Tuesday, April 10, 2007

A DVD No One Wants to See


Took in the Killers concert this weekend. I'd say it was a pretty good show, except for the performance of Mr. Brightside, which was outstanding. I agree with and generally abide by a lot of Douglas Coughlin's laws (of Cocktail fame, see picture at right). The one I probably follow most faithfully, intentionally or not, is "never show surprise, never lose your cool." Couldn't really resist on this song - I was jumping and waving my arms and singing along with the rest of the idiots at the auditorium. And it was awesome. If someone produced a DVD of the highlights or best times of my life, I am pretty sure those 4 minutes would be on it. Which of course leads me to wonder what else would be on that DVD. Pretty sure I won't be able to come up with all of it right now. It's not like I can rely on standard answers like wedding day or birth of my child, since those don't really apply.

Here are some items that would probably appear in the highlight DVD of my life. They are in no particular order, and I'm sure one could work on a list like this indefinitely:

1. The Killers, Mr. Brightside, live in SF, 4/7/07
2. Pearl Jam, Yellow Ledbetter live in SD, 7/7/06
3. Naked swimming in Pacific Ocean "after hours" (various dates).
4. 1993 Big Game - Cal 46, Stanford 17, and the postgame celebration on Stanford's field. Chanting "Donuts" at the cops guarding the goalpost we didn't take down. There is also excellent footage at the end of the televised broadcast of me, Beck and about 20 other students running across the field with the goalpost we did take down.
5. 1993 Cal v. Oregon. We arrive at the stadium in the first half (there was a "shot break" at Alpha Phi on the way to the stadium) with Cal trailing 30-0. Cal storms back in the second half and wins, 42-41 on a 2-point fade pass to Mike Caldwell, the consummate college WR (white receiver). Excellent televised footage exists of our group dogpiling in the stands following the conversion.
6. 6th grade: won the Palo Verde Unified School District spelling bee. It was a pretty sloppy victory - I think me and the girl I was up against each missed about 6 words until I was able to string together two correct words to win the thing. Lost at the county trying to spell "psychology." I can't believe I wasn't able to parlay this title into any action.
7. Great Gatsby party at Cal and pool at Raleigh's with Rusty the day after.
8. Winning a 2-person 18-hole scotch-ball tourney with my Dad (scotch ball = the team plays one ball, with the players alternating shots). I'd hit a big drive, not always in the fairway, and Dad would get us on or near the green every time. I'd miss the putt or chip, and he'd make the putt. Beat everyone by at least 6 strokes, including some teams that consisted of college players and pros. There was a nice write up of this in the local paper. Probably my best memory of my Dad.
9. 3-man weave up Fillmore.
10. 11th-grade, bus ride back from watching the space shuttle landing. Sat with a chick I had a crush on and she slept on my shoulder - had a stiffie for most of the three-hour trip. (Keep in mind that I had won a spelling bee in 6th grade.) My first kiss occurred later that year with this girl, after junior prom. That moment does not make my list, as I was not fantastic.
11. First varsity basketball points. I got an offensive rebound off a free throw, and went up for a jump shot. The defender tried to block my shot, so I pulled the ball down and put up a scoop shot around the shotblocker's arm that found its way into the hoop. I thought I made a great basketball move (I had been nicknamed "White Chocolate" by some in my P.E. class and some on the basketball team for some of the flashy stuff that I would try. I was also the master of the behind-the-back pass, if by "master" you mean I often threw passes behind my back even when it was completely inappropriate to do so and often led to turnovers). However, the footage of the game, taken by the father of my best friend on the team, reveals otherwise. It looks like I jumped up, turned away from the basket, and threw the ball over my head with no idea where it was going. It went in, dammit.
12. Lots of stuff with Beth that I will not list here (some because it is personal and some because it is personal and this is a family blog).
13. Basketball in Blythe, a couple summers after I first went to college. Guy on the other team that could jump out of the gym gets the ball on a breakaway, with only me giving chase. He goes up for the slam, and I go up with him, and block the dunk. Clean block, no foul. People that were there still bring this up when I'm home and they see me.
14. Graduation Day at USC. Wanted to quit law school and tried to - I called my TA to tell him I wasn't going to turn in my paper, and that I was withdrawing from school. He never called me back, so I finished the paper and turned it in. Our graduation robes were bright red, which was painful being from Cal, but I also felt like a wizard, which was awesome.
15. Palo Verde High School golf team - shot a 3-under 33 on the front nine. Was +1 on the back nine, for an 18 hole score of 70, or -2.
16. Kiwanis golf tournament, senior year. Birdied the first two holes, and was at the top of the leaderboard of about 60 golfers. That lasted about zero more holes, as I hit two out off the next tee and proceeded to crash and burn to about a +8 on the side and a score in the 80's on the day.
17. Those Aren't Pillows / Hot Tub Justice performance in T and Carrie's backyard. Only sat in for one song, I Want It That Way, and since we hadn't really rehearsed and I'm not great to begin with we kind of sucked, but that was a lot of fun. I think the 15 or so people squeezed into the wading pool really enjoyed it.
18. Bowled a 275 in Blythe, while subbing for a league over a holiday, on the same lane with my Mom, brother and Dave.
19. Passing the bar. I wasn't sure I had passed, so I went back to my office to check results. Woody had brought a wireless modem to the Royal Exchange and I now wish I had checked the results with it in front of everyone. As soon as I saw I had passed, I printed out the screen so they couldn't take it away from me.
20. Patriots win their first Super Bowl on a last second kick by Adam Vinatieri. Part of me wishes Vinatieri hadn't made so many last second kicks, because I am really tired of hearing him referred to as "the greatest clutch kicker in NFL history." But the Pats were 2 TD underdogs, we watched the game at BRD's house with a bunch of friends and Caution tape, and I had money down on the game.
21. Hanging (pun intended?) in a Vegas casino in my boxer shorts, with Woody wearing a toga, waiting for the pool to open in the morning so we could go swimming before going to sleep. Of course, this was one of the famous "Mickey" trips, so there are a lot of bad memories to go with that good one. Another good part about that trip is how I only had $40 to my name when I got there, and was down to my last $5 at O'Shea's before winning 14 hands in a row at blackjack, with me pressing my bet after every win and a fair number of the wins being double-downs and blackjacks. I pushed on the final hand, with a blackjack, which is the reason I always take "even money" in blackjack even though you are not supposed to.
22. First gambling trip when I was of legal age. Went to Laughlin for the weekend. I walked away ahead at every table I played on the entire weekend. Generally would sit with $40 and leave if I lost a hand after the pile had grown to $100. Won about $800 that weekend. I felt kind of bad, because my buddy Tyler kept playing with me and losing - I think I had about $300 of his money, and he was in college and gambling with a fake ID. I bought him beers but he still couldn't afford the loss at the time.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Where is brokeback island on this list?