The Price of Basketball Madness

After a good deal of surfing this evening, I've resolved to attend a live basketball game. It is March Madness season after all, and most every team that's made it to the finals is bound to turn out a good game. The tickets are pretty cheap, too. About $12 at one university.

I also checked out the professional teams. One ticket courtside is $2,500! Nose bleed seats are at a much more reasonable rate, $20. Then out of curiosity, I also checked out the NCAA tourney tickets. The less expensive seats are about $150, and the courtside seats are $700. It's a slightly better deal on the high end, but for someone like me who's not really into sports, nose bleed at $20 or college ball $12 is just fine.

Though How March Became Madness is still on my list, I realize, as is usually true for avid readers, that I have more books waiting to be read than I actually have to read. Right now I'm finishing up Get Ahead by Going Abroad. Not all of it is relavant to me, but I find the details about business and personal experiences of women who've traveled and made sucesses of their careers quite inspiring. Then there are two books each on volunteering and foreign cultures. After that, a tome of etiquette. Where will I squeeze in my study about basketball?

Valentines in the Madness of March

It feels like Valentine's Day. All around there are happy, smiling couples, chirping birds, exchanges of knowing glances between long settled pairs. Then there's me. Walking alone. Eating alone. Sitting on the bus alone. Reading a book.

What I need is a basketball game. It's March Madness season. So, that will be it. That will be my next challenge, and I will forget about hearts and kisses and hugs, hand holding, rubbing noses, and all manner of embrace. But first things first: Learning the rules of the game and its history.

Go blue!

I believe I will begin with How March Became Madness. It's a book I've perused before maybe a few years back, but I remember enjoying it a good deal. I knew very little about basketball when I picked the book up. I'd initially gotten it because it had a nice cover. Then I read it, and I was amazed at how interesting the author, Einhorn, made everything. I never finished the book when I read it the first time. Now is a great time to start again.

Confessions...

I'm still working on my personal challenge, but somehow along the way, I met a man who got me sidetracked. Well, I can't really blame him, but lately, he has been the source of much temptation. So, without the nerve or gall to tell him in person, I told him in an e-mail that I no longer wanted to see him again. But who am kidding?! If he called me now, I'd come running.

The odd thing is that just three days prior, I witnessed to him about the very thing that tore us apart. I encouraged him to go to God since it was clear that by looking for he wanted the world's way, he was getting nowhere. What would he have to lose?

Then yesterday, I was tempted by the same longing, but instead of his encouraging me the way I had encouraged him, he encouraged me to do the opposite. In a way, it's a little funny. Men are notorious for not being able to refuse to certain things. Of course, it is a myth, but humourous to consider, nonetheless.

I'm sitting there waiting for him to say something contrary, like maybe we shouldn't jeopardize our friendship. And he says, "You know, I think it would be good for both of us."

"Yeah, I'll bet," I say to myself, and then he goes on to describe certain details.

When I had a few moments to reflect on my decision, that's when I began to feel the weight of it all. I felt guilty, but to save myself and my friend (though I am certain he will find someone else soon enough), I ended it all. Part of me wants to call him back.

YourBookTube.com

It's true. I haven't written in a while, but I suppose all I needed was a catalyst to get me back in the swing. Today, I've had several of them. The first of which is the embarrassment of make a huge-"bottom" mistake on my travel website page. I can't be considered a credible journalist making faux pas (how does one write the plural of faux pas???) I misidentified the name of a theater where a great one-woman show is now playing. The play is Funeral Potatoes, and it is at the Flashpoint Theater in Washington, DC. In my original article, I'd said it was located at the Source Theater, which is owned by the same people who own Flashpoint. Arghhh!!!!! I want to scream.

The next jolt I got was when I looked in my inbox and found a ton of mail. I've got to answer or address each one.

And the last thing that woke me up was an article I read about a website called YourBookTube. What's so curious about it is the fact that it's a website of videos for people who love books, for people who have made it a habit to read. Perhaps it's a play on the social tendency to buy and read books on the basis of the recommendation of a friend. Do people seem "friendlier" when you can see them versus when they write? Would I trust a video recommendation over a written review? And if so, what would that mean for the future of books in general?

Years ago people feared that television would eliminate the need for print materials. Maybe that revolution didn't happen as quickly as they may have guessed, but it seems that today's technologies are taking more and more away from that sector of communications. The odd thing is that it has been proven that reading does more for the brain than watching television or online videos. When we read, it's like giving our brain a workout. So what happens to a society or a generation of young people who abandon reading for videos and other less challenging tasks?

How Do You Obama?

I think I'd be a rich woman right now if I had something with Obama on it to sell. The election is over, and there's still a buying a frenzy over all things Obama. That's all you see on the magazine covers, the newspapers, and in the talk around the water cooler (or microwave). I spoke to one woman at the newstand. She had 12 newspapers in her hand. I thought, perhaps, she might be a collector, but she tells me instead that she scrapbooks. "It's something for the grandkids," she said. That's a novel idea.

I succumbed (sp) to the frenzy myself and bought a NYT and a New Yorker. But what a waste it would be to just let those papers sit around. So, of course, I'll read them. I do wonder what other collectors do with their papers and books. Do they wrap them in plastic and store them away in a box, waiting on end until other copies are destroyed and tarnished? Is it even profitable at this point to collect Obama gear? The market is so saturated.

Walking with the Crowds

(Image Credit: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/04/midday2/

I remember in Philadelphia, as a volunteer for the Obama campaign, arriving at the volunteer office just blocks from the Community College of Philadelphia on Spring Garden Street where I had once worked. I returned to Philadelphia after hard break up with the city. There were things about it I couldn't master and things I refused to face. It was something like the way people refer to New York City when they say, "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere."

I returned to the city with mixed feelings. Obama brought me back. But it was also time for me to reconcile my differences. My assignment from the volunteer office was to knock on doors and ask people if we could count on their support. I started out with a friend, and as we walked through the streets with our Obama gear, I began feeling better about the city.

Of course there were dissenters, Republicans, and the like who did not support Obama. But overall, there were a lot of people who believed in the promise, that thing we call "change" moving along quietly, with that feeling that reporters called in their news stories "momentum." Reflecting upon that time in the face of an inauguration, I see how time and place can profoundly affect a person's attitude.

The Friday before I went doorknocking for Obama, I had attended one of his rallies in the downtown area. It's in an historic district, just on the other side of Chinatown and minutes from the waterfront on Columbus. What's most amazing was the commonality I felt between myself and the thousands of other supporters who had gathered that day. That was a feeling that had been missing when I used to reside there. Today, I stood at 6th and Market, paces from the Liberty Bell, and squinted out over the crowds. I was part of a huddled mass of supporters, mile upon mile strong, shoulder to shoulder, north to south, friend and stranger gathered to support a campaign that transformed me, my attitudes, and this country.

I share this episode because in spite of the barriers you'll face on your way to D.C., whether personal or logistical, know that your journey will be worth it. It is a monumentous thing to stand and be a part of history. That is what it will feel like as you walk through the crowds. It won't matter how close you get or how far down the Mall you are, just being there, being among other supporters will make your journey to D.C. a remarkable one.

For more travel stories, please visit my travel website at MidAtlantic USA at BellaOnline.com.

Think Big, A Book Review

Dr. Ben Carson is an extremely well accomplished neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He grew up in Detroit with his brother, the two of them sons of a single, working mom. As his story begins, Dr. Carson acknowledges that in his youth he did poorly in school, but through the help of his mother and other kind souls in his path, he was able to become the man and professional he is today. Think Big is more than an autobiography, it's a book about achievement. If you don't know how to succeed or know if you're headed in the right direction, Think Big helps put any doubts you may have to rest.

Most striking and infectious is Dr. Carson's regard for books. He believes, as experience has shown him, that through books, one's imagination sparks and one's ability to relate others soars. The book is like a catalyst for change.

In my own reading, I was inspired to re-evaluate my interests through Dr. Carson's writings about the significance of in-depth learning. As a professional, I understand the significance of keeping up with trends or a hobbiest keeping up with new toys. Yet something different happens when we make the decision to immerse ourselves in a subject. Whether it be in accounting, literature, stamp collecting, or volleyball, your mind and attitude are different when you approach them with more than just a cursory reading, more than a "just enough to do my job" or "take this test" sort of attitude.

Think Big is part biography, part advice, part medicine, and it is excellent preparatory reading for college-bound seniors and undergraduate pre-meds. Yet, it is also part drama and entirely true, which makes it fair reading for any person young or older who wishes to learn about passion, learning, and determination from someone who has experienced it all.