Why is that Mondays suck so much? It's really a new beginning to have a good week, but somehow the idea of returning to work or school after the weekend, which this weekend was a pretty good one.
Saturday night was my annual Jao Cousin Christmas party. This year it was at Eng & Jerry's house. I just found out that Jerry is the brother of someone I used to go to high school with. What a small world, right? Anyways, the party was fun as always and this time Jaz was with us. It is our yearly tradition the newly added significant others always have to do something that is kind of embarassing in front of the family, and this year was no different. As part of the Grab bag/White Elephant gift exchange, we had to perform a number dares based on the number of stars accompanied the number that you chose, Jaz got two, and she had to do one for mom as well. So she had to do an interpretive dance to sounds of Jingle Bells performed by the kids as well as a ballet number while singing Silent Night. She did great, and I even received a thumbs up from Dave during one of the performances. The night ended with my very drunk brother being hauled out of the house. Other than that, the night was fun as usual.
Sunday afternoon Jaz and I went to my old high school, Maine East, to watch the winter concert. We had to enter through the fieldhouse entrance since the parking lot that was next to the auditorium was packed. Since we had to go through the school I gave her a quick tour of the spots in Maine East. My old cheerleading and choir lockers as well as the hall that there was a girl fight and one of the girl's tatas popped out and the table I used to sit at in the cafeteria. Quite a few memories rushed back walking those halls again. We ran into Mr. & Mrs. Mangold at the front of the auditorium so I stopped and said hello to them. It was great seeing them, they always had such good things to say and had an AWESOME home. It was like they were on TV, always had treats and cookies and everything was always kept so nice. I miss those days. Jaz and I then proceeded to watch the concert. It wasn't as long as I remember them to be when I was in it 10 years ago. The band and orchestra were always the ones that overshadowed us in the choir, but not so much nowadays. The orchestra's horn section was a little off on timing, but the strings were beautiful as usual. You can tell when they enjoyed playing a piece because it just sounded so much better. The choir had the same problem that we had when I was there, not a lot of good singing guys. There were some, but not a lot. The soloists were quite good though...I'll definitely have to catch Bye Bye Birdie in the spring. I had a quick chance to talk to my old choir teacher Mr. Barnett. He's always been a good spirited person. I know he had to talk with all other students' parents and boosters, so we said our hellos, caught up quickly, and said good-bye. It was a fun showing Jaz my history...a part she had never seen before.
Mom and me at my wedding
Being down 3-0 to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Semifinals will probably be one of the biggest reality checks the Bulls organization will have gone through in the past couple years. I'm not saying that the ast few years have been a fluke for the Bulls, but in order to do some REAL damage in the NBA playoffs, they will need a little more than some end of game heroics from Ben Gordon. It's called, playing a FULL game of basketball. Even back in the Jamal Crawford years, the Bulls have been known to play only 3 quarters, sometimes even 2. And it's in those minutes where the Bulls basically collapse at the wayside and the opposing team can take advantage of them. We were lucky the past couple years with Ben Gordon coming off the bench and hitting game winners or scoring 14+ points in the final quarter. But is that what we want? Sure, it makes for a great highlight on Sportscenter, but I would much rather have won by 6-8 points consistently in each game. Games 1 and 2 vs. Detroit was disgusting. And in all honesty, I didn't even watch the 2nd half of either game, because there was no point. If the Bulls didn't show up to play, why should I wait and watch. The first half of Game 3 had some promise, the Bulls with a double digit lead at halftime. But apparently no one told them there was another 24 minutes of basketball after the Panda bowl flipping girl had finished her act. Now we are down 3-0, and as we heard in the Miami series, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series in the NBA playoffs. Could we be the first? Anything is possible, but not everything is probable. 49 wins and advancing to the 2nd round? I'll take it for now, but I'll want more later. Thanks, Bulls for another exciting season. 
I'll admit it, Jaz and I have been following The search for the next Pussycat Doll. The girl we were rooting for the whole time, an 18 year old Filipino girl named Melissa R. was not chosen to be the next Pussycat Doll. We were pretty pissed when they announced the other girl "Asia" to win the whole thing, but I guess it's okay because Melissa R. is a much better lead singer than one of the 6 backup dancers/singers of the Pussycat Dolls. So I guess that's ok. Hopefully we will hear lot more from Melissa and a lot less from Asia.
