I had rehearsal last night which was ok. Some of the music is pretty challenging so I have a lot of practicing to do this weekend. But with the big Iowa State dismantling of Colorado tomorrow in Ames, I'll have to find other times to practice in;) I've been so tired this week getting used to the late nights of rehearsal, that I am trying to discover new methods of keeping myself awake during my drive over to La Crosse, but especially on my drive home at 10:00 every night. It's about an hour and 15 minute drive for those non-Minnes"o"tan residents. Here are the things I've either done, or heard of doing. And a thanks to Nori for the idea for today's blog;)
1) The one I always played as a kid was trying to go through the alphabet by finding those letters on signs, cars, blimps (good for a Y in Good Year). There were all sorts of versions but the main one was that the letters had to be on the outside of the car (windows and on out). Other variations were that you could only use any sign just once. The only problem with this game is that it's so dang hard to get a J in most places. Plus it's not good for repetitive drives like mine because you start to memorize where the next letter is and there's no longer any fun in that. Oh yeah, there's no J for about 42 miles on I-90 west towards Rochester if you were thinking of trying it.
2) The one I always enjoyed was the memory game. My mom and I usually played it in the car but one person would start out "I'm going on a trip and I'm taking an..... " and then something that started with the letter A. Then the next person would say "I'm going on a trip and I'm taking an..." and that same thing with A and then add something with the letter B. This would continue and it challenges the ability to remember each and every item. Gets even harder when played multiple times and trying to keep each game separate.
3) My buddy Eric from the Symphony was one of the funnier ideas I've heard. He would drive with the windows open (a common idea for most people - that only makes it worse for me since I'm used to sleeping with a fan). But then he would drive with his hand pressed on the ceiling of the car, right above his face. So if he started getting tired or too relaxed, the arm would relax and his hand would hit him in the face and wake him up. I kind of liked this and tried it a couple of times, but I feel so goofy doing it. You're all going to try this one now!
4) Nori suggested a new one last night that I found interesting. (Remember that Nori is my hot friend that lives in Decorah, IA so of course she knows what she's talking about!!) She suggested taking a $20 bill and holding it out the window the entire drive home. Makes one concentrate on not losing that 20 bucks! I think most of the cheap engineers I work with would do this and it'd work with a quarter. Cheap bastards!
5) A game I try sometimes when it's just me, but easier when it's my brother and sister-in-law in the car, is you can't turn the radio station till someone names either the song, or the band singing. You see how fast you can get through all the stations. I think the 3 of us could win some championships with this concept if it were ever held. My brother has all the oldies and Christian channels down. My sister-in-law Rachael is a country music genius (sorry Pitzen, but she seriously has you owned when it comes to knowing who it is). Only bad thing is that Rachael will hum along and smile when she hears a song knowing we can't turn the station till she tells us who it is. She just likes the music and would rather torture me!!
6) Other ideas are to turn the radio up loudly (never works for me... I fell asleep at a Creed concert once and it was loud in there), singing real loud (only takes more energy that I don't have usually that late at night), but I usually find that I can kill some time and stay awake by checking a bunch of sports scores and stats on my cell phone. Plus I know Ruth is ALWAYS awake so I end up calling her or text messaging her from the driver's seat;)
The last thing I want to share with you all is a little bit of entertainment I thought up last night. The Pat who had a miracle week last week, had a horrible week this week I heard. So to inspire him to try harder next time and to punish him for being crappy again, I offer the following (click on the picture to enter) - picture was taken last night at the lanes. Those are the kick-a$$ shirts that I designed for the team! I can get you one if you'd like! Our fans are wearing them this year too!!! You have to do this in 2 steps unfortunately.... click on the picture, then click on the link afterwards to have fun with pat:
MAKE PAT SUFFER FOR BOWLING CRAPPY LAST NIGHT!!
Song of the Day - I finally got my U2 Minneapolis Bootleg from the September show. It's ok quality, but still nice to have for my digital scrapbook. The coolest part of the concert was when Bono dedicated Miracle Drug to the "amazing men and women, doctors and nurses of the Mayo Clinic". How cool was that? So many of my friends have now had a dedication song at a U2 concert!!! Notice he didn't say "to the nerds and geeks of IBM". Dangit!! I still have Miracle Drug going through my head. It's from their newest album HTDAAB.
Video of the Day - I have a bunch of movies to watch this weekend so I'll update y'all next week! And no, I haven't watched Apprentice from last night yet:( Maybe later today.
Webpage of the Day - Thanks to Brent (mr. Anti-U2) for today's WOTD. I got a big laugh out of it as well, but like Brent suggested, you have to watch the whole thing. It gets funnier and funnier! Thanks Brent!!
Have A Great Friday!! And check back tomorrow for some predictions for the big weekend in sports!!
3 comments:
I have a good idea for ya on your drives home. I used to play a game called "no one passes kristin" on the way home from fargo. this was a lengthy game because i played it the full 5 hours. this game is also one that can be ended VERY quickly...by a cop..at mile marker 119 on I 94.
One game my family used to play on long drives coming up with phrases for license plates. So say you saw a license plate "YZD 294". Take each of the letters and use that as the first letter of a word. It could be "your zealous dogma" or "yaks zip drunkenly" or "yodeling zebras dance".
By the way, your symphony's website is pretty strange how they list concert repertoire. Just the names of the pieces, no composers, and to figure out the composers you have to read the blurb underneath. I wonder if that's on purpose so you don't just scan the bullet points. Wouldn't want to make it too easy on those prospective concert attendees...
I'd like to make sure that the rest of the team gets honorable mention in your blog. Fisher bowled pretty well and that Fink kid is still kicking your a$$ :-)
The team took 4 points and we're looking forward to whipping up on the Lightnin' Dorks next week!
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