I am a bad person

Yes, it's true. I'm mean and petty and emotional.

So.

The Red Sox were down 3 games to 1 in the best-of-7 ACLS playoffs. The game started at 8 pm last night. I opened the Zweigelt. I made the chicken wings. (Odd combination, I know, but it seems to work its mojo). I put on my Red Sox tank top. (It has to be the tank top - not even my Mikey Lowell jersey - but the tank top). I was good to go. But no one else in my family was. DH was busy trying to fix a fan in one of our computers and hadn't even changed out of work clothes. Q was watching some silly Discovery Channel documentary. E was playing with Littlest Pet Shop toys. I persisted. The Sox fell behind. I emailed virtual sorrow-drinks with J. I demanded that everyone else in my family start contributing. DH just laughed at me. E ignored me. I demanded that she use her powers. She still ignored me. I was M.A.D.

When the Sox were losing 7-0, I'd had enough. I was quite childish. I stormed through the house yelling at people. E still refused to use her powers. (Heh - you know when you joke about something, but only mostly joke?) I drank too much of the Zweigelt and fell asleep. Stupid baseball. Stupid superstitions. Stupid everything.

Headlines this morning:

"One of the best comebacks ever"
"Biggest postseason comeback in 79 years"
"...historic...wild, whacky, wonderful"
"NOW do you believe?"

For the love of Pete.

I didn't make coffee for DH this morning as usual as a form of punishment. I'm not sure exactly why I'm punishing him, but it feels right. I TOLD you I'm a mean person.

what works for us

re: the Red Sox win last night in the first game of the ALCS versus the Tampa Bay Devi... er, the Tampa Bay [silence] Rays, and in the series versus the Angels last week

1) Austrian wine (Zweigelt)
2) Hot chicken wings
3) I wear my Red Sox tank top, DH wears his jersey
4) I drift in and out of sleep in the 9th inning (This is not something I PLAN to do or want to do, but I just can't stay up!

We'll do our best to continue the trend tonight.

PS to Kira: Despite the animosity between Red Sox Nation/Coco and the Rays, I actually like them. It's just that we're PLAYING them, so I've got to be snotty.

Yay!!!

A few days late, but we're in the playoffs!!!!

1) My boyfriend, the injured man in white in the middle, is being doused by champaign. Mikey, you are my superhero boyfriend (tm: J). I can't wait to see you and your torn whatchamacallit hip in the playoffs. If you pull any more superhero antics, I might just come kidnap you, or faint. One or the other.

2) Petey - little man on the ground...jeez. I want YOU at my next party.

3) Jacoby. (the one in the black vest taking it seriously in the back right.). My son wants to BE you. Seriously. Keep it up. You're allowed to loosen up a bit, though, when you've clinched. Enjoy, son, enjoy!!!

photos

I uploaded a few more pictures from our New England vacation to Flickr. If you click on my "Random Sights" link to the right it'll take to you my account. Once there, click on the New England vacation set, (or go to my photostream and click on the set from there).
They're not in any particular order.

launch

The alarm is set to 4 am. Suitcases are packed. Roxy has been banished to solitary confinement for the duration at the local vet. I've asked DH about 20 times whether the Red Sox tickets are in his bag. (I'm well beyond merely annoying him.) We're off for Beantown in the morning.

I've got my fabulous new camera and DH's laptop so I'll post photos along the way. In the meantime, look for us in the bleacher seats on Wednesday night. I'll be wearing the 25 Lowell jersey.

just a day short...

Oh Manny, Manny, Manny.



You are the best. Just wish it had been yesterday.
I know, I ask too much.

Yay!

finally a win on the road

We saw this game last night!

Something to note: this game was 13 innings. That's thirteen. Most baseball games are 9. This one went 4 1/2 hours (finished around midnight). Another thing to note: this is the first year we opted out of renting a hotel room by the stadium and planned to drive home after the game. 3 1/2 hour drive. But that's without a flat tire on the interstate. We pulled into our driveway around 4 am.

At the Babe Ruth and the
Camden Yards Sports Museums:

But it worth it! I was convinced Manny was going to hit his 500th homer there. 1) It was his birthday. 2) I was there. 3) He had something like 6 (or 7?) chances with a THIRTEEN inning game. 4) We toured the Babe Ruth museum before the game and were looking at the 500 HR wall of fame. Q noticed a very prominent blank space, just ready for the picture and caption. It had to be a sign. But no, Manny was busy being Manny. (You should have seen the flashes that rippled across the stadium every time he was at bat. It was pretty exciting. How much fun when he does hit it!!! Maybe today?)



And can I say that my boyfriend was awesome? Stealing 2nd AND 3rd??? Mikey!! And key hits and awesome, flawless fielding. I guess that contract extension is looking like it was a pretty.good.deal.

Sitting where we were - right down the 3rd base line, here's what I saw of him most of the night. (I'm not complaining)
















And we got to see Josh Beckett pitch! One very.cool.thing was watching him warm up. He was positioned right beside us in the outfield, looking directly at us. Through the binoculars, it was like I was right there batting.


And we got to see Paps close it out in the bottom of the 13th!! No jigs. No autograph either. My kids were too busy eating dippin' dots to join the crowd that he was signing balls for. (I nearly exploded when I came back from getting a beer and saw them.) E did snag an autograph on her ball from Aardsma to add to her collection though.

Fun game. Time for a nap.

crossing my fingers

If the planets stay aligned just right, it looks like it may turn out that when we go up to Baltimore on Friday to see our boys, this guy might be pitching .

I just may pass out from the excitement. We'll be on the 3rd base side, close to my boyfriend, and my firey Texas let 'em have it friend might be pitching. If we can assure that Jacoby will be in Center Field (or right or left or whatever), I'll have to enter Camden Yards with ankle weights attached.

don't even try to dissect this

Here's my dream from last night.

The setting was outdoors in bleachers, kind of like this:


(Yes I spent time searching the web for the "right" bleachers. It was important to the dream). We were all sitting in a group on the left side, waiting. I was with the Red Sox. (yep). Apparently, I was selected to be in some kind of group to try out. There was first going to be an exhibition game that the Sox played, in which some of us would be called in to show our stuff. I did not expect that I would be in this elite group of wannabes. Afterwards, however, we were going to practice with them, using the (Dah Dah Dah DAAAAAH) Kite Four. (Everyone was dutifully impressed that we were going to have that opportunity. I was then, as I am now, totally clueless). So, the real Red Sox players were hanging out together at the bottom of the bleachers while I was sitting toward the back with the rest of the newbies. There were, oh I don't know - some people from work, some friends, and several that I didn't know. The only exchange I remember was with someone I know from work who joked with me about being there to gawk. I was HIGHLY miffed. "I'm Trying OUT!!!" I retorted in my most patronizing fashion, effectively shutting her up for the rest of the night. (This bit was entirely consistent with my relationship with this person).

The thing was, though, that we sat there a long time. We were all getting restless. And I had to pee. I knew that I wasn't going to be called into the game because I wasn't good enough, but I did NOT want to miss practice with the (Dah Dah Dah DAAAAH) Kite Four. But I really really had to pee. I finally jumped up and threw off my shoes (apparently this is what you do in my personal dreamworld when you have to pee) and ran to the bathroom. Of course, when I got back, the game was over and the team and all the newbies had left for (Dah Dah Dah DAHHH) Kite Four practice.

At this point, I was all anxiety and confusion and frustration as I tried to find my shoes and socks to start to search out the rest of the team. I couldn't find my socks. Anywhere. I went running barefoot through the grass looking for the group. I finally found them (The real Red Sox, that is). I remember running up behind Mike Lowell and noticing that he had this nifty socks carrier on his back, under his shirt, as did the rest of the team. "AH!! I thought. So THAT'S why they never lose their socks!!!!

someone's been busy this winter

Holy workout Baseball-batman!!

hummina hummina. He didn't look like that last year.

for love of dreary

It's a great morning here. It's raining. I love dark, gray days with constant rain. I know that in some way holds a clue to my personality, but exactly what that is, I don't know. It rained gently all night last night, too. I had a full bed, and that's with DH on the couch. Both kids and the dog were cuddled up with me. After yesterday, there was no way E was going to sleep anywhere but pressed right up beside me. It was cozy and wonderful and I have a very small little girl who (usually) loves her mom very much. I'm taking it while I can.

Last night, after a dinner out at Outback, we all four settled down to watch dinosaur documentaries on the high def Discovery Channel. Once the kids went to bed, DH and I "watched" (i.e., punctuated by drifting in and out of sleep) pieces of Cast Away, which I'd never seen before. Can I say "Wow?" I'm going to watch it again without the drowsiness. From what I saw, it was a powerful comment on silence. The thread of life is there for all of us, somewhere in our silence, but it's easy to lose it in our own self-fashioned lives. May be that's the reason that I love dreary rainy days. When you are forced to be still for a moment and let the clutter and costuming fall away, you see that - you're still here. I've written and rewritten many comments about this this morning, but I've deleted them all because it just sounds so silly and cluttered. Best to leave it as it is - in stillness and silence.

In other news, we got our Fenway tickets in the mail this week!!! DH and I have been trying to decide the best cable sports package to buy to see as many games as possible, and have been dreaming of sitting out in the hot tub (which remains to be researched and bought) with the XM radio listening to games. Bring it on.

hoo-rah

Happy happy joy joy!

It looks like I'm going to get to see my bb boyfriend AT HOME this year. Boston, here we come...


I won't go into the absolute pain in the ASS it was to finally get the tickets. But thanks to DH who kept up staring at the multiple browsers in the virtual waiting room after I finished my 6 HOUR session with it, and thanks to awesome friends up in Boston doing the same thing, I think we've ended up with enough tics for three families being able to go and sit semi-near each other. It'll be way way way out in the outfield, but then again, so will he be (hopefully):


It was a nice thing to come home to tonight after 6 hours of talking to Girl Scouts about clouds and weather and using inclinometers to measure the height of something. Me feet were screaming and I was tired of pulling cotton balls into tiny pieces (we were making clouds and they didn't leave us NEARLY enough supplies for the hoards of girl scouts that descended upon us!!!) But I did it for my daughter, and also, I digress. We're talking about my boys.

We also got some tickets for a Friday night game in Baltimore this May. We'll have to pull the kids out of school for that but it's IMPORTANT. Besides, I really really love Camden Yards. What a nice stadium!

Plus, I'm hearing noises about watching the Boys with a generator on the beach up New England-way. (We're up for that, J!!!!) Now THAT would be awesome.

I'm ready for summer. How long??

my new boyfriend

I just have to post this. J has let me know that I can call Mikey Lowell my baseball boyfriend. Having nothing else to do on the day after Thanksgiving, like say, clean the house or finish the laundry, I came across this posted on youtube (just yesterday?). Awesome. Fun! He's such a classy guy, and that's why he's my new baseball boyfriend. His contribution to the team goes beyond 3B fielding or batting averages - the team wants/needs him there to keep them grounded. They were quite vocal about that too. He's a stabilizing influence - the ultimate teammate. This is a case where finding the exact right team mix includes more than simply HRs or RBIs and includes finding the chemistry that keeps them fighting on as a team.
It's a moot point, anyway because in case you haven't heard, he'll be back! Enjoy... (He's number 25)