It's sad, so sad. It's a sad sad situation and it's getting more and more absurd.

The title/lyric today comes from my favorite Elton John song Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, lyrics by Bernie Taupin. Click on the title to go see Elton's colorful website.

I had a pretty good night once I decided to stop doing what I had planned...

I take it all back and I'm done tryng to seek hope where none is identifiable.

The Green Bay Packers lost to the BALTIMORE RAVENS 48-3 on Monday Night Football!

Samkon Gado, Green Bay's eleventh running back of the season got hurt early, Brett Favre threw two more interceptions, and Aaron Rodgers replaced him at quarterback in the third quarter. The Baltimore Ravens have only won four games this season, well now five, having beaten such standouts as Cleveland, NY Jets, and Houston, and here they were on primetime TV whupping my Pack. I read all this by the way, becaue I turned off the TV with six minutes to go in the first quarter when it was 14-0. I didn't need to see it.

It's amazing to me how much sports changes peoples moods, perhaps we're too into our teams. Yesterday a ton of people acted like someone had died around here when Indy lost for the first time this season. Anybody that knows anything about football will tell you it's better to lose one game now than go into the playoffs undefeated. Ask Don Shula. Mike Ditka's 85 Bears got beat once, at about this time in the season and then destroyed everybody they met throughout the playoffs. So confident was that team they immortalized themselves with the SUperbowl Shuffle, a truly wretched rap that all copies of should be burnt. Something tells me we won't see a Colts Shuffle, although I'd be interested in seeing Peyton Manning's dance moves.

So as we've known since week four the Pack will not be playing in the playoffs and I predict lose by three touchdowns the next two weeks, shattering my once rational argument that they weren't that bad. I will now start rooting for the best matchups as we move into the playoffs. I'm looking forward to a Colts-Patriots playoff game and maybe a Colts-Bengals shootout to see who represents the AFC in the Superbowl. I feel inclined to root for Seattle headed into the Superbowl, as Mike Holmgren and Matt Hasselback were both once Packers. I hope Washington and Tampa Bay make the playoffs and Dallas and Minnesota don't. I think we'll be surprised by how good the Superbowl is unless the Giants represent the NFC, because I think they're pretenders and I hope that Pittsburgh gets put out of their misery because we all know what they do under Bill Cowher in the Superbowl when given the chance-they get their ass beat. I hope Denver loses by a lot. I hope the Bears play the Seahawks for the NFC championship. I hope San Francisco gets the first draft pick and chooses Reggie Bush. I hope Green Bay drafts some defenders and signs some linemen. I hope Brett Favre doesn't retire.

My mom relayed to me that she saw an interview with Favre last week where he said something to the effect of 'you have good seasons and bad. I've had a lot of good seasons and I hope that's how people remeber me.' I'm not willing to say he should retire. I don't think he should. But for the love of Pete can the Packers seriously consider trying to build a team of players? They're horrible.

I feel better having ranted. I'm a Indiana Hoosiers basketball fan so there could be dark nights ahead. My baseball team seems to have gotten its act together, although Frank Thomas will probably be an Oakland Athletic next year. Uggh!

It's little things that make life worthwhile in the midst of imagined chaos and real drama.

I sure would've liked if the Pack coulda won tonight. It'd be nice if my team was good and my rooting for them not useless. But in reality the time I spent not watching them produced a blogpost that friends will read and allowed me to call some friends I don't talk to enough.

In that way the Packers getting blown out was a blessing to me. It's probably worth saying that all the times we think something's gone terribly wrong an unexpected new opportunity presents itself.

Have a stressless holiday season or at least try, and all those times it seems to not be going right, trust that it's going exactly like it should.