Merry Christmas!

Ah, a Christmas gift that made me very happy - a Notre Dame bowl win! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful day. Merry Christmas!

Hawaii, the Ninth Day

I've never seen the show, but I know the theme from Hawaii 5-0:

Hawaii, the Eighth Day

If you're going to Hawaii, you had best learn to hula (or so my extensive research of Hawaiian culture (read: things I have seen on tv) tells me). So, here's some help with the hula, courtesy of some Japanese woman.

Hawaii, the Seventh Day (OKLAHOMA!)

This is just so...well, so something. I am glad to post it on a weekend. Sorry for the lack of embedding, but it is a video. Of what, I decline to say, lest you fail to click through.

Hawaii, the Sixth Day

How about some South Park? Because, frankly, I don't think the odds of you marrying a nice, rich man in the future are very, well, good.

Hawaii, the Fifth Day

On the fifth day, we get some classic Beach Boys:



P.S. - Songs should still be this short.

Hawaii, the Fourth Day

Today, I have a clip that is both Hawaii AND Notre Dame related! I had hoped to find a shorter clip with the Sean Astin portion that starts around 1:55 into the clip, but I couldn't (or, I am too lazy to search any more). So, I suggest you just skip to there, and enjoy the conversation Rudy on 'roids has with Dan Aykroyd.

Irish Blogger Gathering: Mele Kalikimaka Edition

So, this edition of the Irish Blogger Gathering is hosted by Domer Law Blog, and involves lots of words that I assume are Hawaiian which I don't know the meaning of. Enjoy!

Hele mei hoohiwahiwa. There has been some controversy about the Irish accepting a Christmas Eve bowl bid, as we are a Catholic institution, and many feel that the bowl game will get in the way of celebrating Christmas. Give me your thoughts.

Hypothetical for you. Notre Dame is in the National Championship. That year, the National Championship is played on January 6, also known as Epiphany, one of the Holy Days of Obligation (as opposed to Christmas Eve, which is not one of those days). Please start the line for people who will object to that right over there.

Is it the ideal day for a bowl game? No. But it does mean that everyone can watch the game? More people than on a Saturday during the season, that's for sure. And for those of use who work, probably more than can watch on most other days during the bowl season. It's pretty ideal for me, actually. And it means that I can watch the game with my family, post-Christmas Eve Mass, which makes it even more special for me.

`Onipa`a. The Notre Dame administration has decided to stand by their man and bring Coach Weis back as head coach next year. What specific changes (a) do you think ought to be made in the offseason? (b) do you think will be made in the offseason?

(a) (1) New quarterback, (2) New O-Line coach, and (3) new strength and conditioning coach.

(b) I'm guessing we'll get all but that new quarterback. But a girl has to have her dreams, right?

Pupukahi i holomua. What are your expectations for next season?

We must be in a BCS game. Moreover, we need to be in the hunt for the National Championship sometime during the month of November. Anything less is unacceptable.

O ka makapo wale no ka mea hapapa i ka pouli. Also, if we start looking for a new coach next year, who do you think we (a) can get, and (b) would be the best possible hire? (i.e., is all of this Urban Meyer talk hot air or substance?)

(a) I think at the end of next year, we will be able to get more people that we could get in any other year in the post-Ty era. Charlie will have had a full chance to succeed, the always meritless racism charges are gone with the Washington-Ty debacle, and the recruits are top-notch for whatever coach would come into the situation. Really, I think the only coaches who would not want the job are the pansies who lack the confidence to succeed in the most prominent position in all of football.

(b) Best possible? Someone who is not even on the radar at this point. I don't know who that would be, but I have faith in Swarbrick to be the kind of guy to bring in someone we didn't even know was available (i.e., a Pete Carroll type, just to show up Charlie. I'm not saying I want him, but that it would not be surprising).

`A`ohe lokomaika`i i nele i ke pâna`i. 'Tis the season, so tell me: What is the best gift you are giving someone this holiday season?

I could tell you, but then I would ruin the surprise for the person who is getting it (although I am thinking of invoking the 5th Amendment here).

Mahalo nui loa na ho'olaule'a me la kaua. What are your predictions for the game? Will the Irish be celebrating on the long plane ride home, or will this be another long offseason of listening to the chatter about our decades-long bowl losing streak?

An Irish celebration on the plane ride home. Finally.

Hawaii, the Third Day

Today, we venture to Hawaii with the Brady Bunch - the original time around. And if you watch it until the end, you get to see a use of the word ding-a-ling, unrelated to any song.

Hawaii, the Second Day

Perhaps my favorite clip ever from Conan - which is saying a lot:

On the First Day Before the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl...

My true love gave to me . . . a Wayne's World trip to Hawaii (and Delaware):

Landsharks

This blog is quickly turning into "Sarah Rants." I will attempt to find something non-ranting to talk about soon.

So, now that college football season is in its pre-Bowl doldrums, I find myself in the position of falling back on professional football for amusement (and no, watching the Heisman ceremony is not going to keep me entertained today). My pro team of choice is the Chicago Bears, who happened to play this week's game on Thursday (leaving me with a weekend of NOTHING TO WATCH, but that's a different complaint than this post is meant to address). The problem with a Thursday night professional football game? It's on the NFL Network, which I definitely do not get on my cable package.

What is a girl to do when she is in desparate need of football, and the only team she has any desire to watch is on a channel she doesn't get? She heads out to a nearby sports bar to watch the game. Which is a less-than-ideal situation for me.

From my ultra scientific study of sports bars (read: spending lots of time in them), it seems that there are lots of men who go to sports bars on their own. They grab a spot at the bar, in front of the television showing whatever game strikes their interest, and spend a few hours blissfully sipping beer and eating wings, undisturbed except for the bartender bringing a new brew when the last is done. I wish this was my life. You see, when I go out to a sports bar alone, there is no blissful watching of the game, sipping beer and eating wings. Instead, it is a constant struggle to see any of the game.

After dealing with the shocked look of the bartender, who will inevitably be surprised that a woman is willing to go to a sports bar alone - particularly to watch a game - the real "fun" of my evening begins.

It starts innocently enough. For the beginning of the game - say, the first quarter of a football game, or the first two to three innings of a baseball game - I do get to have a blissful game watch. The beers come, I eat my wings, and I watch the game.

Then, the problems start.

Sometime in the second quarter or 4th inning, some guy will start talking to me. I assume that it takes this long to start talking to me because (a) it takes some balls to start talking to a random girl at a bar, so the guy has to build up some courage, and, more importantly, (b) he has to figure out if I am, indeed, alone, and not waiting for my friends and/or boyfriend to show up. But, once he hits that point, the end of my blissful evening has arrived.

The guy will grab a seat near me - always with the obligatory bar seat in between. He will sit there for a bit, watching the game, waiting for an opportune time to make some comment about the game to me. After the comment, I - being the sports fan that I am - feel obligated to respond to the comment (usually something snobby that shows I probably know more about what is going on than he does - my hopeful point being, until you can hold your own here, go find someone else to hassle).

Responding at all only encourages the guy, no matter how mean I am to him about the comment (this leads me to believe that I should not respond at all, but I am both a lawyer and someone who really doesn't want to be seen as the b****y girl, so I can't help but respond). What follows are a series of questions, always including the following, or some variation thereon: Are you here alone? (Tempting response: No. I chose to sit here by myself because it was more fun than sitting with my friends) Are you watching the game? Are you a big fan of [fill in the team I am cheering for]?

This is about the point where I stop trying to be pleasant and nice, and inform the guy that I am really trying to watch the game. So, for the next series of plays or half inning, I get my blissful peace, all the while knowing that it will be short-lived. At the next commercial break, the guy will attempt to make more small talk, soon forgetting that I am trying to watch the game, and continuing to talk while I attempt to watch the game after the commercial break ends.

This is always the point where I want to ask if the guy came to the sports bar to pick up chicks or watch a game.

Even if I manage to get rid of the first guy (often by resorting to being a jerk, because, seriously, I am there to watch a game, not meet some guy), this doesn't stop the next one from coming over shortly after I have gotten rid of the first one. No matter how many I get rid of, there always seems to be one more waiting to talk to me while I am trying to watch.

And so it continues, until the game is over and I have spent most of the game fending off some guy or guys instead of doing what I came to do, which is watch the game.

Now, I know there are probably people who are thinking, Sarah, you are a first class b****. Do you know how hard it is go up to a woman at a bar? And make small talk? Yes, I do know. But really? Do you want me to come up to you in the middle of the game and start talking to you? No. Save that crap for halftime and after the game, and leave me in peace so that I can watch the game. And then, please, feel free to buy me a beer. At least you will have shown me that you're a sports fan, and can appreciate a girl who is one, too.

Thoughts On Two Weeks

The following is a self-indulgent post. The last two weeks have been hellish for me, and I am finally able to rejoin the ND world. This serves as your warning should you choose to go on.

I am generally a happy, optimistic person. I have tried to be something else, but, in my heart, I hope for the best. I am, in the F. Scott Fitzgerald sense, a sentimentalist, not a romantic, try as I might to be a romantic (in other words, I hope against hope that things will work out in the end, as opposed to the romantic, who hopes against hope that things will not work out). I like happy endings, and Walt Disney, and I don't feel the need to apologize for it. Give me the choice between a romantic comedy and a drama, and the former wins every single time. Life can suck; no need to make it worse by being a pessimist about things.

That said, the last two weeks have been horrible for me.

I was at the Syracuse game. Having lived through the Ty era, I know I should never expect victory, but I really did expect to win that game. It was as close to a gimme a game as ND has ever played since I have rooted for ND. Certainly more so than the armed forces games, where a disciplined team comes out playing their best, or even a San Diego State game, where an inferior opponent can overwhelm a young team that is a bit overconfident. The only game that comes close is Washington this year, and ND won that game without trouble.

To lose the Syracuse game was a feeling that I have never felt for ND football. Sure, there have been unexpected losses in my short time as a Notre Dame fan (see: Navy 2007). And there have been gut-wrenching losses that strike emotions I have never felt before (see: USC 2005). But something about the Syracuse loss sent me into a tailspin that has taken me two weeks to recover from.

I wish I could say why this loss struck me so much as it did, but I am speechless on that point. All I know is, I have wanted nothing to do with college football for two weeks. I haven't submitted picks to Subway Domer's contest (even though I was in the Top Ten prior to this funk), and I haven't spent my normal time perusing the various ND websites that I frequent. I just wish that this season would end, baseball season would arrive, and I could move on with my life.

Frankly, I didn't even care whether ND hired or fired Charlie. I haven't read a single article, or watched a television segment on the subject. It just does not interest me.

For a few days, I wondered whether this was a normal reaction. But then, I remembered what someone once told me: the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.

The problem for me is, I fear that I am moving from love, to apathy. I have had hate for this team before, but I recognize that it is a momentary feeling, akin to love. It will pass, and I will go back to love, with a passion that I didn't realize I had for ND football before I saw what I would be missing without ND football my life.

I can see me moving toward apathy, and I don't want to go there. I LOVE watching college football. I LOVE that for several months of the year, my life is consumed with football all day Saturday. I LOVE that I am willing to drive 500 miles in one day, just to watch my Irish lose a game that they could have won, because the team means that much to me.

Perhaps the problem is that I am not looking at enough self-help books. Maybe, the Irish are just not that into me. Or maybe we are from different planets. Or maybe we just have trouble communicating.

I know this is the point at which I am supposed to provide my big solution to the problems of the team, but I can only offer random opinions. For example, Jimmy Clausen appears to have the same major problem as his older brothers - a perfectly adequate quarterback, but not the kind of quarterback who will lead you to glory and fame. All of the best training in the world cannot give you the instinctive desire to win of a Tiger Woods, and when you are on the big stage, it is going to show.

But really, at the end of the day (where I am now), the only solution I have is simple. This team needs to start winning games. There was a point in the season where I thought the team was about to turn a corner, and start winning games handily, like they should. Unfortunately, the team seems to have gone the wrong way, subjecting us fans to losses like Syracuse. For one of hte IGB posts, I mentioned that the most important figure to me was wins. And we definitely did not have enough of those this year, bowl eligible or not.

At this point, my expectations are lower. I just want this team to start winning games. More importantly, I want them to make me feel something besides apathy toward them. I don't want ND to be just another school, just another item on my resume that I don't think about after I leave. I want the school to give me a reason for people to talk about it in a good light, not to force me to turn off my television to avoid the worst of Sportscenter.

So really, in the end, this email is just a plea to ND football, to make me feel something toward the program besides apathy. I wish I could hate the team; hatred is better than not caring. So, please, ND, I plead, be excellent or awful, just do not subject me to another season that makes me fail to care.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent.