everything that's on my mind
(as if there's not already enough people doing this)Monday, September 12, 2005
Agassi, driving and where I was
Well, Agassi could not quite pull it off. He played another great match in the semi's to knock off Genepri, but Federer, as expected, was just too much. He held on up until the tiebreak in the 3rd, and it seemed Federer just jumped to another level to win it in four sets. I noticed a curious statement by Agassi after the match - something about playing the Open 20 times and how "it's been a great ride". It made me wonder if he was saying that the ride is over. I guess we'll know before too long. Regardless, it's also been a great ride for tennis fans. Watching Agassi play over the years has been a real treat, and when he's done, like so many before (Connors, McEnroe, and Becker come to mind for me personally), he will definitely be missed. Thanks, Andre.
Why is it that people can't follow simple instructions?? I go to my daughter's school every weekday to drop her off. They gave everyone a map at the beginning of the year to demonstrate the proper flow of traffic in the parking lot. And yet so many of these people either cannot read or just don't care. They pretty much do what they want. It frustrates me every day, but none more than the last two days I've been, when (1) I almost got hit twice by people ignoring the rules (not to mention common sense) and (2) I got blocked in my parking space today for a good 30 seconds (which is longer than it sounds when you're trying to get to work) because people had backed up the drop-off line down the wrong row of spaces. I know I shouldn't get so frustated, but I hate driving as it is. Having other people doing stupid things just makes it worse. A friend once was filling out a survey in which he recorded his pet peeve as "bad drivers." I told him that wasn't enough for me - my pet peeve was not just bad drivers, but other drivers.
There are events in the world every now and then that are so significant that people always remember where they were when they first heard. I've always heard peope talk about where they were when President Kennedy was shot. The first one I remember was hearing of the death of Elvis - I'd been jumping on Nelson Peacock's trampoline and when I got home, my mom told me. Not exactly the president, and I was 10, so it didn't profoundly affect me, but for some reason I've always remembered that.
I was in the same place - our family room - a few years later after school when I heard that President Reagan had been shot. I walked into the Student Center at Harding University in 1986 to find a large crowd gathered around a television, and moments later found out the reason was that the space shuttle had exploded. I remember being home sick one day in 1999 and turning on CNN, only to see footage of poeple fleeing Columbine high school in Littleton, CO.
Four years ago yesterday, my wife and I did not follow our normal routine on one Tuesday morning. Nearly every morning, we turn on ABC and Good Morning America, which tells us a little of what's going on in the world. For some reason, we didn't that day. Instead, when I got to work, I found a large group of people gathered around a television on my floor. The television was showing footage of one of the World Trade Center towers with smoke pouring out of the side. As the events unfolded that day, more and more information came. But the image that still sticks with me, even more so than later footage that showed the planes crashing into the building, was watching live footage as the first tower collapsed. That was something I'll never forget.
Why is it that people can't follow simple instructions?? I go to my daughter's school every weekday to drop her off. They gave everyone a map at the beginning of the year to demonstrate the proper flow of traffic in the parking lot. And yet so many of these people either cannot read or just don't care. They pretty much do what they want. It frustrates me every day, but none more than the last two days I've been, when (1) I almost got hit twice by people ignoring the rules (not to mention common sense) and (2) I got blocked in my parking space today for a good 30 seconds (which is longer than it sounds when you're trying to get to work) because people had backed up the drop-off line down the wrong row of spaces. I know I shouldn't get so frustated, but I hate driving as it is. Having other people doing stupid things just makes it worse. A friend once was filling out a survey in which he recorded his pet peeve as "bad drivers." I told him that wasn't enough for me - my pet peeve was not just bad drivers, but other drivers.
There are events in the world every now and then that are so significant that people always remember where they were when they first heard. I've always heard peope talk about where they were when President Kennedy was shot. The first one I remember was hearing of the death of Elvis - I'd been jumping on Nelson Peacock's trampoline and when I got home, my mom told me. Not exactly the president, and I was 10, so it didn't profoundly affect me, but for some reason I've always remembered that.
I was in the same place - our family room - a few years later after school when I heard that President Reagan had been shot. I walked into the Student Center at Harding University in 1986 to find a large crowd gathered around a television, and moments later found out the reason was that the space shuttle had exploded. I remember being home sick one day in 1999 and turning on CNN, only to see footage of poeple fleeing Columbine high school in Littleton, CO.
Four years ago yesterday, my wife and I did not follow our normal routine on one Tuesday morning. Nearly every morning, we turn on ABC and Good Morning America, which tells us a little of what's going on in the world. For some reason, we didn't that day. Instead, when I got to work, I found a large group of people gathered around a television on my floor. The television was showing footage of one of the World Trade Center towers with smoke pouring out of the side. As the events unfolded that day, more and more information came. But the image that still sticks with me, even more so than later footage that showed the planes crashing into the building, was watching live footage as the first tower collapsed. That was something I'll never forget.
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