Thoughts in a Skitoliv World

I am almost done! The past two years of my life, I have devoted to obtaining my MBA from the University of Delaware. I graduate on May 27th, the last day of classes is the 17th, my last presentation will be on the 22nd, and then I am done. It is high time. I have dealt with everything that the school has thrown at me; crazy teachers, ridiculous projects, the case competition, I have seen it all. I can truly see the light at the end of the tunnel and boy am I glad.

The problem that I am facing, deals with keeping my focus for these last days. I have papers and projects and finals all ahead of me, and I am sliding into old habits of not caring. During my time in grad school I have been overtly focused on everything that needs to be done. This has translated into exceptional performance in classes and the correponding good grades. I have to find a way to just get it done for another 3 weeks and then it will all be over. The main difficulty being that I find everything so trivial now, and I feel like the teachers and administration are trying to throw every last little bit of work they can think of at us before we leave.

I have truly enjoyed my time in school, I feel I have learned more than I think I did, I have met some truly great people, whose friendship these past years has meant an awful lot to me. I just want these next few weeks done and behind me.

My friend Kali is marrying a very nice man maned Andy next week. I wish the two of them all the joy and happiness in the world. Lauren and I will be heading to the nuptials up in Philadelphia and I am sure it will be a rockin’ good time.

I have this one problem with going to weddings, buying a gift. I am never really sure what to get people for a wedding. Then again, I am never sure what to get anyone for a present. Yet, a wedding is the worst as people have "The Registry". I am sure that at some point, the registry was a great way of guiding people towards a gift that would help the young couple with starting their lives together. Now I am not so sure. Several weddings I have attended have had extremely ostentatious items on the registry, while others, it would appear the people were not sure what they wanted from their guests and ask for things like mixing bowls.

Another issue i have with the registry, I am not sure that buying someone a waffle iron really sums up the joy and happiness you feel towards the couple starting out their lives. I stare at the registry and actually find myself thinking, "Hm, which sums up how i feel about this marriage, a salt and pepper shaker set or some wine glasses." I was actually thinking this while trying to figure out what to buy Kali and Andy. Somehow I did not think saying, "I am so happy for you, here are some towels," really captured the love I have for the couple.

Well whatever, I hope they like the salad spinner I got them, off of the registry, as I am out of time and ideas

Tuesday afternoon has become one of my favorite times of the week. On Tuesday I have my least favorite class, Corporate Strategy, from 230-5pm. My professor, to say the least, is way out there. He really does believe in what he is saying, which is a good thing, but when you are asking "what is the answer?" and your students are sitting there wondering what the question was, you might want to adjust your teaching methodology. The one good part of the class, is that Kali, Alex, Steph, Crystelle, and Horatiu are in there to keep me sane.

After class we go to the Deer Park for dinner. Tuesday is the best day at the Deer Park as it is 1/2 price cheesburger night. When you can go there and get a $1.50 Yuengling and a $3 burger you know that your day is going to be good. Not only that but the constant chatter from the Mad Transylvanian is priceless. The other good thing about Tuesday at 5 o’clock is that is a full week until we have to sit through Corporate Strategy again, plus a few $1.50 Yuenglings are enough to make anyone forget about class and any other troubles for that matter.

Most people of my generation have one remeberance of baseball, and that is the strike that cancelled the 1994 Wold Series. I am a huge baseball fan and was absolutely crushed by this turn of events. I could not believe that the owners and players would let their fight over the millions of dollars in revenue that MLB generates come to that. Most guys can go backwards and name the World Series Champions of the past few years, now, whenever you get back to 1994, there will always be the answer of there was no champion due to greed.

Baseball will now have an even bigger image problem to deal with, the image of their players as steroid freaks second only to the WWE. Baseball in this era will always be questioned by so called experts, and by people longing for "the good -old days". Well, I hate to break it to you but thoise days are long gone and mean absolutely nothing to the youth of today. I respect the players of the past, but I never saw them play. So Aaron’s record has as little meaning to me as someone who grew up watching Aaron’s record chase. Records when you think about them, are completely meaningless, I suppose they are kept for some sort of comparison between the years, but to me it does not really matter who the Home Run Champion is. Barry " Mr. Beef Steroid (allegedly) " Bonds will eventually be the home run champion, but it does not matter to me or to anyone outside of him. To many people but such emphasis on these records, like they are important in the grand scheme of life and the sport. Does no longer being the home run champion diminish what Aaron did? Does it make him any less of a great player? No, it does not.

MLB Predictions:

AL East - NY Yankees - It pains me to pick them, but they have spent the most money on it. Until the Sox or the Torontos take them out, they will be the champs of the East again. Hopefully the Sox stay healthy and push them till the end.

AL Central - Chicago White Sox - Too much pitching and lineup depth. Cleveland will give them a good run, but can you really pick a team that has only one knock-out pitcher in Sabithia. Minnesotta stil does not have enough bats. Do the other teams really really matter?

AL West - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim close to Newport Beach and adjacent to Santa Barbra - Oakland is the trendy pick here but they have Milton Bradley on their team and he is just poison. Texas still has no pitching and until the Delluci trade had more outfielders than all other teams put together. What in the world has happened to Seattle? A few years back they won 112 games.

Wild Card  - Boston Red Sox - More of a hope than anything else. Lots of If’s but if all the pieces stay together, than they will win going away. Cleveland and Oaklnad will be in the mix here.

NL East - Atlanta Braves - Until they lose how can you not pick them? The Mets have no pitching past a fragile Pedro and the fading Tom Glavine. Their lineup could be lethal, but they stil look lie a rotisseie team. The Phillies need all their pitching to outperform expectaions and Chase Utley and Ryan Howard need to continue to perfrom at their high level.

NL Central - St. Louis - too deep not to pick them. Houston needs the Rocket to come back to make a serious run. The Cubs need a healthy Wood and Prior, but we all know that is never going to happen. Milwaukee is too young and Ben Sheets can not stay healthy, maybe next year.

NL West - San Diego Padres - Does not really matter, as whoever wins this division will get killed by the Cardinals in the playoffs. Los Angeles just does not appear to be that good to me, San Fran has to hope Captain Beef-roid stays healthy and their old stars do not break down as the season goes on. Colorado still plays in Colorado so they will score tons of runs but destroy the confidence of their young pitchers.

Wild Card - NY Mets - They should have enough to get here. The Phillies and Houston and the Dodgers should be contending.

Playoffs:

Los Angeles over Yankees                Cardinals over Mets

Red Sox over White Sox                 San Diego over Braves

Los Angeles over Red Sox               Cardinals over Padres

World Series:

Cardinals over Los Angeles