Playing holiday catchup
Got a little lazy trying to blog while at home for the holidays, so it's time to open up the notebook ...
• Not a whole lot to report from my trip home, although I did make a couple of trips to New York to see some friends. I did finally see the World Trade Center site. It was very eerie pulling into the reopened PATH train station at the site and realizing where you are when you see this giant concrete canyon where there's constant construction. There was a lot museum-like displays on the fences surrounding the site, otherwise you might think it was just a huge construction project in lower Manhattan, as strange as that sounds. Of course, there were all the requisite tourists around, although thankfully there weren't a lot of people mugging for the camera in the area (as one of my colleagues told me she saw).

• One thing I realize I miss during my trips to New York is the mentality that walking can actually get you from place to place. It doesn't seem like a chore to walk about 15-20 blocks, especially in good weather, yet a similar trip by foot in Atlanta (in similar weather) seems like the Bataan Death March. I think I'm more spoiled here with a car, and it does skew your vision of how far things can be.

• Is there a rule that the airlines want you to wait at the airport as long as your flight is supposed to take? It was somewhat bizarre to see about 15-20 people (including myself) on my flight back to Newark waiting in line 2 1/2 hours before a flight because AirTran wasn't ready to check them in (they had to process an earlier flight first). So much for getting to the airport three hours early. And to add insult to injury, our flight out was delayed nearly an hour because of a chain of events that links back to too much air traffic from small planes in Florida.

• I was happy to see Northwestern keep up with Bowling Green in the Motor City, and I suppose it felt inevitable Josh Harris would pull out the victory, guaranteeing his wife would get the Brenda Warner/Sarah Wood/Elisabeth Hasselbeck TV treatment. Plus, trying to win the game on Brett Basanez's arm was just asking for trouble.

• OK, I understand I'm one of about five people who cared about the Motor City (but not enough to go to Detroit), but I guess that's what makes bowl season interesting -- nearly half of the Division I-A teams have at least one more game to care about. Also, the inner gambler in me comes out at this time thanks to the bowl pools/contests I'm in, even if there is no money on the line. Why else would I still be up caring about the Silicon Valley Classic?

• That Cardinals-Vikings ending was one of the craziest I've ever seen. Our reaction in the office after it happened was priceless, especially from the Packers fan sitting next to me. Props to former NU star Damien Anderson for recovering the onside kick to set up the winning score.

• Why do I feel like I'll be much happier when the holiday season is over and it's back to business as usual? Christmas was nice and all with the family, but very low-key. And New Year's looks to be the same, except that it seems like I will be spending it with me, myself and I. Seems fitting, I think.