the most wonderful time of the year

So, let me tell you a little something about Durham, NC: it's nearly impossible to grow up there and not be obsessed with college basketball. Not that this is a problem, because if you did grow up there, you probably know that college basketball is pretty much the greatest sport on the face of the planet.

Really, the only problem with college hoops is that you have to spend an entire half of the year going without it. Oh, believe you me, early April to late October are grim months. Especially April, when I go through withdrawal from not just college hoops, but first conference and then tournament play. It's rough. T.S. Eliot wasn't kidding about April being the cruelest month, although he may have had a slightly different reason for thinking so.

On occasion, I wonder if the reason they take such a loooooong break (I mean, seriously, doesn't school start in, like, August?! Time's a-wastin', kids!!) is so that the die-hard fans will pay attention at the beginning of the season, when teams of unsurpassed greatness like the Carolina Tar Heels play opponents like... Belmont Abbey? Heh? Who? Woh-kay, then. But really, by the time early November rolls around, I'm just so ready to hear the squeak of sneakers on the court and watch the point guard take it coast-to-coast, they could be playing the intramural team from a local nursing home and I'd probably watch.

For many years, I've chosen my cable provider based on who offered ESPN Full Court. That's because I moved halfway across the country, and sadly, people out here seem to think their own teams matter more than my Heels. Tchah! Ha! Forsooth! And so on. But since we got rid of our cable a few months ago, I've now discovered that we might have to switch internet providers, so we can subscribe to watch the games online. I personally think it's absolute bullshit that only certain purveyors of the interwebs are licensed to offer the subscription service, but whatever. The hassle of switching seems like a small price to pay to get to watch my boys in blue.

At this point, we're a mere two weeks and two days from the first watchable game. I feel like I'm waiting for Christmas. Let's go, Tar Heels!!!

Always look on the bright side of life...

Not to wax too poetic or anything, but it's funny how life has a way of smacking you upside the head when you least expect it. This can, as we all know, sting quite a bit. But if you think about it, you may find yourself feeling lucky that life used the back of its hand instead of the side of a lead pipe.

Yesterday, for example, I got to work and had to leave shortly thereafter for a live media spot. It was flurrying snow, but happily the roads weren't frozen, and of course I had my trusty four-wheel-drive Jeep. Until I went out to the parking lot to the aforementioned trusty Jeep, and it wouldn't start. At all. Engine wouldn't even turn over. Heater came on, NPR came on, as if the car were mocking me by only half-working; but no engine, which is really the key component when it comes to functioning cars, if you ask me.

But the work station wagon was there, and it was the work of an instant to go back in, grab the keys and get on the road. I still made it on time to my live media spot, thankful that the roads didn't suck, or I would've been a bit terrified to drive the distinctly non-four-wheel-drive station wagon.

Later in the day, I called AAA, which I've had ever since I was a teenager, largely because my mom's always had it. Apparently I'd let my membership lapse last year. And apparently in order to get same-day service to be towed to our mechanic, it was more than twice as much as just signing up for the regular annual membership fee. Like almost $150 extra, just to get the same-day service. Wow. My husband drew his finger across his neck and I hung up the phone. He informed me that getting towed would probably cost $40-$60, prompting me to wonder if our local mechanic could recommend a towing service.

Bear in mind that the undercurrent to this entire situation is that, like a lot of people these days, we are right on the verge of being Absolutely Flat Broke. The wolves aren't quite at the door yet, but they're prowling around the mailbox, where the bills arrive.

So he calls the mechanic, who offers to meet him at my car (something I didn't even know mechanics did, and three cheers for locally owned businesses), and they manage to push-start it - amazing!! They get it to the shop and when the mechanic calls later, as I'd rather feared and expected, there are about 8,000 things wrong with my car. Well, it does have nearly 145,000 miles on it, and I may or may not be about 11 months overdue for an oil change. Ahem.

But, the bright side again refusing to be ignored, only about half of the things wrong needed to be fixed immediately (Or Risk Sudden Death and/or Car Breakdown). And the mechanic gave us a 10 percent discount. And while the list of 8,000 things sounded like it would cost somewhere around $2,000 or more, the immediate fixes with the discount were only $400. Hell, for the state my car was in, that's practically free.

So I'm just going to go ahead and consider myself lucky, and not stress about the other things I could be doing with that $400 - like, say, get the garbage disposal fixed or replaced. I mean, really, who needs a garbage disposal? We can just throw the food scraps to the wolves by the mailbox! So convenient.

The moral of the story, children, is that the same shit is going to happen to you regardless of how you react to it. So you can either freak out and be upset about it, or you can try to see it in the best light and get on with life. The choice is yours, every day. ...Now if you can just find the bright side of having that Monty Python chorus stuck in your head all day.