JP’s Rants

Wednesday is one of the few days that I do not have anything going on after work. My wife Helen is at class and Nick (stepson) is with his grandmother.  I can go home and get some housework done (yeeeessss), or I can grab some ice cream and watch some tivo.  I decided to expand my horizons and head up to the Hartford Stage for a play. 

   I headed over to my parent’s house and asked my mom if she wanted to go, but she had a touch of the flu, so I braved the journey solo.  I have never been up to the Hartford Stage, but the directions seemed easy enough.  I got there with time to spare, got my ticket and headed into the theater.  I was quite impressed with the interior, the lighting and set design was beautifully done. 

   The play I saw was called, “A Moon for the Misbegotten”. It was the last play written by the legendary Connecticut native Eugene O’Neill.  I had just read the play so it was fresh in my bean, and I was not let down in any way by the performances.  The cast really brought the characters to life, and the whole experience was one which I thoroughly enjoyed.

  The whole night made me realize how many great things are available to see within a short drive.  People constantly whine about Hartford and surrounding areas, that nothing is going on.  I use to be one of them, content to grab a six pack and watch mindless television during the week.  Here’s an idea; look in the paper, scour the internet, and get out and see things. I only wish I had this revelation ten years ago.  

  I look forward to going to the Hartford Stage again soon for other shows in the future.  I want to bring some friends and maybe get some others excited about the same things I saw. Then again, there is the pint of cherry garcia in the fridge…..   

Thanks to the help of a good friend, I am up and running with a blog of my own.  I had always heard of the concept, but never thought to set one up.  I am amazed at how popular these sites are, and after spending a bit of the day getting familiar with the different functions, I was ready to go.

  I had a few questions, but it was pretty easy to get the grasp of.  All of the sudden I saw links to other blogs of interest that Erik (somewhat good friend) had thrown on there.  I didn’t think that for the next couple of hours, I would be in a maze of blog after blog.  Between registering and checking out different sites, it is a world all its own.  You can upload music, update profiles.  I am sure anyone reading this thinks it no big deal and old news, but I was impressed.

   At any rate, this blog and network possibilities have me pretty upbeat on the day.  So much to do and no time to get it done.  I would write more, but there is another blog out in the cyberworld calling my name…

       Like many football fans, I purchased the NFL Sunday Ticket package for my satellite dish this past season.  I promised myself I would not do it again, not this year.  The package cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 dollars, because I had to have the HD super-fan pack thrown in for good measure. 
            As anyone that has this subscription knows, it makes it difficult to do simple tasks on Sunday that commercial bombarded programming allows.  When do you get up to go to the bathroom?  How do I maneuver to the kitchen to grab another bag of chips? It’s a blizzard out there, should I check on the dog? 
Another problem is trying to justify the dollars spent to your wife.  I try to make claims like, “Honey, it is 20 dollars a day if you divide it into the 16 weeks!” or, “ Hey, I could have spent 100 on a real game ticket and souvenirs”. I seem to be only fooling myself.  Is it a sad state of affairs to spend 1 pm-10pm on your couch watching football?  I blame technology and Sunday Ticket.
Another football season has come to a close, and I fully intend not to re-order my subscription.  I am finally going to clean the basement and perform odd jobs around the house on my Sunday’s next football season. Unless….