Although my job continues to push my daily life forward at a feverish pace, I’ve recently discovered some gaping holes in other areas of my life. Most noticeably, I’m experiencing withdrawal symptoms from…

College Football
This past Saturday, I sat on the couch for a good 6 hours, flipping channels without rhyme or reason. Something felt different, but I couldn’t quite place it. It was only halfway through the evening, after watching all four quarters of the Youngstown State Penguins playing the Appalachian State Mountaineers for a spot in the Division I-AA playoffs, that I realized what was wrong. I missed college football. Michigan’s season ended three weeks ago, but solid college football excitement continued elsewhere around the country and kept my attention for the two weeks after. But last week’s BCS insanity/debacle/tomfoolery pretty much marked the end of the season. And on Saturday, the strange feeling I was experiencing was a lack of an idea of what to do with all the free time I had. I found myself declining free dinner at my roommate’s girlfriend’s place to watch what was arguably the least entertaining thing to have ever aired on an ESPN channel. I’m pretty nervous about how I will handle the next 9 months. What do non-college-football-fans do with their time on Saturdays?

Taco Bell
I could easily turn this into a 1000-word rant about how you all kicked me while I was down, but I already did that last week. But seriously, like 428 of you sent me articles, emails, IMs, and text messages about the shenanigans taking place at my favorite restaurant. Is anyone else ready for this to end? I’ve gone nine days without my beloved TBell - a streak usually reserved for rare occasions like not being in the country. Its driving me crazy seeing Taco Bell’s name in the news every day, and their continuous advertising makes my cravings flare up like no other. I drove by one today (on my way to Baja Fresh, a decent substitute), and it killed me to see no cars in the parking lot. I almost cried. I have erred on the side of caution and held out for so long, but I don’t know how much longer I can take it. If I don’t go soon, I might die. (Though if I do go, I also might die. Enigma in a conundrum in a paradox of irony and confusion. Wait, what?)

Crack
CrackBerry to be precise. Yes, I know, BlackBerries are for corporate slaves and are the sign of douchiness/douchebaggery and blah blah blah blah. Whatever, I still love mine, and when I woke up Saturday to find out it had crapped out on me, I was crushed. Truth be told, work email is one of the last things I use it for. What I really miss are the things like: finding the exact location of a bar I’ve never been to, being able to quickly check weather, not relying on a sheet of paper for your friends’ numbers (applies to all phone-withdrawal, not just BB), playing games while lying in bed, and most importantly, reading blogs and sports news while on the crapper . Seriously, my temporary replacement phone has no internet browser. I’ll be hitting up the bathroom spot soon (Baja Fresh can be a little greasy) and I’m going to have to print some reading material out. Ugh, how archaic.

On the bright side, the NCAA Bowl games will be fun, Taco Bell will recover, and I will get a new BlackBerry later today. But for now, the pains of withdrawal leave me with nothing but a boring trip to the bathroom.