Left at the Altar

An appropriate comparison, given that I spent last weekend at a wedding, only to return and find I (along with all other New England fans) had been left at the altar. Thank you, Sports Guy.

The "Left at the Altar Loss," when you're waiting for months and months for the season to start (like planning a wedding), then you have your fantasy drafts (the bachelor party), then you have the rehearsal dinner the night before (making your starting fantasy lineups, making your bets, figuring out which games you'll watch Sunday), then you go to the church for the actual wedding (getting in front of the TV for the 1 p.m. ET games)... and as you're standing on the altar, you find out your bride either changed her mind or got run over by the limo driver. That was me and every other Patriots fan Sunday -- we had our tuxedos on, we were ready to go, and suddenly we were sitting in a waiting room in a hot tuxedo waiting for medical updates on our comatose fiancee and halfheartedly trying to talk ourselves into one of the bridesmaids.

2007: The Year in Review

I never wrote a year-end blog post. I meant to, but I didn't. I wrote a million different versions of it in my head, but never put my fingers to the keyboard to make it happen. And now half a month into 2008, I am re-capping 2007 for you all. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. And you heard about a lot of it from this blog, but here it is condensed for your enjoyment:

Fibby's 2007

School:
Classes taken: 12
Classes passed: 12
Community Ed classes taken for fun, not credit: 2
Papers written: 45
Nights in a row with 5 or less hours of sleep: 15+

Sports:
Sox games attended: 3
Pats games attended: 0
Fantasy Football leagues played: 1
Fantasy Football leagues won: 1

Friends and Travel:
Trips to San Francisco: 1.5
Walks across the city of SF while wearing a box around my waist: 1
Shopping sprees at Ross Dress for Less: 2
Road trips to Willoughby, OH: 1
Weddings attended: 1
Baby showers attended: 2
Friends who had babies or announced pregnancies: 8

Dating:
First dates: 8
Second dates: 4
Third dates: 2
Number of times I was stood up: 1
Number of times I fell in love: 1
Number of times I had my heart broken: 1
Number of online dating services used: 2

Other:
Number of children for whom I babysat: 10
Number of times I did karaoke: 1
Visits to Jake Ivory's: 2
Theme days planned by me at my summer job: 8
Number of times I dressed up like an idiot for theme days at my summer job: 7
Mini-golf games played: 3
Mini-golf games won: 0
Free rounds of mini-golf won: 1
Free cone days attended: 2
Survivor seasons watched: 1.2
Raffle prizes won: 1
Number of times fallen down any number of stairs: 2
Weeks between stair falls: 3
Bones broken in stair falls: 0
Blog entries: 101

I Heart Free Air Travel

So I returned home from class tonight to find an email waiting for me from Southwest Airlines with the subject heading Bonus Credits for a Hometown Victory. They're giving me 3 bonus credits (16 equals a free flight, so 3 is no small change) because THE RED SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES. This email makes me want to say publicly (to the handful of you who read my blog) that Southwest, despite its cattle-call boarding system, is pretty awesome.

Speaking of THE RED SOX WINNING THE WORLD SERIES, I was walking to school from my internship tonight (both which are near Fenway) and there were no less than 4 helicopters and one blimp flying overhead to report on the fans gathering to welcome the players back home. It was fun to be that close.

Not sure yet if I'm going to be able to sneak away from my internship tomorrow to see the start of the parade, but I'm gonna try!

This past weekend was my a cappella group's 45th reunion, so I spent the weekend in cold and rainy Vermont singing my heart out with about 60 other women. It was an amazing weekend, and energized me in a way that I really needed. I came home feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the second half of this semester.

Also (this is BIG news!), I came home to newly washed sheets. Ok, the sheets being clean isn't really big news (ok, it kind of is), but what IS really big news is that before I put my clean sheets back on, I put my heated mattress pad on my bed. Then I went away for the weekend, so last night was my first night of the season with the heated mattress pad. For those of you who have never experienced the wonder of the heated mattress pad, let me just say this: mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Despite my bedroom being somewhere around 50 degrees last night (here's why), I was snug and warm.

Almost took away the sting of my fantasy football team losing yet again.

Almost.

Lots going on...

...too little time to write about it.

For now, I'll leave you with these thoughts:

1. I heart The Sports Guy. A lot.

2. It is really fun to be in Boston when all this winning is going on , but I will say that I miss being a fan on the west coast when the games ended at 9:30pm instead of 12:30pm.

3. As I already shared with some friends via pix message, only in New England would one go to see a play on a Sunday afternoon and get football score updates on a whiteboard. I love it.

4. Oh yeah - almost forgot, I also heart Fitzy.