Tag: LSU-Texas

Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is (Anymore)

Ah, Saturday morning and college football all day once again, after an interesting and peaceful Friday the 13th around here–and by that I mean the Lost Apartment because the rest of the world , or at least the country, went insane yesterday. I mean, it was Friday the 13th and the end of Mercury in retrograde, so is anyone surprised a river tour cruise ship was hit by a massive container ship at the Port of New Orleans yesterday, and sink completely in less than an hour (how fucking deep IS the river along the shoreline of the port, FFS?). THe good news is there was no injuries or casualties, despite many people falling into the river–which is always dangerous, with the currents and depth and everything else (no one goes swimming in the river, and not just because its polluted and dirty). Meanwhile, there was a nation-wide ground stop thanks to DOGE and our former Real World star Secretary of Transportation; I hope no one forgets that POS when the tribunals roll around….which was completely unrelated to the Microsoft 365/Outlook email problem….which is why I’ve never used Outlook for my email. We have to use it at work, but otherwise, I never would.

There are some interesting games today in college football, but my primary interest is only the LSU-Texas game. LSU is pretty much done for the season with three losses, but can play spoiler for both Texas and Tennessee, which could be fun; LSU has wrecked other teams’ seasons plenty of times before, and that’s about the best we can hope for this year.

Overall, yesterday was a good day. I picked up the mail, made groceries, and picked up some books I’d ordered, came home, did my work-at-home duties, and even did some writing–not much, but like I said the other day, any writing progress is good progress. I did also the laundry and some other chores, and some organizing. I figured out how to write the essay I’ve been working on to no avail for my newsletter. I also got caught up with The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and The Traitors New Blood, and we started watching the Swipe Right for the Devil documentary–the crimes were in Nebraska, and I had been thinking about Kansas this past week (probably partly because they elected a Democratic senator) because I was thinking about In Cold Blood this week.I did start reading She Kills, beginning with the “The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob,” a delightful story about a middle aged woman who cross-dressed to rob banks–without a gun or threats. As I read it, I couldn’t help but think this is such a Texas story and again lamented that Texas doesn’t have a Carl Hiassen to write about how wacky it is there, but I suppose Larry McMurtry kind of filled that role sometimes. I need to read more of McMurtry; it’s been a hot minute and one of my friends adores his work–and Lonesome Dove is my father’s favorite book.

Remember I was feeling a bit trepidatious about seeing my new doctor for the first time? Constant Reader, she’s a Black woman! The weight that lifted off my shoulders when she opened the door and walked into the exam room–you have no idea, Constant Reader. I know she had to work twice as hard as everyone else in her class at medical school, and she was friendly, warm, and charmingly likable. I knew my new doctor was going to be a woman–and I was worried she’d be one of those white women (#notallwhitewomen) and I was going to have to find a new doctor. Seriously, the only thing better than a gay doctor is a Black woman.

The books I picked up were based on recommendations from friends: Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan (Catriona McPherson) and Profiles in Cowardice by Jacob Weisberg (Laura Lippman), as well as the new Donna Andrews, Jay to the World. I am ashamed to admit that I am behind on the Meg series and need to get caught up.

And on that note, I am going to get another cup of coffee and move to the living room, where I can put on SEC Today (fuck Gameday and Pat MacAfee forever) while I do some chores, read, and write for a little bit. I ordered some things to be delivered this afternoon, too. Have a lovely if chilly day, Constant Reader, and I shall return on the morrow. Thanks for stopping by and hope you will tomorrow morning, too!

Someone actually walking like an Egyptian

(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!

Well, here we are on midweek Wednesday again somehow. The weekend looms on the horizon, and it will be a normal weekend for me for the first time in two weeks–I work at home on Friday and don’t have to go in for a meeting or drive to Baton Rouge, which will be lovely. I’ve not really checked the games for this weekend, but I do know the Texas-LSU game is Saturday night. I’ll watch the LSU game, of course, but am not terribly interested in much else. Last weekend’s loss put LSU out of the playoffs, deservedly so in my opinion, so paying attention to everything else really is unnecessary anymore, other than looking for games that might be fun to watch. Who knows? There are a lot of disgruntled LSU fans out there now, who thought we’d somehow make it all the way to the championship game in Coach Kiffin’s first year (which is absurd on its face, but fans are gonna fan, no matter what), but I”m not terribly disappointed. The four year cycle is next season, anyway (LSU won nattys in 2003, 2007, and 2019; played for it and lost in 2011; so the only four cycle years where we didn’t make it to the final were 2015 and 2023). The Saints aren’t doing great this season, either, but I like our new quarterback and he has a lot of potential to develop into a franchise quarterback in time…so the future looks good for Louisiana football. I have some errands to run this weekend, too, so not being vested in the rest of the college football world might help me get more things done over the days at home.

I didn’t feel tired yesterday, so I did some chores when I got home from the office; I even started writing the next chapter of the book! (Okay, it was only a paragraph, but progress is progress and that’s a paragraph I don’t have to write today now, do I?). I must have been more tired than I thought, though, because I fell asleep in my chair sometime between seven and eight–and finally went up to bed just before nine. It came out of nowhere, really, and I feel good and rested this morning, which is great. The clinic is going to be busy today, and so that will definitely keep me on my toes and might wear me down a bit tonight. I also need to swing by the post office on the way home from work, too, so will probably be a bit tired when I walk through the door of the apartment tonight. I was even in bed before Paul got home, so I don’t even know when that was last night! Needless to say, I didn’t watch another episode of Friday the 13th the Series, but I can catch up on that tonight when I get home–after doing so more chores. If I can keep up with chores all week and not leave them till Friday, I’ll have more time to read and write on the weekend and can do some other cleaning as well. Maybe even take the ladder outside and clean my kitchen windows. Stranger things have happened, after all.

Mississippi is still counting votes, but it’s not looking good for evil animated scarecrow Cindy Hyde-Smith, and yes, I am a terrible person because I am loving this humiliation for that hateful old witch. I hate that Louisiana elected its own version of her–the morally corrupt Julia Letlow–but she can have her six years of irrelevance in the Senate while we work to ensure she never gets reelected. It’s been so lovely since the election, you know? That sense of impending doom is gone, as is the “I don’t want to get out of bed because I can just imagine what new hellgate opened overnight” sense when the alarm goes off in the morning. Hitler’s granny Virginia Foxxe is also in a close one still being counted, but apparently it’s not a good year for the Daughters of the Reich to hold on to their seats–and that particular piece of shit should have retired when her mind started to go. I remember her hateful bigoted ass during the queer wars of the late aughts and early teens, and here’s hoping her reign of terror over the electorate is over and she can go back to making her relatives even more ashamed and miserable than they already are. Good times!

El Niño means wet winter for us here in southeastern Louisiana, which plays havoc on my sinuses but i love rain and can deal, you know. I woke up to darkness, as usual after the time change, but as the sun rose it remained gray outside, and it’s sprinkling. It’s supposed to rain all morning, which is fun; I love rain, and I have a window in my testing room now so I can watch it for a zen moment throughout the day. I feel pretty rested this morning–the extra sleep from last night certainly was an enormous help in that regard–so hopefully we’ll have a productive day.

And on that note, I am going to head into the spice mines. Have a lovely midweek Wednesday, Constant Reader, and I will be here again tomorrow morning bright and early. See you then!

To Be a Lover

LSU beat Alabama yesterday, 46-41.

I still can’t completely wrap my mind around it, but it was a great game–I was never relaxed, from the opening kick-off until I realized LSU could simply run out the clock and that the game was actually, in fact,  already over, if not officially–and both teams acquitted themselves well. LSU played exceptionally well; at half-time I said out loud in disbelief, “we’re ahead of Alabama 33-13 at half-time?”

In my wildest dreams of LSU beating Alabama again, I never dreamed it would go down the way it did yesterday afternoon. Like I said, I can’t wrap my mind around it.  But, as I say, to be the best you have to beat the best, and Alabama is the gold standard of college football, and has been since 2008. You just don’t get better than the Alabama program–historically or recently. Their recent dynasty has pulled them ahead of other gold standard programs–USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan, Notre Dame–because you simply cannot argue with the success they’ve had. Every national champion since 2008 has had to beat Alabama to get there–or it was Alabama. Every national champion from the SEC since 2009 has been from the western division–and if you go back another two years, LSU won it in 2007 (Florida won in 2006 and 2008).

And it looks like, at long last, we might have another shot at it again this year.

GEAUX TIGERS!

Needless to say, I literally got nothing done after the game was over. I didn’t read anything, didn’t write anything, didn’t clean anything. I just kind of stayed in my easy chair, scrolling through social media while the Tennessee-Kentucky game played in the background, to see the reactions to the game and the videos of the team plane landing in Baton Rouge to an enormous crowd–which even lined the road cheering as the team busses took them back to campus from the airport. We all are, of course, huge fans of the underdog, and what is this year’s LSU team is not a team of underdogs? No one wanted running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire; too small to play in the SEC, they said. He was phenomenal last night–that final first down that iced the game once and for all was an incredible display of running as he dragged almost the entire Alabama defense the entire ten yards to put the game away once and for all. The transfer quarterback who didn’t get the starting job at Ohio State; now almost has a lock on the Heisman Trophy and has already broken most, if not all, of the quarterback records at LSU.

And of course, Coach O–the interim coach who finally got the job after two bigger names turned it down; the coach LSU “settled” for, who went on to lose to Troy in his first full season as head coach. Remember that? It was just two years ago, and everyone wrote Coach O for dead that season. Even this year, Coach O was “on the hot seat”, according to every sports journalistic out there–the Cajun home-state coach with the gravelly voice; who wages a battle at every press conference with the closed-captioning. And yet, here LSU sits, 9-0, ranked Number One, having just gotten the Alabama monkey off its back for the first time since the 2011 season and suddenly is everyone’s favorite for the college football play-offs.

After the Texas game, when LSU won in Austin, I said to Paul, “how cool would it be for LSU and Ohio State–Joe’s two teams–to meet for the national championship, and how fitting would it be to write, as Joe’s final act as a college football player, to beat the team that wouldn’t start him to win the national title?”

It seemed far-fetched at the time, but now? It’s definitely possible.

LSU has to keep its head in the game though–there are three games left in the conference (Ole Miss, Arkansas, Texas A&M), and then the conference title game–most likely against Georgia; even if Georgia loses to Auburn they’ll win the East–and should Georgia win out, and LSU win that game…it will be the fifth time they’ve beaten a Top Ten ranked team this season.

Sorry if you’re not a football fan, but I am aglow still this morning, and that glow will probably last for me a little while…but the Saints are playing the hated Falcons today at noon, so I’ve got to get ready for that game, too.

GEAUX TIGERS!

If you could have turned the joy in Louisiana last night into pure energy, we could have powered the entire country last night.

Thank you, and bless you, boys.

JEAUX BURREAUX FOR THE HEISMAN!!!!!!

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The Way It Is

Good morning, Sunday, hope everyone is well today. I’m a mixed bag; disappointed that Serena lost in the US Open final yesterday but quite happy that LSU managed to beat Texas last night, 45-38, with an insane second half that basically turned into a high-scoring shoot-out. And you know what’s weird? Every time Texas would pull themselves back into the game, I’d think, Okay, offense, get out there and score again. 

Even weirder? They would. LSU has never, in all the years I’ve watched them, had this kind of offense–at least since JaMarcus Russell went pro after the 2006 season. They scored a touchdown in the closing minutes of the first half to go up 20-7–they never fell behind again after retaking the lead 10-7 in the second quarter–and those two goal line stands in the first half? My God–how do you keep a team from scoring on two consecutive drives inside the five yard line? Eight plays inside the ten, and no points. That was really the turning point of the game for me–that, and that LSU came back and scored again immediately after the second goal line stand. I wondered how good LSU was after the Georgia Southern game–and yes, it’s still early in the season and there’s still a Murderer’s Row of a schedule to get through (including Auburn, Florida, Alabama, and Texas A&M), but wow. LSU is looking championship quality, at least early in the season–and that’s incredibly exciting…although teams we’ll be playing later in the season will be trying to come up with defenses to stop our offense. The defense bailed out the offense in the first half, and the offense bailed out the defense in the second half.

Nevertheless, there was a lot of tension in the Lost Apartment last night until we scored our final touchdown and made a two point conversion to go up 45-31 with less than two minutes to go in the game. Even then, I couldn’t relax until the on-side kick call went in our favor. But it was a big, landmark win for LSU–like Georgia last season–and suddenly, there we are, actually being considered amongst the national elite again.

Wow. GEAUX TIGERS.

Yesterday was one of those days, really–tired, unmotivated, incredibly frustrated with electronics (and increasingly so as the day progressed). My back is getting better but it still tender and slightly sore; I don’t understand what’s going on with the muscles of my lower back, but it really needs to stop. I need to work on a short story and an essay today=–the essay is due this week–and I also agreed to write some website copy at the last minute for a friend’s business. That’s going to take up my morning, mostly, and then there’s some more volunteer work to be done–and my kitchen is a mess and I need to get the filing under control. I’m going to print out the first chapters of the final revision I started on the Kansas book that I wrote earlier this year before having to put them aside–so as to get an idea how to get it going again, and I think I’m simply going to have to figure out how to make the necessary changes it needs before I start trying to write any of it. I am excited about this book, frankly–I’m glad after all the work I’ve put into it I’ve finally figured out how to solve the problems with it and make the story click–but I still have to revise and rewrite it, to get it done and out of my hands.

I am also going to try–try is the operative word here–to write a chapter of Chlorine every week. Last night as I watched the LSU game I figured out how to write the second chapter–and the research I need to do in order to get it right–and I figure if I write a chapter a week, in five months the first draft will be finished, and if I can’t carve out enough time to write a chapter a week I should be ashamed of myself. Obviously, there are going to be weeks I’m not able to get to it–but even if I get a chapter started and not finished, that’s better than not writing anything.

As you will notice, there’s no blatant self-promotion about Royal Street Reveillon contained in this  post. Instead, I will leave you with the opening of Chapter One. Enjoy.

I fished the last olive out of my almost empty glass and popped it into my mouth. I glanced at my watch as I chewed it, and moaned after swallowing. “There’s nothing like a good martini,” I said, glancing around the bar and getting our server’s attention.

 “Do we have time for another?” My nephew Taylor finished the rest of his sazerac and looked at me hopefully.

“I take it you liked it.” I replied, not even trying to hide my smile. “But no time for another unless we want to be late.”

This was Taylor’s first time at the Sazerac Bar. He’d turned twenty-one just a few weeks before Thanksgiving, and since we were going to a party at the Joy Theater, I thought I’d treat him to a sazerac in the bar where they were invented. I personally don’t care for the drink—give me gin or vodka any day of the week—but everyone in New Orleans is required to try a sazerac at least once.

And now I could rest easy, having done not only my civic duty but treated Taylor to a New Orleans rite of passage.

I’d also wanted him to see the Roosevelt Hotel’s Christmas decorations. The Roosevelt was one of the grand old hotels of the city, and their lobby decorations are truly spectacular. Since we were going to a party at the Joy Theater—a mere block or so from the hotel, I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone? This was Taylor’s second Christmas with us, and I wanted to do it right. We’d already done Celebration in the Oaks at City Park, and I’d loved seeing the beautifully decorated ancient live oak trees through a newbie’s eyes.

I know it’s corny, but I love Christmas.

Have a lovely Sunday, Constant Reader!

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The World Is a Ghetto

Well, Constant Reader, we made it to the weekend somehow, and isn’t that always a really good thing for everyone involved?

I know I’m pleased.

LSU is playing Texas tonight (GEAUX TIGERS!), and I am interested to see how they play against a top-level opponent after last week’s thorough thrashing of Georgia Southern. One thing about last week’s game–LSU has always underperformed against teams they should beat easily, like Georgia Southern, so it was wild to see them score 42 points in the first half against an overmatched team. In the past, it would always be stressfully close until they simply wore the other team down in the second half. But again, the big score doesn’t mean anything because it was a lower-tier opponent. I am certain I’ll be extremely nervous and stressed out during the entire game.

I also decided yesterday to change my work schedule permanently to the afternoon 1-5 shift rather than the 9-1; that really worked well yesterday, and I was able to not only get a lot done in the morning before I went into the office, I got things done there and was also able to stop at the grocery store on the way home. So yes, getting some sleep and waking up without an alarm continues to be a recipe for success for me; you’d think by now I’d learn. I mean, going in early and getting it over with was lovely, as I got my weekend to start early–but if yesterday is any indication, sleeping in a little longer and working in the afternoon makes it possible for me to get even more done; and that’s what is most important.

So, my book comes out in three days officially. So, what can I talk about today to give you some insight, that will make you order or buy it today?

In Baton Rouge Bingo, I introduced a new character to Scotty’s world; Frank’s nephew, Taylor Rutledge. I had a number of reasons for introducing Taylor. First, I wanted to make Scotty suddenly aware of his own age, much the same as I suddenly realized one day that internally I always think of myself as still being thirty-five…but seeing my thirty year old niece kind of blew that to shit. People who have children, or have nieces and nephews and regular access to the next generation in their families deal with their own aging because they can see the next generation growing up. Scotty doesn’t really have that–I really messed up, long ago, by not giving Rain or Storm kids, but I never thought about it. Secondly, I had realized by this time that while we know all about Scotty’s family (the mother’s side, we don’t know much about the Bradley side, which I explored a little in Who Dat Whodunnit) and while I briefly touched on Colin’s past in Jackson Square Jazz (and we still don’t know if any of what Colin told him was actually true), we knew nothing about Frank’s family. Granted, Scotty and everyone could know and it was just never mentioned on the pages of the books, but that felt like a cheat to me…and I realized that making Frank estranged from his family because of his sexuality, and then having to deal with his homophobic sister again because his teenaged nephew has come out, would take care of that–and of course, Scotty and his family would be more than happy to take in a nephew into the family. Taylor was in  Garden District Gothic, but not as much…but he is integral to the plot of Royal Street Reveillon, and what happens to him and his personal story will continue to resonate in the series as it moves forward.

I’ve even considered giving Taylor his own spin-off; I thought (still kind of half-heartedly think) that it would be fun to see a college student’s thoughts on the weird situation he finds himself in with his uncles and in New Orleans; and it might be fun to see him solve a mystery on his own with a little help from his uncles–although it might be fun to send him on a trip somewhere that he comes into contact with a crime or something.

And now the story’s coming to me, goddamnit.

And on that note, it’s back to the spice mines.

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