“I don’t expect to be treated like a fool no more.”

 ”And in remembering a road sign
I am remembering a girl when I was young
And we said
These songs are true
These days are ours
These tears are free
And hey
The cross is in the ballpark”

–Paul Simon

Along the lines of  “if you have nothing nice to say,” Steve T. brings us this gem:

“Submitted on 2010/02/12 at 11:48am by stevet@yahoo.com

If you aspire to be taken seriously as a writer, I recommend learning when to use and when not to use an apostrophe. Nuke them from the days of the week in all of your blog subjects. Please.”

There are three things to note.

1) If you are truly trying to pass on friendly advice, nuke the first part of your first sentence Stevie.

2) I went to school at Francis W. Parker and therefore I never learned grammar and will openly admit it. I also never learned geography.

3) An apostrophe is used to indicate possession. In the instance of “Random Shit Friday’s” which I presume our friend Stevie is referring to, it is a weekly round-up of Friday’s Random Shit. So really, the apostrophe is appropriate. Perhaps the sentence structure is not, but such is life when you are trying to coin a catchy blog phrase. Sue me. And while you’re at it, sue T.G.I.Friday’s.

Pet Peeve of the Day: The souvenir guy at Wrigley/Beer vendor at United Center.

Quote of the Day: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” –T.S. Eliot

As 2009 (and the decade!) comes to an end, I thought it would be nice  to reflect on the past year considering I’m a huge fan of “end-of-the-year” lists! I’m not a fan of personal info on my blog but I think the following is pretty benign. Also, 2008 was such a horrible year, that I was determined to make 2009 awesome. I think I succeeded… Here are some month-by-month highlights (consider this my supremely annoying Christmas card!):

January

• Quit my job
• Turned 26 (sayonara quarter century!)
• Went to Madrid with my BFF

February

• Enjoyed living the unemployed dream before it got boring and tedious

March

• Started my awesome blog!
• Went to Arizona for Cubs Spring Training, baked in the sun for what I would later find out would be the last time I could do that. Thanks for the tan Arizona!

April

• Another exciting Cubs season began…

May

• As quick as the Cubs season began… it was already over.
• I learned the value of couponing thanks to all the frugal blogs out there on the information super highway! Not sure how much I saved but if my CVS receipts are any indicator, my year-to-date savings there alone is over $800!

June

• Went to Las Vegas for the first and last time
• Went to my first Cubs-White Sox game on the scary southside

July

• Can’t remember much about this… I can only assume this means that I went on the traditional midyear/midsummer bender

August

• Started grad school!

September

• Reunited with my long lost lover and became engaged!
• Went to Seattle with my family for an awesome Bears-Seahawks game

October

• Formed a legendary karaoke band, “Annette”

November

• My long lost lover moved in and I said goodbye to my beloved single life forever

December

• This  month flew by, I have no idea what happened in December besides Christmas and going to Pittsburgh with my Dad for an awesome Steelers game!

So that, in a nutshell, has been my year. I look forward to making 2010 even more awesome, if that’s possible. Thank you also to all of you, my readers, for making my blog and my year worthwhile! Have a fabulous New Years, be safe, and I’ll see you again in 2010!

On the page where I check the “stats” of my website (how many visits, visits per IP address, length of visits, etc.) there is a section where I can read search terms that trigger my site to come up in the results.  I always find this very interesting because there are some funny/odd things that people look up and I like having a little insight into how people search the internet.  I have not gone through all the search results to find what page of mine the term brings up because sometimes it could be like a million results later.  Others are more obvious.  Here are some of my favorite:

“Most people would steal if they thought they could get away with it.”  I remember that this was a question on numerous job applications that I filled out many moons ago.  It makes me nervous that this is probably one of the most popular search phrases that come up in my list.  Are people looking for the answer to this?  What is the purpose of googling this?

“Goldschlagger.”  This is another popular term.  It makes me happy that I am not the only one still interested in Schlagger!  This is also sometimes grouped with “College goldschlagger” or “Goldschlagger drunk” (don’t really know what these mean orthe results people are looking for).  But Schlagger is alive and well in places other than my life! 

“Don’t need to be told what to do.”  I cannot imagine what post of mine this search phrase points to.  But again, why do people Google this?  Do they want Google to confirm that they don’t in fact need to be told what to do? 

“Getting kicked out of Wrigley.”  It’s as if people want confirmation that this will or will not happen.  What are you really looking for when you search this?  Videos?  Maybe but they don’t televise fans getting kicked out so I doubt any video exists…  But I’m glad people keep trying!

Pet Peeve of the Day: Red roses

Quote of the Day: “The things we know best are the things we haven’t been taught.”  –Vauvenargues

I love baseball and I love going to baseball games.  When I go, I always keep score (unless I’m sitting in the bleachers, because that’s more of a straight up boozing time).  Keeping score keeps me involved in the game, and I like looking back on what has happened throughout the game.  For instance I will say, this guy is 0-3 so he’s due for a hit; or wow, the Cubs suck because the Pirates pitcher who is hitting .109 just hit a home run off Carlos Zambrano.  Stuff like that.  On the scorecard I list the players name, number, and batting average.  My mom taught me how to keep score and she always added the batting average so I got that from her.  This is not a common practice and I don’t know why not– it’s vital information! 

I always keep every score card, and my dad and I joke that we will send them to Cooperstown one day.  At the end of a season, I usually have around 30 – 40 scorecards.  I like to look back through them, it’s like looking at a picture book– it helps you remember some things you may have forgotten.  Sometimes it’s a great game, a horrible game, or a funny quote you wrote down that you forgot about.  It’s just another slice of my personal history that I like to hang on to.

When I think of all the scorecards I have kept in the past 10+ years, 2 immediately come to mind.  I was at Game 6 in 2003 (if you’re a Cubs fan you need no further explanation, if you’re not, it’s the “Bartman” game), and I kept score.  I was still living with my parents then so the card is somewhere in their house.  I have not seen it in years and it is my sole mission to locate this (although if you could see all the crap in their basement you would know this is not an easy task).  I can picture the top of the 8th inning on my scorecard, all those little diamonds filled in…  dreadful.  I think I want to find this card because I still don’t believe that really happened.

The second card is more recent– one I kept last summer which now hangs framed on my wall (see pic).  It was Rich Harden’s first game pitching as a Chicago Cub.  I was there with Biggie and Harden pitched a great game, but our bullpen blew it.  The game went in to extras and Biggie and I, irate,  left to go to the bar.  Later after the game, we were walking by Wrigley and a group of people were congregated by the players parking lot.  Biggie said it was Rich Harden they were getting autographs from.  I’m not big on autographs but I dashed over there and shoved my way to the front of the crowd.  I thrust my scorecard in front of everybody elses baseballs and scraps of paper.  I said “Rich, you pitched an awesome game, you should have gotten the win.”  He grabbed my scorecard, signed it, smiled, said thanks, then walked away leaving many fans disappointed, and angry with me!  A shining example of how it pays to be awesome!  So I have a scorecard of Rich Harden’s Cub debut signed by Rich Harden.  In baseball memorabilia, I think this could be a pretty important thing.  So if I ever need some money, I could throw it on eBay.  But who am I kidding, I would never do that. 

Keeping score is fairly easy, but at the beginning of each season I am usually a little rusty.  It’s kind of like riding a bike I guess.  A really fucking sweet bike with a basket, bell, the works.  Americana if you will.  I urge you to try and keep score at the next game you go to.  Or, invite me and I’ll personally help you learn! 

Pet Peeve of the Day: People who don’t let others off the bus/train first.  Did I already do this one?  Whatever, it’s worthy of duplication.

Quote of the Day: “City girls just seem to find out early, how to open doors with just a smile.” –The Eagles