A Nice Long Blog

I've spent the past 3 days progressing through the five stages of grief after the loss at Kansas on Saturday. Here is a good definition of the purpose of the five stages:

There are five stages of grief. If we get stuck in one stage or the other, the process of grieving is not complete, and cannot be complete. Thus there will be no healing. A person MUST go through the five stages to be well again, to heal. Not everyone goes through the stages at the same time. It is different for each person. You cannot force a person through the stages, they have to go at their own pace, and you may go one step forward then take two steps backward, but this is all part of the process, and individual to each person. But, as stressed, ALL five stages must be completed for healing to occur.

1 - Denial - "this can't be happening to me" or in the case of me "this shitty coaching can't be happening AGAIN"
2 - Anger - "why me?" or "why do we always lose the games that matter?" Trust me - I was in this phase most of the weekend
3 - Bargaining - I prayed for it all to be a bad nightmare and let us play the game again but no luck. God already pulled out all the stops with the Missouri loss and the Nebraska schlacking of Colorado to allow us the opportunity to be playing for the Championship spot..... God already performed two miracles and decided to let us win it on our own (we should have)
4 - Depression - This was me yesterday as I refused to wear anything that says ISU (which people will realize is probably 90% of my wardrobe. It either comes from Eddie Bauer or says Cyclones on it)
5 - Acceptance - This is the point where I can move on with my life. I have accepted that McCarney is an idiot and we will never win the big game when it matters. I have accepted that the Cyclones are a 2nd rate team and will always be such. I have accepted that we'll probably go back to Shreveport for a bowl game this year since we have idiots running the Athletic Department (who also refuse to fire McCarney). I have decided to move on to other things that matter like Iowa State Men's Basketball (3-1 already but who the hell is Iona????).

A light dusting again today in Rochester but it is really slick out with a lot of ice. Just means there are a lot of idiots on the road to avoid!! It's cold too so feels like Winter out. We might be stuck in this mode for a while!

But seeing the snow reminds me of a story to share:

THE LAST TIME ADAM WENT SLEDDING

In college at the south end of Ames there was the Hockey Arena, and a kick ass hill that we would always sled down in the middle of the night. It was about a 3 minute walk from Towers where I lived for 3 years which made it a lot of fun. Someone would always build a huge ramp towards the bottom of the hill and we'd see how many teeth we could break after an evening of drinking. We'd all steal (or "borrow") trays from the cafeteria to use as sleds. Put Pam cooking spray on the bottom of the tray and it speeds you up! Sledding is an engineering art form! There'd be stupid moments where we'd get 15 of us in one chain like a roller coaster and aim for the ramp. After a huge crash, it'd take 5 minutes to pull us apart and off one another. Never any broken bones from what I can remember.

One time in the post-dorm living days, we decided to go sledding and Eddie, Andy and I found Jamie whom also had the huge tractor tire tubes that we were using for sledding. We probably left around 11pm for the hill and I swear, only ONE PERSON (or BOY) was inebriated. And it wasn't me. We had a blast with the huge tires as we could fit two of us easily on each one. I would go down solo and hit the ramp landing face first on the ground on the other side. I remember having to feel my teeth swearing I had lost at least one of them. Luckily they were all there. Jamie thought it'd be funny to try to knock us off as we came down the hill so he'd stick his foot out and try kicking us or spinning us as we went down the hill.

Well there came a point where Eddie, Andy and I were at the bottom of the hill, and Jamie at the top with the other Tube in hand. So I yelled for him to come down and we'd knock him off. Bad idea..... I was in the middle and as he came at us full speed, the last thing I remember is lowering my shoulder. The rest of this story comes from the bystanders as I don't remember any of it. Eddie says he's never seen a guy of my size go flying through the air as far as I did. I was on the ground and speaking gibberish for a couple of minutes before they finally helped me up. My head had swollen on the top to the size of about half a softball within seconds of hitting the ground. Took the three of them to drag me up the hill into the truck (again, I remember none of this). We went to the emergency room and I started remembering things along the drive - especially the severe headache.

Once there, I had to get the insurance number so I had to call my folks. I caught them asleep (it was 1am by this point) and dad gave the phone to mom saying I'd been in an accident. Mom answered the phone like this "how's the car.....". I said "it was a sledding accident mom but I'M FINE if you care...." She figured I wouldn't be fine if I wasn't calling. Whatever:) Love ya ma! So once back in the Doctor's office, he had me stand still with my arms outstretched and my eyes closed. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of standing still but when I opened my eyes, Andy said I wasn't even close. So I was diagnosed with a concussion and sent home. I had a headache for 4 days and stayed home from classes the next day. I remember Jamie coming in to check on me before he went to work the next morning and if I was more mobile, I would have killed him!!! So Emily, don't trust your daddy when he says "let's go sledding!"

There - a nice long blog to start off your Tuesday with!

Song of the Day - The Family Guy Season 4 DVD set comes out today. I'll snag it sometime today I'm sure and get some laughs in over the next couple of days. But thanks to a submission by "Pat, The" - I have Rocketman going through my head. Click on the Webpage of the Day and you'll see why.

Video of the Day - Anything with Family Guy today. Sunday's episode was pretty funny even though Fox had everything delayed 15 minutes because of the OT game and screwed up my Moxi recording for Sunday night. Oh well, still got to see it all.

Webpage of the Day - Isn't Stewie the greatest? Enjoy!

Have a great Tuesday!!!