When pigs fly

... or cows fall. Of course, pigs flying would be more appropriate since I am going to quickly mention the 4-1 Cincinnati Bengals.

So, I have been a Bengals fan my entire life. I grew up in Cincinnati, and I was in middle school when Boomer Esiason (I will spill the beans on a VERY awkward meeting I had with him at a later date... let's just say, he might rightly have a restraining order against me, or at least have been extremely creeped out) led them to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, I had to watch them lose on a (admittedly) spectacular 84 second drive - the length of the field - orchestrated by the great Joe Montana. However, they were, are, and always will be my team.

But, because they were the losingest (not sure that's a word) franchise in the '90s and not much hotter in the early '00s, they have brought a lot of pain in my life. I remember dreading Sundays because I knew I would get my hopes up only to see them dashed upon the rocks... or the shoulder pads of some better managed team.

Hold the phone! Now, I can wear my Palmer jersey proud. I can wear my old Bengal's t-shirt with honor (that way people know that I am not just jumping on the bandwagon, well at this point it is probably more of a bandscooter). My Bengals are 4-1 and in 1st place in the AFC North. I just wish I could actually see them on television.

Sell-Out

My wife has been looking for a job in Chicago for a few months now, and she is frustrated. The job market (especially in her field) is bleak. She put her resumé in for a part-time position recently, and the guy hiring told her that he received 80 resumés in less than a week for a job for which he was expecting to hire a student. The search sucks.

However, I think the hardest part about trying to find employment is the concept of "selling" yourself. How do you do that without sounding like an arrogant ass? You are supposed to accentuate (exaggerate?) your strengths, ignore your weaknesses, and basically show them why they would be idiots not to hire you. However, you don't want to sound like you are over-confident or incapable of working with a team or taking instruction from a boss. You are supposed to be a "self-starter" who can follow directions... seems like an oxymoron.

My wife struggled with this for a while, but I think she found a great way to allow her resumé to build her up while still showing humility. Instead of singing her own praises, she gathered quotes from former co-workers, colleagues, and supervisors and placed them in the margins. Not only was it a creative use of a part of the paper that goes unused, but it shows that those she has worked with/for valued what she brought to the table. It's like sneaking in extra references while enhancing the visual presentation of the resumé. Smart.

Still, it is a tough balance to market yourself as indispensable while not sounding egotistical.

Guilty Pleasure

I am fairly certain that I wrote about this before, but I felt compelled to confess once more...

Two years ago (well, more like a year and a half) I was sitting on the couch reading for a class. My wife came in, picked up the remote control - which is unlike her since she usually doesn't watch much television - and proceeded to put it on the CW. I asked her what she was watching and if I should go to the other room. She skated around what she was going to watch and said that I might want to adjourn to the spare room and my desk. I pressed the issue. Finally, after some cajoling and the opening montage of the show, I found out that my lovely wife was a Gossip Girl junkie.

I began to totally make fun of her for watching that sort of trash. Now, don't get me wrong. When the original 90210 came out, I was in Junior High and definitely watched eagerly. I watched every Real World from season 1 (wow, I am dating myself here) through season 5 when people actually "stopped being polite," but instead of starting "to get real," they just hooked up... a lot... in the mandatory hot tub... on the first night. All this to say, I have watched some trash. But I hadn't been addicted to a high school soap opera since before my voice dropped and I got armpit hair (which, incidentally, the voice dropped when I was 13, but the hair didn't come until I was 17... late bloomer I guess). Now, my 20-something (soon to be 30-something... a former primetime soap opera about yuppies) was enthralled with over-privileged, borderline juvenile delinquents who manage to avoid consequences because of their parents' astounding wealth and social power.

So, I decided to continue reading on the couch in order to be able to point out my wife's ridiculousness. Mistake.

I asked my wife who the characters were, and she began to relate the story line. I asked a few more questions. Then, Chuck Bass, the conniving ladies man with a fantastic wardrobe (which I could never pull off... I mean, who wears lavender??) said the line, "There's something wrong with that level of perfection, it needs to be violated." A VILLIAN!! I instantly liked this guy. Not because I found him honorable, but because he almost epitomized decadence and everything that's wrong in the world, and I wanted to see if he ever "got his" in the end. I was hooked.

All this to say, last night my wife was able to leave work early, and we were able to catch up on the last two episodes of Gossip Girl. It is our guilty pleasure. Usually it involves wine or champagne (technically it's sparkling white wine since champagne only comes from the Champagne Region in France, but that's just semantics), and we sit back and watch the mayhem unfold. It's fun, in a sick and twisted - not to mention voyeuristic sort of way - and we enjoy being together doing this.

I have come to the conclusion that everyone has these guilty pleasures. I don't think they are wrong (unless of course they involve physical or emotional damage to you or others... like adultery or something to that effect). Rather, they are a way to blow off some steam, and perhaps they can serve to bring two people - or more - who share the same guilty pleasure together a little more.

So, what's your guilty pleasure?

Status Update

Dave is ready to get back in the groove.

Wow, it's been a while. Crazy schedule the past couple of months, but I am back. I am getting back into a rhythm. This pattern, the one I've found to be healthiest for me, consists of working out regularly, not sleeping in too late, not staying up too late (though that has some wiggle room depending on deadlines), doing the chores around the apartment, and blogging regularly. I won't promise everyday since life can get in the way and I want to avoid frustration by not getting caught up in the legalism of maintaining a schedule. Rather, I will promise myself that I will get back in shape: mentally, physically, and spiritually. Thus, my update is that, at the moment, I am fat, disorganized, and lazy, but with hope.