A Stranger in a Strange Land

I’m gonna tell a two thousand word story.

I know I said new posts after I settled in, but just felt like writing.

Drive down took slightly less than 12 hours, not too bad except I don’t know how I managed to get to San Francisco twice on my own … there and back no less.

Weather in Mobile is just like it is back home, except it’s a leeetle less humid. Temperature wise it’s hotter though, ‘Ol Betsy’s air conditioner can’t keep up. Hot air blowing in your face and not being able to see out your rear window due to all the crap that’s lodged inside makes for one testy driving experience.

So, when Hurricane Katrina hit Mobile was the closest city that had its infrastructure up and running apparently. The people that moved here have made an apartment impossible to find on short notice.

Lucky thing I lined up a service apt before I got here, so I have a month buffer to wait. Managed to find a nice place that had a relatively short waiting list so fingers crossed I’ll get in ‘fore too long.

The people are friendly here. I heard my first true blue southern “y’all” today. It’s like how only a Singaporean can say “lah” correctly.

Random thought of the day:
If I ever work as a waiter again, I’m gonna introduce myself as Excuse Me, as in “Good evening, my name is Excuse Me .. if you need me … you know what to do.”

Wayyyy overdue post.

I will be back when I’m settled into my new job and apartment.

Who am I kidding, no one reads this anyway.

Today was a first.

The daily high temperature had been averaging 15-18 C over the past couple days, and today the mercury hit ~20 C in the middle of the day. From about 3 pm onwards the temperature kept dropping and by dinnertime we were in single digits.

As I write this it’s 1 C outside and the forecast low is -2 C

A 20 degree swing in one day. Ri-cock-ulous.

On the plus side it has been a extremely eventful spring break so far. Thanks to all for the good times and great spirits.

Chances are it’ll be fun the rest of the way to. *nods to Colin*

I read The Sports Guy over at ESPN.com pretty often and he has this column about how he trades sports talk with other noteworthy people.

The latest column has him talking to Malcolm Gladwell, he of ‘The Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink‘ fame, and it was a pretty good read.

The talk’s not all about sports, as you can see from the excerpt below:

Simmons: Second question: Can you explain in one paragraph why you’re against Vegas?

Gladwell: Where to start? You get there. You can’t get a cab. Last time I waited 30 minutes in line at the airport. You get to your hotel, you wait another 45 minutes to check in. It’s 120 degrees outside, and inside it’s 45 degrees and all you can think about is there’s about to be a epidemic of Legionnaires Disease. The food is terrible. Everyone loses money — everyone. The amount of plastic surgery is terrifying. There are large packs of enormous, glassy-eyed people in stretch pants, pulling the levers on slot machines. (By the way, greatest and most under-appreciated gambling story ever: William Bennett, he of one best seller after another lecturing Americans on moral values and virtue and the bankruptcy of our culture, turns out not only to be a degenerate gambler, but a gambler who only played the slots. The slots! Had he been a great poker player — even a decent poker player — I’m in his corner. But the slots?) I digress. Back to Vegas: Why would I want to see Celine Dion, ever (and I’m Canadian)? Or white mutant tigers? Or the Village People? Or Tony Orlando and Dawn? I have more fun walking to the laundromat from my apartment in New York than I do in Vegas.

I can’t say I disagree with Gladwell totally, but I kinda like Vegas (in small doses) myself.

It’s been a crazy past couple weeks.

I’m still alive and kicking, but have had no time whatsoever to update.

Will be back soon hopefully.

For years I’ve been telling myself that I had to go and see Tiger play, in the flesh.

So when one of my closest buddies moved to Torrey Pines, which just happened to be the site of a tournament that Tiger goes to every year, I knew I had to make it happen somehow.

It took a last minute ticket, a night without sleep and 2 full days of walking, but I DID IT.

Arrived groggy from the aforementioned night without sleep and was whisked off to the golf course. Once we arrived we bumped into Stuart Appleby, walking by without a care in the world it seemed. Went on to the 10th hole and Fred Couples hit the tree I was standing next to with his second shot. He then walked up and pitched the ball dead on line just short of the pin. That was pretty awesome but I was here to see Mr Woods himself.

On any PGA Tour stop all you have to do to find Tiger is look for the huge mass of people following him. He actually looks exactly like he does on TV. Cliché I know but there was no difference. Only thing being that you see him up close and in person.

It wasn’t easy to get a good view of the proceedings though, most of the time we walked up to 2 holes ahead to scout for a good viewing angle. Then we would wait for Tiger to come by and play the hole, then we would skip ahead again. You’ll definitely see more watching the tournament on TV but I was there for the experience.

Case in point: I managed to get a good vantage point behind the tee box for his drive on the 10th hole. He swung and the sound of club hitting ball was something that I’ve rarely heard. It was so SOLID. And the ball! It flew like someone put a match up its ass. The oohs and aahs you hear on TV are there for a reason, believe me.

We only caught the second nine of his Saturday round, but that was where he made all his birdies anyway, so it all turned out good.

Sunday turned out awesome. Tens of thousands of people and by some slice of dumb luck Tiger hit his drive to the right on the 9th fairway just ahead of where I was standing. SPRINTED over to his ball and managed to get right alongside it before everyone else started crowding around. From where we were standing it looked like he was going to have to pitch out to the fairway. Tiger and Steve (his caddie) arrived and started going through his preshot routine. I couldn’t believe it when he pulled out his 5 wood (meaning he was gonna try and get his ball onto the green).

He started measuring his swing, seeing if the trees would get in the way. His follow through was just about a few inches from my head. It was pretty cool seeing all this happen right before me.

I’ve seen Tiger go through his routine thousands of times before hitting the ball, and I never realized that right before he steps up to it he closes his eyes to visualize the shot. You can actually feel the concentration he puts into each and every shot. Needless to say once he lashed at the ball we were all hooting and hollering. I didn’t even really care where the ball went, I was so excited.

Oh, and he won the tournament. I think in a playoff. I’m just glad I bit the bullet and did it.

I probably sound like a star struck teenager in this post.

Rain, snow, sun, warm, cold.

All in one week.

The world is coming to an end if you ask me.

Off to Monterey today for more R&R with my brudders.

It’s been an awesome trip so far.

I’ll have pics coming up soon, the San Diego zoo was smelly but picturesque.