being good, solid Americans NOT relying on bailouts and handouts, we choose to live comfortably within our means, saving up for something more permanent, and ours, down the line. Of course, that would be easier said then done with random things popping up now and then to pay for, but imagine if we had those things AND a mortgage, etc. Right now, we don't pay water, sewer, trash, or gas because our apartment is all electric. We also don't need to maintain our own lawn. We can do whatever we want to our apartment whenever we want to. The only downside we run into is neighbors (they're special) with our super thin walls (even worse than a dorm), and the fact that the rental company doesn't allow things like satellite dishes in the front of the apartment. Since that is the view of the Southern sky, we were unable to get DirecTV last December, when we got our new TV.

But I must backup and tell you why we wanted DirecTV in the first place. I've had Time Warner since May 1998, when I moved out of the treacherous share-potty dorms and into my very first apartment, 12th and High, a spectacular place to live in 1998 (insert sarcasm here). In 1998, Time Warner was the shizzle. They had great cable and they had this cool feature called "Guide," where you hit a button and a TV Guide popped up on your TV screen, virtually eliminating the need to channel surf. It was effing fantastic. Remember, in 1998, DVDs were still new, and most college dorm rooms featured large, clunky collections of VHS tapes. There were no DVRs so you were either home when it was on or you programmed your VCR to TAPE it. Your computer had a dial-up modem and probably had AOL, and you were a bad m-effer. Then Time Warner got this thing called "Road Runner," that freed up your phone line (which was nice, since in 1 house I lived in, we had 6 phone lines, but only 1 was for an actual telephone) and made your computer move super fast. Then came digital cable. It was supposed to be sweet, but I saw no difference whatsoever. To be fair, my TV still featured a UHF dial...

Time moves forward, marriage ensues, still Time Warner digital cable. In December, 2005, with pregnancy and a retail job piling up, we made the switch to Time Warner with DVR. It was pretty awesome, not gonna lie. Of course, it quickly switched from holding anything any adult would actually watch to everything Princess watched, but that is not the point. We moved in May, 2007, to a new townhouse not in a college neighborhood, and took our Time Warner with us. It took quite a while to get them to actually come hook it up, including digital phone, because they scam you and try to make you believe that if you "bundle all services" you're saving a ginormous amount of money (it's a lie, pay for what you actually need, everything else is superfluous), but once they did, it was nice. Plus, we just took our current DVR with us, which housed the ORIGINAL, UNEDITED broadcast from the greatest game ever played, the 2006 #1 Ohio State vs #2 M*ch*g*n game, complete with Game Day. About a month later, it crapped out, thus causing us to need a new one. Not only did we lose all of the programming for Princess, which then made us have to, once again, pay attention to Disney Channel and Noggin, but we lost THE Game....because even though these DVRs come with USB Ports, you can't actually plug them in to anything to save your programs. But I guess watching TV is more important, in the long run.

4 months passed, we captured the 1 vs 2 game from ESPN Classic, though edited now, so it was cool....BAM dies again. This little exercise continued every 4-6 months like clockwork for 3 1/2 years, so we went shopping for a new TV service provider. We were very excited to get DirecTV when we got our TV, because it was a great deal for alot of stuff PLUS $300 in Best Buy giftcards, because we spent alot of money there to buy the TV, PS3, and DirecTV. But alas, we weren't permitted to install the dish in the front yard (why I don't know) and the DirecTV guy didn't want to put it on our fence out back because it would've blown down in the wind, so Time Warner was given a stay of execution...December 2009, I've now had Time Warner for about 12 years.

In May, our DVR, once again, crapped out, and we could either wait 3 weeks for a technician to come out, or just go to the office and pick one up...well since we kind of enjoy using our beautiful, gigantic TV, I drove down Olentangy to just pick one up. I also asked them about wireless internet service and what to do to hook up our playstation so we could use the internet features (Netflix) of it, instead of just using it for games and BluRay. They told me it would cost us even more money for those services and gave us our "new" DVR. (It's not new, it's someone's old broken one, because Time Warner just "recycles" them.) Of course, this was not without it's fair share of issues, too. It took about 2 hours to install it, when all I should've had to do was plug the damn thing in. Our remote, which has been broken for about 2 years and the battery back is held on with scotch tape, was still not replaced, and the DVR didn't work properly, nor did most of the HD channels. This, coupled with the impending ESPN contract dispute right at the most wonderful time of the year (yes, football season) pushed us over the edge, so we went shopping for new cable.

Even though Columbus hosts cable from Time Warner, W.O.W., Insight, U-Verse, and Verizon Wireless, the ONLY thing available to US where we live, is Time Warner and U-Verse. After much shopping around, online chats with AT&T people, and searching the various U-Verse packages for what we would need/want, we made the switch. I went to just sign up online, for the U-200 package, with HBO, and Internet services, saving us much money and giving us all the ESPNs, Fox Sports Cincinnati (Reds), Sportstime Ohio (Indians), and (I'm so excited) NFL Network. Plus by signing up online, we get 6 months of additional discounts and $300 in Visa giftcards. But as I got through the sign up process, it asked for a credit card number to hold the account, but it couldn't be a debit card. Since we don't believe in credit cards (if we can't pay for it, we don't need it), I had to call in and enroll in the automatic bill pay. They, of course, thought this would inconvenience us, but that's one less thing to think about every month, so I'm cool with it.

So I tell the girl what package I want and we start talking prices. I'm telling her what we were offered online, and she tells me that the online deals are different then what they have to offer. Since I work for a company that has a website maintained NOT by Dick's Sporting Goods, thus having things online that are NOT available in stores, I understood this. It was a little disheartening, but such is life. So I'm telling her what we need, HD, 2 TVs, HBO...she says "I can give you "our U-450 package, that has all of that included for" only slightly less than what we pay now, but we get WAY more, so it's totally worth it. So sign us up! She then apologized because it would be about 5 days until they could get a technician out there. 5 days? That's a long time? I've waited months for Time Warner before, and all they had to do was transfer the service over. No problem.

So the day of, they were supposed to come between 1 and 3. So I sat by the window like a kid waiting for Santa, so excited yet slightly apprehensive. Until it was totally hooked up and I saw a picture on my television, I wasn't about to be convinced that it was real. So it's 2:53, still nobody. I call and after struggling to get a human being (automated call centers suck), I find out that they're obviously late...then I get a $20 credit. Around 4:00, our super nice technician shows up. First thing, he says he tried to call because they were supposed to reschedule, since they were overbooked, but the number he had wasn't actually mine. Awesome job, customer service agent that signed us up. So I show him the TV in the basement and where the computer is, straight off he says "did you want wireless internet then?" I'm like "we can have wireless internet?" "Well yeah, I would just need to bring in the router." "So it won't cost us a ton of extra money?" "No it's part of the internet service." Shut the front door...we can actually USE our Playstation? (Sidenote: yes, we still have a desktop computer...no, we're not stupid.) So the dude starts hookin' us up, and now....

ANY CHANNEL, ANY TIME, ANYWHERE. Oh lord have mercy, it's friggin fantastic. We have 50 movie channels, 42 of them in HD, and about a bajillion movies on demand. Between that and Netflix (which is so friggin awesome, words can't express), we have no need to actually BUY a movie again. Cross that off my list! CHACHING! So the next thing to do: call Time Warner and cancel. "Yeah I need to cancel my service." "Oh I'm sorry to hear that, are you moving or did you get a dish or...?" "Well actually, we got a way better deal with U-Verse. Plus, your DVRs break like every 4-6 months on us, and we don't want to not have ESPN when football season starts, even for a day." "ESPN? Oh that, that's just propaganda." HAHAHAHAHAHA What??? Is that why it's in YOUR advertisement? You suck, Time Warner, get your garbage equipment out of my house and don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya! Oh, and we have sports multiview now, so anyone that wants to come over and watch 4 games at once, be our guest! (Though not during Buckeye games)

Do not mess with me, Time Warner, I will bring you down (eventually)...I will bring you down to Chinatown....hey, I'm a Mom, just having TV is enough, so I take my time bringing you down. Oh, and to the guy that hung up on me that one time when I called to complain? I'm holding up a finger, giving you sign language...

So I Haven't Been Regular..

...in updating "daily." Step off, I'm busy. But I was quite thrilled to see that, in spite of giving up a bajillion runs and allowing A-Roid to get more and more at bats, the Indians did NOT give up 600***. But I digress....

We had Assessment "#2" a couple weeks ago, fully expecting that to be the end and we can FINALLY move forward with therapy...so the appointment was at 9:00. I wasn't thrilled with it, but since it took forever to get the appointment in the first place, we just went with it. Of course, we hadn't banked on Princess getting up before the sun, either...

So we choked some breakfast down her, left mega-early, fully expecting the Friday morning rush hour on 315/270/23, and seeing none, we arrived quite early. Then as luck would have it, the doctor was running late. Joy...

So the doctor arrives, and Princess announces she would like to go play. So the doctor takes her with her and we stay behind. Princess doesn't notice this....then she did. For the next 3 hours, we sat in the lobby while listening to Princess screaming while they ran "tests." Surely at the end of this torture, there would be some therapy options. But alas, no. We needed to now wait until the "team" prepared their report and called us back, could be a week, could be a month. Going on 2 weeks now, still nothing. To say I'm annoyed would be putting it mildly. To say I'm frustrated is an understatement.