I'm going to win the lottery

Hi there!

I am back in the sky writing to this blog again. I feel like I have done this a good amount of times, and it makes sense because up here I have a chance to sit and not be distracted by other things - except, of course for the inflight CDs and trivia games (I just came in second, if I had known that Kevin Richardson was a Backstreet boy I would've won, darn you K-Rich!).

Speaking of Rich... While I was in a cab on the way to the airport I was texting back and forth with Uncle Tom who informed me that Rich Rod was out as UMich head coach - something that really startled me. I'm a little uneasy about the whole situation to be honest. First off, I don't like when people bow to pressure -obviously there was a lot of pressure on the Dave Brandon and the athletic department up there to let him go, but I really thought they were going to give him one more year. And when you think about it, he has probably earned it - there was been improvement every year and our offense was ranked number 6 in the NCAA by the end of the season. Don't get me wrong, it was padded by our incredible stats at the beginning of the season, but you can't argue with that kind of success - something was going right.

At the same time though, something was obviously going wrong. Disgusting defense - something Michigan (and Big Ten) fans will not tolerate - as well as consecutive losses to our biggest rivals, and a Josh Groban breakdown did not help Mr. Rodriguez's cause. All in all when I think about it, it's a wash to me, but I sure hope they know what they are doing up there.

Enough about that, where am I?!? Well, as I said, I am in the air. I am not quite sure where - somewhere over the heartland on my way from New York to San Diego. The flight map is telling me it is 11:30am and I am 30 minutes from my final destination which I know to be completely false - that is, unless my flight is only an hour long and California has managed to change time zones since I stepped on the plane. This example really highlights a pretty useful rule of thumb when traveling: always trust your instincts. You're usually right. And though there are plenty of morons out there, if you are reading this you automatically don't fall into that category.

Why on earth are you going to San Diego, Steve? Well, I am going to the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting to show a bunch of librarians how awesome Tutor. com is, of course. Also, it is warm and sunny there. Any more brain busters?

Seeing as I am on a long flight, I am going to make this a mega-post and bring my discussion back to New York. Sunday I had the opportunity to have an "only in New York" moment. Sarah and I were heading up to Harlem to meet up with a friend for a jazz concert when hunger struck us. We weren't familiar with the area, but we knew a pizza place would be just around the corner and sure enough there one was. We hopped a cab and were dropped off at an apartment complex deep in Harlem. After ringing the doorbell for the apartment number, we were buzzed in and followed some clapping and tunes up the stairs to apartment 3F where an elderly black woman by the name of Marjorie Eliot welcomed us into her small little apartment filled with chairs and jazz enthusiasts. Apparently Ms. Eliot has been inviting strangers into her home every Sunday for the last umpteen years to "chill" and enjoy some music while celebrating the history of the genre. Sunday's celebration was in honor of a man by the name of Billy Taylor and stories were shared about his life and music was played from his inspiration. While the musicians were quite obviously amateurs (apart, of course, from the lovely Ms. Eliot on the keys) it was a very different and cool experience to have. Mark that one down.

It's pretty wild to know that stuff like that happens all across the city and I probably walk by it every single day. When walking through the city you can't help but have delusions of grandeur, which brings me to the title of this post: I am going to win the lottery. Yesterday I was having a series of extremely lucky events take place in and around my life and so I made it a point to buy a lottery ticket - the jackpot is up to a cool $280 million. If I win, and you read this, post a comment and I'll buy you something sweet.

Ok that's all for now. Catch you lata.

Stevo