This is why towel flicking is in the NBA?

So out of nowhere this year, I’ve turned into a decent sized sports fan. Of course seeing as how the major team in my area is the Spurs, they have always had my heart. But this year it’s different. This year I find myself watching every game and post-game coverage there is. The one thing I’ve noticed and the one constant in every game is what I’m going to call “towel flicking.” I have no idea if this has another name or how long this has been around, but I find it completely hilarious.

To understand what towel flicking is, you have to watch the bench when the team makes a good play, as seen here:

I slowed it down a little so you could see it for what it is. At the end of the play, someone stands up and waves a towel. My brother claims this has been a thing since the 60s. I’m not sure if every team does it, because I frankly don’t care about other teams. All I know is it makes our team look super hood.

If you watch basketball, have you noticed it before? Really? It’s a serious question. Because all I want to know this week is why it’s a thing, how it got started, who started it, and what can I do to see more of it. Clearly it’s my favorite thing about basketball at this point, other than actually winning, so everyone please inform me. I have urgent questions and Google is doing nothing to help me find answers!

Sorry the blog is so short and pointless this week, but seeing as how basketball towel flickering is the only thing on my mind, no real blog will be written until I get answers! And one last thing: Go Spurs Go!

This is why Thanksgiving equals turkey candles

Thanksgiving has always been a fun holiday for me. I can’t remember ever having a bad one. There’s always been a lackluster Christmas or unsettling birthday, but Thanksgiving is different. Some people get together with a huge amount of family members and play football. Others choose not to acknowledge it at all. For me, it’s just my immediate family that has a late dinner. But we still choose to cook as though it was the whole 60-something cousins I have and their parents coming over.

The following short story may be just a smidge exaggerated or it may be completely true. I’m not sure. In my mind this is how I remember it though:

Every year, as mentioned, my mom makes this entire meal of every Thanksgiving food imaginable all by herself because no one can cook quite like my mom. When I was 3 or 4—the year escapes me—and my brother was 4 or 5 we were particularly hungry. For the first several Thanksgivings that I remember, my dad volunteered at a big Thanksgiving dinner for the less fortunate, so we would wait patiently until he came home around 6 to begin the festivities. This particular year, my brother and I weren’t so patient.

Being “so hungry I’m going to die” as I probably put it and smelling all the spices and recipes being concocted made for very antsy young Marie and young Aaron. It’s not like we weren’t fed throughout the day. It’s just that we weren’t being fed the beautiful meal my mom was cooking. Now this is where the details get fuzzy. Aaron was so hungry I think he was either hyper at the site of food or delirious as to what the food was. Either way, he picked up this really cute turkey candle my mom set out as a centerpiece. As he reached for his fork, I had an inkling of what was to come. He eyed the turkey candle then back to his fork. Without a moment’s hesitation he stabbed his fork right into the candle. I must have been the only one that saw because I don’t remember Aaron getting in trouble. But I was so worried he was going to get in trouble that I didn’t say anything either.

Years passed and we continued to use the turkey candle. We still have it and still have never actually put a flame to it. It still befuddles me that Aaron stabbed a turkey candle. It’s memories like these that make me love Thanksgiving. And that’s why I get so upset that Christmas has just turned into this massive conglomerate entity that absorbs the entire jest of Thanksgiving. Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas but I hate how Christmas has become another Hallmark Holiday. I’m sure most people feel this way, but I remember a time when companies would wait to air Christmas commercials until after Thanksgiving was observed.

So maybe let us take a minute and give thanks for the hilarious action of turkey candles being stabbed, because it’s been far too overlooked.

(Actual photo, fork marks still there)

This is why I at least have a good imagination

Lately, I’ve found that I am overly exaggerating everything. Maybe not directly to people, but I’ve been saying things in my head just to add drama. I typically hate drama and avoid it at all costs but I’ve been known to make up a story every now and then. When I was 7, I remember talking to the most popular girl in my class and trying to sound really cool to her. It was snack time and we were eating corn dogs. My mischievous 7 year-old mind thought it would be hilarious to watch her reaction when I told her that corn dogs were made out of real dogs. She must have been really stupid, or just really 7, because she bought it.

It sounds horrible of me to say, but I think I liked coming up with a story that someone else would believe. To many, this sounds like lying; and those people are correct. But I like to sugar coat it and think that I’m just creatively expressing my suppressed artist emotion. Just last week I had this envisioned episode where Romney actually won Ohio and the presidential race became tied. At the event of this tie, I imagined that the winner would be picked by those that voted third party and I would be that one vote that picked the winner.  I have no idea why that would be the outcome but it made watching the results so much more fun.

This past weekend I went to Houston to visit some family, I had to fight off any urges to suddenly bust out about how I was going to be the one swing voter that decided whether Romney or Obama was president and how I would pick neither and choose something really random such as a cactus to become our president. Speaking of changing the course of history, there’s an online petition that recently came out to have Texas secede. To build the drama, I yet again imagined this massive uprising Hunger Games style just to have the land zoned off.  I pictured having to join a side and being a part of a verbal army (not an actual army) which shouts witty things to the other side such as:

“We’re seceding because you like to wear leggings as pants!”

I haven’t decided if this is all a bad thing or not. It’s not necessarily bad because I’m actively using my imagination but it’s not necessarily a good thing because I am hyperbolizing way too much. At least I know I should use my powers for good and stop telling people fictitious lies. I promise to never tell someone corn dogs are made out of real dogs again. Maybe.

This is why movies make assumptions (also minor Election Day relief)

I was quite torn regarding what to write my blog post about. I know it’s Election Day and all and I had this post planned out about something from the constitution. But I never imagined that social media would just explode with negative feed back about voting. I am ashamed to see people getting mad at others expressing their right to vote. Shame. Other than that, I’m sick of the ad campaigns and ready for it to be over as well. So instead I chose to write some Election Day relief and do this instead:

Recently, I was watching the movie, Juno, for the umpteenth time. And I realized how poorly I felt for that girl in that part where it seems like she’s giving Juno the stink eye, but her face is just naturally like that. Her name escapes me; but the point is that I realized that we never get the perspective in movies from “the other girl (or guy),” and if we do it’s a movie that is set to be from the opposite perspective. And I don’t like that.

We’re expected to buy into the story of the protagonist—them being the protagonist and all—without evaluating the feelings of those around them. Maybe that poor-faced girl in Juno really liked Paulie, Michael Cera’s character. Maybe she really felt a connection and wanted to be with him. While granted Juno was pregnant, I don’t see any reason why she couldn’t have been with him, other than we were supposed to be rooting for Juno even though she was snarky and mean to Paulie.

Movies are always making assumptions like that but it doesn’t mean I like it. Perhaps some of us have been “the other girl (boy)” and it’s no picnic. It’s always a minor character, so we’re lead to believe that the main character won’t end up with them. But for once, I would like to see it happen. I doubt it ever would because RomComs seem to stick to a pretty strict format of goofy couple not getting along and then same goofy couple getting along by the end of the movie.

I used to think (okay let’s not lie, I still think this) that my life was like The Truman Show or some sort of movie and people in a distant land were just watching and laughing at me. If that is ever the case then I hope I’m giving a good show. So maybe there’s just a little sect of the “the other girls (guys)” in my movie. And that’s okay. Maybe we could all unite and be an awesome bunch and change the script. Maybe our “whole house [would] smell like soup.”