So.
Here it is, 7:53pm and I’m finally ready to experience the Kentucky Derby.
Here’s the thing: I was teaching till mid-afternoon. I knew, if I pushed it, that I could get home in time to watch the Derby live via webcast. I mean, I have no idea if there’s an authorized webcast, but if there isn’t there’s a guy streaming it to YouTube as it happens anyway, so there. And I figured that, of the many, many livecasts that would take place, at least some of them would still be around when I got around to getting there.
You see?
So, there I was in class, and there class was, dismissed, and there I sat and sat and sat, for lo, the woman with the keys failed to manifest until I called her at home and got her to trundle down and lock the door behind me some measurable length of time after class ended, so I’ve had a merry afternoon of posting to the forum, answering email, and playing Garbage really, really loudly.
And there are few better ways to spend an afternoon, actually.
But. At some point I got home and started anticipating the Kentucky Derby, which was over by that point. At first, I was sad, because it was already over; then I realized it was only over as far as millions of strangers were concerned, but not for me. And I’m an eogist egoist. And, apparently, a drunk.
For me, the derby won’t be over till I’ve seen it. And commented on my homies’ blogs: with-malice and theaspiringhorseplayer.
And so, with that in mind, I’ve been tanking up on the Mint Juleps and posting to the technical forum (apparently i develop a fondness for the term ‘sweetie’ when I am being both condescending and drunk) until I’m good and ready to watch the race.
Which I shall do now.
raincoaster 
Jesus.
Fucking.
Christ.
I wish I hadn’t done that. I haven’t been this depressed since they shot Ruffian.
Yes you called a white supremacist sweetie on the WP forum. Just saw a photo of after the race. revolting. The Melbourne cup is the big race in Australia, work stops to watch it while people drink champagne. I stopped doing that after I saw a horse trying to run with a shattered leg.
And that’s why it’s important to leave the sports blogging to the pros.
Oh, I MEANT to lay the “Sweetie” on him. Why is it that white supremacists are all so inferior? As a white person, I find it so, so embarassing.
And yes, I’m sure glad I wasn’t trying to liveblog it. What a waste.
I cried so much I couldn’t eat dinner. I want you to appreciate just how momentous that statement is.
(Hi, btw :))
Welcome back.
It was a true tragedy. This Derby will go down in history, but for the wrong reasons. I hope that this changes the way tracks are made and groomed once and for all, and also the way horses are bred and trained. She had a full career as a two-year-old, whereas Big Brown only raced once at two, and is going strong.
I’m so glad I didn’t see it live, now that I think about it. I am not sure I could bear it. The still photos are hard enough. Poor girl, she didn’t understand what was going on.
Btw, what’s happened to timethief?
Oh, man, that was ugly. Remember what happened to Dr. Mike? Well, this was similar except it basically came out of the blue. Matt resurrected an old thread and posted to it that she’d better take some time off (in typical “voice from on high” kind of words). She was kind of shocked, since she hadn’t posted to that thread in weeks, and hadn’t been doing anything at all weird or angry in the forums. She really had not. Then Automattic sort of battened down and locked her out of the forums. There were problems with her blogs all of a sudden. It got really ugly.
She’s still around, at http://onecoolsite.wordpress.com and her personal blogs, of course. She’s hard to kill!
Yeah, I live in Louisville, and let me tell you-People were in a horrible mood around here after the Derby. I mean people are usually hungover after the derby around here (basically the whole town at once, if you can imagine) but with everyone also having to watch a death on a day that’s supposed to be happy…it’s been pretty depressing for the past week or so.
Merlot drunks are a lot worse than mint julep drunks the day after.
I wonder if this is the first Derby death? It is supposed to be such a light-hearted occasion. The poor girl, it’s not even as if she were one of those steroid-enhanced meat wagons on toothpicks; when they break down everyone sees it coming.
Incidentally, a mint julep hangover is not nearly as bad as it should be, if you use San Pellegrino instead of plain soda. No idea why, but I’ve filed it away for future reference.