Someday, I will own a washer and dryer, and I won't have to trek outside in the frickin' cold and attempt to wedge the laundry basket between the wall and my hip while the ancient 1920s lock stubbornly refuses to accept the combination I vainly give it five times in a row while my hands go numb and I ponder my imminent death by hypothermia or a murderer wandering down the alley. I won't have to hoard my quarters. I won't have to scrape other people's lint out of the lint disposal. And most importantly, my warm, woolly socks that are essential to my happiness and retaining all my toes will actually get dry.
so i find myself back in californiaI posted twice in a row about football. Strange, considering I've never written about football before. To break up the monotony, I'll return to
The O.C., since I know this subject interests at least two people besides me. Besides, if I don't rant about this, I'll have to grinch about the frustrating people who made me crabby today, and that will be even less interesting.
So here goes:
1. What was up with this being the Make-Out Episode? I think there were two people in the whole episode who didn't at least attempt to canoodle. And also, you'd think that with all that intimate personal contact on the ferris wheel she initiated in the last episode, Marissa could look a little less like she'd never been kissed in her life at the beginning of this one.
2. Julie Cooper has to go. It's not that the actress isn't doing a good job playing bitch, but the character's sole purpose is to be conniving and self-serving and ruin Marissa's life. I admire the effort to create an enemy, but it's both cliche and contrived. Either give her more depth or let's be done with her already.
3. I have to take back what I said about the wardrobe being better on this show than on 90210. Yikes.
4. In the last episode, everyone seemed to have loads of time to linger over coffee, orange juice and the Arts and Leisure section before leaving for school and work in the morning. Which, I might add, doesn't characterize the life of any high school student I've ever met. Apparently the producers noticed this, too, because this week no one had time to do more than drink orange juice and dodge awkward questions about their relations with the opposite sex.
5. Can someone explain to me how Ryan and Marissa are hanging out at her house, examining the hideous contents of her closet, while Seth and Anna are apparently still at school? Evidently Ryan's decided soccer's not for him. Now that he's got Marissa and all.
6. Sorry, I still can't decide whether Seth should get together with Summer or Anna. If the decision were based on dresses worn on the big-ass boat in this episode, though, then it's Anna all the way. Mostly because hers looked like it would stay on without assistance.
7. I do actually like this show in spite of myself. There were even lines I liked. But I can't remember what they are. So today, I nitpick, because it makes me feel better about the atrophy of my intellect.
8. Oh, and back to that making out thing? It makes me wish I had someone to canoodle with. And here I had this nice, singleness-acceptance thing going on. Sigh.
Song: Quasi, "California"
Saturday, November 8
you're singing a new song nowAnd loyalty pays off.
Oregon vs. Cal = Best Damn Game Ever (since Oregon vs. Michigan)
The defense actually showed up. Kellen Clemens got his game on when it counted. And there were all those nice little touches that add up to a comeback victory: Weatherspoon's brilliant catch of The Ball That Bounced Everywhere; the lovely pitch that let the man carrying the winning touchdown stroll into the end zone with a minute on the clock; and the big bad interception in the last 10 seconds that thwarted Cal's scarily efficient last drive. Also, there was that strange incident in which half the stadium lights went out, but so far as I know, the Ducks had nothing to do with that. Drunk frat boys, more likely.
THAT was a game worth sitting in the rain for. And if I still lived in Eugene, I would have.
Redemption is sweet.
Song: Guster, "Keep it Together"
Saturday, November 1
gridiron grouchinessAt this moment, by a score of 10 to 35 with 10:56 left in the 4th,
the Ducks are making it difficult for me to maintain my love of college football. I can accept the trouncing from WSU. The embarrassing loss to Utah. Even the fact that they'll most likely lose the Civil War. But seriously: the Huskies? Who lost to NEVADA? Whom Ducks hate more than anyone? If there's only one game to show up for in the season, it's this one.
But ne'er fear, Ducks. No matter how many times you fall apart in the second half, no matter how many interceptions you throw, no matter how many defensive failures you perpetrate, I won't be fickle. If Beaver fans can maintain their loyalty over decades of defeat, so can I.
