Heath's Random Thoughts

Snow, Commuting, and things Basketball.....

Wow, so after getting somewhere around 6 inches of snow last night Chicago is definitely a winter wonderland. Fortunately I take the train so I wasn't part of the commuting nightmare last night. In fact my department had their holiday party at Joe's Bebop cafe at Navy Pier last night. Getting there was an adventure. Even though my building is within spitting distance of the pier the snow was so bad we decided it would not be a good idea to try and walk there. Especially since there was about 4 inches of snow on the sidewalks that hadn't been cleaned off yet. So my manager and I ran around out in front of my building after work trying to flag down a cab that didn't already have people in it. After about 10 minutes of this we finally got one to stop. The party was fun. I got to meet a lot of people in my department that I hadn't be able to talk to before. It seems like a good group of people. After the party three of us were standing out in front of Navy Pier hoping for a cab to pass by and after about 15 minutes of nothing we decided to start walking into the city in hopes of finding one. Well after about 5 blocks of no available cabs my teammate decided she was goning to jump on a bus so after walking her to the bus station I kept trudging on to Linda's place 15 blocks later I finally made it. It wasn't necessarily a bad walk because I was bundled up but wading through ankle deep snow in dress shoes isn't all that comfortable. Anyways, I like the snow enough that it didn't really bother me and it is definitely neat to see all the snow on the ground. We are supposed to get more this weekend but I don't think it will amount to much more. This morning while commuting into work I stuck to the underground pedway to avoid the wind and slush. It was funny walking with all the commuters underground on the way to my building because while I was walking the Dave Mathews Band song "Ants Marching" came on which I thought was appropriate. For those of you who don't know the song, its about people who get up and go through the everyday routine of getting ready for work and communting with all the other people to work each day. Kind of like a line of ants marching.

Well its that time of year again and honestly I didn't think I would be writing much on them but the Illini basketball team is off to another great start! Currently they are 9-0 and have moved from 17th to 10th in the rankings. Considering they lost most of their players from last years awesome team to graduation and the NBA draft, I was expecting a much more mediocre start. I have been very impressed with the new players, especially since most of them are either freshman or didn't see much playing time last year. Don't get me wrong. This team isn't near as pretty to watch as last years team but they are getting it done on defense and the leadership of their 2 seniors. Last night they won a game that was supposed to be closer against the Georgetown Hoyas, whose coach declared Illinois as one team expects to see make a title run this year! That is great feedback to hear considering this team wasn't supposed to contend again for at least another year. Granted the Illini haven't played a lot of big time programs yet but they did pull of a win against #24 North Carolina and beat a very good Georgetown team. If they can win against Oregon this Saturday they could be 14-0 before the Big Ten season even starts! We will see how they do. They still have a lot of work to do. They still turn the ball over a lot and aren't shooting very well. But considering these guys haven't played together much and are still 9-0 they should only get better as the season grinds on. I am not saying they will be 29-1 again but they are looking like the team to beat again in the Big Ten and should be dangerous in March. Go Illini!

posted by Heath @ 11:37 AM