THE LIFE OF BRI

Just when I think I have life somewhat figured out, it throws me a curve. So it’s a typical Friday night here in my house—me sitting at home watching DVDs while The Ex is out doing God-knows-who-cares-what. Then, out of the blue, I get a text from The Ex’s cousin/best friend (who I assumed hated me like the rest of her friends) saying hey. She had seen me briefly earlier yesterday and I was pretty closed off because I was pissed that my house was a teenager hotel. Apparently seeing me was enough for her concerns to be raised. I was surprised to read that she was asking how I was doing, in light of the breakup. Rather than be cynical or sarcastic, I decided to answer honestly; after all, The Ex’s cousin and I were fairly close friends and I’m still fond of her. She even has the distinction of holding the record for My Best Hug Ever, a giant leap into my arms one night when she conspired to surprise The Ex and help bring me to Oklahoma (which actually was the same impromptu visit that resulted in her moving out to California with me). That’s neither here nor there, though. What is here is that I found out over the course of an hour’s worth of texting that The Ex’s Cousin missed talking to me and was genuinely concerned for my wellbeing. She felt really bad about how things went down and, after swearing me to secrecy, was perplexed as to why The Ex brought me “all the way here to abandon” me. Ex’s Cousin insisted she was still my friend and that she realizes it wasn’t all my fault. Best of all, she seems to be the only person besides me who’s known The Ex for awhile that can see that The Ex has changed enormously, used me and never really cared for me. Most telling perhaps is that The Ex’s cousin also said that her fiancée hates The Ex with a passion and “can sense that she’s a bad person”. Other interesting tidbits I learned about The Ex: she did nothing but talk shit on me whenever I was mentioned; she pays for a bunch of stuff for her cousin to buy her friendship; she thought our relationship was meaningless; she is way obsessed over a new boy (as I all but found out accidentally last week) and, according to The Ex’s Cousin, the obsession is “really sad”, as in pathetic. So that’s it in a nutshell—I feel wholly validated, as if a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders! Someone out here in Oklahoma sees it my way! And, of all people, it’s The Ex’s cousin/best friend who she is closest to! If that doesn’t fucking prove something, I don’t know what does. God that feels good to know that not only Oklahomans but women are capable of original thought! Seriously, The Ex’s Cousin earned so much respect from me last night. Really, the affirmation that there is some sort of validation made me happy yet pensive. I think that’s what’s reflected in today’s blog—my thoughts about a song that’s about drugs, double standards in college football, vegetarian baseball players and—amazingly—politics as they relate to our athletes and how their belief systems are affected by their profession.

1. AMSTERDAM

Today ITunes has selected “Amsterdam” by Guster. Like so many good songs (and like so many songs in my playlist), this one is about—surprise—failed romance. In fact, it’s one of my favorite Guster songs, mostly because of the writing. The premise of the song is the songwriter breaking up with his drug-obsessed girlfriend. The song’s very title and its lyrics’ references to drug culture are amazingly well-crafted, whether overt ( “you’re wasted in the great unknown and I am getting ready to dispose of all your vintage clothes, your drugs, and every secret code”), subtle (“threw away your greatest hits, you left them here the day you split”) or, in one brilliant passage, both overt AND subtle (“From your red balloon you were a super high-tech jet fighter floating over planet Earth. Come back down here, I’ll show you where it hurts. Take this bitter pill—is it easy to swallow? ”) This is a really perfect song, musically and lyrically.

2. WEST COAST BIAS

Oklahoma football is finally getting back the 8 wins that were erased from their record from the 2005 season due to Rhett Bomar’s stupidity. I think that it’s about time that this happened, as taking away those wins seemed overly harsh. Sure, Bomar contributed to the 2005 record, but punishing an entire team for the sins of three players (receiving what could be considered a paltry $17,000—chump change in the recruiting benefits business) wasn’t fair and I’m glad the NCAA is correcting itself. Furthermore, if you look at USC and the Reggie Bush allegations, you will see that the NCAA turns its head when superstars cheat but has no problem giving the hammer down to OU since Bomar wasn’t a Heisman candidate. Of course Trojan homers will argue that Bomar’s case was proven and Bush’s is not—but that’s my point. $300,000 of benefits ALLEGEDLY received, years since news has broken and no progress? It’s almost as if they hope that we’ll all forget. They should get on with the investigation so they can determine what we all know is true—Bush was guilty. He should give back his Heisman, though USC, just like OU, should not lose any of those games. But the NCAA won’t have it—Reggie would be the first Heisman winner to give his award back and god forbid they pigeonhole their only reliable West Coast Saturday game market. What a shame.

3. PRINCE ALARMING

I respect vegetarians but I’m a meat and potatoes guy. I think that most guys who are into sports are—it’s just the culture we live in. You go to a ballgame and get a burger or hot dog. There aren’t any vendors selling tofu or broccoli. So that’s what shocked me about Prince Fielder turned vegetarian. I respect his decision and he’s absolutely doing it for the right reason but I’m incredulous because he is a huge man whose offensive game is about strength and power. Boca burgers? Guess I shouldn’t bank on him defending his Home Run Derby crown. As a professional athlete, you owe it to not only yourself but also your teammates to consume enough calories, vitamins, minerals, etc. to optimize your performance. If he can find a diet that cuts out meat and fish and still accomplishes this, that’s fine. But he’s a masher—if his game suffers because of his lifestyle change, that just makes a selfish player. Selfish for the right reasons, but selfish nonetheless. Can he still mash on this diet? I hope so, because you never want to see a good guy like Prince get hammered in the media (and they will come down on him way worse than I did—I happen to be a huge Prince fan, because our fathers were both huge assholes).

4. THOUGHTLESS

Politics and baseball have never been more tied together than they are now. Our current president used to own a team. The roids investigations. The annual visitation to the White House. So when I read this article, I couldn’t help but be taken aback. I know athletes aren’t paid to give us their political or social opinions but I am sad (yet not surprised) to find out that most of them are apathetic and indifferent. Sure, being open about your beliefs like C.J. Wilson actually dangerous when you’re an athlete (Carlos Delgado). And sure, baseball has more foreigners than any other sport, but these aren’t excuses. EVERYONE in the world should care about who our next president is and not because of egotistical patriotism, but because it’s truly important. Like it or not, we live in the most powerful country on the planet and whoever gets to lead it is capable of HUGE change. Maybe baseball players ARE just meatheads—thinking man’s game my ass.

5. SPEECHLESS

Part two of this discussion centers on the upcoming Olympics. British athletes have been forbidden to criticize China for its in miscellaneous human rights issues, or else be banned. I think this brings up a good point—do you think American athletes have any thoughts about the host country? Do they even know about 1936? About Darfur? About Tibet? About 1980? About free speech? Child limitations? Tiananmen? Falun gong? Sure, Americans can’t really talk shit about this because we intervene everywhere and don’t have a squeaky clean record either, but I wonder if this shit even crosses athletes’ minds. I highly doubt it. I guess that I shouldn’t hold these guys to such a high standard because modern day athletes are strictly entertainment. Plus I’m idealistic—I want athletes to be more—heroes, role models for my kids to look up to, people who stand up for what they believe—like Ted Williams, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson. Our greatest stars—Tiger, LeBron, A-Rod—make it a point to go out of their way to avoid issues because of their reputations but to be honest, I would actually respect these guys more if they had an original thought.