On Turning 33

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO: A mix-CD of mostly Sigur Ros tunes, sprinkled with some others.

WHAT I'M WATCHING: Soccer, of course, but also a wonderful PBS Bill Moyer's special called "Buying the War" about the so-called liberal media's failure to do their job in the run up to Iraq. If you can catch a replay, do so. It's damn good.

WHAT I'M READING: My "Inside United" magazine subscription finally started coming to the house again, after a strange two month delay.

Tomorrow I will be turning 33 years old. Thirty-three long years on this planet. It's been a pretty good run so far. I've got no real complaints. A college graduate. Found the love of my life and married her. Have a wonderful son and another on the way this Fall. Plus, I enjoy the soccer.

Have I accomplished all my goals? No. I still want to have a career as a writer. Getting paid to do something I love. I still want to do some traveling, especially with the wife. She deserves to see the world. I'd love to see my beloved DC United in person at their own stadium, or go to Old Trafford to see United play. I'd love to see Europe, or more importantly, Hawaii.

I'd love to never see snow again.

It'd be awesome to make enough money at my job so that the wife didn't have to work again. There's a part of me that feels a failure to them that my wife has to work and my child has to go to daycare. They should be at home, together.

But I haven't given up on any of those dreams. I believe that it will happen. I got a lot of hope, and hope don't cost a thing.

I plan to work harder at achieving those dreams in year thirty-three. Time to get out of the retail world and get a career going. Time to spend more time writing, and finding agents to get my writing sold.

After 33 years, it's time to start living the life of my dreams. For my wife and children, and for myself.

Happy Birthday to me.

QUICK HITS:
1. Watching the Ultimate Fighter reality series for the first time. Just really got back into UFC this past winter. It's actually an interesting show. Although I do feel that too many UFC-wannabees feel like they need to waste time acting tough rather than doing the hard work in the gym to actually be tough.

2. Well, DC United has played three games and lost three times. Not a good start. But as long as MLS has a playoff system, early season woes don't really matter. Remember last year, DC lost one time in the first 16 games of a 32 game season. But the time the playoffs started, they were a shell of that team, and didn't even get to the MLS Cup final.

3. Hard to feel bad about that, though, with Manchester United riding high. Five points clear at the top of the Premier League with only three games left (basically, the title is coming home). Plus, already booking a spot against Chelsea in the FA Cup Final next month. AND, with the 3-2 home win last week, they hold the edge going into the second leg of the semi-final series with AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League. A shot at the treble, again. No complaints there.

4. Still catching up on my season six part one of the Sopranos. Still a great show.

5. If you happen to run into my wife, please tell her that your wish to the Make-a-Wish foundation is that she allow me to open my birthday gifts today. She's been taunting me with them for about forty days now. (okay, it's only been three-but she always gets me awesome gifts, and it's hard to wait for it).

ONE LAST THING:
I'm starting a little list here on the ole blog of my MLS TV viewing for the season. I'm curious exactly how much I'm paying, total, for each game on the Direct Kick package. It costs $79 for the season, so we'll see if it truly is "The Greatest Value in Pro Sports".

So far, here's my list. First, I list the TV channel (DK stands for Direct Kick), than the number of games I've watched on that particular channel.

ABC-1
ESPN2-3
Fox Soccer Channel (FSC)-4
Direct Kick (DK)-12

So, as of tomorrow's game (April 30th), I've watched twelve games, or $6.58 per game. This is gonna be a helluva bargain, as there is still six months to go!

That's all I got for now.

Be Seeing You.