Day Seventeen: The Strike Is Over.

Thursday. Okay fine. I'm starved. Lakers-Celtics. I cave. I give in. Feed me.

Day Sixteen: Hockey for the Last?

Wednesday. Stanley. Cup. Finals. Basketball what?

Day Fifteen: Not So Much Time...

Tuesday. Did some reading tonight. Just a little dinner, a little relaxing. And then merciful sleep.

Day Fourteen: The Cup Is In The House

Monday. After Saturday's debacle, I was glad to see NBC sack up and put the Hockey Finals back on TV here in Nola. Although it played hell with my sleeping schedule, the triple-overtime was worth it. Amazing. On to Game 6.

Day Thirteen: Why Not Play The Game?

Sunday. After hitting the gym today, I decided to actually play some basketball. Little pick-up game at the gym. I'm the Ryan Bowen.

Day Twelve: Disbelief. (No not with the NBA...)

Saturday. Man, I am so burnt out on work. Just looking to relax. Can you believe the New Orleans NBC affiliate chose not to air Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals? We're not talking Playoffs. We're talking Finals. Shit, I know this isn't a hockey town, but there are also a lot if imports down here. Damn.

Day Eleven: Netflix is King!

Friday. You may have noticed a pattern here. Boys Don't Cry on Netflix. Ouch. I seriously did not know how that movie ended. Let's just say I had to go ahead and watch Blades of Glory to be able to fall asleep right.

Day Ten:

Thursday. Last day ticktock is here for the weekend before going back North to her college 5 year reunion. I hang out a bit with her, make dinner together, and keep her company while she packs. And watch some Scrubs.

Day Nine: Ibid.

Wednesday. See Day Eight.

Day Eight: Scrubs, Scrubs, Scrubs.

Tuesday. Consider me officially useless. I just got Scrubs Seasons 5 and 6 on DVD. Heaven.

Day Seven: what's going on in Detroit tonight?

Monday. Answer: the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, Game 2. What else?

Day Six: to Rome.

Sunday. Lazy Sunday. Watched a couple of movies, culminating in a nice bottle of Pinot Noir and our first Netflix of HBO's Rome, Season 2. Kind of a waste of a day. But I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my spare time.

Day Five: Hockey!

Saturday. I, like ticktock, may have forgotten how awesome NHL hockey is. I'm not sure why it's not on the major channels. Luckily, I have Versus. Seriously, the NHL Stanley Cup Finals don't deserve NBC, ABC, CBS, or even UPN? Or ESPN el Ocho? Come on.

Anyway, it's pretty sweet so far. Lots of drama, plenty of skill, and a tense apprehension of who might win. I'm rooting for Pittsburgh. It's a familiar story. A city that almost lost their franchise, saved by a superstar, and now bolstered by several young superstars. But Detroit is looking to win.

Day Four: Other Sports.

Friday. Got home earlier tonight. That's nice. Been reading more Hornets blogs, I've ventured out that far. It almost makes me want to watch basketball. But then I found MLL Lacrosse on ESPN2. Rochester Rattlers no less. Where I grew up. Stellar. Actually, Lacrosse may be the most underrated sport in the world. It has the suspense of NHL and Soccer, in that they're not scoring all the time like the NBA, but they're putting in 12-20 goals a game, not 1-3. Sweet.

Then I catch a little world soccer, USA vs. Ivory Coast. FSC. Fox Soccer Report. Again. Who knew?

But before long, I feel like watching a movie. Got plenty on Netflix. Let's go with Infamous. About how Truman Capote wrote his book In Cold Blood. Fucking good stuff.

Was there a b-ball game tonight?

Day Three: The Search For Laughter.

Thursday. Uggh. Another late work night. Leftovers for dinner. That's okay. For the first time, I think I'll post again over on HornetsHype. Still not too active on the blogosphere,though. Still not watching Stern's NBA.

I catch some of the movie, Heat. I fucking love that movie. De Niro's so intense. But again, I'm just buying time until Scrubs comes on at 10. I love that show.

Day Two: Desperate Aversion.

Wednesday. After watching parts of almost every NBA Playoff game this year, it's amazing how easy it is not to watch. It's just a matter of finding something else. As for tonight, I got home late from work again. That's how it is. Nice to be able to finish what I'm doing than to be watching the clock.

So I guess I'll just watch some TV. See what's on. Okay, a little South Park. Oh, those crazy little Colorado kids. Scan the channels with the digital cable, see what's on next...damn, MTV2 is actually playing music videos. I wasn't sure anyone even made those any more. Cool. But really I'm just buying time until Scrubs comes on at 10. WGN. Back-to-back. Awesome.

This isn't so hard.

Day One: The Aftermath.

Tuesday. The Day After. Disappointed. Devastated. Unsure how or why it happened. It's hard to take when you walk head low from a soul-crushing home loss to the post-game shows at home on your sofa, drinking until you can't take it anymore, posting angrily online your too-transparent feelings, until the kind of sleep that is more forgiveness than rest overtakes you. Then, on about four hours of fretful sleep you wake, make coffee, and drag yourself to work for a twelve hour work day.

You have no time to mourn. You stumble in the door around eight, and your girlfriend who's been home for hours, religiously surfing the internet, knows everything. But you can't take it. You don't want to know. You still don't believe it happened: that your miracle season is over. And so you make a decision. You're too upset. You believe too much in a league rife with conspiracy theories, that the exclusion of the Magic and Hornets gives the league 100% dream finals match-ups to boost this years ratings, and the coincidence is too much.

So you make a conscious decision to do something else. Fx is showing the movie Phone Booth. It's literally Colin Farrell in a phone booth for two hours. The underappreciated: Farrell puts in a fantastic acting performance given that he doesn't leave the booth after the 15 minute mark. The flip side: the movie is stupid.

Nonetheless, it's what you choose to do rather than embrace David Stern's brains-in-a-vat version of the NBA.