1.
Drive a wickedly cool car, even if you have to rent it.
DONE

2.
Take your parents to dinner.
DONE

3.
Study Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
LATIN IN COLLEGE, SOMEWHAT DONE


4.
Move into the house of your dreams.
NOT DONE

5.
drive on route 66
DONE

6.
Bowl above a 200 (in one game).
I'M ALTERING THIS TO BOWL ABOVE 100, CONSISTENTLY, SO DONE.

7.
Take a cruise by yourself.
NOT DONE
8.
Be an extra in a movie or TV show
NOT DONE

9.
have sex in a public place
DONE

10.
take a vacation that requires a passport
DONE

11.
Get a tattoo
NOT DONE; I ALWAYS SAID I WOULD GET ONE IF THE RS WON THE WS; MY DAD TRIED TO MAKE ME GO, BUT I'M TOO SCARED OF NEEDLES.

12.
Meet the love of my life
NOT DONE, ALTHOUGH HAVE CERTAINLY HAD LOVES.

13.
get married and have a family
NOT DONE

14.
start an emergency fund
UM, SO NOT DONE

15.
start investing in the stock market
DONE

16.
attend my 10-year high school reunion
NOT DONE, ALTHOUGH I ATTENDED MY DAD'S 20TH.

17.
Get my Master's Degree
NOT DONE

18.
lose weight
I GUESS DONE AT SOME POINT ALTHOUGH NOT PROBABLY ON PURPOSE

19.
go skinny dipping
DONE

20.
get a bikini wax
DONE

21.
Cross stitch something for my own walls
NOT DONE

22.
Read the entire Bible
NOT DONE

23.
Buy a digital camera and a video camera
DONE

24.
get a cell phone
DONE

25.
buy life insurance
MY DAD HAS IT ON ME, SO SOMEWHAT DONE

26.
learn to waltz
KNEW AT ONE POINT

27.
save at least $2,000
DONE

28.
Read 25 books over one summer.
DONE

29.
Spend a day outside all by myself.
DONE

30.
Play the Sims 2 and have a successful family
NOT DONE, SO NOT INTERESTED

31.
Buy something from Hot Topic.
DONE

32.
kiss someone
DONE
33.
Don't use a computer for a week
DONE

34.
Buy new, better looking glasses
NOT DONE

35.
Try scuba diving at least once
NOT DONE (DUE TO VISION PROBLEMS)

36.
bake banana bread
DONE

37.
go to a movie theatre alone
DONE

38.
get a professional massage
DONE

39.
Bike 30 consecutive miles
NOT DONE

40.
Purchase 1 piece of expensive jewelry for myself
DONE, AND IT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY STOLEN.

41.
Own 1 great piece of lingerie
DONE

42.
take a public speaking class
DONE, COLLEGE

43.
get a dog
NOT DONE

44.
Lay on a blanket in the park under the sun
DONE

45.
Go to New York for weekend
NOT DONE

46.
Throw myself a birthday party
DONE

47.
watch the sunrise
DONE

48.
Watch a sunset
DONE

49.
attend a film festival
DONE

50.
get a passport
DONE

51.
be able to fit into my skinny jeans
DONE

52.
watch the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries
DONE

53.
Make a scrapbook
PHOTO ALBUM, I'M NOT A SCRAPBOOKER.

54.
Don’t watch TV for 5 straight days
DONE

55.
Buy a decent hair straightener
DON'T USE HAIR STRAIGHTENERS

56.
Buy a new bikini and feel sexy in it
NOT DONE

57.
Go to a midnight release of a movie
DONE

58.
Be invited to a wedding
DONE

59.
try sushi
DONE

60.
Take a trolley in San Francisco
DONE

61.
read all 7 Harry Potter books
NOT DONE, NOT INTERESTED

62.
Go to the mall of America
DONE

63.
set up a Roth IRA
NOT DONE, DYING AT 58, NO POINT.

64.
Dye my hair an outrageous color
TIFFANY DYED IT ORANGE ON ACCIDENT ONCE.

Paps

I think I am falling in love with Papelbon.

What gets me through the winter

I think that Opening Day is the greatest of all days, hands down. Because it's the day of possibilities, and there's nothing in life like possibility. Embracing what it is that's offered is one thing; opening up and creating something entirely new is another. Sure, Spring Training offers up it's own dreams, but they are almost meaningless, a trial run. It's like trying on an outfit; sure it might look fine in the dressing room, but you never know what it will look like in real life. That outfit might look great in the dressing room, but horrid on the street, a misleading farce of unknown drama. Or the bright lights and misshapen mirrors might distract from the shear simplicity of it all. Either way, you never know what's going to happen until it's out there for real. That's the way everything in life is; you never know what's going to happen until you actually go out and do something. I think that's why I love baseball so much; it's a child's game, a boy's game really, but one that somehow I've embraced as if I was a player myself. There's nothing that can replace that for me. The technicolor fantasyworld in which I dream is richly enhanced by the green of the outfield, the crisp white of the uniforms, the reddish brown of the infield dirt. The crack of the bat, the murmur of the crowd, the crunch of peanuts as ecstatic fans rise to their feet. The warmth of the sun beating down on a spring day, the tingles of excitement and anticipation. The wafting odor of hotdogs combined with that of freshly mowed grass. The taste of mustard mixed with the tiniest bit of sweat. These are the things that get me through the winter.

Snap Shirts

Tom Wolfe Quotes

Is not this the true romantic feeling - not to desire to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping you?

We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we're in the present, but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past.

7 things...

I read this on a couple different blogs, and I decided I needed to make my lists as well.

Seven Things to Do Before I Die:

Live overseas for a year.
Have something published.
Kiss the blarney stone.
Sail .
Buy the bar a round of drinks.
Attend induction ceremonies at Cooperstown.
Run with the bulls.

Seven Things I Can't Do:

Befriend a midget.
Cheer for Texas Tech.
Quit hating the Yankees.
Eating raw oysters.
Go to Detroit.
Deal with stupid people, people with lisps, people who don't read, ultra-religious people, people who smell, pretty much all people, I guess.
Talk to someone with a lisp without getting annoyed.

Seven Things That Attracted Me To Blogging:

Free storage space.
Opportunity to write a/b what I please.
Somewhat anonymous.
I like to write.
There were quite a few I liked.
I hadn't accomplished anything else on my list of things to do, so I decided to work on it.
Blogging was talked a/b as the big new thing.

Seven Things I Say Most Often:

Jackass.
Fabulous.
Applicable.
Sure, I'll have another one.
I'm freezing.
I'll be right up.
Seriously...

Seven Books That I Love:

Atlas Shrugged
The Great Gatsby
Harriet the Spy
Win It For...
Bridget Jones' Diary
Diamonds for Lori & Me
A Severe Mercy

Seven Movies I Watch Again and Again:

Good Will Hunting
Pieces of April
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Serendipity
Stealing Home
Faith Rewarded
Beautiful Girls

Seven Favorite TV Shows:

Sports Night
Ed
Beverly Hills 90210
Gilmore Girls
Veronica Mars
My So-Called Life
Eight is Enough

Seven Favorite Songs:

Pencil Thin Mustache - Jimmy Buffett
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
Little Red Corvette - Prince
I Have a Good Day - Paul Thorn
My Life - Billy Joel
Kiss Off - Violent Femmes
A Case of You - Joni Mitchell

52 books to read this year

x Alice in Wonderland
x Walden
x Tropic of Cancer
x Oliver Twist
x Dorian Gray
The Histories
x Brave New World
The Jungle
x Bang the Drum Slowly
X Sons & Lovers
The Leopard
x The Prince
x Pride & Prejudice
The Idiot
X Age of Innocence
x Anna Karenina
x Emma
x Great Expectations
Vanity Fair
x Great Gatsby
x Horatio Alger
x Canterbury Tales
x Bell Jar
x Catcher in the Rye
x A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
x Wuthering Heights
x My Antonia
A Wrinkle in Time
Phantom Tollbooth
x Jane Eyre
x Mrs. Dalloway
x Diary of a Young Girl
Bleak House
World According to Garp
To Kill a Mockingbird
x House of Mirth
Gone with the Wind
In Cold Blood
x Second Sex
Middlemarch
Tale of 2 Cities
x Huck Finn
x Tom Sawyer
x Charlotte’s Web
1984
x Animal Farm
Of Mice & Men
x Feminine Mystique
The Dialogues
Bridge to Terebithia
A Christmas Carol
Main Street

It's the end of the world as we know it...

After yet another sleepless night plagued by a NEW recurring midget nightmare, I awoke to the, at least to me, seemingly inevitable news that Johnny Damon was a Yankee. Usually I sleep to Sportscenter, probably one of the reasons I can recite batting averages like most women recite the ingredients to their favorite recipe (and yes, I can do that too), but during what I consider the WORST sports time of the year ( i.e. primarily NFL, NBA, NHL coverage), I avoid ESPN like the plague. And as important as I think the signing is, CNN didn't devote a single minute of coverage to it last night. I guess this puts it all in perspective - Red Sox fans live and die by the Red Sox, same goes for Yankees fans, but to the rest of the world, this takes a backseat to illegal phone-tappings, the war in Iraq, and yes, even Elton John.

I've been over my love, okay, my obsession with Johnny Damon for a while now. I was ecstatic when he came over from Oakland - I remember seeing him play with the Royals, and I liked him even then. Before the onslaught of Caveman mania, I developed a crush on him, intrigued by his carefree attitude, friendly smile and frat boy personality. Yes, the fact that he led off and started centerfield for the Red Sox certainly didn't hurt. Learning that he was 1/2 Thai did nothing to deter my love. Everyone ridiculed me, insisting he was one of the ugliest people they had ever seen - so why did he become the poster boy, the face of the Red Sox, I ask you now? I was overjoyed when I met his cousin at a game in Kansas City, devastated to find out SOMEONE had turned down an invitation to dinner with JD in lieu of going to the casino (last time I chug a beer so I can get another one before the end of the 7th and go the restroom during an inning). I was overcome with pain in 2003 to see him lying motionless on the field, tears streaming down my face as he lifted his arm, seeming to wave to the crowd that he was okay. I spent the day of Game 7 of the ALCS visualizing him coming out of his slump - I cried like a baby when he hit the leadoff homerun, I knew the game was in the bag from that point on.

From then on, my love faded. Maybe it has something to do with overexposure, maybe I just liked him better when he was more mine, but somewhere along the way, everything changed. It became calculated and no longer felt like something I planned.

There are several positives to the signing as I see it. First and foremost, Yankees fans don't like it, and if that's not enough, I don't know what is. Second, and I quote, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. And you can't force an old dog to get a shave and a haircut and teach him to hit the cutoff man. You know it, I know it, Johnny knows it, hell everyone besides Steinbrenner knows it (and that's only b/c Boras smartly left it out of his book detailing why JD is the best leadoff batter EVER) - Johnny Damon throws like a girl. Manny had an assist off a ball hit to Damon for Christ's sake; if you can't make the throw from CF to 2nd, you aren't going to be playing CF for long, and that's at Fenway (Fenway's 334 from center, the Toilet, 399). Third of all, poor Captain Intangibles. First they bring in another shortstop, then they bring in another guy to lead-off. Is he going to lose the Captain, and go solely by Intangibles next year? Fourth, the Red Sox didn’t overpay Damon; they offered 40/4; he signed for 52/4 – that’s 3M more a year – hell I’d sign with the Yankees for JUST 3M a year. Finally, DAMON DOESN'T PITCH.


As I brushed my teeth this morning, I asked the Magic 8 ball (b/c yes, that's what I do while I brush my teeth to entertain myself is ask the Magic 8 ball questions) if the Red Sox would have a better record than the Yankees next year. You know what, "it is decidedly so".

Ironic that "Last Goodbye" (This is our last goodbye, I hate to feel the love between us die, But it's over) wouldn't play last night as I was running errands, but "Hallelujah" (She broke your throne and she cut your hair, And from your lips she drew the hallelujah) played just fine.. Means nothing to most people, but seeing as I documented the songs that played on my Launchcast throughout the 2004 playoffs, trying to catch any similarities, and surprisingly I found some (Schilling pitched well both times .38 Special played, for example), this was huge. This morning, I got in my car, listened to JD's favorite at-bat song, Sevendust 'Enemy' ( Step up to me - Step up to me You wanna be a big time player - it's not to be...So when you fall to the ground And finally get back to reality And no one at all is around So tell me how does it feel to be the enemy?...Cut your fucking hair now - scared of all the stare downs you can always dream what 'cha could've been Clean up my shit - you look like a dick Step to unemployment - Step! Step up to me – step up, you're the enemy!). I was going to just comment that I threw the CD away b/c I never liked it, and move on, but seriously, read those lyrics!!! “Cut your fucking hair now...you're the enemy”. It's too much for me to even begin to detail.

I read something today that stuck with me – the best part of baseball today is within us, the fans. Sure the players are greedy (and needy), and the owners are money-hungry, but it’s the fans whose hopes, dreams, imaginations provide the true beauty of baseball. Sure the players and owners were rewarded (richly, have you seen those rings) in 2004, but it was the fans whose faith was really rewarded. What’s good and pure and true about baseball belongs solely to us. So yes, I’ll miss Damon, and I have to admit, I know I’ll curse probably every time I see him in pinstripes, but that’s a universal concept for me – I curse everyone in pinstripes. But thanks for the memories – I’m moving on.

Because you know what…it’s the end of the world as we know it, and I FEEL FINE!