Spring Broke

So its Monday, and that means that most people are heading back to school today because it is the first day of the spring term. I am not most people. I have scheduled my classes so that they are both on tuesday and thursday, and that means that I have four day weekends every week and that I don't have to make my first campus appearance until tomorrow. Today I will probably sit at home, maybe watch Battlestar Gallatica. I have been feeling sickly the last few days. So much so that I skipped out on a highly anticipated trip down into the bowels of the Willamette Valley. As much as I love Portland, it is sometimes nice to get out and see other parts of the state once and a while. I will probably head down to Corvallis this weekend, to make up for missing it last weekend, but its unlikely that I will get all the way down to Eugene.

This is a big week for the Trail Blazers. The Phoenix Suns are showing signs of falling apart, losing to the Kings, which puts the Blazers only three wins away from the Playoffs. Portland could clinch a playoff spot as soon as next friday, if Phoenix continues to win. Since about mid season there has been a sense that Portland was going to be in the playoffs. They've been playing great basketball, and are unbeatable at home. The sense is, though, to not talk about the playoffs as a certintiy just yet. With half a season to go, and a young Blazer team, it made sense that there was a possibility that Portland's first half was a fluke. Now with less than a dozen games left its time to get pumped for the postseason. When Portland played Phoenix on TNT the other night, one of the anchors, Kenny Smith, said that Phoenix wasn't cashing Dallas, the last seed in the west, for the eighth spot in the playoffs, they were chasing the Blazers, seeded seventh when the game started. He cited Portland's youth and total lack of playoff experience as his reasonsing. I asked a few Blazer personel what their take on the situation was: is it better for us to shoot for the eighth spot in the playoffs, rooting for a suns loss against the denver nuggets that would put us one game closer, or shoot for winning the division, rooting for a suns win against the nuggets which would lift us to first in the division. All the Blazer folk said, Suns win us first in division. In Portland the attitude is that we are in the hunt for home court. National Portland gets no respect. The other day Michael Wilbon, a national sports talking head that I kind of like, was putting together his NBA playoff bracket. He had Portland as the eighth seed, saying that because they can't win on the road they will slip as the season closes. Right now Portland is fifth in the west with a road trip that they will at worst split 2-2 coming up. They are two game out of second place in the west. There is no way that Portland falls to the eighth seed, and there is even less way that Portland fails to make the playoffs. My favorite thing in the next few years will be listening to all the sports "analysts" bending over backwards to heap praise on the Trail Blazers. That and to see how crazy the city goes when they make the Playoffs.

I saw I Love You, Man yesterday. It was alright. I laughed. I think someone should do some research on how long it takes for a catch phrase from a commerical to become an acceptable movie title. I can't wait for the movie, Make Seven Up Yours. I can't tell you what to make it about, Judd Apatow, but I can guess that you and your crack team of Hollywood hit makers can come up with something borderline edgy and full of whimsical things like a dog named Anwar Sadat.

Rudy Fernandez from the Suns game that I had to watch on TV because I was sick. The first time I missed a home game that I was creditialed for. It was a sad day.