March Madness: The Couch Chronicles

8:47am
I'm watching the Early show. I'm a pretty die-hard fan of Good Morning America and watch that almost exclusively. What can I say? I have a soft spot for Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer is pleasant as well. The little Big Brother lady on CBS' the Early Show just doesn't do it for me. I was a little antsy this morning, so I had to let Robin and Diane go a little early this morning. Fearing that I'd get distracted by a phone call or some emails or something and risk missing the tip-off, I turned to the Early Show as soon as I started cooking my morning bowl of oatmeal. I decided to take the stay-up-all-night approach in lieu of the wake-up-call approach to changing the channel at the right time.

8:59am
I can hardly contain my excitement. The email inbox is pretty light, and no one has called me yet. This is a huge bowl of oatmeal. I wish I could afford raisins. At least the cinnamon and brown sugar give it some taste. It's way too hot though, so I put a swig of Silk soy milk in it and stir. The music starts. Seth Davis and Clark Kellogg are sitting there on the set of CBS' "The Road to the Final Four" as the music starts to play: "duh nuh nuh NUH nuh NUHHH nuh nuh...." I dropped to the floor to knock out my second set of 36 pushups. I did the first set when I first rolled out of bed this morning.

9:07am
Clark and Seth are way to certain on all of their analyses. Clark likes Michael Beasley over O.J. Mayo. I wish I had some applesauce to put in this oatmeal to give it a bit more flare. Collectively, the two of them have all the answers and hardly need that 3rd guy to narrate for them. Why are the games starting at 9:20am now? This is agony. Maybe I'll switch back to Regis and Kelly for a few minutes as Clark and Seth continue to yap. Start the games already.

9:22am

Let the madness begin. I should've slept more. As I get to the bottom of this gargantuan bowl of oatmeal, all I can think about is going back to bed. It's on! Xavier vs. Georgia. This is an intriguing matchup. On one bracket I picked Xavier and on the other one, I picked Georgia. Georgia's hot. They won 4 games in 3 days last week at the SEC tournament. THey even withstood a venue change after the tornadoes in the area ripped a whole in the Georgia Dome. It's going to be a good day.

9:31am

My start of my dream day was already being interrupted. My daughter had a 9:45 doctor appointment so I had to leave the couch, and the house! Kansas is already smashing Portland State. This Georgia game is getting good. Oh well. I'll catch the end of it. It sure is a nice day outside.

10:42am
Dave Bliss from Georgia is about to have a melt down. He's like a big ol' toddler that looks like he wants to throw his toys and stomp out of the room. Grow up. My email inbox is still nice and light. My knee hurts. Perhaps I should ice it. Nah...I'll just recline here on the couch. This is shaping up to be a great day.

11:28am
Xavier outlasted Georgia and Kansas was a no-brainer and now Joe Crawford is giving it to the Marquette Golden Eagles. Didn't they used to be called the Warriors?
My knee is swollen. What am I going to make for lunch. I really should move to my desk, but this couch sure is a nice place to be.

12:14pm
Let the trash talk begin. "What were you thinking Those guys never had a chance?" Without a pillow to lean on, my posture is horrible. It's a good thing i didn't have any finger foods or snacks to bring over here to the couch because I might not move again. In the Leland Stanford Senior Bowl, Cornell is hanging with Stanford. The point guards are out there comparing philosophies and debating world policies. These guys may be doing battle in a boardroom, instead of under the boards, the next time you see them. I'm getting hungry.

1:48pm
Little Cornell got tired. It's a case of my two 7-footers are better than your one 7-footer, my quick is quicker than your quick, my better is better than your better...and it smells like French Toast. French Toast? Yes, French Toast. It's a bonafide blowout now. Looking at the clock, I see that I was supposed to do some more push-ups 10 minutes ago. I'll do them later. The rigor mortis is setting in. I had no business playing ball from 6am-730am this morning. But I was hot, and we didn't lose any games. They couldn't knock us off. You've gotta respect the streak. Next time, we might be one and done. Sitting on the couch is not helping. I switch over to the middle couch cushion in hopes that my body will respond positively. I walk like the Tin Man over to the refrigerator to get a drink. I feel like I'm 85 years old.

3:02pm
I bracket suffers its first major casualty. Sure, I had Georgia on one of my brackets, but I had Xavier in the other one. I was giving the Bulldogs the benefit of the doubt since they had that wild run last week. I'm repeating myself. This is alot of television. But now Kent State lost. I had them winning in both the brackets that I turned in. I'll have to hear it from my bracket busting expert friends about this one. I still haven't done any push-ups in hours. At least I've been responding to emails and getting some work done. What a great day to work from home.

4:47pm
Now we're on to something. The day's first really competitive day that I get to see in its entirety. The battle of the super freshman: Michael Beasley of Kansas State vs. O.J. Mayo of USC. I've got the big fella. Mayo seems like alot of hype so far. It's a good thing I showered at the gym this morning, because I might still be wearing the same clothes from last night. I can do this though. It's the home stretch. I can't feel my left foot, but I'm going to gut it out.

6:05pm
K-State is pulling away just like I thought they would so now they've switched over to the Duke game. Coach K is growing nervous over there as the Belmont Bruins (who?)are pushing his Blue Devils to the limit. My gluteus maximus is growing numb from sitting here for so long. If I didn't need to have this laptop on my lap, I'd turn over and lay on my stomach. I wish I could reach that other pillow at the other end of the couch because I'd like to prop my head up and get more comfortable. This is such a hardship. I'm rethinking the decision not to buy that easy chair and that chais lounge. I'm hungry and I haven't taken any food out to cook, not that there's anything in there to cook. Now they're cheating for Duke. These poor guys from Belmont are playing their butts off and now the ref is making calls like that. This is an outrage, but in my horizontal state I'm not motivated to do anything about it. I'm not even going to call anybody and vent. I can't feel my arm anyway since I've been propping my head up with it as I lie on my side.

6:28pm
Duke won. Gerald Henderson's kid made a great play at the end, but its still tainted for me. I have to get up and go to a church service now. I'm really thinking about not shaving and just dropping myself into a suit and going. I'm not happy about missing the real Bruins from UCLA who are set to tip off in about 30 minutes, but I gotta go. They're only playing a 16-seed in Mississippi Valley State and Jerry Rice is not walking through that door so I think they'll be okay. I don't know if I can do this all over again tomorrow. I better rest up. This is hard work.