Well, that didn't last long.

I know, you're probably thinking, "Wow, that whole post-a-day thing lasted exactly a week."

But I have a good excuse: Remember that movie, "Dead Hunt"? (Well, you will when it comes out on DVD and you see it - trust me!) This weekend we wrapped up the primary shooting (except for a couple of days for a few scenes) and it was really a lot of fun - but I wasn't online, and thus, no blog.

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see the post called "Why Ann Marie Barbour kicks ass" below.)

So, considering Friday night I spent more time in the car than in anything vaguely resembling a bed, followed that with the rest of a whole night's sleep, and then suffered from a caffeine overdose last night (keeps me awake for the drive home, then keeps me awake when I get home...) I'm a little too wiped out for a really good entry.

So you'll get a random observation, and a small, strange story. Then I'm going to get the first decent night's sleep I've had in a while. After I play some Gran Turismo.

First, the random observation - among the many tolls I've paid between Hillsborough/Newark and Baltimore/Timonium/Annapolis, I've reached the conclusion that Delaware has the most attractive female toll collectors. I saw several pretty, fairly young women at toll booths over the past few months (frankly, the first I've ever seen at any toll booths), and all of them worked at the same toll plaza on I-95, the one at the Delaware/Maryland line. Not quite sure what to make of it, except that maybe I should have gone to the University of Delaware.

And the story: There I am, at 1 a.m. Monday morning, driving through Princeton at the end of my long trip home, when I get pulled over by a Princeton police officer. Now, I'm just awake enough to be pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong, and just tired enough to find myself wondering if I ran a stop sign or something - that's a looooooooong wait when the cops have that bright light shining into your car and you're sitting there waiting for Mr. Officer to amble up to your window; I'm pretty sure they do that to scare the crap out of you.

So the officer ambles up, gets the license and registration, etc., and I sort of befuddledly (is that a word?) asked him if I'd done anything wrong, thinking the entire time of the scene in "Dave" when Dave, driving the First Lady around, makes a left at a no-left-turn intersection.

Did I run a stop sign, as I feared? Was I speeding, perhaps? I had passed the officer driving fairly close behind a fairly slow-moving car in what I would guess is a 25 zone.

Nope, turned out the light that illuminates the license plate on my car had burned out (after 125,000 miles and five years, I might point out, possibly making it the most durable part on my entire Mitsubishi). He let me off with a verbal warning (thank you, Officer, if you're reading this!), especially when I told him the most coincidental thing: I had an appointment at the dealer this morning anyway, to get my oil changed and tires rotated.

Maybe I'll make my next post about the perils of buying a car in the first year of a redesign. Of all the grief my "Baby" has put me through, I get pulled over for a burned-out microbulb. Figures.

One more thought before naptime: North Carolina State upset defending champion Connecticut in the NCAA tournament, and my co-workers are all mystified why I'm so enthused, despite the fact I had UConn winning in my (very poorly chosen) pool.

Simple: When March Madness rolls around, a guy who went to a Division III school has precious little to root for, unlike, say, all the journalists from that factory up in Syracuse. Except, Carnegie Mellon produced, among its more famous alumni, Holly Hunter.

She, of course, is very short and so has nothing to do with the NCAA tournament. But a lesser-known CMU alum has plenty to do with it.

He's Herb Sendek, the coach of N.C. State.

Carnegie Mellon, by the way, last I heard from my buddy MTC, was in the D-III equivalent of the NIT (which is better than they ever did when I was there, doing the sports editor thing). Unfortunately, MTC went on vacation, and when I finally got around to looking, they'd already lost. Too bad. Still, a great season, no doubt! Funny, I only had the minimum of school pride, mostly in the soccer teams, which I covered, but I found myself caught up in MTC's enthusiasm - he still works there, in the Intramural department.

I'll have to tell the story about how I got back in contact with MTC later, too. It's a "small world" kind of deal. You'll like it. And it comes with a good story about a bench-clearing brawl in IM football!

Links:
Timewarp Films
A little about the Delaware Turnpike
The Princeton Borough police department
CMU men's basketball
CMU intramurals
N.C. State men's basketball
Coach Herb Sendek

I know, that's a lot of links, but you're talking to a guy who got an Arthur Miller "Crucible" reference into a slasher film script. I like those kinds of connections.