Check out Joe Staley's most recent rookie diary entry where he discusses his visit from mom, holiday shopping, funny stories (to him anyhow), and the Bengals.
So my mom is in town, as she promised. She flew in Friday night, and so I made a very brief appearance, showing off my sweater vest at the team's Holiday Party, and then proceeded to pick her up at San Jose airport.
It's always really good to see my mom. We have the same sense of humor so we always just laugh and laugh. We talked till about 12:30 in the morning, just catching up on life in Michigan. As I predicted, she was impressed that I have kept my apartment cleaned.
But, while I was at practice on Saturday, she really, really cleaned everything – dusted, swept, and mopped. I only do those things some times, so it was sparkling, spanking clean when I got home.
We spent some time that afternoon in the area where I've been browsing for a new house to buy. We actually found a house that I really, really like and want to buy, but it's so much. I'm content living in an apartment so I'm wrestling with do I really want to spend that much money on a house, versus knowing it's a complete waste to keep paying rent.
I still haven't come to a conclusion one way or the other.
I have gotten confirmation from my friend that he's moving out here for sure in either May or August depending on if he gets this internship he's applying for out here. He's one of my best friends so if he moves out here, I won't be as bored as I have been lately. So, great news on that front.
We played the game on Sunday, and lost obviously. I was pumped up though in that game. We came out in the first half just kind of feeling our way out, which is something you can't do. At half time, I was like screw it, I'm going to just go play crazy, talk trash, and do whatever I needed to do to get my head completely in the game. I even almost got in a fight with one of their defensive ends but the refs broke it up.
It was really scary when Trent Dilfer went down. I had never had anything like that happen in a game before and so I was really worried about him. It's good to know that he's doing alright.
Shaun Hill came in and did a fabulous job. He moved the offense well and made good reads. He showed confidence out there and we didn't feel like we missed a beat.
After the game my mom and my good friend went out to dinner in Palo Alto, and then went to shop for books at Borders. My mom is a librarian so she always is looking for new books. We watched the Amazing Race that night, which is a show that my mom really wants us to do together. I really think we could get on the show because we'd be very entertaining, although we probably wouldn't win it. I promised her if it's still on when I'm done playing ball that I'll do it with her.
I found this great video of game of NC State playing Maryland. There's a penalty, and the ref comes up and says, "Personal Foul, #68 offense. He was giving him the business."
I made sure to send that one over to Adam Snyder and now we constantly say that to each other at practice and laugh hysterically.
My mom and I drove around on Tuesday, headed down to Carmel, which was a great chance to sightsee.
I have a holiday list but I haven't gotten started yet. I usually don't do it until the final week and this year, I'm just going to be even later because my family is going to wait for me to come home after the season to celebrate. I'm a big believer of getting people what they want. I don't try to get creative.
I also seem to always manage to overlook at least two people who I really should buy gifts for. At the same time, I'll end up getting gifts for someone who doesn't give me a gift and then it's awkward for them. I haven't figured out how to get around that whole thing yet.
A funny and random story, but one time in third grade, it was my birthday party and all of my friends were into car models. I hated all of that stuff, and so my buddy and I were on the bus back to my house and he had a gift for me for my party that day. I kept asking him what he got me, and he wouldn't tell me so I just said "Well, I hope it's anything but a car model." Sure enough, it was a car model and I pretended like I liked it but I think he was pretty disappointed in me. I guess it's not a surprise that we didn't stay friends.
Anyhow, I'm over the rookie wall at this point and I actually feel energized which is good.
It'll be a short week for us since we play on Saturday. I have two ex-teammates from my freshman and sophomore year who play for the Bengals. One is on IR and one is their starting center, so it'll be good to see him. It would be even better to beat them which is what we'll prepare for this week.
