Obviously, the traffic after the Auburn game was pretty significant. I have never sat through it as much as I did that evening, largely because I am usually in no rush to get to wherever I am staying (nor are most people). After finally arriving at my weekend residence at a little past 2:00 am, I slept for a little over four hours, then headed north and west.

Wasting not a moment of time, I stopped only for breakfast, fuel, and to pick up my suit from my place in Nashville. I continued westward two more hours to the site of the funeral, which happens to be the place where my parents grew up and the town where I spent a lot of time when I was growing up. This was another of those strange and uncomfortable experiences that I don’t really wish to repeat any time soon… something about life moving on and being glad in hindsight that it did.

In one of the all-time weird moments, the first time I saw my brother after the end of the Auburn game was as he was joining me in the line of pallbearers (He is an Auburn grad). We were exchanging banter about the game, agreeing that the interference call on P0pe was crap, and 30 seconds later found ourselves in the chapel preparing to bury our grandmother. I have no idea how to feel about that.

Funeral was fine. Everyone handled it well. I spent a little bit of time with my last living grandparent (who fed me the best barbecue sauce I have ever had in my life), my folks, and my nephews. My brother’s house is going to be unbearably loud in about a year. Then I headed back here, which is where I am now(?).

Random observations:

• Noise canceling headphones really just make enough noise that you can’t hear the other noise.
• The CMA announced 18 months ago that they would be moving their awards ceremony to NYC for one year. Though people really hated the idea at the time, it seems to have worked beautifully based on the number of country artists who have been on network tv over the last couple of days.
• While working today, I overheard a major cable news outlet talking about new slogans for New Jersey, and encouraging the audience to send in suggestions by email. I made one up, followed the instructions, and five minutes later heard my suggestion read on the air. I got tickled.
• My abandonment of daily nicotine intake has also resulted in a reduction of my daily caffeine intake, which seems backwards but is probably good.
• In the past six months, if I have been watching TV and found that Fletch was on, I haven’t once failed to immediately tune in. In fact, it’s on right now.
• I think I am less funny lately, and I don’t know why… but that’s just tough.
• I would like to see someone play Dodgeball with Pilates balls.
• Would someone please let me know when short socks with tennis shoes are not cool again? I didn’t even notice that they had become ok, and I don’t want to miss the inevitable non-coolness that they are sure to experience soon (and maybe already are).
• “Can I borrow your towel for a sec? My car just hit a water buffalo.”
• Tune you should be hearing on the radio right now, but probably aren't: "Banj0 B0y" by Ry@n Shupe and the Rubberb@nd.