Posting from the RTW archives

It's that time again. I'm not participating in a pool this year, but I decided to fill out a bracket just for fun. It makes following the games a bit more exciting. However, once again, I can't make any damn decisions. I consulted my bro...

Andy: might as well go with cuse
Andy: they won the national championship from a 3 seed
Jess: YESSSSSSSSS sir indeedy they did
Jess: wow i said indeedy
Andy: indeedy u did

and yet, I still couldn't fill in that last box. Just like every other year...

Volume CCLXVII - Mad about March

Ah March. The month that always feels as if it goes on forever. Hands down winner of the most drawn out month of the year award. 31 long days of waiting for spring with no holidays and the lingering feeling that years past you were on the beach in Cancun getting plastered at 2 pm on drinks with little umbrellas while covered in Banana Boat tanning oil. Yo quiero la playa. Por favor? Oh how I miss that. The beach part, not the mangled Spanish language part. Doesn't the memory of spring break make you feel old? Especially since instead of being at Senor Frogs, you are cooped up in your office building with nothing else to do but stare at a printout begging you to make 61 separate yet binding decisions. You know what that means! It's that time again. One reason to look forward to March. All hail the madness! We've talked on a prior occasion about how a NCAA bracket is unquestionably the last thing I should be doing considering my inherent decision making obstacles, yet I just cannot seem to control myself. How could I not participate? Besides, there's really nothing else to do, other than join an American Idol pool which we all know I will never do even seeing as this year I have actually been solicited to do exactly that. Although it would have totally helped me out if I could've put Syracuse on re-dial and my voting would've made them win. Sadly it is not carried out that way in the tournament and I had to step up to the plate and make my decisions. Even if I were to not join an office pool and bet money on my picks, I think I would still agonize over them just for my own internal competitiveness... With myself...

I read something the other day that deeply resonated with me. The author wrote "Grown people never ask you what they should do until they've already decided for themselves. They don't tell you that, of course, but they stand there and wait for you to either confirm their good judgment or reveal yourself as not as smart as they thought you were by advising them in the other direction." That could not be closer to the truth nine out of ten times. Which is why whenever I give advice, I always follow it up with "but in the end, do what you want to do" because you know they're going to anyway. It still never hurts to ask for advice though. So as I do every year, I consulted a select few people I deemed to be more sports informed than myself to see if their selections jived with my thinking. Then I erased a few of my choices. Was feeling mostly content with my new picks for about an hour, until I sat and stewed a while longer, then erased again and went back to my original choices. This is like torture! A bad decision maker's worst nightmare. Torture over 10 dollars and the glory of winning or the agony of defeat. At this rate pretty soon I will erase right through the paper and all that will be left is a crater of complete and utter indecision. I wonder if it was named the "madness" because it literally drove some people mad. That may just happen to me by March's end. But if there's anything redeeming about this month, it's the one time of year when I can go around saying my favorite nonsense sounding word... Gon-ZAGA!!... And not be thought of as a lunatic. I need to get myself some Gon-ZAGA gear, so if anyone is near the bookstore... Or if anyone even knows where that school is, let me know...

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