A Few Thoughts

ONE - An old college friend and I just signed the lease for a new apartment in Brooklyn. Fortunately, he did all the apartment research (since my research time has been completely taken up with grad school subjects) and we found an amazing place at a great price that's very close to work and to some of my favorite spots in Manhattan.

Over the course of the past year, I have been feeling more and more settled here, but suddenly it's hitting me with suprising force. I am a resident here in a way that I have never been a resident before. New York's not just a pitstop for me, and I'm not dreaming of the next place I want to move to. Instead, I'm carefully choosing what neighborhood I want to live in because I want to stay for a very long time. It's a great feeling.

TWO - People have been coming by to view my apartment since the roommate and I will be moving in an absurdly short amount of time. The rent the new tenants will be paying is $300 more per month than what we pay now. New York is ridiculous...but I forgive it.

THREE - I love this French Hyundia commercial. I can't imagine that this would ever be played in the States, so this just shows what a long way we have to go to being a fully accepting society. (And I apologize...I would usually just put the video right on the blog, but I couldn't get it to work today for some reason.)

FOUR - I've spent the morning alternating between putting the finishing touches on my research study and catching up on TV. I've watched the final episode of Grey's Anatomy (somewhat disappointing), gone through my bibliography with a fine toothed comb (not a tangle anywhere), seen Sarah Jessica Parker's new inexpensive line of clothing on Oprah (jury still out on this one), gone overboard on my section detailing recommendations for future research (still trying to reign myself in), and now I'm preparing to watch House (as usual, I saved the best for last.) Now I've almost completed the paper and my saved list on the DVR...which means I'll have a few free hours with nothing scheduled. Is this what life will be like after grad school?

FIVE - Realizing that I am going to have free time soon, I have gone crazy with the book reserve option on the Queens Library website. All I can think is Murakami and Fitzgerald and Wodehouse, oh my!

SIX - I thought I was done, but I almost forgot the most important bit!! The Mets have beat the Yankees twice in two days. Now I can read and make a few trips to Shea. Oh, life is too, too good.

Baseball

Yesterday I went to Yankee Stadium with three friends to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox. I was slightly upset, because I haven't even been to a Mets game yet and they're the team I love. But how could I pass up tickets to a Yankees/Red Sox game?

Yankee Stadium is, indeed, amazing. And I was slightly nervous that the Baseball Neophyte that I am would turn out to love going to all baseball games, not just Mets ball games. In the end, it really is the Mets that I love. Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium literally have two completely separate auras, and the one at Shea is for me, (no matter what insults my friend Jim throws my way because of this.) Not only was Yankee Stadium missing the Cowbell-Man, the stepping-up-to-the-plate music for every player, and funnel cake; but it replaced these things with a crazy tension that at one point erupted into a brawl two rows ahead of my friends and me. Needless to say, this is not really my scene.

The next ball game I go to will definitely be at Shea.

Five More Days!!

That's right, it's just five more days until the Mets are playing once more in Shea Stadium! I can't go to the first game, considering the fact that I will be at work, but I will be mentally cheering them on as they beat the Cardinals into the ground. How appropriate is it that they're playing the Missouri team their first time out?

Things I expect for the season (and remember, I'm not a super-knowledgeable sports fan here, so the predictions are fairly meaningless outside of the context of my life...)

1) My friend Aaron (a huge Cardinals fan) will call to berate me every time the Mets play the Cards.

2) I will eat funnel cake every time I get the chance to go to a game.

3) My students will continue to bring in cut-out newspaper photos of the Mets in action, which I will tape up on my closet door. On occasion, they will try to slip in a Yankees photo. I will catch them and threaten them with detention.

4) By the end of the season, I will still not have figured out the song I would play if I was stepping up to the plate.

5) My trash-talking skills will improve greatly.

Stepping Up to the Plate

Today I took my second trip to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets beat the Reds 9-2. Some friends happened to have an extra ticket, so I joined them for cheering, hot dogs, and several rounds of The Wave.

It appears to have become common practice at stadiums everywhere for each player to choose a song to be blasted as they step up to the plate. I think this may be a tougher decision than choosing a college, breaking up with a significant other, or selecting investments. You have to choose the perfect crowd-pleasing song to inspire confidence, intimidate the other team, and give a little hint about your personality all in a ten second clip.

Which got my friends and I to thinking, what song would we choose? My friend the music teacher thought up several good ones, but I am still at a loss. This kind of decision would take me weeks. Another friend suggested that we choose songs for our entrance into the classroom. I wonder what my kids would do if "Stayin' Alive" or "Who Let the Dogs Out" started playing right before I entered the room. If you have any suggestions, please let me know...

Oh, and if there were any concerns, my newfound fandom has grown even more due to tonight's win, my friends' seemingly endless knowledge of the Mets, and the comradery created by being crammed on the 7 train with all my fellow Mets fans decked out in orange and blue.

A Fan is Born

Last night I went to my first professional sporting event in New York City. My roommate's mother won free tickets to see the Mets play the Phillies at Shea Stadium. When we took our seats at 7:00, in the field box between third base and home plate, we had no idea what was in store for us. If you somehow have not heard yet, I'm referring to the sixteen innings of the most exciting baseball I have ever seen! At the end, when Beltran hit the game-winning homerun, my roommate and I jumped up and down, screaming like crazy and giving high-fives to all of the fans around us (who, unlike us, knew who Beltran was before the game started.)

I have never been much of a baseball fan, but after last night, the Mets have won my heart. The fans around us were great, I learned that there is such a thing as a fourteenth inning stretch, and I had plenty of time to learn about the players as they took the field inning after inning after inning.

I can't wait to go to another game, and have already made plans to go to another with fellow-Mets fans from work...to the great dismay of the Yankee fans from work who have spent two years tring to recruit me to their side. Even with a measly four hours of sleep, I'm still on high from that game. Meet the Mets! Meet the Mets! Step right up and greet the Mets!