I'm A Rambling Man...

So, we've reached one of those days when I have a bunch of random observations but none are large enough to deserve their own post. As such I'm just going to throw them out there to get them out of my system...;

-I went to the Deutsche Bank Championship Pro-Am this afternoon (pictures coming tomorrow). I love this event but I continue to think the parking situation is horrendous. You park over at the Comcast Center and get shuttled over, which would be fine except the shuttle doesn't drop you particularly close to the course. It really only takes you about 90% of the way there and you walk the remaining quarter mile to the course. Considering these buses use a lot of gas it seems kind of wasteful. Still, despite not being happy to be on the bus I still felt the need to thank the bus driver as I was stepping off. I don't know why I do this but I involuntarily feel the need to thank whomever is in charge of the public transportation I am on (bus drivers, pilots, MBTA operators). It is like it has somehow become engrained in my brain, which is strange because I never had to take the bus whenever I was going to school. Perhaps this is the problem - you only have so many thank you's for this kind of situation and I have a surplus of them in storage. I know this much, if any other person was supposed to drive me somewhere and left me a healthy walk from my final destination they would not be getting a thank you from me.

-The golf tournament does offer another parking solution, one in which you pay extra and a smaller shuttle drops you much closer to where you want to be. There is just one problem with this concept - you have to buy it beforehand and since I don't want to buy my tickets until I see the weather, I don't leave myself enough time to do so. I really get annoyed at myself when I forget to do something until I am in the middle of doing it the next time and this tournament is also a great reminder that I really want to get a better digital camera because my current one is rather annoying. I don't take a lot of pictures (this golf tournament represents the most pictures I will take in one day all year) but when I do I want them to be really nice and that just doesn't happen when you can't zoom in. As you would expect for all the merchandise the TPC Boston has to offer, the pro shop does not have an electronics department, which I have to say feels like a missed opportunity. I have a hard time believing I am the only person who went this afternoon who wanted a new camera. The tournament has several merchandise booths around the grounds I think a high-end camera company would do some really good business. Judging from the fact that there were no people in their booth when I walked by I can guarantee they would do no worse than the "Celebrity Cruise" people who were in attendance.

-As we were getting off the bus the kid in the aisle across from me nearly hit his head on the compartment above him. Turning to his girlfriend he remarked, "Tall people problems" and gave me a knowing look, as if we were comrades in a common fight. However, he then stepped into the aisle in front of me, which was when I noticed he was about 5'9". I'm sorry, but that is just not tall enough to complain about how tall you are. I understand it is above the national average for height, but unless you are touching at least 6' I do not want to hear how much of your life is spent ducking. Besides, when you are actually tall you learn how to watch out for objects near your head by the time you are 20. (At this point I duck going through any opening out of habit.) Thus, the fact that this kid nearly gave himself a concussion is actually proof he doesn't know what a real tall person problem actually is. I was thinking this as I walked away from the bus when, almost as if the universe wanted to prove my point to this kid, it started to drizzle and the woman walking next to me, totally in her own little world, opened her umbrella and nearly poked out my eye. That, my friend, is a real tall people problem. What you experienced was design flaw.

-Other than the weather and the constant threat of catching an umbrella in the retina, the only thing wrong with the day was that many of the marshalls at this tournament appeared to be in a foul mood, which I did not get. Sure, plenty of them were nice and chatty but almost as many didn't appear to want to be there and took it out of patrons by appearing to attempt to ruin many photo opportunities on purpose, which is insane when you remember that not only did they volunteer for this assignment, they paid for the opportunity to do so. It is one thing to get annoyed at work because people can't always control where they work and frustration is natural. But these people are using vacation time to do this, so you would expect them to be happy with their decisions. I mean, I can understand where they are coming from - having worked at a stadium for years I know better than most how maddening it can be to spend all week setting things up only to have the general public show up and do whatever the hell they want but some of these volunteers have been doing this for years - they can't exactly be surprised. But regardless of that, my main takeaway from their body language was, for roughly the 1825th consecutive day, to be happy I no longer work at a football stadium.

-On a totally unrelated note, my family is having a barbecue this weekend and in anticipation of that my mom bought some lobsters to make an extremely fresh seafood salad. They were cooking them tonight and it got me thinking - if cows were that small do you think that is how we would have to eat meat? Think about all the work you have to do to get even a small amount of lobster meat (and when you think about how much inedible stuff comes with it you are better off just paying extra for cooked lobster meat) - why are we willing to put up with it there but not for hamburgers? I have to think it is because the task of killing, skinning and cooking a cow is rather daunting but boiling, cracking and then pulling apart and lobster has just as many steps, only due to the small size of lobsters it is less labor-intensive. If cows were the size of footballs would we eat more or less meat than we currently do? I say less because not only would it be far too messy but burgers would have to be so much smaller and not worth the effort. I think the big moral of this story is just to not think too much about the food we eat because it will mess with your mind if you let it. And, no, to answer your question - I am not high right now.