January 25, 2005
Sports, TV, Comics, Birthday Boys

   *sigh* So much for my beloved Steelers this season. Maybe I've been punished for being a fair-weathered fan all these years. I'm hardly an expert, but when it became apparent that The Patriots had a strategy to shut down Bettis on Sunday, Pittsburgh should've changed tactics. So close, and yet so far.

   I had hoped Pittsburgh would've won, as retribution for losing to NE on January 27, 2002. What really smarted then was that particular game caused me to lose a gentlemanly wager with a guy named Mark!

   Back then, at the CG compound, I was feeling overly smug that Pittsburgh would crush New England, and Mark was a hardcore New England fan. Instead of money, we agreed to bet original art pages. At the time, I was inking Greg Land on Sojourn. Mark had first refusal rights to purchase pages when the art was returned, and Greg was his number one boy and bought most 'money shot' pages he drew. (When I quit Sojourn, it put a major dent in my pocketbook, art sales-wise, but I would've gone insane if I stayed on the book, so it was a tradeoff. Some could say that I lost on both accounts!).

   Had I won this wager, Mark would pay double the standard price for a Sojourn page from my inker's share of the art. If he won, he'd get a page from me for free. Well, when the time came to give him a page, he was actually nice about it and took a page that had only backgrounds, the kind you usually can't give away. See? Old wounds are healing nicely, thanks for asking...

   Let's not forget that The Steelers had an amazing season and deserve a lot of props for all they've accomplished. Do kids still say 'props'? I may have to brush up on my street lingo. Never know when I may have to use it at Home Depot, Bennigans or Bed, Bath and Beyond!

   I swear, every time I see commercials for 'The Simple Life", I feel as though I've lost more unrecoverable brain cells than if I'd drunk a case of Fosters! I fear what would happen if I had long-term exposure to that show. It makes an MTV beach party look like The McLaughlin Group!

   Speaking of swearing, I swore I wasn't going to get caught up in the new season of The Apprentice, but, thanks to CNBC's reruns on Fridays, I got sucked into it again. This season has a very intriguing twist: One team has college degrees, and the other team only have High School diplomas. What I initially thought would be a crass concept seems to be playing out as an actual case study of book-smart results and street-smart results. No matter who wins in the end, it may well be an education in itself.

   My birthday's coming up again, and I've never really made a fuss about it. In fact I have my annual checkup with my eye doctor scheduled then, and didn't think twice about it. I never feel any different, or reflect on being another year older. The day I turned 21, it didn't even occur to me that I could run out to drink alcohol at a bar. Must've been new comics day at the store or something. I never make special plans for my birthday.

   Well, that's not entirely true. For my 30th, I threw a huge party with 20-odd guests and spent a small fortune on food & spirits, because it was a great excuse to get together with friends we'd promised to see more of. A freelancer typically lives a more of a hermit's existence than I'd like, so throwing parties occasionally forces my hand to reunite with the human race.

   Unfortunately, the time is not ripe to tell you of my next project. In typical Drew fashion, I jumped the gun last week by teasing it. Nonetheless, I'm very excited about these new opportunities around the corner.

   Greg Land's birthday is around the same time as mine, so this weekend, we'll be our celebrating with our wives, who've remained good friends since our move to Florida. The art team of Land and Geraci may never work together again, but we get along better because of it. Life is funny...
 
To be continued...
 
All characters & their images are property of their respective copyright holders. All original content (c) Drew Geraci. Please request permission before reprinting or reposting elsewhere.