April 14th, 2008  A Monday

I woke up feeling kind of blue today.  The first thing you think of is "oh, well, it's Monday".  But that doesn't really apply to me.  I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn, get dressed, skip breakfast, stop at Starbuck's for a latte (more calories than breakfast), fight 47 minutes of crawling traffic while listening to Howard Stern to get to my office cubicle and face eight blinding hours of mind numbing work I don't care about.  (I didn't really mean that but I got going with that stereotypical image of the American worker and couldn't stop myself!  I am sure some people do meaningful work with integrity at their cubicles each day and don't listen to Howard Stern either.  Sorry if you are one of them.)   

No, there was no explaining why I am feeling so blue.  So I look to others for inspiration.  Take young Brandt Snedeker.  He looks the part.  Blond curly hair, a constant smile on his boyish face and a hell of a golf swing.  He played in the final pairing in the Masters on both weekend days, a feat in itself at the age of late twenty-something.  He was acting like it was just really cool to be out there playing golf at Augusta.  Sort of like any of us might feel if we had quite suddenly been plopped right into the middle of our lifelong dream.  Sunday at the Masters in the final pairing.  He just kept grinning while everyone else was sweating.  Even when he made shots that finally put him out of the running while his playing partner went on to win.  I was clinging to his amazing spirit until I read in the paper that he broke down and cried in his press conference saying how tough it was to get that close and come up short.  Well now, that is confusing.  Is he happy or not?  Was it enough to just get to be in that awesome moment for the first time and actually be wise enough to enjoy it, or not?  Or is it all about winning anyway?

Tiger might give us some insight.  You know how when he is winning and in command and can do no wrong and the whole world is with him, he smiles that million dollar smile and seems to be fully in the moment (even though that is a moment that hardly anyone else on the planet can relate to)?  You probably know by now that he finished second, a few strokes back, even though he didn't play well at all by his own high standards.  And he was really cranky out there, let me tell you that.  At first I was sympathetic, knowing how very disappointed he probably was after he posted on his website that the Major Grand Slam was definitely a realistic goal.  (Now he says maybe it wasn't that smart to say that since he didn't even win the first one of the season).  Yes, I was fine until the Dutchman, knowing Tiger was 6 strokes back on the weekend, offered me a 20-1 bet.  He explained that meant that if Tiger won, I got 20 bucks and if he didn't, I only owed a dollar.  I enthusiastically took that bet knowing that Tiger could still pull it off (as a believer).  It was only then that I stopped being sympathetic and lost my personality just like Tiger.  I was yelling at him for missing putts and calling him names and complaining about how he was letting his emotions get in the way.  So I leave you to figure out that lesson but a hint is that both Tiger and I brought that on ourselves.  (But just think how happy we would have been if he had pulled it off.  Gosh, this sounds like the mindset of a compulsive gambler.  I saw a Lifetime movie about teenage gambling on Saturday morning.  I better move on.)

And one more thing.  After I had lost my sunny disposition as Tiger failed time and again to capitalize on opportunities for a dramatic comeback, I was inundated with those Exxon Mobil commercials narrated by Phil Mickelson about how he and his wife, Amy, had founded a math and science teaching organization because if we teach our kids math and science they can do almost anything.  That was the last straw.  Is the study of math and science going to make a new generation of prima ballerinas, or playwrights, or filmmakers, or poets or writers?  Or are those things in the "almost" category such as the few little things that math and science students cannot do?  I am really mad at Philly for saying that but will refrain from further commentary on him personally such as... well, never mind. 

So all this still leaves me blue and even a little pissed right now actually.  So I have decided that this very morning, I am going to "choose" to be happy.  After all, the sun is shining, I have my health, my little family loves me, I have my own blog, and life is good.  I cannot believe I just said that.  I'M IN A BAD MOOD.  You got a problem with that?

GR