Notre Lame v. UCLA (misspelling intentional)

So the Irish are proud of winning are they? Proud of their Jimmy Clausen from Oaks Christian High School in Thousand Oaks who came to his home in southern California to "win" against UCLA...my dad's virtual neighbor in yesteryear now carrying the Irish torch. Oh Jimmy, how nice for you, croons the LA Times, to get a win in your home town.

Well, yeah, sure. But let's not forget who he was playing to get that win:

This time, Notre Dame (1-5) knocked UCLA quarterback Ben Olson out with a knee injury late in the first quarter, then hounded freshman redshirt McLeod Bethel-Thompson into a string of mistakes.

A walk-on pressed into the backup role for UCLA (4-2, 3-0 Pac-10) because of an injury to Patrick Cowan, Bethel-Thompson had not thrown a pass in a college game.

The Irish picked off four of his throws, with Crum getting two of them. He also recovered the quarterback's fumble and ran it in for a touchdown.

Even I know that third string QBs who haven't ever thrown a pass in a college game are likely to be easier to overcome than University of Michigan's back up for Henne. So yeah. Every time the Bruins fumbled or Bethel-Thompson threw an interception, sure the ND squad got a chance.

And they might as well feel good about finally converting those into points. But let's not crown Clausen king just yet. ND still has a long way to go to be anything worth more than a chuckle.

The Bruins, however, look pathetic and shouldn't. They were supposed to be a top 25 team this season. They have to face the rest of the fall with a third string QB whose first game was appallingly bad. Or in the words of Colin Cowherd, "Unwatchable."

Actually, we witnessed utterly unwatchable football on both sides of the ball. I have not watched a worse game of football that I can remember. The pee wee Trojans and Bruins at halftime (made up of 7-8 year old boys) injected more excitement into the stadium than all four quarters combined of the big game.

My buddy Steve Norris (who hosted me on the first night of the trip to LA) sat in the opposing end zone. What kept both of us in quasi-good moods? Texting. We leveled creative critiques at our beloved Bruins for 3/4 of the game.

It might have been tolerable to be at the worst game of the season if I hadn't been seated in the Notre Dame section. Oh the pathos! I used to root for ND before my undergraduate days. And there I was again, with my dad and two Erins (my sister and step-sister have the same name - the cruel irony). The Erins are not football fans. They asked questions like, "If the Irish are in the lead halfway through the fourth quarter, can we leave early?" Are you kidding me? How far is Ohio from LA? Why did I come?

Still, they were thrilled with the Irish victory and enthused, "We were your good luck charms!" to my Dad. They turned to me, "It's much better that Dad's team won. He deserves it and you won't mind as much." What the $#**%&#$@? Can I just admit here to my intimate crowd of cyber friends: Of course I minded! A dagger to the heart. Come on. I was outnumbered in every conceivable calculation (fans, family and first string quarterbacks). Was there no designated Bruin fan assigned to me in my misery?

Apparently not.

And for the first time in my adult life, I felt what my dad has modeled for lo these forty-five years - surly disgruntled resentment against the opposing fans following the loss of a beloved team (particularly one that was supposed to win). I glowered, unable to rebound and join in the family post-game chatter.

And that's why it's taken me three days to write about it.

Other than that, I had a great time in LA. Thanks for asking.

When Notre Dame went ahead

When Notre Dame went ahead, originally uploaded by juliecinci.

My sister, step-sister and Dad are all smiling so big their lips are strained. I am not smiling, nor am I in the photo.

One footnote: the moment of unity between UCLA and Notre Dame fans occurred when the commentator announced that USC had lost to Stanford. For 30 blissful seconds, the entire stadium erupted into a deafening roar. Yeah, we hate SC together. Family bonding redefined.

While we still believed...

While we still believed..., originally uploaded by juliecinci.

We raised our fists.

The fan

The fan, originally uploaded by juliecinci.

This is how I felt before the game started... proud to be seen in Bruin schwag.

UCLA before the defeat

UCLA before the defeat, originally uploaded by juliecinci.

This is a photo of how it all looked while the sun was shining and the skies were Bruin blue.

"Tony Romo, I love you" takes on new meaning

My smack talk on my FF league says, "Tony Romo, I love you." He has been very good to me in my league. But last night Romo turned over the ball 6 times (5 Int and 1 fumble) and he still pulled it out.

What is totally weird... my opponent in FF had 50 pts. At the start of the game I had 23. Literally every play eeked me forward one tiny bit at a time. Interceptions and Bills scores dropped me. I hovered over 34-35 for most of the game.

Then right at the end, Romo gave the ball to Barber (my RB) enough to put me right at 50. I needed one point. The Cowboys needed 2 pts to win. They missed a 2 pt. conversion but successfully recovered an onside kick! Then Romo threw a pass... and TO "caught it" until a replay overturned the ruling on the field. That pass would have given me the win. But wait, they get to try it again. And that pass had to go ten yards and be caught for me to win with 13 seconds left on the clock... Witten made the catch! 51 pts. A win for my team, the Footsies.

Dave, however, had to suffer through TO not catching (how many did he miss last night) and then watching the kicker pull out the win for the Cowboys who had to kick 2 field goals because the Bills called the timeout right after the first snap. But they did it.

What a night! Far better game than the Bruins v. Irish. More on that game later today.

So of course I'll weigh in on the pathetic game

that was Notre Dame versus UCLA... now that I have Internet again. First, business. Then recovery from the painful memories of the game. Then analysis. (And whoa is me - I'm not winning in FF!! I go away and the team falls apart... Tony Romo, bail me out man!)

The Getty

The Getty, originally uploaded by juliecinci.

Spent yesterday at the Getty Museum. All my photos from LA so far can be viewed here.

I'm with my family now. No Internet at my Dad's house. He has one of those little Dell Verizon cards that slides into his laptop that hooks him up anywhere he goes... but that is not the same as wi-fi (which he still doesn't quite understand) and it's not the same as DSL (when there is no modem).... So.

That means I hunted strip malls for outdoor tables laden with businessmen typing on laptops. Found none. Finally got redirected by a competitor coffee shop to Bad Ass Coffee. Success. They have Bad Ass Wi-Fi!

I'm caught up with work but not with personal email, facebook comments or blogging.

Oh, I am all set for FF week 5, though. Priorities. Why do you think I was desperate to find my wi-fi? :)

They do Target with Palms out here...

They do Target with Palms out here..., originally uploaded by juliecinci.

Jon and Susie were from Columbus Ohio. They lived in an apartment in Pasadena when I first met them. Later we both moved to Orange County together. When Jon or Susie talked about Columbus, I rarely spent time imagining the place. They might say, "My mom is coming in from Columbus for a week" and I'd hear, "My mom is coming in from waah, blah, blah, waah for a week."

Columbus was a guy who discovered America and liked people to take school off in October. I don't know if I thought about Columbus as being in Ohio since I didn't even know Ohio bordered Kentucky at that point in time. Ohio = pale faced middle aged men with bellies who came to the Rose Bowl to watch OSU get beat by a Pac-Ten team.

Yeah, that was me. A southern California snob slash narcissist.

So when Susie's Jon told me that he really missed "hardwood deciduous trees" and hugged them when he went home to visit, I blinked. I didn't know a deciduous from a tulip bulb. And here he was, all male and top sider-ish telling me that he longed for a specific kind of tree. California was too arid and closed up with fences and yards and trees that didn't lose leaves, like ever, since it was never fall.

I smiled the smile of sympathy without understanding.

Then three years later, I moved to Ohio.

And I saw what Jon saw. Those trees are worth hugging. They so are. They're big and give shade and have leaves that make great piles for raking and jumping into. The bark is textured and the moss grows at the base and makes fairy houses for small children. So one day I "got it." Jon missed *those* trees. Of course he did.

And then, about a year later, in the middle of nuclear winter when the Ohio trees were laid bare, my heart panged. I looked out the window to the dreary landscape and.... longed. Like Susie's Jon. Only I didn't long for the trees in my window. I longed for the California palms.

I missed the tall skinny trunks, the funky 1960s fringe hairdo they never get over, the way they stand up higher than buildings weaving and bobbing for twenty years yet never coming down. And they don't even give shade. Palm trees have a sense of humor and they stay green. I missed them.

But not today. One trip to Target in Burbank and instant gratification to my southern California senses. Target goes better with palms, don't you think?

Yeah, I'm here in southern Cal. It's awesome.

Another instance where science gets to the truth

DNA leads to more than 207 exonerations of formerly convicted criminals and states are responding by changing criminal justice procedures as a result. Three cheers for science.

Nationwide, misidentification by witnesses led to wrongful convictions in 75 percent of the 207 instances in which prisoners have been exonerated over the last decade, according to the Innocence Project, a group in New York that investigates wrongful convictions.

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