Baseball, College Football, Hockey...what more could a girl want?

IT IS TIME!!!

These arrived at my house today, and I can't really articulate in words how excited I am for the hockey season to start. We were bitterly disappointed again last season, even though we did get further than the several years prior. We wanted more. Now, with new goalies, maybe we can get it. It feels like the Sharks are everywhere in the community these days...for some reason I think this is a sign of good things to come. I realize it makes no sense. I don't care. Seeing Sharks is good. All good.

Recent Sightings:

• Joe Pavelski in the Sharks store during the playoff run
• Patrick Marleau at dinner in Los Gatos in July
• Ryane Clowe at the same hair place a friend goes to (also in Los Gatos I believe)

And as if that weren't enough, college football kicked off last week and I was 3 for 4 on the first full Saturday of play. And honestly, I don't really feel too bad about the team that lost because they were playing the #1 ranked team in the country. Way to get 3 points SJSU!! More games are on tap this weekend and in the near future I'll get to see some of the boys play in person.

And oh by the way, way to bring it Boise State!!

There's just really nothing like college football for me. There is so much emotion tied up in it, especially when my two alma maters take the field. They can give me more heartache and joy than pretty much anything else. Let's Go Devils! Mountaineers! Cowboys! Spartans!

And lest you forget, we're in the final days of the major league baseball season and I'm finding myself hanging on every pitch on two different coasts. The Giants, as usual, are so close I can almost taste the playoff home run dog, but the gap just doesn't seem to be getting any smaller. And the Yankees never cease to cause me agita. While they are more likely to be in the playoffs than the Giants, there are no guarantees today. They don't have a magic number listed yet, and until they do, I take nothing for granted. It's fun though, and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next few weeks.

I know you thought all I did was go to concerts...well, there was only ONE of those in September, so I have to find some other way to spend my time and money. :-)

What are ya, new?

New Job...New Clothes...New Shoes...New Commute...New Computer...New Matt Nathanson Encounter...New Lease on Life! Okay...that might be pushing it.

Sorry for the delay in writing, but as stated above, I did begin a new job...just 2 weeks ago...and I'm now starting to get into a routine and figure out what it is that I've gotten myself into.

Hard to Leave...Easy to Go. That's what I tell people who ask if it was hard to leave my old job. Yes. After 10 1/2 years at San Jose State, it was hard to leave, but easy to go to such a great opportunity at California State University, East Bay. I mentioned this a month or so ago, and now it's real. So, what does this really mean?

Well...first, it means...NEW CLOTHES. I'm a director now...for whatever that's worth, and apparently I should dress a little more professional. So yeah, nicer pants, nicer tops, but really? Bottom line? It means no more flip flops in the office. Yes. I had a mild stroke over that too, and my feet are still in an adjustment period.

It also means, NEW COMMUTE. Not that I really had an OLD commute... It's 32 miles from my house to campus. In the morning, it's easy...35 minutes just about every day. In the evening...well, with the exception of last night's freaktastic traffic from hell, it really hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected. There are a couple of route options so that helps. It also helps that I've been able to carpool a couple of times each week. Carpool lanes rock! Restaurants just off the freeway also rock; which is how we survived last night's journey home.

One of the nice things about moving from one CSU to another is that you can transfer vacation and sick leave. The nicer thing is that you can get paid out for excess vacation. It's basically the only time you can get a bonus in the CSU. I took advantage of this and was able to buy this lovely new computer I'm writing to you on. It's a Mac. And IT IS YAY!! I've wanted one forever, and now my dream has come true. Alright, that's a bit over-the-top, but it really is all it's cracked up to be. I couldn't be happier with my vacation payout purchase!

So, life at East Bay is going well. I finally took in all my boxes yesterday, scaring many of my new staff members and co-workers along the way. Apparently I have more stuff than all of them combined, but whatever. I have a nice office with a nice view. Maybe I'll show you a photo once I get all the boxes unpacked and everything put away int its proper place. It's a big fat mess right now.

I've been meeting lots of people and gathering lots of data...trying to figure out exactly what's going on and what step to take first. It's exciting to embark on this new opportunity and realize that somewhere along the road, I actually became someone who has skills people covet and pay for.

The only challenge I continue to have every day is recording my daily voice message. I have to do it 2 or 3 times because I keep saying "Hi, you've reached Carrie Medders in the CMS Project Office at San Jose State University..." Okay, I never get all the way through it, but the CMS Project part just rolls off my tongue, and then I have to start over...which is a painstaking process of pushing about 32 buttons in the appropriate sequence. But I figure, if this is my greatest challenge, then I'm good to go!


Lest I forget...I must share my latest encounter with the fabulous Matt Nathanson. As many of you know, I'm a HUGE Matt fan, and met him earlier this year at one of his concerts. I got tickets to his November 1 show at The Warfield with my friends Jill and Veronnica...normal stuff. The JOY came when earlier that week, the local Alice radio station (pics, video and podcast on their site!) held an email contest of sorts...one of those deals where if you're chosen you get to join other listeners in a private radio show. This one happened to be the day before the concert (Halloween to be exact). Lucky me. I got in! Luckier still, I was off work since I was starting the new job, so it was easy to get into San Francisco in the middle of the afternoon.

So...he is, of course, fabulous playing 5 acoustic songs for us. The highlight was two-fold. He is very interactive with his audiences and always talks to people, but I've never really been close enough to get that involved...until this time. I was on the front row, and when he was asking what song he should play, a few of us shouted "Little Victories". He looked right at me and was like, "Really?"...then, he saw my phone (Palm Centro) and said, "Is that one of those touch screen phones?" I felt like time stopped because I really couldn't speak. I was a complete idiot. I was like, "Um, yeah, I guess...", but then I snapped out of it and turned the phone around so he could see it, and he proceeded to have a short conversation with me about the phone. HILARIOUS! So really, anything could have happened after that, and my night would have been perfect.

After the set, he took pictures with every person that was there (professional pics done by the radio station...very cool). I was near the end, so most everyone was gone, and when I stepped up to get the picture taken, he was like "Oh, Little Victories!". Funny. Then, we proceeded to have another short conversation, more in-depth, about the phone. It was seriously so funny. I basically told him to ditch the crackberry and get the Centro. Really not sure it gets much better than that.

Oh, and his concert the next day was awesome as usual!!

Alright, I think that's enough for now. I've got to finish cleaning before my Pampered Chef party today. Too bad you're not here to partake of this fabulous pumpkin ribbon cake I baked earlier. Oh yeah. IT IS YAY!

Traffic Lights, Transition and Tour

Today I give you three topics...pretty much unrelated...and without much segue from one to the other...

So, I don't know about you, but I daily bear witness to a strange phenomenon...people standing at intersections...waiting for lights to change. Don't roll your eyes at me. I'm not finished yet. The strange part is, on many occasions, no one pushes the button. And in San Jose, we don't have those fancy infrared buttons like they do at 4th and King in San Francisco. No. You actually have to push the button if you'd like something to happen. Why is this a hard concept? I really don't know, but on many days, I've walked up and watched a group of folks waiting...and waiting...and then, for fun, I go ahead and push the button, and like MAGIC, the light changes. Am I alone in my observation? I do see this primarily around the SJSU campus, so maybe it's a Gen Y thing, and people think they're entitled to have the light change for them without lifting so much as a finger. It is, after all, all about them and of COURSE the light should know they need to cross the street without them taking that ever-so-difficult step of actually DOING something to make it happen. How exactly do these folks get up and out of their houses every day? It must be magic...

And...scene.

So. I'm in my last few weeks at SJSU before moving to my new office at CSU East Bay. I'm not MOVING moving...just changing jobs. I've been all over the place the last couple of weeks starting my transition, so please forgive me if I haven't emailed, called, messaged, carrier pigeoned or Hallmark carded you. I promise to catch up...you know...some time in 2009...you still love me, right?

Next!

In the midst of my transition and watching these random traffic light waiters, I got the great joy of journeying to Wheatland, CA with a friend to see some of our all-time favorite bands at the Music Builds Tour a couple of weeks ago. Can you say awesome? I think you can. Let me just lay it out for you...

1 - Jars of Clay ... have always loved their music; actually met Steve Mason earlier this year; saw them play a number of years ago at The Warfield; really enjoyed seeing them again!

2 - Robert Randolph and The Family Band ... not really my favorite music, but boy could they play! great musicians who had a lot of fun on stage; they definitely impressed.

3 - Switchfoot ... my 8th time seeing them live; yes...big fan...and they did not disappoint; I really do become the 15-year old I always claim to be when I see them live...they just plain ROCK!! and along they way, they always make me think about a lot of interesting things.

4 - Third Day ... my 6th time seeing them, and they were, as usual, pure joy; they rock in a completely different way from Switchfoot and stir my emotions in a way few other musicians do.

At the end, members of all the groups played a few songs together. It's always fun to see collaborations, and these guys were great. I hope some of you had a chance to see this tour...it was truly awesome!

You can check out my photos to the left...click any picture as it scrolls through the slide show and it will open larger...our seats were pretty stinking good...if I do say so myself. And oh yeah, I just did.

Curtain please.

It's already a long season...

Sigh.

Week 3 of college football, and I'm on the verge of throwing in multiple towels. I follow five teams:

1. Arizona State (alma mater #1)
2. West Virginia (alma mater #2)
3. San Jose State (current employer and the town near which I live)
4. University of Wyoming (team I grew up with...and former employer)
5. Northern Illinois (former employer)

I was pretty jazzed in the first full week of the season when I went 4 for 5. But that joy was fleeting. INow? I'm just hoping they all don't lose the rest of their games. This weekend, which began in the football world on Thursday, was just awful. I went 1 for 5. Thank you, NIU, for not making it a total wash.

It was sheer torture two weeks ago to watch WVU self-destruct against East Carolina. Adding insult to that still throbbing injury was ASU's OT loss last week to unranked UNLV. While nursing that wound, I then had to endure WVU losing in OT this week to unranked Colorado. OY! Needless to say, both ASU and WVU are no longer ranked. And ASU just made it worse tonight with it's less-than-stellar showing (at home no less!) against Georgia. UGH. Not UGA. UGH. To add insult to today's injury, SJSU lost to Stanford...never a pretty sight, and Wyoming got destroyed by BYU...who apparently just doesn't let anyone score anymore.

So, for ASU, they are still 1-0 in the PAC 10, which I GUESS should make me happy, but I've been burned too many times before. My Sun Devil pride is wounded and I fear the conference play that ensues very soon. I mean, USC is still in the PAC 10 last time I checked, and oh joy! we play them in SoCal. I restate my earlier sigh...

WVU hasn't played a single conference game yet, so yeah, there's still some hope there. But they were poised to win it all last year and faltered at the end, so the Mountaineer part of me doesn't have a lot to hold onto.

Wyoming is likely done as they've now had two huge conference losses, but that is not really a surprise. I don't think anyone expected them to do a lot this year.

Poor NIU has only won one game, and one of their two losses was in conference, so they're not really on an uphill swing either.

SJSU losing to Nebraska was not surprising, and while it's a total bummer to lose to Stanford, I guess I wasn't that surprised. At least we've won both of our home games. We'll see what happens going forward. At least I know the national anthem at the Boise State game will be good. :-)

I hope your teams are having more success than mine. Please don't rub it in if they are. That's just mean. If your teams are in a state of ick like mine, I'm happy to commiserate with you. Say it with me now: Sigh. Take comfort in knowing that basketball starts in a month, and the NHL drops the pre-season puck this week. Go Sharks!

I'm out.