Dan's Papers - May 1, 2009 - Twentysomething

No curse word can describe how angry I was last week watching the series between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Rivera blowing a save simply boggled the mind. Pettite's pitching weirded me out, and Ellsbury's steal of home base had me breathing in and out of a paper bag. We were even getting lousy calls on stolen bases. I was ill, physically ill.

It doesn't help very much to have plenty of Red Sox fan friends, who suddenly become people I really just don't like in general when I watch a rivalry series like the one last week. "He was out!" I texted Tom Swiminer, our delivery manager here at the paper who is from Massachusetts. "A great call," he responds back as I wolfed down nachos in a depressed eating frenzy. Where does he get the nerve? Am I in bizzaro world?

I know it's way, way to early in the season to get too excited, but I was angry at the universe. I'm from New York, and as far as I'm concerned it is my God given right to have a baseball team that consistently beats the Red Sox. I looked out at the universe and said my plea, and then the universe granted me sunshine, and lots of it.

I cannot believe how insanely gorgeous it was last weekend. It was almost impossible to be depressed with the weather we had last weekend on Long Island. On Sunday in East Hampton, we had a high of a perfectly perfect 67 degrees according to weather.com. Boston, on the other hand, had an absolutely miserable 86. HA! Some how this made me feel much better about the ways of the world. Screw you Boston.

I don't know why, but every time I see Papelbon get up to pitch, I just want to punch him in the face. Is it me, or does he look like an all around jerk? Like the kind of guy who would key a car while drunk and think it's funny. Like the kind of guy who acts like he's tough, but when it comes down to it is really just a big wuss. He's got these wild eyes that are such an act and he sort of flares his lips when he breathes in a deliberate and annoying way. It's almost like a Zoolander kind of face. Who does this guy think he is? A guy with eyes like that is on something. Screw you Papelbon.

The weekend was truly amazing and included kayaking, canoeing and catching up with some old friends. At one point during the weekend I found myself in sheer awe of the ocean. There is nothing else in life that has been able to put me in awe on so many different levels so consistently. I even can get tired of nachos if I eat too many (okay, not really true), but I could stand in front of the ocean and look out at the horizon day in and day out and still be fascinated. Nothing beats it.

Even still, it was tough to get the bitter taste out of my mouth about the Red Sox sweep, no matter how many nachos I ate, and I ate many.