A Dab'll Do Ya

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It's easy to look back at a situation in your past and consider how you would have handled it differently. Hopefully by the time you hit the ripe old age of 40 like me, you've accumulated some wisdom. Not a lot, but some. I think we can all look back on our high school days and think of how we could have done things better. A former high school classmate of mine from my Washington state days, Andy Monko, posted a funny clip of a spoken word/comedy bit he did on the YouTubes. Specifically, as his description says, it details "Andrew Monko's debut reading of cringy teenage writing: his letter to a girl after their first date (his first ever) wherein he used Def Leppard lyrics to apologetically explain his lack of 'action.'" Funny stuff. He invoked the lyrics of the Def Leppard song "Action! Not Words" from the classic Pyromania album.

Watching it reminded me of some of my own high school dating mishaps, including the elaborate idea I had to serenade my girlfriend. It was back in the spring of '84. She was my first girlfriend and I was head over heels because, frankly, I didn't know any better. The relationship didn't last very long; she dumped me only days before the junior prom. But during the time when things were good, I had hatched this scheme to take her out in our rowboat on the pond behind our house in lovely Kingston, NH, and serenade with a rendition of Van Halen's "Little Guitars," which I thought was both romantic and pretty frickin' cool. I was taking guitar lessons at the time, so I figured I could learn it and that that summer, I could bring my acoustic out with us and sing the song to her. And then she would, like, totally swoon and think I was the greatest and pledge her eternal love to me. I mean, this wasn't some sappy-ass love song, it was VH. But alas, it wasn't to be, what with the dumping and all that. Ah, the best-laid plans of mice and teenage dorks. It's just as well. I probably would have dropped my guitar in the drink or tipped the boat over or something.

Take me to the bridge:

• It has been unusually warm this week, with temps getting up to 65 on Tuesday. I took advantage of it and ran outside in shorts all week. Gotta love it. The cold weather will return right in time for me to start training for New Jersey next week.
• On Tuesday, I went to the Bruins-Carolina game with my buddy Bob after scoring some sweet free tickets from a friend of Deb's who got them after volunteering at the Bruins Wives Carnival last weekend. It was kind of a lackluster game with the B's losing 1-0, but when you have fourth-row seats, even standard hits against the glass are exciting.
• Tuesday was also the New Hampshire primary and going into it, all the pollsters were predicting a decisive win for Obama. So what happens? Hillary knocks him off, which analysts now say was partly due to voter sympathy over the beating she had been taking in the press and from the other candidates. It was still a pretty narrow victory, so it's certainly not over yet. As for the Republicans, John McCain coasted to a win over Mitt Romney, with Iowa victor Mike Huckabee trailing far behind. Should be an interesting next few weeks until Super Duper Tuesday (yes, that's what they're calling it) on February 5.
• Well, I'm off to watch some of the Leafs-Kings game. They've been absolutely horrendous lately and the stories are flying that they need to think about trading captain Mats Sundin. He's arguably the greatest Leaf ever, but the team's in such a mess that I agree that it's in the team's best interests to deal him for prospects and begin the rebuilding process. He has to waive his no-trade clause and he has said he wants to stay, but they're going nowhere and he's the most valuable asset they have. It's just going to get uglier with that team, I'm afraid.