Jumping on the bandwagon

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog! It seems all the rage recently and I thought to myself "well, I have random thoughts from time to time, perhaps I'll torture everyone with them." Oh and by "everyone" I mean approximately 7 people. Probably Mike and Datts and 5 other people I never talk to on AIM any more but still have me on their buddy lists and check my profile. Maybe Chrissy will read it and not email me. Maybe Dave will read because he's "working" from home and his fantasy teams suck, so he needs something else to do. Who knows. It would be interesting to know how many people check in on this, but I'll probably never know. That means that I'll just be posting just to see myself write (kind of like speaking just to hear your own voice), but that's no different from thinking these things to myself, and hey, it's more fun this way.

While we're on the subject, here are some AIM fun-facts:
- I have 137 names on my buddy list.
- In the past year I have talked to approximately 25 of those names. Probably no more than 10 with any regularity.
- There are 3 that I flat out can't remember who is associated with them.
- There are so many multiple names (ex: 1 person, 3 names) that I don't feel like counting.
- There are 12 names that I think I have on my list but have never spoken to.
So, why bother? Because it beats awkwardly short phone conversations, that's why!

And finally, what would my first ever blog post be without mentioning sports. This past Saturday, I went to my third ever Red Sox/Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. My first was April of 2001, I believe, with Dave, Eric, Karin, Sarah and Natalie. While the Red Sox lost that game, at least Sarah entertained us all by spitting sunflower seeds onto the back of the man sitting in front of her. The second was, according to Mike, in 2003. I can't for the life of me remember everyone who was there, but I'm sure at least Mike, Todd and Karin were involved. I would imagine Rob and Alita too. Anyways, the Sox lost that game too, 2-1, with the only run coming on a Manny Ramirez home run. This was also the day that the Patriots lost to the Bills 31-0 in their season opener, a week after releasing Lawyer Milloy. I was taping the game, but there was a dude in the row behind us listening to the game on a walkman who spoiled the score - though in retrospect he saved me from spending two hours watching that debacle. Little did we know the Pats would recover just fine, go 14-2 and roll to their second Super Bowl win. But I digress. Coupled with a Sox loss to the Yankees at Fenway one year, they were 0-3 in Red Sox/Yankees matchups I had been to.

This particular game we (Kristin, Adam, Mike, Jen and Roy) went to, however, was a very good one. Josh Beckett pitched well, but not well enough that we weren't a little nervous at times. It was a long game, but a good one that the Sox won. I was pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm (and, for that matter, number) of Red Sox fans at the game. Everyone who had bought tickets back in June (like us) showed up to the game as if the team weren't all but mathematically eliminated. When David Ortiz came to the plate in the first inning and was booed loudly by the Yankee fans, there were enough Sox fans there to start a legit "MVP" chant. There was a solid "Let's go Red Sox chant" later in the game too, that was weakly contested and never really drowned out. If you're a Yankee fan, you HAVE to drown that chant out, there's no excuse for that. I thought the Yankees fans put on a pretty weak performance. Other Yankee fans that I've told this tend to respond the same way - that the game was meaningless - but I thought about it and came to this conclusion: you've got to be kidding me! You have a big lead but you have a chance to eliminate your archrival from the playoffs if you win 3 of 4 games over the weekend, and this isn't exciting? Red Sox fans would drool at the chance of going to games in that position! The Yankee fans apathy was justly rewarded when they dropped 3 of 4 and still haven't sealed the deal. It's coming, of course, but I still contend that was a weak performance by their fans.

Ok, I'm going to wrap up my first post. This is probably longer than will be usual, but we'll see. Please feel free to comment or send me a message or email regarding my posts, and let me know what you would like to hear more or less of. Thanks for reading!