Ugh - today was not a good day, you guys. Woke up late & hungover, missed the bus, slogged through the rain to class, and my take-out dinner order got messed up to boot.
Luckily, when I got home, I noticed my Christmas cactus was budding, I had a nice email from one of my dates last night, and I found the above picture on my friend Shawn's Myspace page. Shawn is a dear old friend & middle school ex-boyfriend. ;) He's lived in Cali since 2000 & the picture is from the summer of '01 or '02. I flew out west to visit both my sister & him. The shot was taken on the pier at Santa Barbara.
I'm in Portland, ME for a conference over the next few days. Therefore, I will continue to suck at NaBloPoMo, since I won't be able to post tomorrow or Thursday. Ah well, as Susie said, at least we're trying!
The first of many on Mondays, I would guess. ;)I've got a ton of reading to do before class, but wanted to post this photo from New York. I was looking through my NYC photos last night & I think this is one of my favorites. My best friend lives in the city, so I get to visit her there a few times a year.The photo is of St. John the Divine Cathedral & the featured statue in its gardens. It was taken on December 31st of last year. I just love the way the form of the statue complements & contrasts with the structure of the cathedral. Click on it to make it bigger - it helps with the details. :)
I did so much better last year! This year, I signed up (here), panicked because I have a lot of work to do this month, tried to cancel/remove my name from the blogroll, couldn't remember how to, and gave in. ;) I missed the second & third days, so I won't be eligible for any prizes. But hey - I'm going to plunge back in & re-commit myself.
Right now, I'm home in my pj's, watching the Pats game, drinking a Harpoon Octoberfest & trying to get some reading done for class. I spent the weekend in Boston, visiting friends & family. One of my best friends from high school was home from NYC for the weekend, so I stayed with her at her parents' house. On Friday night, we met up with another of our best friends from high school & her boyfriend for a few drinks. Saturday was a lazy day spent inside reading, watching movies & drinking red wine.
This morning, I swung by my sister's house with Dunkin' Donuts & had a nice visit with her, her husband, and my nephew. Thing 1 is getting so big now! He'll be 21 months on November 11th, which is still kind of unbelievable to me. After leaving her place, I stopped by my grandfather's for a bit, with an egg & cheese sandwich for his lunch & the Sunday Globe.
In other news, I finally have a dating life again - after six months! But I can't give away all my secrets today - I need fodder for a month's worth of posts! Catch you tomorrow. ;)
Check out Thing 1 above. He was trick-or-treating downtown with his grandparents & parents yesterday. I can't even handle how cute he is in this picture. :)
In more grown-up news, I went out downtown & had a fun time. My grad-school-bosom-buddy was Sam Adams (calf-length pants, white stockings, colonial looking shoes, a white man's shirt & a brown leather vest) & her brother was Clark Kent (blazer, cords, red & blue tie, and white button-down shirt - unbuttoned to show a Superman t-shirt underneath). Once she sends me the picture of she & I dressed up, I'll post it.
1.) Sarah brought up a really important point in the comments of yesterday's post about a possible generation gap between pre-2004/07 Sox fans & post-2004/07 fans. I've been thinking about that topic for awhile now & will write a post about it soon. Thanks for reminding me, Sarah!
2.) After reading this article, I wanted to post about the team's flight home from Denver on Monday. However, Kristen pretty much wrote exactly what I wanted to say, so check her post out! I will post two of my favorite pictures from the flight, of my two Red Sox boyfriends (Ellsbury & Lowell):
Lowell juggling both the MVP trophy & the World Series trophy
Ellsbury asked his teammates to sign his jersey. No, I'm not kidding
you. Is that not the cutest thing you've ever heard in your life?
This was absolutely my favorite moment, when the flatbed truck stopped @ City Hall Plaza. Paps continued his crazy dancing (in a kilt this time!), Timlin joined in enthusiastically, and Okajima gamely gave it a shot. However, he did have a "What the heck is going on?" look on his face. :)
Despite the love that I have for Lowell & Ellsbury and the immense respect that I have for Varitek, there's no denying that Ortiz is the sweetest, most wonderful man on the planet. :) I just love this photo of him.
You guys, I'm still basking in the glow of the Sox win. :)
However, without casting a shadow on the day, I wanted to share an article that nearly boiled my blood. In the wee hours of Monday morning, when NESN's coverage was over & I was digging into the internet's coverage, I found this article on Boston.com. It's by Tim Dahlberg, who is an AP sports writer.
Essentially, the main idea is "with victory comes new risk for Boston. They're not warm and fuzzy anymore, and no longer seem all that lovable." He also compares us directly to the Evil Empire: "Put pinstripes on these Boston Red Sox, move them to the Bronx, and America would have the same love/hate relationship with them as they do with George Steinbrenner's multimillionaire minions."
Humph. I, and I'm sure most of you, strongly disagree. So, as late as it was, this is the response that Mr. Tim Dahlberg got from me:
From: me@myemail.comTo: tdahlberg@ap.org
Date: Oct 29, 2007 2:03 AMSubject: not so warm & fuzzy?I wish I could write a more coherent response to your article about the Red Sox, but it's awfully late and I've been up watching my team win the World Series. That's right - I said "my" team, because that's how Red Sox fans views their players: as family. These guys are our baseball heroes and we maintain faith in them, in Terry, in Theo, and in the owners.
I myself have had some concerns like those you mentioned. I've been worried that Sox fans will come to expect success, like Yankees fans did for so long. I've been worried that having the second highest payroll in the MLB and the freedom to spend that money would lead to some bad decisions (like Gagne may turn out to be). In the end, however, knowing Bostonians and Sox fans like I do (you're not from here, are you, Tim?), I don't think that will happen.
Did you see Mike Timlin and Tim Wakefield on NESN after the game tonight? Timlin praised Wake for stepping down and leaving room for the younger pitchers to start in the series. Wakefield was close to tears at the end. This is who the Red Sox are - good men who work hard at this game and never, ever assume that success is guaranteed. They are a true team and a group of guys who always seem amazed and humbled by the support of their fans.
You can keep your pinstripes in the Bronx, thanks. That's not our thing here in Boston.
Stacey (my last name)
Portsmouth, NH
UPDATE: To his credit, Mr. Dahlberg wrote me back to say, "Hope you enjoyed the parade . . . thanks for writing." So while I still disagree with the point of his article, I'll give him points for politeness.
Ugh - today was not a good day, you guys. Woke up late & hungover, missed the bus, slogged through the rain to class, and my take-out dinner order got messed up to boot.
