Thanks for the memories

I may be an artsy person, but I am not the most crafty person. This is why my most recent accomplishment is so big. I made a t-shirt blanket out of a bunch of old t-shirts from childhood, high school and a couple donations from my family.  It's 4 blocks by 5 blocks and double sided.

It is by no means perfect. The rows are crooked, there are a few mis-stitches, it's not completely squared up. But it's mine. My shirts, my memories, my smiles. And now I have them for as long as the blanket will last.

Memories are a cool thing. They bring back all sorts of emotions and reminisces about different times. When I was back home I found and took back with me a pair of shoelaces I've had for several years. They've got memories too. How else could I truly remember all the great slide tackles I had if it weren't for the grass stains on those shoe laces?

Speaking of memories, remember when Thierry Henry played for Arsenal? He's back on a brief (2 month) loan from Red Bull New York and he's already making even more memories. Arsenal won today against Leeds in a third round FA cup game because of a goal from the legend.

Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal

Today was the start of the 2011-2012 Barclays Premiership season. Arsenal drew with Newcastle at St. James Park. It was a good game, but a frustrating one.
It was so, so beautiful to see Tomas Rosicky play. He did a good job controlling the pace for Arsenal while he was on.
The most frustrating moment was when new signing and Frenchman Gervinho got sent off after Joey Barton started a fight with him after a small diving incident. At that moment, I realized it's going to be a looong season for Arsenal. I don't know if we have the depth to go a full season with other competitions mixed in.

On the other end of the spectrum, my Championship guys Reading FC beat Leicester City 2-0 away. Add in their 2-2 draw with Millwall last week and it's looking to be a good season. Maybe we'll make Premiership this season.

It's so good to have matches to look forward to each weekend again. Not a lot happened this summer and I'm ready for soccer action. And hopefully my fists will be doing excited fist pumps a lot this season instead of  frustrated ones.

The Game

Sorry lil bro, I know you sometimes read this, but I just have to dog you out.
The other day I got an e-mail from my little brother talking about one of my favorite subjects and one I thought he didn't like so much... soccer/football. He's still figuring out which team he likes in the EPL, but I'm not forcing him on anything (interpret it as I'm not influencing him to The Arsenal). I will say he has my blessing on his current possible choice because its not  Tottenham, Manchester United, or Manchester City.
I told him about the second tab I always open up whenever I get online: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football. It's pretty much the only website I go to for news. And I absolutely loved the response I got about it because it is so characteristic of him. "I'm sure it'll be a big help in my quest for the truth behind the game that drives the world."

Success

Success is measured differently for everyone.
At the beginning of the season, I presume I'll be measuring Arsenal's success by the number of trophies we'll win. By the end it's how much further ahead of Tottenham we are.
Some people measure it by how happy they feel or how much money they're making.
I could choose to measure my success like those some other people and I would be successful in those standards. But I choose to measure my success in smaller, much more meaningless ways.
Success may be running a few seconds faster. Or not running into a doorway or tripping over my feet. Or finding one of my favorite colors of Gatorade somewhere I didn't expect to find it.
Today, success was measured by dinner. I didn't burn my mouth on the macaroni tonight. Therefore, I was successful because last time I ate that, I didn't taste much the next day. Who knows what success will look like tomorrow...
What does success look like for you?

My Focus is Elsewhere

Last night, around 10 pm, the best battle buddy I ever had texted me to turn on a news channel. My half asleep brain decided it would be best to look outside the window to see if it was storming and then considered the possibility that it was storming back east. It was quite logical to me since it is tornado season.

Next move was to get on the internet. As always, first comes up Facebook, then UK Yahoo sports, then the news tab in my bookmarks.

Nothing interesting was on the sports and the news was still loading, so Facebook it was. And the news hit me in just about every form imaginable. Osama bin Laden was confirmed dead by President Obama.

I’ve had several reactions to this news. The first, and best, was my text back to my battle buddy. The basic concept was that it happened because I just finished reading Tom Clancy’s latest Jack Ryan/John Clark book. They got their bad guy captured and Clancy’s stuff can be eerily like real life.

My other reaction is one of pure frustration. To me, Osama has been just an ideal for a long time. Our beef may have started out just against him, but it is not the endgame. Our real battle is in the ideals, like how most battles in American history have gone. Osama was just the tip of the iceberg. It may bring closure to families who have lost loved ones, but Osama out of the picture does not mean the fight will magically go away.

My frustration also extends to the fact that I really, really, love soccer and with real summer competitions, this is the best time of year.  Arsenal beat Manchester United yesterday, Championship teams are finding out who will be promoted, and the Champions League is heating up with some INTENSE Barca/Real rivalry. To top it off, Arsenal just released photos of the 125^th anniversary home kit. It’s still growing on me, but I’d much rather focus on that than people debating and celebrating a dead guy that still has the possibility to cause as much damage dead as alive.

A Good Month

It’s May. My second favorite month for preference, but first favorite in terms of what happens in May.

May always has some of the best weather of the year. It’s usually when I get the most yard work to do, which means I’m outside a lot. When I was in school, it was always when I had the most schoolwork to do. I like being busy and I though I might say otherwise, I secretly enjoy being stressed and having to cram everything in.

May 19 is a very special day to me as well. First off, in 2002 I was baptized on that day. And then, in 2005, Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith came out. I don’t think I should have to rationalize the day much more than that.

One more best thing about May, which I’ll miss this year, is Memorial Day Weekend. No Clarks Summit parade. No parent’s Sunday school picnic in the park to run around outside with friends eating, playing sports, and having fun in the splash fountain and creek. But it will still be good.

May has started off amazingly. Arsenal 1-0 Manchester United. At the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal beating the Manure might have happened since I’ve been a fan, but I don’t remember it. Not until today at least. I was so happy I almost cried. It certainly beats the poor form my dear Arsenal have had lately.

Yes, May is a good month. 

Leyton Orient 1-1 Arsenal

It seems everything in life is connected. It may not be obvious at first, but give it enough time and it will become connected.
Arsenal faced Leyton Orient in a FA Cup match today. It was a draw even though Arsenal probably should have dominated a bit more and won. My soccer love, Tomas Rosicky, scored Arsenal's only goal today. It was good to see him on the field after not a lot of activity, sickness, and pulled muscles. I'm beginning to prep myself for him to leave Arsenal soon just because he is getting old, isn't starting as much, and Wenger doesn't like to keep older players.
But back to connections. Leyton Orient is a League One team. The FA cup is about the only time they'll face someone from the Premiership. But unlike some other League One teams, I was slightly familiar with Leyton Orient.
Why? Because of Nick Hornby. Author of the great memoir Fever Pitch. For a while in Hornby's soccer fan career, he follows a small team from Cambridge. And Cambridge just happens to play Leyton Orient. And one of those games ended up as a chapter in Fever Pitch.
The final result? I have heard of Leyton Orient. It really is a small world...

He Went Where?!

One of the several reasons I was drawn to Arsenal when I first became a fan was a certain French player known as Thierry Henry. Actually, his skill was probably the only reason I started tracking Arsenal and then I fell in love with other aspects of the club.

Anyways, a few years ago the legendary Henry moved to Barcelona, a semi-favorite team of mine, and although he was good, Barcelona has a lot of stars and Henry didn't shine like at Arsenal.

This summer I was in basic training for the army. A soccer fan stuck without soccer news in a World Cup transfer window. I knew I was bound to miss some transfers, but I thought I had been pretty much caught up back in September (had a few surprises there, but none too drastic).

Yesterday I found out I had not been completely caught up. While I was learning to be a soldier, Thierry Henry transferred to Red Bull New York. The MLS. The US. There must not have been a lot of fanfare about it because it took me six months to find out.

I guess Henry's move shows that US soccer has a long way to go. Yes, we can get excited over David Beckham, but Henry's career is just as illustrious. And he's actually won a World Cup Trophy.

I don't know if I can accurately describe the shock that came over me with the news of Henry's transfer. I now finally realized why I hadn't been hearing about him at Barcelona. He wasn't there. He's in the US. You can probably figure out what I'm gonna try to do with some of my summer with Henry playing in the MLS......

My Life Be Like Ooh Aah

Every once in a while I like to share little things that I have learned and experienced. Moving to a new place and leaving a familiar one has definitely made for some of these moments.

Although Ft. Sill is a field artillery post, it never quite occurred to me that they would actually shoot off artillery frequently. Fortunately I am a fan of the fireworks that only go boom.

Ft. Sill is not a walker friendly post as far as I have experienced. Good thing I’m good at playing chicken when it comes to crossing roads to get to a better spot on the other side….

There are white tail deer in Oklahoma. I’ve seen them.

The army gives 2-hour delays for bad weather too. I’ve got one tomorrow.

I am more likely to get windburn here than any other place I’ve lived before.

27, 28, 36-hour days are no big deal to me now. And I can do them back to back with only a few hours of sleep in between them. Sgts, I know you loved to tell us about how you’ve had to do that, but I have too. And it was probably just as stressful because you were there.

I can fall asleep just about anytime and anywhere as long as I don’t need to be alert for something.

2 Months of being around people 24/7 makes you really good friends. 5, or even 7 months of that means you’re practically family.

Songs=memories. ‘Nuff said.

I need to come up with a few more hobbies to have for discussion. The majority of people have no clue about Arsenal or their greatness.

Update on Life

Thursday morning I had my last training graduation and was released to the world to be an official official soldier. The afternoon was filled with madness as my entire platoon tried to finish out-processing and leave. Friday morning I cleared my room at the barracks and signed out of the company.

By 1600 I was in the not quite lovely Ft Sill, Oklahoma. The final plane ride over included some guys ready to start basic training and I wish them the best of luck. The Lawton airport is even smaller than the one in my hometown; something I thought wasn’t possible….

I was assigned a room in temporary housing and I start in-processing Monday morning. I can’t wait to officially get to my unit. There isn’t a lot to do here. Not a lot off post; the cabbie only really pointed out the casinos and the mall. My only glimmer of hope is that the Main PX and Commissary are much larger than the ones in Arizona. The Burger King is right inside the PX instead of being somewhere on the other side of post. There is actually a Cinnabon (if you haven’t experienced a Cinnabon I feel sorry for you). AND the PX sells baseball cards. I still have a soft spot for them and I think I might try to grow my collection again.

Arsenal play tomorrow in a FA Cup match. I realized today that if Arsenal can keep up their good form and win instead of losing they will have the opportunity to play at Wembley for 3 finals.  They’re guaranteed to go to the Carling Cup final and there’s still a shot at the FA Cup and Champions League finals. Just one trophy would be amazing, but winning all three finals would be even better.

Digressing a bit to English TV, did you know there is a list of sporting events that must be played on free channels? I think that is really cool and I am going to have to research if the US does anything like it.

And now back to soccer, but to the Spanish league. Sevilla FC drew with some other team today down a player and down a few goals. I’ve hardly ever seen a scenario like that happen. Despite the fact that I’m alright with Sevilla (we’ve met them a few times in the Champions League) and I admire their gusto today, when a team has had a player red carded and sent off I like to see the team with more players overrun the offending team. But it did make for an exciting half of football…

I think that’s all I have to say for now. It was random, but did you really expect anything else from me?

Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea

Do you have any idea what a scoreline like this means to me? Or how long I’ve waited to see it? Even before I realized that Manchester United were the most formidable EPL opponent, I realized that Chelsea were going to be a tough team to beat. And Chelsea always seemed to get the upper hand.

Song, Fabregas, and Walcott scored within about 9 minutes of each other, although Song’s goal was before half time. 

The league table right now is looking real welcoming. We’re 3 points and 5 goals from going joint top. We have a game tomorrow against Wigan Athletic and we stand a fair chance against them. I think that its kind of cute that Everton and Liverpool are currently sharing the #11 spot in the table, but Liverpool have a chance to pull even further ahead since they’ve only played 17 matches to Everton’s 19. (Google Map Liverpool FC and Everton FC to see why it’s cool). I would LOVE it if the Wolverhampton Wanderers could bring their game up a few notches. I would hate to see them go back down to the Championship League. 

Tomas Rosicky got a few minutes of play time.

Perks

There was something I didn’t realize would be a perk when I moved out here to Arizona. I guess it should have been obvious, but living for 11 year in Pennsylvania can do funny things to you.

Almost all of the change I get is D mint change. Produced by Uncle Sam in Denver, Colorado. Living on the east coast means a majority of the change is produced in the Philadelphia mint. There aren’t a lot of D coins that make it to where I was. It was something special to pick up a D coin. At least it is for me. It was special for me as a little kid in Nebraska and even more special in PA. Now I get to feel special a lot with all the change I get and find.

PS- I find a lot of change here. Kind of Surprising for a military base…..

and Arsenal lost today. Thats all on that topic.

Rainbows

Tuesday was an interesting, cool day. I had a dental appointment at 0720 and was out of the office by 0735 as army class 1 dental status. Hooray for army efficiency. At mail call at the end of the day I got my Arsenal shirt that I got off of e-bay. It's a 2003-2004 home shirt WITH a Champion's League patch on it. The patch was a sweet little bonus for me.
Probably the coolest part of the day was when we were forming up after school. It has been a little stormy here in AZ and a storm was just clearing out. There was a full, clear, 180 degree rainbow in the sky. And there was a partial one right above it. It was so beautiful it almost made me want to go find the pot of gold at the end.
Today we received our new barracks assignments. I'll post more about that some other time, but let me say we all feel like we're moving into the Hilton, they're that nice.

4 Songs, 2 Blankets, 3 Fillings, 1 Partizan-3 Arsenal

Today was an interesting day. Yesterday my company had training late, so we were allowed to sleep in until a 0630 linen turn in instead of a 0400 linen turn in and pt after that. So although I wasn't in my bay all day I had 2 blankets.

This morning when I woke up I was informed that I had a dental appointment at 0800. I was expecting it sometime because everyone has to go, but I didn't know it was today. When I arrived and got seated in the nice dentist chair I was informed I was getting 3 fillings. So now I have 3 fillings and a sore mouth. I guess thats what an hour in the dentist chair will get you.

On to an even more random thing. I own 4 different versions of K'naan's song 'Wavin Flag'.
1. The original
2. The one featuring will i am and David Guetta
3. The Coca-Cola World Cup celebration one
4. The Coca-Cola World Cup celebration featuring David Bisbal singing in Spanish
They're all really good. But I do feel a little dorky for having 4 different versions of one song. But then again, its normal for me to have 2 or 3 different versions of a song.

Arsenal played a Champions League game today against Partizan Belgrade at Partizan's stadium. May I say that its an embarrassment to Partizan to lose 3-1 on home turf, in front of a home crowd, with 10 men. Arshavin continues to impress, scoring the opening goal, and Chamkah is showing he was a good pick-up scoring another goal. Sebastien Squillaci ( I think we picked him up this summer with few others. I wouldn't know much about transfers after the World Cup because of basic) added Arsenal's other goal. Tomas Rosicky actually played a whole game. Thats a good sign considering the past few seasons and his escapades, but good proof of TR7 being 500% back will be if he starts or at least plays Sunday in the Chelsea game. And there's a good chance of that considering all of the injuries we have right now.

Here comes the really dorky part of my post. You may have wondered why it looks like I can't count down from 4 properly. I can. I'm just a dork who enjoys the 4231soccer formation. It was my brilliant brain that decided to make the post somewhat coincide with the formation.

Arsenal 2-3 West Bromwich Albion

That particular score line was the exact opposite of how my day went. All you're getting from my review of the game today is this: I was asleep when it happened, Samir Nasri scored both of Arsenal's goals, Tomas Rosicky got a yellow card, apparently Almunia was awful today (according to the one UK yahoo article), and I don't want to know any more about the game. Its nothing personal against Arsenal. IU was being optimistic and hoping that we were going to continue to do well, but it looks like we're being typical and losing stupid little games while winning the bigger ones (like Tottenham last Tuesday).

Arsenal lost, but I had a good day. I slept in until 1030 (that's 10.5 hours of sleep that were much needed). I got to talk with my family. I had a good lunch and spent some time at the MI library. I had a good dinner (ravioli!).
Either later on or tomorrow I'm going to do the weekly really clean up my locker and get squared away for the coming week as best as I can.

Scum 1-4 Arsenal

Arsenal knocked Tottenham out of the Carling Cup today. I had totally forgotten about this cup, but that score made my day. Three of Arsenal's goals were scored in extra time with two of those being penalties. Guess Tottenham was getting desperate by pulling players down in the box. From what I saw in an article, it looked like a very interesting game and I can't wait to find a replay online.

The Best Cookie I Ever Had

Step, heel, step, heel, step, heel, step. My tray was parallel to the marching surface and I was at chow hall attention. 9 weeks into basic training and my platoon and company was finally allowed to eat desserts. My luck meant there was never any desserts left by the time I got through the line. But that one fateful evening, my luck changed. There were M&M cookies. That was the best cookie I ever ate. It was just a packaged,generic cookie, but 9 weeks without one made it taste wonderful. I know I've tasted better cookies, but deprivation makes everything taste better. Jello and chocolate milk can only last one so long. And don't even get me started on the day there was breaded shrimp for lunch. I ate mine and someone else's.

In other news, Arsenal drew with Sunderland 1-1 today. Tomas Rosicky came on as a sub for Cesc Fabregas who was injured. I love Rosicky, but I hope Fabregas's injury isn't too serious. He's a vital part of Arsenal right now. Nebraska absolutely kicked Washington's butt in college football. I got grape tomatoes from the commissary and they are amazing. Tomorrow is Sunday and I have nothing planned except to go to chapel.

The Game

It killed me to have to leave for basic in the middle of a World Cup. I almost cried the day I received the final results in the mail form my parents because I was so happy to get them. Spain 1-0 Netherlands. I wish I could have seen that game and a bunch of the others leading up to it. I watched Spain 1-0 Portugal the night I was at MEPS and it was such a beautiful game. Even with C. Ronaldo playing.
I also spent a lot of time thinking about Arsenal. On runs I would tell myself I was keeping up with T.Rosicky. I sang the Theo Walcott chant in my head almost daily. My weapon was christened Arsne Wenger. I wondered about transfers and what the new kits looked like. Seeing what happened during the transfer window shocked me a little, but I'll get used to it and the new players we got. Surprisingly, the home kit that was leaked in June was almost accurate so that wasn't a shock. The white collar will take some getting used to for me, but its a sweet kit.
I missed being able to kick a ball around. I missed the game. And the first thing I did when I got my cell phone back was check the scores.

Guess Who's Back

Two and a half months and I'm back and hopefully posting more. Basic was a lot of fun, but hard at the same time. I definitely wouldn't do it again if I had the choice. I'm in AIT now and have a laptop to post from. A mac to be specific. I'll write more later about my experiences at basic. I was so happy to hear of the World Cup results a week after they happened and I got so excited when I was able to see the Arsenal results last week.

Distracted Me

So this weekend I have a few projects to complete. This means a paper, a powerpoint and a game for calculus. When I write papers I get pretty focused. I don't even let anyone talk to me lest I lose my train of thought. But I also get SO so distracted.
It goes like this: chunk of paper written, get online to check a source, play a game of minesweeper while internet is loading, change the song (The Scientist by Coldplay is great focuser/zoner for me), check Facebook and the soccer news even though nothing has changed since it's very early tomorrow morning in the UK, get my facts straight from my sources, play another game of minesweeper, write a few more words in the paper, play another game of minesweeper.
Then repeat the cycle a few more times before only writing on the paper for a long time and declaring myself finished for the night. It's a vicious cycle that I try not to keep. I try to go for the writing without anything else happening, but that doesn't happen well when minesweeper is involved.

Here's Arsenal's Latest Signing.(click the link for the article!) I've heard a lot about Chamakh in the past year or so. During the January transfer window I think a lot of fans thought we were going to get him then. I don't really know how he plays yet, but I'm excited to review his past performances and see his Arsenal ones.I'm not too sure why we acquired a striker when the back line needs help, but hey, it was a free transfer. Maybe he's backup if the Fabregas going to Barcelona rumors come true. I just hope I'll get to see more of Tomas Rosicky next season.