So I really need to start updating this thing more often.

I've been really busy the past few weeks. I've gone to Vegas and Jacksonville (I know, I know those two are practically synonomous), turned 22, gone to D.C. and just got back from Orlando this past weekend. Do I even live in Gainesville anymore?

I've also begun the Law School application process. It is not the easiest thing to do. There are no deadlines. There is no D-Day that I can look to in the future and say... ok, I have to be done by then. It's frustrating, not a timeline I am used to. I'm currently filling out the apps, finishing my resume, writing my personal statement, and getting letters of reccommendation. It's nuts.

Where has the time gone? I was hanging out with my friend Brad this weekend in Orlando and I asked how his dad was doing. I remembered he had just had open heart surgery. Brad gave me a perplexed look. Why was I asking about his father. I mentioned the fact that I was curious to see how he was recovering from his surgery. Brad then informed me that his dad had had the surgery back in my senior year of high school. I was floored. This was the epitome of what I had been talking about this entire semester with some of my friends who are also seniors. Time has flown by at a record pace. Have I spent it wisely?

As each day goes by I am becoming more comfortable with who I am. The Law School Application process forces you to define who you are and who you want to become. It forces you to look inside yourself, look at what you have done over the last four years.

I look back at myself four years ago and I see that I was a boy and now I am much more of a man. I remember being nervous about how I was going to eat, do my own laundry and not live in South Florida. I remember thinking that I wasn't going to have all of my usual friends to talk with on a daily basis. As the four years have gone by I realize that although that boy is still a part of me he is not the man I am today. I have become more rugged, more sure, more outgoing, more reflective, more insightful. I have found that I can live on my own.

This should be a fun week coming up. We have our flag football playoff game tonight. Sweet 16 baby! This is the farthest that any of us on the team have ever advanced in intramural playoffs. Ricky, Tommy and I have been talking about it all week. we could not be more pumped up for it. Literally, if we were any more pumped we'd be taken away to an asylum.

So I noticed something this weekend that bothered me. We were watching Dodgeball and there is a scene where Ben Stiller has Christine Taylor come by to giev an update on the audit of Average Joe's. He says "Oh, Ms. Veech, I didn't know you were coming by." She says "You asked me to come over." He comes back with "Oh, Did I?" You may think to yourself what is the point here. Well in Anchorman there is the scene where Christina Applegate comes by Will Ferrell's office where he is doing bicep curls. He says, "Oh, Ms. Corningstone, I wasn't expecting any company." She comes back with "You asked me to come by." Burgandy comes back with "Oh, Did I?" These two movies came out within a month of one another two years ago. These guys are all best buddies. Vince Vaughn was in both movies. My question is which one came up with the joke first. This really upset me. Am I the only one who has noticed this, should Ibe upset they re-used a joke so quickly.

I'm going to try and update this a lot more frequently but I say that each time.

I'm Back

Due to all the email I have received begging, nay imploring me to come back I have listened to to people, I'm giving you what you want. WHEN IN ROME is BACK baby. Get Excited!

So what's been going on. Let's see, Just finished the LSAT on saturday, I'd like to think that I was just busy studying for that test but let's face facts here people. I study for a test abot as much as I talk to the ladies. The Dolphins are looking damn good. Tom GAYdy showed his real self and blew ass this weekend, that's always a pleasure to watch. We have sole possession of first place right now!!!

So in all honesty this is the busiest semester of my life. We had the second-annual weaver-ricky birthday party two weeks ago. It had a theme this time, the Pants party. I was certainly disappointed not everyone abided by the dress code (no pants) but I was impressed with not only the turnout but the feedback. Everyone said they had a great time. Rico and I ran some shit on the beer pong table for about 4 or 5 wins before our drunkedness took over and were reluctantly were defeated. I was dressed in my new Ecko collared shirt and my Gator boxers, very stylish, mr. blackwell has added me as a consultant for this year's best dressed list. We did get a noise violation, but on the bright side the cops had no problem with Ricky and me coming out in our boxers to talk to them.

I had the LSAT this weekend, which was a bitch. Everyone keeps asking how I did and I honestly have no idea. Instead of freaking out over it for the next three weeks until I get my score I'm just gonna try and forget about it. It was kind of cool to see how many people were taking this test. There must have been over 200 kids at this site alone. It's strange to think that we could all become lawyers someday.

Anyway, enough boring shit. We got homecoming this weekend. I think I'm either going to Tampa or Orlando next weekend. I'm either gonna go to Halloween Horror Nights or try and go to the Bucs-Dolphins game. Then in less than three weeks I'll be headed to VEGAS BABY. I could not be more excited about a trip which will probably bankrupt me. I'm heading out thursday morning and won't be back until late sunday night. I'm gonna be with my best friend, in Vegas, on a weekend full of football, topless poolsides, bars, clubs, poker, blackjack, rouletts strip joints and amazing dining. Oh, and I'm also going for a bachelor party, why they chose Vegas I'll never know.

...right...

Then I'm gonna be hitting up the Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party finally as a 21 year old, I was 5 days away from it last year. The next weekend is my 22nd b-day and big dave is coming up for the Vandy game. That shouldbe fun as I've chalenged him to a shot for shot drinking contest. We'll see which generation can handle their shit old man river.

After that, I head up to D.C. for my cousin's wedding, get to see the family, should be fun. Later in November of course is Thanksgiving the best of all the holidays and the weekend of the final UF-FSU game of my undergrad career. How the hell did that happen? Four years went by too fast.

Oh, yeah, and I'm only a part of 5 intramural teams, have a job (only 10 hours a week but it's till a job) and I have to start applying to law schools sometime.

And then there is that whole 15 credit semester thing that is the reason that I'm here. I just can't wait to be done with this stupid major and I never have to deal with this Finance shit again.

That should bring everyone out there pretty up to date, I'll definitely be updating this a lot more frequntly now that the LSAT is done and I know I have some readers. Probably at least once weekly, but hopefully more than that.

Still on the lookout for the future mrs., let me know if you have any takers, or not, you know...

When in Rome...

My Passion

Just got back from Cali over the weekend. Went white water rafting for two days and got to go to my first Oakland A's game in their home ballpark.

That last part is key, I'm about to break down my source of happiness in this world in one word: Sports.

I'm a junkie. I pour over previews, I have two fantasy teams each for the NBA, NFL and MLB, I watch games on TV of teams I don't even give a shit about. I am passionate. I throw around the word hate with regard to my teams adversairies quite liberally and yet truly mean it for each person I bestow that description upon. I live and die with my teams. Here's the breakdown (in order of intensity of love I have for them) although trying to choose between these teams is like Sophie's choice:

Miami Dolphins
Florida Gators (football)
Miami Heat
Oakland Athletics
Florida Marlins
Florida Gators basketball

One team kind of stands out, doesn't make sense. It all started back in 1988. Before Tom Cruise went crazy, back when Vanilla Ice was automatically followed by the word cream, before both wars with Iraq. There was a time when the only south florida sports franchise was the Dolphins. My dad had grown up in this type of environment and had unfortunatly chosen the Yankees as his favorite team. As an impressionable youth of a mere 4 years of age I followed in his footsteps and grew an attachment to the team in pinstripes. I immediately gravitated my interest towards Rickey Henderson. Then the devil that is the franchise that makes its home in the Bronx did what I thought was the unthinkable. They traded him. How could they do that I thought. Showing signs of a personality trait I still have to this day I turned my back on this team and have held a grudge about it to this day. He went to Oakland, the home of the Bash Brothers, and would eventually win a world series the very next season. I jumped on the A's bandwagon and have been driving it ever since.

I take sports very personally. I am passionate, I feel as though when I yell things in my living room the coaches can hear me. Sometimes (especially the past 5 years with the Dolphins and only 3 with the Gators) I do better than the guys roaming the sidelines. It's insane. I have more of an invested relationship with these teams than I do with most of my family members.

I started reading this great book called The Tipping Point. It's about how things that start out as trends tip to become epidemics. Anyway, the book disects all the necessary components that make something 'tip' including the types of people that are needed. I'm in this cahpter that is explaing the rule of 150. It talks about how when a group (work setting or social) reaches the capacity of 150 it loses it's cohesivness and close-knit feel. Anyway, the book asks you to list as many people as you can who if they were to die would absolutely shatter your life. I found in making my list that sports figures kept popping up. The average number of peolpe that a person is that close to is around 12. Here's my list:

Dad
Mom
Natalie (sister)
Carli (sister)
teddy dupay (basketball player)
Mark (best friend)
Jana (closest female friend)
Ricky (roommate and best bud)
Steven (known since I was 3)
Grandma June
Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat)
Xavy (good buddy)
Jason (good buddy)
Tu (the asian invasion)
Jay (good buddy)
Becca (ex-girlfriend)

Wow, that was more than I thought I would get. Anyway, back on topic. I have never been as excited for an upcoming football season as I am for this year. It seems like I say that every year but I really feel that way this time. Both my teams are getting no love and will be able to stay under the radar for a while. You watch, Urban Meyer and Nick Saban will creat weinning mentalities that will allow both of those programs to flopurish for decades, this is truly the begining of my glory years as a football fan.

If there seems to be some jumping around it's probably because I've written this over the course of two days. I think that my style is modeled mostly after Bill Simmons of espn.com. If you don't know who he is you SHOULD. I'm kind of finding my own way here and I'd like to see if peoplen are actually reading this.
He has a second installment of an article about the NBA offseason in which he gives awards based on anchorman quotes. In the words of the Rajun Cajun, Mr. James Carville " we have no response, that was perfect"

but you know, when in rome...

I've Arrived

So it took just about 9 months but I have finally come up with a name suitable for random rants. Ok, now it just comes down to putting stuff up here. I'll start with somehting that explains the name of the blog. It should be clear ('crystal' for you military courtroom fans) to those of you whop have seen the brilliance that is Anchorman: The Legen of Ron Burgandy what I'm going for. Even if you haven't, it's said enough in just random points of conversation, at least in my circles, that you should laugh at the mere thought of it.

So back in 9th grade I was bored one day in Health class so I wrote down a list of 8 girls who I wanted to get with. One for each of my classes and one 'wildcard' for the lunch hour. I showed it to one friends, Josh Lowitz, and then to some more in my next class. By the end of the week everyone had weighed in on it and the list had grown to over 100 girls. This is where my fascination with lists started. I constantly sit around with idle time on my hands and will rank all the girls I've been with on different scales. I'll do hottness, best in bed, tallest (I kid you not), most regrettable, all sorts of things.

Mind you, it's been about 6 years since I have seen this list but here were the original nine with the class they represented.
1. English: Monica H. (dated the QB in high school, but we'll discuss the humor in that later)
2. Journalism: Beth S. (saw her recently at Hard Rock, don't think I said one word to her in all of high school)
3. Spanish: Samantha S. (the object of my affection for a good three years, biggest crush of my life, too many funny things to go into now, didn't say word one to her until 11th grade)
4. Debate: Melissa A. (not in debate but had to throw her in here, later would and still does date one of my better friends, the backup QB)
5. Biology: Jenna R. (about 5'0'', was always nice to me but a bit too cool)
6. Health: Ashley K. (very athletic)
7. Math: Rachel K. (question girl, because no matter how EASY algebra II was she wouldn't understand it and would ask a question)

We could go all day on my high school obsessions, however there are more pressing issues to get to, besides that was 6 years ago, who am I, Lance Bass, someone who hit their peak in life in 1999? Maybe I should have listened to Billy Madison when he told me to stay, stay as long as I could when I said I wanted to go to Hike skool.

That's what you, my loyal readers (can I say that even if no one reads this, let alone is loyal enough to want to read another one) have to look forward to. Random lists, random comments and connections.

Tonight's Dilemma: Go out with Jana who I had mentioned trying to do something with or do I head out with Jason and Adam for guy's night out. They did mention something new in Flanagan's and the fact that they have Trivial Pursuit cards on the table really rev's my engine but then again Jana is one of my better friends and there is the hotness qotient to factor into the equation.

but you know, whatever, when in rome...