You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2008.
Jumping through hoola-hoops to find the field did not spark positive attitudes in the initial arrival, until, Averion’s bats went bananas from the first batter in the line up to the last. Riding on a 2 game win streak, we were not going to take an 0-7 team lightly, even Jens slapped on some batting gloves.
Where to start, so many highlights running through my skull, first, I must say that their outfield strategy may have given us some extra bases, but I will not apologize when yours truly was having a field day with their right fielder, you would think that having hit to the right side the entire game would indicate where I was driving the ball next, suffice to say, the lead off man batted for 1.000 and 2 home runs (this was my first multi- home run game since little league, so let me enjoy it people!).
Not to be topped, Coach Sully’s bat also went batsh*t crazy as well, with 2 homers with the first one blowing the game wide open. JJ had an especially strong offensive output in the middle innings, essentially bridging the top order with the bottom half of the lineup stringing together monster hits after monster hits to extend our offensive innings. Kudos to JJ!
The middle to bottom of the lineup also held their own, Jens leading the way with timely hits and advancing runners with said base hits. Paula did a tremendous job as a fill-in and quickly got settled into the lineup by refusing to utilize the small girly ball! As it turns out, when Katie accepted to use the small ball, she quickly climbed out of her self-professed ‘slump’, if only for a game 
On the defensive side, meh…same ol’, same ol’, Jimmy was throwing some heat and I did however make an error though, but I was really, really hoping to make a balls out bananas catch, oh, well, we’ll get some jewelry for your mama.
It was almost unfair for the other team as our offense was freakin’ ON, in one inning, Sully hit a HR to center, JJ cleaning up the bases, Jens advanced a few runners and then the lead off came up again to which the pitcher replied, ‘How is HE up again?!,’ one pitch later, boo yeah!
So as it turned out, traveling to Worcester provided us with the nicest field played on all season and a huge confidence booster going into tonight’s game.
Three is for Me.
-Randy
PS
I do not have paula’s email, please forward.
At the midsummer interval, I decided to take inventory on how I am doing with my 2008 goals. Trying despartely to search for that excel spreadsheet with itemized goal list, I realized that the first goal of 2008 was to archive my digital information.
Upon connecting to the storage device, I soon realized I had erased the contents of the file and left myself a note on Jan, 2, 2008. The spreadsheet stated, ‘Yo this is you, if you are reading this, you have totally forgot about your 2008 goals, fortuantely, you are me and I have written them down in a notebook by the bed, find that shit and keep score’ Rummaging through my shit, I located my 2008 goals list, and to my suprise and utter shock as I read through them, I not only discovered how I was feeling at the time but realized that I have achieved a greater portion of the list without even reading or thinking about them for the past 7 and half months.
The big goal of reducing my spending has been quite challenging but as I review all my acocunt balances, it safe say that my habits of overspending have been curbed a signicant amount. By reducing my spending, I am now able to store a lot more disposable cash in my savings account which in turn makes me sleep better at night.
Coupled with curbed spending, my second most important goal, reducing my debt, has gone exactly how I envisoned the BEST case scenario. In March, I was able to cut 3 grand from the totally and by turning in Dubya’s stimulus check I further made progress in debt reduction.
Upon further review, I realized that over 50% of my goals were of financial concern, which tells me at end year 2007, finances were eating a chunk of my mental space and probably why I decided to create a tracking list. Then knowing myself, I made the decision to predict my own behaviors and created a pen-to-paper honest to goodness goals list.
I have not written about my feelings on how i am tackling my debt. Let’s jsut say I am swimming in debt and have been making my way to the shallow end of the pool for the past 3 years.
At midsummer, my progress has exceeded my expectations, so going into the last half of the year I am confident I can reduce my debt total in half and when that happens, I will buy my parents dinner! Don’t know why but it is something that I have wanted to do since graduating from college.
it feels so good to know that personally I am finally turning a corner in coming to terms with my finances. the end goal is to reach maximum life agility.
Life agility, meaning I can quite my job at drop of a hat, take care of life emergencies without losing sleep and more importantly, taking the stress out of taking care of myself, and only then will I can feel free from the shackles of indendured servitude known as credit card debt. I have lots to say about this but it is beyond the scope of this post.
A win?!
Yes you read that correct, Averion Softball has finally got our collective selves together and finally pinned a W on the left side of column. This ain’t no joke, a thrilling game was had last night and ended in dramatic fashion. A confluence of ideal situational play both offensively and defensively paid dividends by end game.
To start, all was not looking well upon arriving at the field, with no beer in sight and considering the entire team has been on a 2 week hiatus, one would assume impending doom. Not only did we not have beer upon arrival, Rich locked his keys in his car, and to me that was kinda sorta like an omen.
Offensively, we started out pretty strong, with men on base, Rohan blasted a shot to right, the outfielders were no match for the sun and thus was able to strike first with a sizable lead in the 1st. (for our standards anyway) With Pirogen’s big bats we were forced to play deep to keep the ball in front of us, which also provided to be quite difficult because again the sun at this particular field was quite brutal. Lucky for us, those big bats during BP did not translate very well in the game and we were able to make pretty good stops in the early innings.
As the norm, our bats fell silent in the ensuing innings, only to be revived by the strong offensive showing by Jimmy Luther, by driving in a crucial run to add to the lead, all was forgiven for being late with the beer and putting us at a psychological disadvantage without the suds to begin the game.
Not to assume that Pirogen’s offensive would continue at the anemic pace in which they started off, their offense was jump started and anchored by their ladies, yes, their ladies, who provided some pretty big hits and before we knew, it became a battle of attrition. As they pulled ahead and the outcome starting to look sour on our end, we played some of the headiest softball this season. The tail end of the lineup especially pulling through in tight spots late in the game, with 2 outs in the second to last inning, Marcella turned on the jets to provide a much needed hit and runner on base, which essentially sparked our late game rally. (Did I just say that, LATE game rally, not that I don’t think we’re capable of such but I digress)
When it was all said and done, the rally gave us a 2 run lead heading into the late innings, lucky for us, the Pirogen bats fell in silence on the strong pitching of Jimmy Luther and some nice plays out in left by Katie’s bare knuckle grab, Mikey out in left center and yours truly robbing the pitcher of a multiple score shot to center. (It must be stated that said pitcher had my number the entire game, robbing me of several base hits, so this one was worthy of a SportsCenter WebGem, what, no? haha)
As the game drew to a close, the situations became a bit dicey for Pirogen, who were quite vocal throughout the game became clenched with anxiety for fear of losing to 0-and-whatever Averion, choked up at the most opportune time. Not willing to lose this battle of attrition, with the game locked upped in the final inning we buckled down played conservative defense. As usual it was about to end in typical heartbreaking fashion, at the time, a costly error by me, and the meat of their lineup on deck, the outlook was quite dire, but on the heels of a brain cramp by one of their players, Nelson tuned in a sweet and clutch double play to end the final inning and send the game into extra innings. (Are you kidding, me?)
In extra innings, we flexed our might, and stung together a few base hits and manufactured 2 runs, and riding the rally, Coach Sully made the biggest hit in the game aided by a little Columbian gold residuals in his glove for the insurance run. Pirogen had wasted the heart of their lineup in the prior inning so the last inning was played out rather cut and dry. And for the finally, Corey made the final out, with the facial expression like, ‘hey-did-I-just-make-the-final-out-to-end-the-game-for-our-first-win-and-did-it-in-over-time’ look, priceless.
I must say that to finally get off the proverbial Schneid, I must evoke the image of the Fail Whale being lifted by the Twitter birds, enjoy, and a great win had by all and contributions from all, in the most literal sense.
P.S.
An epic fail was avoided by an epic win and thus the epic post!
P.P.S
Now it must really seem like I have way too much time on my hands at work, but please understand that this was written during one of those god awful status meetings that has nothing to do with yours truly but mandatory for all, on pen and paper prior to it being typed out. J
-randy
I am not one to watch endless amounts of brain draining garbage on the tele, and certainly not reality television but a funny thing happened in what is now a few years in the running. First, I have never sniffed American Idol and the endless run of idiotic contrived mish-mosh of Fail-list actors and actresses, it was just not for me. Not to say that these programs are of no entertainment value, wait,er, I take that back, only fucking baboons watch these types of programs.
It was a few years back, I believe it was the first season ‘Intervention’ aired on A&E, and for the first time, I was hooked on watching so called real people confess their transgressions to a camera. Up until that point, these ‘confessionals’ were restricted to only hot chicks and gay dudes on The Real World, and to me that shit was fake. For some reason the show had me at hello, not sure if it was the graphic documentation of their abuse or just the ‘realness’ of it all. Their strife was what got me, not necessarily the addicts themselves but their situation when observed from a more holistic perspective.
My name is Randy, R-A-N-D-Y, and I’m addicted to Intervention.
At the heart of my fascination with this type of reality programming, it is the situations in which the main characters seem to perpetuate themselves in. I mean, it is one thing to have a problem and cameras following you, and again this is not new, HBO has been running documentaries of this nature for years, but it is another when cameras are also filming the other side of the equation. The under belly of substance abusers are the people who care for them, the ones who whole heatedly love them. This is the closest thing I have seen documenting the pain of unconditional love, and the great theater it provides.
The addicts in the show are portrayed as the facade of dark family ties, and to get to the root of the darkness, we get a window into the lives of the family members who struggle with finding their loved ones. No matter what the situation they get themselves into, the family members come desperately fighting to get back their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, mothers and fathers back.
My heart strings are mercifully tugged at when I see a grown ass man, deduced to tears and screeching yelps, desperately seeking for their sons and daughters back, only to be rejected and ridiculed for their plight. This is what brings me back for seconds, thirds and fourths. Deep down, I always wondered what it would be like to regain my family’s love and trust through redemption because my current situation is in dire need of drama, and for me, this is why I am so attached to the show, I get a glimpse into a life entrenched in dire situations.
I sympathize with the family, but a better part of me understands the addicts motivations. Not too long ago, I was suffering, suffering from something I call self-loathing. Senior year of college was a time of strife for myself, I was struggling to pass my courses, study for final exams, go on job interviews to job start my career and all the while trying to kick my addictions. Through it all, I longed to have someone to identify with these intense feelings of fear, loathing, self-worth, a buddy whom I could relay my concerns, and all I got was another joint or worse. At the time I could not accurately articulate the pain that was wretched between my mind and body, no matter what friends would do or say, I couldn’t reach out and tell them that I fucking hated where I was. A so called friend, rather than provide support, offered cutting remarks and threats of abandonment and the bastardization of me.
I mean, it wasn’t like i was prostituting myself for the next fix, but still, my plight was genuine and nobody could even get close, even I wouldn’t allow for people to get close to me. My only source of light, was my academic performance and a job that I thoroughly enjoyed in which also brought in a significant income for a college student which also served as a means to perpetuate this transient lifestyle in order to make myself feel good. The friends I surrounded myself with were neither there for me or were totally oblivious to the fact that I was stuck in a mental rut. In someway I welcomed their narcissism, for this was validating my internal perspective on my peers and contributed to my ‘Fuck the world’ mentality. The hate I felt for the world at large spawned the current person I am today. The realization that nobody really cares lead myself to take life by the ear and create opportunities for me, once this was actualized, I have not looked back and subsequently I am in a better place without the persons I came to know as friends.
The thing that brings me back to this time in my life is the ‘intervention’ itself, I always wonder, just one slip up and I could have been one of these fellows, just one concerned friend could have also altered my path. To me, the friends and family of the show are the real characters, as for the addicts, well, I was one of them, the only difference, they had people who fought to get them back.
And as the addicts continue down their dark paths and their families desperately trying to stop them from themselves, I take solace in the fact that I got through it all on my own, without the knowledge of my family nor the acknowledgment from my so called friends. Because to me, coming out on top with little more than self-honesty and guile is a testament to my human spirit.
**cue up happy jingle**
