Saturday, October 09, 2004
Friday Night Lights!?!?!?
Well, I just returned from the movie theatre with my girlfriend. We went to see Friday Night Lights. Awesome movie. It really took me back to the good old days of High School football...
If you remember from my "bio," I'm originally from a small town in West Texas. Yes, both words should be capitalized because West Texas isn't really part of Texas - hell, it's just barely a part of the United States. If you're from West Texas, you know what I mean. Everything is different out there. There are no towns of 1/2 million; 100k is about as big as you get until you reach El Paso (which, disputably, is part of Mexico). From the day young boys enter kindergarten they are indoctrinated into the ways of West Texas Football. There is no sportsmanship, there is no U.I.L. rules, there is only winning. At any price.
I remember 2-a-days. What I remember most was dreading it for the 2 weeks prior to August, hating it while enduring it and being so very relieved when it was over. I really don't know how we survived those all-day practices in the 100+ degree West Texas heat, but we did. I compare it to the brainwashing a group of recruits endures during basic training - isolated from humanity, your family, humiliated, broken down, and finally rebuilt as a single fighting machine - your troop, your team. That is the only way I can describe the punishment, the pain, and the suffering we went through. By the time 2-a-days was over, we were ready to eat the other teams alive if we had to.
I think of those times with fondness. It really sucked while I was living it, but, in retrospect, they really were some of the best times in my life. There's just something about laying a good hit on a running back or quarterback that you never forget. It's a craving - once you've had it, you want more. And you can't rest until you get it again.
Damn, I miss football.
We had a different kind of "Friday Night Lights" the other night. My girlfriend and I had gone out for a friday night on the town. We spent about 5 hours at Dave & Busters - it was my first time there, so I had to explore everything. We played games until my eyes, my arms and my wallet hurt from buying so many damn tokens. Afterwards, we contemplated going to a movie, but declined since it was after 1030pm and we had about an hour drive back to our home-town.
As we were driving home, my GF snoozing lightly in the front passenger seat, I cruising easily along with traffic, I noticed a pair of headlights weaving erratically in and out of traffic behind us. They were travelling at least 95mph down the highway, cutting in and out between cars - often barely avoiding hitting other vehicles in the process. As the headlights came closer and closer to my tail-end, I looked for a place to bail out of the lane, but there was nowhere to go. I had a small car on my right rear-quarter-panel, an SUV about 1/2 car lengths in front of me on the right, and a cement barrier on my left. Instead, I held my course, woke my GF, and hoped we didn't die when I got rear-ended.
What happened instead was like a medical student's dream (especially one interested in Emergency Medicine).
As the headlights flew up behind us, I saw them lurch to the right and a grey Jeep Grand Cherokee (JGC) flew by me, almost clipping my rear end. How it didn't hit the car at my rear quarter-panel, I don't know. Maybe there was a bit more space there than I thought - I'd lost track of that car by now. As the JGC went to the right and by me, he overcorrected back to the left, causing his car to careen out of control. The vehicle ended up perpendicular to the flow of traffic, sliding down the highway and still coming to the left (i.e., toward my car). I had already slammed on my brakes and hit the horn by this time. The JGC continued in its leftward/forward direction, going up on 2 wheels and slamming into the cement barrier.
As if that weren't enough, the JGC then went into a 1-1/2 rollover, ending up on its top and spewing sparks as it slid forward and to the right, back into traffic. How this JGC didn't hit a ton of cars, I seriously don't know. Fortunately, the JGC was the only vehicle involved in the wreck.
Anyways, I had stopped by this time, killed my car, turned on the emergency flashers and began running toward the overturned vehicle thinking (somewhat morbidly), "Oh let there be blood, let there be blood." Does this make me a bad person? Am I something of a monster if I crave blood and maiming like I crave a crushing blindsided blow to a quarterback? Perhaps, but it's what keeps me ticking.
When I got up to the car, my GF was already there (she didn't have to mess with the ignition or the emergency flashers, so she got a headstart). There were beer bottles everywhere and the whole scene smelled like alcohol. The driver (the only passenger in the JGC) had already crawled out the passenger side window, since the driver-side window and the windshield were completely crushed. We ran over to the other side of the JGC and found the driver very drunk, and mostly unscathed (dammit). He was very nonchalantly explaining to us (and everyone else that had stopped) that he was not drunk and that he, in fact, was "awwright." He repeatedly refused to sit down on the side of the road and even let us look him over. Instead, he was hell-bent on staggering back out into traffic to look at his precious pile of scrap metal that was taking up 3 lanes of traffic. BTW, it also happened to be blaring Beastie-Boys "You Gotta Fight!" How apropos when the police, fire, and ambulance crews arrived a few minutes later.
After a few more minutes, we were all cleared to leave, awed not only by the fact that this guy hadn't killed himself, but that somehow, despite the fact that traffic was pretty heavy at the time, he had managed not to take anyone else with him (or send anyone else in his stead, if you want to look at it that way). The truly scary thing is, my GF and I would have probably been the first to go, since he was less than 10 feet from the front of my car when all this happened.
Thank God for small miracles, huh?
Ok, enough for now. I hope you all make your own Friday Night Lights, keep the faith, go after your dreams, and believe in yourselves.
Good night. ¶ 9:18 PM
If you remember from my "bio," I'm originally from a small town in West Texas. Yes, both words should be capitalized because West Texas isn't really part of Texas - hell, it's just barely a part of the United States. If you're from West Texas, you know what I mean. Everything is different out there. There are no towns of 1/2 million; 100k is about as big as you get until you reach El Paso (which, disputably, is part of Mexico). From the day young boys enter kindergarten they are indoctrinated into the ways of West Texas Football. There is no sportsmanship, there is no U.I.L. rules, there is only winning. At any price.
I remember 2-a-days. What I remember most was dreading it for the 2 weeks prior to August, hating it while enduring it and being so very relieved when it was over. I really don't know how we survived those all-day practices in the 100+ degree West Texas heat, but we did. I compare it to the brainwashing a group of recruits endures during basic training - isolated from humanity, your family, humiliated, broken down, and finally rebuilt as a single fighting machine - your troop, your team. That is the only way I can describe the punishment, the pain, and the suffering we went through. By the time 2-a-days was over, we were ready to eat the other teams alive if we had to.
I think of those times with fondness. It really sucked while I was living it, but, in retrospect, they really were some of the best times in my life. There's just something about laying a good hit on a running back or quarterback that you never forget. It's a craving - once you've had it, you want more. And you can't rest until you get it again.
Damn, I miss football.
We had a different kind of "Friday Night Lights" the other night. My girlfriend and I had gone out for a friday night on the town. We spent about 5 hours at Dave & Busters - it was my first time there, so I had to explore everything. We played games until my eyes, my arms and my wallet hurt from buying so many damn tokens. Afterwards, we contemplated going to a movie, but declined since it was after 1030pm and we had about an hour drive back to our home-town.
As we were driving home, my GF snoozing lightly in the front passenger seat, I cruising easily along with traffic, I noticed a pair of headlights weaving erratically in and out of traffic behind us. They were travelling at least 95mph down the highway, cutting in and out between cars - often barely avoiding hitting other vehicles in the process. As the headlights came closer and closer to my tail-end, I looked for a place to bail out of the lane, but there was nowhere to go. I had a small car on my right rear-quarter-panel, an SUV about 1/2 car lengths in front of me on the right, and a cement barrier on my left. Instead, I held my course, woke my GF, and hoped we didn't die when I got rear-ended.
What happened instead was like a medical student's dream (especially one interested in Emergency Medicine).
As the headlights flew up behind us, I saw them lurch to the right and a grey Jeep Grand Cherokee (JGC) flew by me, almost clipping my rear end. How it didn't hit the car at my rear quarter-panel, I don't know. Maybe there was a bit more space there than I thought - I'd lost track of that car by now. As the JGC went to the right and by me, he overcorrected back to the left, causing his car to careen out of control. The vehicle ended up perpendicular to the flow of traffic, sliding down the highway and still coming to the left (i.e., toward my car). I had already slammed on my brakes and hit the horn by this time. The JGC continued in its leftward/forward direction, going up on 2 wheels and slamming into the cement barrier.
As if that weren't enough, the JGC then went into a 1-1/2 rollover, ending up on its top and spewing sparks as it slid forward and to the right, back into traffic. How this JGC didn't hit a ton of cars, I seriously don't know. Fortunately, the JGC was the only vehicle involved in the wreck.
Anyways, I had stopped by this time, killed my car, turned on the emergency flashers and began running toward the overturned vehicle thinking (somewhat morbidly), "Oh let there be blood, let there be blood." Does this make me a bad person? Am I something of a monster if I crave blood and maiming like I crave a crushing blindsided blow to a quarterback? Perhaps, but it's what keeps me ticking.
When I got up to the car, my GF was already there (she didn't have to mess with the ignition or the emergency flashers, so she got a headstart). There were beer bottles everywhere and the whole scene smelled like alcohol. The driver (the only passenger in the JGC) had already crawled out the passenger side window, since the driver-side window and the windshield were completely crushed. We ran over to the other side of the JGC and found the driver very drunk, and mostly unscathed (dammit). He was very nonchalantly explaining to us (and everyone else that had stopped) that he was not drunk and that he, in fact, was "awwright." He repeatedly refused to sit down on the side of the road and even let us look him over. Instead, he was hell-bent on staggering back out into traffic to look at his precious pile of scrap metal that was taking up 3 lanes of traffic. BTW, it also happened to be blaring Beastie-Boys "You Gotta Fight!" How apropos when the police, fire, and ambulance crews arrived a few minutes later.
After a few more minutes, we were all cleared to leave, awed not only by the fact that this guy hadn't killed himself, but that somehow, despite the fact that traffic was pretty heavy at the time, he had managed not to take anyone else with him (or send anyone else in his stead, if you want to look at it that way). The truly scary thing is, my GF and I would have probably been the first to go, since he was less than 10 feet from the front of my car when all this happened.
Thank God for small miracles, huh?
Ok, enough for now. I hope you all make your own Friday Night Lights, keep the faith, go after your dreams, and believe in yourselves.
Good night. ¶ 9:18 PM
