communication breakdown

It Ain't Over Till It's Over

Irony is a harsh mistress. A while ago I wrote about my latest encounter with a policeman, and how I got out of a speeding ticket because he was called away to a more pressing emergency. Well, I guess I had it coming to me. Less than a week later, on the day I was heading out from work to get to the color belt testing that I was judging, me and another car got stopped by the highway patrol. I had slowed down a bit and the other guy was actually going faster than me, but he pulled us both over anyways.

Like I mentioned before, tickets don't really bother me and again, I didn't really care if I got one or not. I basically just told the cop to hurry up because I didn't want to be late. This guy was clearly more of a stickler than the other guy - not only did he give me the ticket (at 21 over), but also a no proof of insurance warning (because my insurance card was expired), and even a warning for my window tint! What a jerkoff. The insurance thing will be cleared up by just mailing in a copy of the new insurance card, but the window tint? Come on, that's the stupidest thing ever. I bought the car in Florida (where the tint is legal), and it shouldn't be my fault that the states can't agree on something as simple as the appropriate level of window tinting. He suggested I go to the shop and have it removed, but he can take that suggestion and shove it. I'm out $130 for the ticket, which compared to others I've received, isn't very bad. And it seemed that he did his best to make me late (it took freakin' forever), but I just slid into the testing on time. This is the second time in my life that I've been stopped twice within a week. But if history's on my side, my usual cycle will start over and I won't be pulled over for at least another year or so. Here's hoping for big money and no whammies...

Update on my upcoming Atlanta trip: thanks to some big help from Matt Steele, I've got a ticket to the GT-Clemson game! Not only that, at least 20 of us are heading up there to tailgate like crazy. The game will be 8 PM on Saturday, and we're planning to get up there around Noon. It is stuff like this that I live for! Clemson has been the site of some great memories. My freshman year I rode up there for the game with my buddy Jeff - not only was the game amazing (with GT snagging an amazing victory), but on the way out of the city Jeff got lost, pulled an illegal U-Turn right in front of a cop, and then got pulled over and accused of drunk driving by the (obviously pro-Clemson) officer. Luckily Jeff wasn't drunk and we got out of there without a trip to the big house. Good times...

So, I've really gotten roped into watching the Olympics. It's one of those sporting events that I usually pay absolutely no attention to, but every once in awhile, I will become seriously enthralled by it (sorta like the Tour de France earlier this year). I'm really glad that, despite all the ridiculous speculation from the media about Americans having to walk on eggshells and not being allowed to celebrate (in order to protect our "fragile world perception"), nothing of the sort has happened. Just another example of the media hyping something just to have a story - the whole point is to unite for the purpose of sports, and eliminate politics from the discourse. Anyways, there have been some really awesome moments already. Here are my top 3 so far:

3. American women win the 4x200 freestyle relay by crushing the world record. They really brought out the big guns on this one.

2. Manu Ginobili drains a buzzer-beating basket off the glass while falling away and to the side to propel Argentina to a win in the early rounds of Men's Basketball. Simply put, one of the best shots I've ever seen.

1. Paul Hamm crashes into the judges' table on his vault performance, by all estimations removing him from medal competition in the men's all-around gymnastics competition. Yet he comes immediately back on his final 2 events (parallel and high bar) to score two of the highest apparatus scores of the entire Olympics, and win Gold by the narrowest margin in history. How clutch is this guy? He goes last on the high bar, knowing he needs over an 8.2 to medal - and nails an 8.37?!? This makes my short list of gutsiest and most impressive performances, in any sport, ever.

Speaking of Hamm - what a small world. Apparently the guy is from Waukesha, WI. That's where I've been going to train in Wisconsin several times over the last year for tournaments and black belt classes! It's a really small city - certainly some of the people I've met over there must know this guy. I don't know if he still lives there, but if he does, I wouldn't be surprised to run into him while I was in town...

OK, that's it for now. Be forewarned - I've been gearing up for a political rant, and I think it's in store for my next entry. Stay tuned...