The Draft

Let me paint you a picture. What if you were a fan of a football team who went from being the best to being the worst in just one season. Heartbroken, you witnessed countless players succumb to injury while an egotistical jackass ruined the team chemistry from within. Hopes of back-to-back Super Bowl appearances were crushed as you watched helplessly from home as your football heroes fell into the realm of mediocrity. After the cursed season was finally over, the coaching staff you trust signs a couple of players who look like they will fit well with the team, and your hopes start to rise again. Despite criticism about not signing the flashy or "big" names, you know that certain needs were addressed, and that all your team needs now is a good draft to translate into success. You wait anxiously to see if your beloved team will be able to get at least ONE of the two players they have targeted as top prospects.

Now imagine they get both.

Isn't it beautiful? It's almost as if you can feel the warm light of a winning season already beginning to poke its way through the dark clouds of a bad 2005 season. Like Bob Ross from "The Joy of Painting", I have to just stand back for a bit and admire the fantastic brushstrokes of head coach Andy Reid and GM Tom Heckert's draft masterpiece.

If you're confused, I apologize for getting ahead of myself. Going into Saturday's NFL draft, I knew (and prayed) that the Eagles would address one of two concerns: a pass rushing/run clogging defensive tackle, or a large and talented offensive lineman. In the first round, Brodrick Bunkley (arguably the best DT in the draft) was still available at pick #14 and the birds got him. Then early on in the second round, the Eagles traded up and got Winston Justice, a nasty OT from USC with a lot of size and upside. The Eagles wanted at least one of these two players, and by the grace of God himself they got both. So to say I'm happy is a giant understatement.

Would you believe people still say that Reid drafts poorly? The Eagles also traded up to get an absolute stud LB/DE who was easily the best division I-AA player in the country, recording over 23 sacks his senior year. They also drafted a nice OG and two talented WR whose stocks dropped for unknown reasons. Add another solid DT and LB and . . . oh God, I'm sorry, I have to go clean up.

Was I surprised by how well the draft went? In some ways I was. I've always had faith in the Eagles franchise, and I'm quick to defend the coaching staff for any player decisions they make because they've always been the right moves. But I never expected them to do so well in the draft, and I don't think they expected it either.

Like the Eagles, my hopes are flying high, and all I can do now is wait for the Eagles to once again march down the road to victory.

E - A - G - L - E - S , EAGLES!!!!

Downshift

The last few weeks have really been a whirlwind, as you can tell from my last post, but I've finally reached a bit of a lull in the action and I'm pretty thankful for it. Keeping busy is great, especially when I look back at all the time I wasted last year, and I hope that I can keep being sociable while learning and getting things accomplished. At the same time, everything has been moving a little too fast for me and I need a minute to 'catch my breath'.

Last weekend I did the whole fishing thing on the first day of trout season. Jay and all those Birdsboro boys are real pros at that shit, and my skills paled in comparison. Trout fishing is way different than what I've been used to, since you try to cast a tiny, light weight hook with a little food on it upstream of a trout (that you usually have to spot), and maneuver it so it drifts right in front of the target. Needless to say, it's a hard thing to do and I was fairly unsuccessful at it (in a "didn't catch any" sort of way). But it was fun getting outside for a day and hiking out in the wild with a bunch of good guys to hang with, so I have no complaints. In fact, I'll probably try to go again with them in the next week or so.

Aside from classes, all that's happen since the fishing excursion has involved the family. My uncle Keith, his family, and my Grandma came down for Easter. I've gone to see a few more of my brothers' baseball games (gotta support the 'boys), and actually I met Mike's girlfriend which was kind of funny. And then today I met my sister at some pasta place in the city for lunch: she had a fieldtrip for her major to Philadelphia and went to eat after they did what they needed to do. Her and her hot friend didn't get to hang around for long (the group had to head back to Lockhaven right after eating) but it was still something to kill the boredom.

So what lays ahead of me? Not much right now. School work is essentially done for a couple of days, and I don't have any major plans for this weekend like I have for the last few. I foresee some "hanging around", sprinkled with a little "sleeping in late" in my future. Maybe I'll call around to see what everyone is up to, or maybe I'll just say "fuck it."

Two Weeks

A lot has happened since my last entry. A combination of forgetfulness and business has prevented me from taking some time to get on here, but today is my "easy" day of classes. That's right, I'm back at school baby!!!!

. . . Actually, I'm not THAT excited about it but it is a big step. I'm officially half way done my college career and only have a little over two years of fake work before I graduate and attempt to make a healthy living with real work. Now that I've been taking classes for over a week I have a good idea of how this term is going to shape up, but now I'm getting ahead of myself. I really do have a lot to get to, so enough with the bull shit.

Around the time of my last entry I was already moving into my new house. New might be an overstatement, since it's pretty old, but that's not to say it doesn't kick ass. I got my own room on the third floor of a giant house in Philadelphia, right on Larchwood street. If your not familiar with the 4400 block, it's just west of the UPenn campus. To sum it up as short as I can, the house is big, the property is welcome, the neighborhood is incredible (no bums or crack houses around, it's like the fuckin' Cosby's here), and the BBQ is on full blast. Aside from becoming master of the BBQ (which I built btw) and taking on the role of handyman, I've been settling down in my new room. I'm really happy with my setup and only need some sort of couch or futton to call it quits. Jay is down the hall and we get our own bathroom. A small fridge in another room stocked with soda and I'd be willing to call it a slice of heaven. The long walk to classes is really the only downside, but considering we're paying half of what we would living on campus and that we walk through Penn's campus to get to Drexel, it's a small price to pay for what we get here.

This term should be pretty good. All my classes are Chemistry geared (that's right, I'm out of the TDEC program for engineers thank GOD), and I have a good feeling on how I'll perform. Yet again, thermodynamics is leading the way in toughness, essentially taking up two courses, but the organic chem class is pretty cake and the lab is ridiculously easy considering what I've done my last two co-ops. What I'm really saying is that I have no excuse to not do better this term/year, so I guess we'll just wait and see.

With all this going on, you'd think I haven't done anything else worth mentioning, but you'd be wrong. On the 7th we had our first Atlantic City trip and it was awesome. Me, Jay and Keyur all went to the Borgata and took a seat at the $1/$2 NL game. It was cool because me and Jay actually got sat next to each other, so I didn't feel as intimidated. Honestly, I think me and Jay were the best two players at the table. I bought in for 160 and grinded out for a few hours to get to over 360, never really making any mistakes (actually, I don't think I really lost more than three pots over a 2 hour period).

Then came the hand of all hands: I, John Tegan, got dealt Pocket AA, got it all in against a guy with KK, and LOST when he hit his trips on the flop. A pot that was over $700 went sliding to a player other than me and I was crushed. But I rebought, told myself I just had to grind it all back, and eventually did. Not only did I win a $360 pot later on against the same player when I had trip Kings and he had two pair, but I would then continue winning and eventually cash out +$250 profit on the night. It was a lot of fun, got to hang with some good people, and get out of my element for the night.

Other things have been happening too. We met up with some old buddies at Brownies last Thursday for billiards and socializing, I saw my brothers opening-season game where they won and Mike pitched two innings for 4Ks and just one hit (no ER either), and just now I returned from an inaugural trip to Dave and Busters to celebrate Mr. John Wesley Buffington III's birthday.

Lot's of good things have been happening, and there is no end in site. Should be an interesting year.