tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35920981682341131732024-03-17T23:01:37.782-04:00Freedom of Excessdarcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.comBlogger401125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-6328070758371836842018-07-27T19:54:00.000-04:002018-07-27T19:54:44.582-04:00The Winds of Change<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
It's been six years since <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Olympics%3A%20London%202012" target="_blank">London 2012</a>.<br />
<br />
(Before I continue, I just need to say... that's insane. Who let this happen?)<br />
<br />
London was the first Games I was ever involved with, and it'll always hold a special place in my heart for that reason. But beyond that, it'll always hold a special place in my heart because it's easily the best thing I've ever done.<br />
<br />
When I was deciding where I wanted to study abroad, it occurred to me that if the Olympics were going to London, I should go to London. And if the Olympics and I were both going to London, I should weasel my way in. I lucked into a contact at LOCOG who pointed me in the direction of becoming a London 2012 Ceremonies volunteer, so I filled out an application. I spent weeks stressed out of my mind, collecting bank records and driving around Miami to find the office to get fingerprinted and spending literally hundreds of dollars to get my student visa that would allow me to work in the UK. In the meantime, I applied for a study abroad scholarship meant for non-academic costs, telling the interview committee, "I'm studying abroad in London because I'm trying to work for free." (That worked.) Once I arrived in London, I had an interview with L2012C at which I said, "I'm studying abroad in London literally because I want to volunteer here." (That worked too.)<br />
<br />
After I got my volunteer bib, I was like a kid in a candy store. I signed up for every shift I could get my hands on, prioritizing it over my schoolwork (which, let me tell you, was a massive first for me). I spent hours upon hours standing in the cold in an east London TV studio, sorting bibs and handing out Oyster cards and inputting performer information into the system and watching the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies come to life before my eyes.<br />
<br />
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<br />
It's still the coolest thing I've ever gotten to do. By far. And maybe the coolest part was that... <i>I</i> did it. Me. And I did it solely because I wanted to. Sure, I hoped it would help me professionally. But I wanted to be a part of the London Games, so I did it. I freaking did it.<br />
<br />
That's obviously not to say I didn't have help. My mom's friend Caron knew a guy at LOCOG that got the whole ball rolling. One of the L2012C staffers flat ignored the rule that said all applicants need a UK visa good for six months after the Games in order to be allowed to volunteer; mine expired almost two months before the Games, but they accepted me anyway. There was definitely an element of luck and good timing and having the right people around me and enabling me.<br />
<br />
But what I'm really getting at is that I had this slightly impractical idea that got my heart racing, and I was able to figure out how to make it happen for myself. And I'm still really effing proud of that.<br />
<br />
I don't really remember the last time I had that feeling.<br />
<br />
Getting a job is nice, but a) your fate is still in someone else's hands, and b) it's a necessity to live. I've had good jobs, and gone to both <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20Rio%202016?max-results=5" target="_blank">Rio</a> and <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20PyeongChang%202018?max-results=5" target="_blank">PyeongChang</a> since London, and that's not to say I didn't love those experiences, but... I don't know. It was someone else's decision. And that's not really a bad thing, but it's just... different.<br />
<br />
I think the thing about London was that I made a life-changing decision. For myself. For no other reason than that I wanted to experience something that would change my life.<br />
<br />
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<br />
I want to do more of that.<br />
<br />
I got really complacent at my last job (which I'm really not proud of). I wasn't super motivated to do much outside of work, and when my mental health started to go downhill, it was all I could do to stay motivated at work. And now that I don't work under the Olympic umbrella anymore, I need to get my fix elsewhere. My job won't be sending me to Games anymore, so I have to start changing my own damn life for myself again.<br />
<br />
What does this mean? I don't know. Why am I sharing this? I don't know! Maybe it's to hold myself accountable. Maybe it's because I haven't felt this motivated in an incredibly long time. Maybe putting my thoughts to proverbial paper and out to the universe is a way of opening myself up to opportunity.<br />
<br />
Either way, volunteer applications for Tokyo 2020 open in September, and you can be sure ya girl will be ready.<br />
<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-55265882056160118812018-07-22T14:44:00.000-04:002018-07-22T14:44:40.608-04:00The Hills Are Alive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
The first thing you learn when working a Games: your bus schedule is your life.<br />
<br />
The second thing you learn when working a Games: normal societal conventions do not apply.<br />
<br />
Case in point: my first day in <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20PyeongChang%202018?max-results=5" target="_blank">PyeongChang</a>.<br />
<br />
Two coworkers and I went to breakfast at our hotel in the morning and planned to catch the 10:10 bus to the Main Press Center (MPC). We'd been told the shuttle stop was "right out front," so we didn't think too much of it. But when we eventually headed outside, we couldn't find it. We had no idea where we were going. You wouldn't think it'd be that difficult, but our hotel was a ski resort bumped right up against numerous other ski resorts, so "right out front" were shops and a parking garage and numerous parking lots and there were buses everywhere and it was just really confusing, okay?<br />
<br />
So 10:10 comes and goes. We find ourselves where we <i>think </i>the stop is, where there's a group of men in Team Germany getup checking the schedule. They too missed the shuttle, and we collectively realize that the next one isn't coming until 10:40.<br />
<br />
Team Germany decides to walk to the MPC. "It's just down the road," they say, starting in that direction.<br />
<br />
My coworkers and I shrug and follow them.<br />
<br />
Three American women decided to trudge several snowy miles along the side of the highway in the mountains of Korea with a group of German men they'd met literally 30 seconds prior.<br />
<br />
Reading that as a normal citizen of normal society, that's insane. Like, literally insane. A disaster waiting to happen. But at a Games? To borrow a quote from the great High School Musical, we're all in this together. Lost? Someone else probably knows where they're going. Strangers? Just friends you haven't met yet.<br />
<br />
The walk ended up being about two miles and took 45 minutes, so it would've been far more logical to just stay and wait for the next bus. But honestly? This walk with our new German friends is one of my favorite Games memories ever.<br />
<br />
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<br />
The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, and walking let us stop and take pictures and see more than we got to from behind a bus window. Our new German friends were so incredibly friendly, and were vigilant about making sure none of the girls slipped on any icy patches. The sky was blue, the day was beautiful, and we arrived at the MPC for the first time pretty sweaty and with an adventure already under our belts.<br />
<br />
At a Games, you really just have to roll with the punches. You miss buses, you make friends and you laugh as your plans fall apart around your ears.<br />
<br />
Later that morning, my friend and coworker texted me that he had a feeling that we were going to have some great stories from these Games.<br />
<br />
My response? "Um, wait until you hear about my morning."<br />
<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-40075626044371226632018-07-06T19:51:00.000-04:002018-07-06T19:51:53.207-04:00From PyeongChang With Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
My second Games reminded me of my sophomore year of college.<br />
<br />
When I returned to Miami for my sophomore year, I was totally pumped. Freshman year had been awesome, and I expected sophomore year to be exactly the same. Same place, same people, same awesome.<br />
<br />
And then it was different.<br />
<br />
Sure, I was on the same campus and hanging out with the same friends. But I was living in a different building with a different room configuration, going to different classes... I had to adjust. For whatever reason, I wasn't prepared for that. There was nothing <i>wrong </i>with my new sophomore reality, but I was jarred and uncomfortable all the same. The first few days were bizarrely not what I expected. But I got over it, settled into life on the opposite side of campus and was just as sad to leave when it was over as I was the year before.<br />
<br />
Fast forward seven and a half years.<br />
<br />
I was #blessed to be asked to work a second Games with U.S. Paralympics on their communications staff. To say I was excited about it would be an understatement. <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20Rio%202016?max-results=5" target="_blank">Rio was the absolute best</a>, and I'd be working with a group of awesome people I already knew and liked, so I went to PyeongChang with sky-high expectations.<br />
<br />
For the most part, those expectations were met in kind, but... everything was different. Nothing was bad -- seriously, this Games was so smooth and there's nothing that I'd change if I could (cold notwithstanding) -- but for whatever reason, I wasn't as over the moon as I was in Rio. It felt very different, and I don't think I was expecting that.<br />
<br />
I think a big part of the problem were those sky-high expectations. I went into Rio knowing nothing and just sort of hoping for the best. But I went into PyeongChang knowing how incredible my Rio experience was. For six months, I used PyeongChang as a talisman, a beacon of hope, a light at the end of the tunnel that would make an overall unhappy year and a half of work worth it. And I expected to be blown away. If I'd gone in with no expectations, I absolutely would've been.<br />
<br />
That's not to say there weren't some legitimate struggles. I was cold for literally two weeks straight. I wasn't prepared for the cold to be as much of an issue as it was, but oh man, it <i>was. </i>Being outside for any length of time meant being cold to the point of distraction, which really put a damper on two of the most important events for me: the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Wifi was intermittent and hard to find. The food was often great but very foreign, sometimes very odd, and definitely took some getting used to. And PyeongChang isn't nearly as iconic a city as Rio is, so I never really had that <i>"holy crap, I'm HERE" </i>moment. (I had that moment when I was in Seoul after the Games. I cried alone in the back of a cab. But that's a whole other story.)<br />
<br />
But all that being said... buses ran regularly and on time. The venues were all really great. The volunteers could not have been friendlier and more willing to help. I stayed in a condo that had <i>heated floors</i>. (A whole apartment! With heated floors! My literal dream!) Korean barbeque is life-changing. I got to see an American win a medal in <i>biathlon</i>. (Biathlon!) I'd been looking forward to the sled hockey gold-medal game for four years and <i>that</i>, my friends, managed to exceed anything I'd ever hoped it would be. I got to see each sport at least once. I got to work another Games with one of my best friends. There were moments spent crying watching medal ceremonies, cracking up as plans fell apart in the pouring rain, shrieking with laughter crammed four across in the back of a taxi, wandering wide-eyed through downtown, trying not to breathe while putting on mascot heads, making new friends from Kazakhstan and seeing old friends I'd met in Brazil, and really just living my best life. Even on the days I came back to my condo and was so cold and tired that all I was capable of doing was lying on my heated floor for a few minutes. (That happened... more often than I'd care to admit.)<br />
<br />
Every now and then I'll look through the photos I took or reread parts of my journal, and I'll get misty-eyed and nostalgic. We've reached the point where I've gotten over PyeongChang's different-ness.<br />
<br />
Was it Rio? No. But it was so, so great. So great.<br />
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Gamsahamnida, PyeongChang.<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-12150441735022686462018-05-10T17:55:00.000-04:002018-05-10T17:55:07.422-04:00Home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm sitting out on my patio. (Patio? Terrace? I used to call it a balcony, but my dad the construction man explained all the different terminology and concluded that calling it a balcony is incorrect. I don't remember which <i>is </i>correct, though. It might be terrace.)<br />
<br />
It's warm -- shorts weather -- and breezy. It feels like summer.<br />
<br />
It's May of 2018, but if I close my eyes, it's August of 2016. Late morning, around 11. I have a bowl of oatmeal with berries on the little table in front of me, and I left my phone inside. On purpose. These late morning hours are the only time I have to myself for a few weeks and you can be damn sure I'm going to enjoy some peace and quiet. When I'm done with breakfast I might go inside and watch some Olympics coverage before I go to work, but when your job is to cover the Olympics, you find that watching the Olympics before going to work isn't always what you want to be doing.<br />
<br />
There are a few mornings spent watching fencing and rugby, for sure, but most of them are spent outside on the patio/terrace/balcony, slowly eating breakfast and marinating on things in silence. Sometimes I ponder the state of the Mets (pretty trash). I'm heading to my first Paralympic Games in Rio in a few weeks and as it gets closer, it's finally starting to feel real and exciting and wow, that's sure going to change my life, huh? Occasionally I long for the days I used to spend summers outside having fun, and not stuck behind a computer in a large, freezing concrete room.<br />
<br />
And then, of course, I go inside, throw on some Team USA (or otherwise sponsor-friendly) clothes and leave for work around 12:30. My shift starts at 1, just in time for shit to hit the fan at approximately 1:05. I work until 11 (which means <i>at least </i>11:30, natch), go to bed around 2 am, and wake up and do the same thing again the next day.<br />
<br />
But those lovely mornings were mine.<br />
<br />
It's hard to believe they were almost two years ago.<br />
<br />
Now it's 2018. I worked those Olympics, and then another one. I went to those Paralympics, and then another one. The Mets are still trash (or trash again). I don't work for the USOC anymore -- and I'm not even all that sad about it, which is the strangest part -- and today is my last in this apartment.<br />
<br />
It's not as dramatic as it sounds. My contract at the USOC ended -- after four years of temping, it was finally time -- and I'm moving to a newly-renovated apartment in the same complex. In fact, in the building I'm staring at right now. It's about as low-impact a move as could possibly exist.<br />
<br />
And yet, I'm nostalgic. Wistful, if you will. This is the first apartment I ever lived in 100% by myself. It's seen some good times and great people. It's also seen me cry in bed and mope on the couch all day because I couldn't muster up the energy to care to do anything else. It was sometimes my office, and sometimes my sanctuary. But whatever went on in here, it was where I called home during an incredibly significant chapter of my life. That chapter is over now, and tomorrow I get the keys to a new place and get to start a new one.<br />
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I should probably go pack first.<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-3313070888746662152017-09-21T21:24:00.003-04:002017-09-21T21:24:57.782-04:00Endurance KidsY'know that #relatable moment when your intern at the U.S. Olympic Committee is sitting in the cubicle across from you and watching the TV show you were on when you were 15?<br />
<br />
No? Hm, weird.<br />
<br />
Well, for those of you that are new around these parts, I was on a TV show when I was 15. It was called Endurance. You can read about it <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/04/414.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/07/8-things-i-learned-from-being-reality.html" target="_blank">here</a> and there's definitely an Endurance wiki somewhere on the internet, but I do <i>not </i>Google myself so you're on your own! *finger guns*<br />
<br />
This summer was the 11th anniversary of the show's filming -- ELEVEN! YEARS! -- and to celebrate, a few of us had a little reunion. And it all kind of got me thinking.<br />
<br />
I tried out for Endurance because I was the World's Biggest Fan of the show and thought it would be the coolest thing in the world. There wasn't really much thought to it beyond that. I imagined doing all these challenges, getting a partner and a team color, and meeting some (hopefully) awesome people that would (hopefully) turn into FRIENDS 4EVER and we'd (hopefully) have awesome reunions and it would all just be grand!!!<br />
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I didn't think about running into the dude that sent me to elimination on our shared college campus four years later. I didn't think about the friends I'd meet while studying abroad who'd watch my episodes of the show in a hostel in Copenhagen. I didn't think about the coworkers I'd eventually tell about my reality TV past, or the fact that I will be able to own Two Truths and a Lie for the rest of my life. I didn't think about all the "soooo, there's this thing I did..." conversations I'd be having with new people in my life for, uh, the rest of my life.<br />
<br />
The <i>reality </i>of reality TV (heh) was totally lost on me. But here I am, 11 years down the road, living life as a grown-up reality TV kid.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">^ A grown-up reality TV kid.</span></div>
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Now, let me be clear and say that reality TV is not my life by any stretch of the imagination. Until I started watching American Grit (which had one too many weird similarities!), Endurance very rarely crossed my mind. I give it a passing thought each year on significant dates, but otherwise packaged up my experiences into some insider knowledge on reality TV, hella real trust issues and the knowledge that my dreams are never out of reach if I make a good enough five-minute audition tape (metaphorically, of course).<br />
<br />
But at 26 years old I suddenly found myself hanging out with two of my cast mates that I hadn't seen in years, and I realized... we're all making s#!t happen for ourselves. Lilly lives in LA and is a story producer for reality TV shows; she has literally worked with some of the people that were our producers on Endurance. Aric teaches guitar for a living and left our reunion to go to Vancouver to interview some music industry bigwigs for an article he was writing. And I'm working at the USOC, getting to go to Games and say I used to live at the Olympic Training Center.<br />
<br />
Very different paths, sure, but we all had our passions and just kind of... did them!<br />
<br />
Are we like this <i>because </i>of Endurance? Or were we always like this and Endurance was just a byproduct? Who knows. But either way, maybe there's something to this "reality TV kid" thing.<br />
<br />
It's a pretty cool thing to be.<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-36766151587260816532017-09-05T21:27:00.000-04:002017-09-05T21:27:00.169-04:00Snippets From Rio'Sup?<br />
<br />
Y'know, I didn't mean to go so long between posts this time. I really didn't. But I actually have a good excuse this time: it involves a kidney transplant and no days off of work for about a month and a half. But that, kids, is a story for another time.<br />
<br />
We're gathered here today for the last of my <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20Rio%202016?max-results=5" target="_blank">Rio Paralympic recaps</a>. *crowd cheers* It was almost exactly a year ago that we flew to Rio, so this is rather aptly timed.<br />
<br />
I've mentioned that I kept a journal while I was there and wrote in it every night -- which is the basis for these blog posts, in fact -- and I tried really hard to be... <i>good </i>at it. I've kept journals on and off in the past, and in reading through them years later I've been disappointed in how little I talk about important moments and feelings. I had a persistent bad habit of writing in the vein of "we did such-and-such, and it was awesome," or something equally as boring and lacking insight. In Rio, I wanted to make sure I didn't just give a play-by-play of my days, but also took the time to record my thoughts and feelings and <i>experiences</i>. So I really made it a priority to be present in the moment when I realized something special was happening, and would occasionally take notes in my phone to remember things to write down later on. Some things, I'm sure, fell through the cracks, but overall I did a pretty good job at writing down the important stuff!<br />
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So, to wrap things up, here are some of my favorite miscellaneous moments moments from my Rio experience.<br />
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+ On the way down to Brazil, the PR group I was traveling with had a layover in Houston, as did most of the other athletes and staff. And everyone was traveling in Team USA gear, naturally. Not long after we arrived, we were standing in the terminal when a woman in Team USA gear and a wheelchair rolled over to us and said, "Woooooo! What sport?!" Our answer to that was, y'know, not a sport, but it was a really fun moment and my first real Games experience as the member of a delegation (<a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2012/08/from-russia-with-love.html" target="_blank">and not a fan eagerly looking for people wearing delegation garb</a>). Stuff like that continued to happen during the Games themselves; people in Olympic Park would say "hello USA!," and one morning a security officer sang Born in the USA to me as I was being scanned into the media entrance. :)<br />
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+ On our first day in Rio, our group ended up spending the afternoon walking along the beach across from our hotel (#blessed) and stopped at a little beachside stand to sit and get some food. Our table was right by a speaker that played Brazilian music 99% of the time, but played a few songs in English completely out of nowhere. The first was Here Comes the Sun, and the second was Revolution. Both are by the Beatles, and both were played in the London 2012 ceremonies. Here Comes the Sun was one of the groups I saw rehearse multiple times <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Confidential%20Ceremonies%20Document?max-results=5" target="_blank">when I was a volunteer</a>, and the song is on my London 2012 playlist. To be sitting in Rio four years later and hear it playing out of the blue... I got a little choked up. What a full-circle moment.<br />
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+ A day or two before competition started, I was on a morning media shuttle from the hotel to the press center. On the way there, we passed some para-cyclists riding on the path next to the road; there were one or two hand cyclists, and a tandem bike with a visually-impaired athlete and his guide. I don't know why it stuck with me the way it has. Maybe it was because those were the first athletes I saw in action in Rio. But whatever it was, that was the moment that it hit me that this was all actually <i>real</i>.<br />
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+ I hate to even bring this up, but... Tim Tebow signed with the Mets the day after the Opening Ceremony. That morning I was completely exhausted after the late night, and when I pulled out my phone to check Twitter on the shuttle, my brain literally couldn't comprehend what I was reading. I thought it was a joke and needed to see it confirmed by about two dozen sources before I could accept it as truth. (Still kind of can't accept it as truth, to be honest.)<br />
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+ On one of the first few days of competition, I went to judo to see a friend of mine compete (and he ended up winning bronze!!!). In judo, they have multiple weight classes finish up in the same session, so there were a whole bunch of medal finals while I was there. In the first match I saw, a Colombian girl won bronze... and I almost cried. It was so unexpected! But she was (obviously) so excited and celebrating and crying and all that, and it was the first time I'd ever seen anyone win a medal in person. I was at judo for three-plus hours that day, and watching athletes celebrating their medals didn't get old.<br />
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+ One afternoon, several of us that were working at the main press center (MPC) had lunch at some food trucks that were parked near the tennis venue in Olympic Park. It was crowded and seating was limited, so we ended up sharing a table with a Brazilian couple and a man from the Netherlands. They all spoke great English and we had some great conversation. It was such a quintessential Games moment, and felt like what I imagine the dining hall in the Olympic village feels like.<br />
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+ I've written at length on <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2017/05/without-paddle.html" target="_blank">my paracanoe experience</a>, but one of my favorite ~in the moment~ moments came that morning, in a very early Uber on the way there. This driver was so incredibly nice to the two Americans who couldn't speak his language! He gave us little candies and we taught each other the word for them -- "bala" in Portuguese -- and there was this moment that I was chewing a banana-flavored candy given to me by the Brazilian guy driving the car I was in as a favela loomed straight ahead of us and Forever Young played on the radio... I don't know, man. It was a moment.<br />
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+ On the last full day of competition, several of us went to see the wheelchair rugby semifinal in the afternoon. My coworkers stayed at the venue after it was over, as they were planning to go to wheelchair basketball after that, but I had different plans for the evening and walked back to the MPC through Olympic Park by myself. I hadn't yet been in the park alone, and it was so nice to wander slowly, stop to take pictures at my leisure, and just sort of take it all in one last time. I'm always so much more reflective when I'm alone and have time to really be present and introspective, and I'm so glad I had that walk to myself.<br />
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+ It's really odd to include this moment on a list of "favorites," because it's not even remotely happy, but it was extremely significant and I have to make note of it. On the media shuttle to the MPC on the final day, I saw on social media that a girl I worked with at the gym in college had died of breast cancer. She was young and beautiful and healthy -- she was a trainer, for crying out loud! -- and even though we were never close, her death hit me hard in that moment. There I was, living my professional (and personal) dream, knowing I would be going to what's basically a giant party (the closing ceremony) that night, while someone else's life had just ended. It was a pretty brutal reminder that I'm really lucky, and to really appreciate everything that I was experiencing.<br />
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+ Aaaaand finally, the closing ceremony! It was really good, though (as expected) nowhere near as good as <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2017/03/its-lit-rio-2016-paralympic-opening.html" target="_blank">the opening ceremony</a>. BUT! I think my weepiest moment came during this one, during the flag handover ceremony. During each closing ceremony, the mayor of the current host city passes the Olympic/Paralympic flag to the mayor of the next host city. It's the only thing that truly links one Games to another. So as I was watching the mayor of Tokyo receive the flag, I got to thinking. Four years earlier, I watched the London organizers hand the flag over to Rio from my parents' living room, and all I could do was hope that somehow I'd be there in 2016, that I'd be involved in some way. And there I was! I'd done it! In four years I'd gone from a volunteer on the outside looking in to a credentialed member of the U.S. delegation. It was the craziest full-circle moment of my life. It hit me like a truck, and I totally cried. Still makes me a little misty, if we're being honest.<br />
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And that's that! Obrigada for the memories, Rio. I'll cherish 'em forever.<br />
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But now... less than six months until PyeongChang! :)<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-4468549671487079312017-07-18T20:50:00.000-04:002017-07-18T20:50:56.990-04:00A Walk In The ParkI am going to finish these <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20Rio%202016?max-results=5" target="_blank">Rio Paralympic recaps</a> if it kills me. Best-case scenario, before the one-year anniversary of the Games. Worst-case scenario, before the next Games and another backlog of recaps. Dream big?<br />
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There's not a whole lot left I need to post about, but it's very important to me that I talk about Olympic park.<br />
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During the Games, the park was absolutely beautiful and full of people (despite all the worries about Paralympic ticketing and attendance). I can't even explain to you how excited I was to just make the walk from the main press center into the park, to pop into venues, to stroll around and soak up the atmosphere. But then the Games ended, and less than six months later the venues were in total disrepair. It breaks my heart. I have so many positive memories in those venues, in that city, and to see it all so decrepit already is devastating.<br />
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Deservedly so, everything you read about Rio and the Olympic park lately has been negative. But I'm going to take some time to rehash positive memories I experienced in these venues.<br />
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<h3>
The Carioca Arenas</h3>
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On one of our first days in Rio, the day before the opening ceremony, a few of us went for a walk in the empty park to try to get the lay of the land and see the sights. Our credentials got us into all venues, so we stopped into one of the Cariocas (three adjacent, semi-connected arenas) to explore. While we were there, we ran into two Olympic Broadcast Service volunteers who we ended up befriending. They showed us around, got us behind-the-scenes and explained how covering events would work in the press tribunes and mixed zones. (And we ended up running into them again <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2017/03/its-lit-rio-2016-paralympic-opening.html" target="_blank">at the opening ceremony</a>!) It was such a pleasant encounter and is one of my favorite memories from the whole Games.<br />
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We'd gone to that particular Carioca (3, I believe) because one of our group was going to be covering judo there in the next day or two. I ended up going with her to one of the afternoon judo sessions and got to see my first medal ceremony -- there were zero U.S. athletes involved and I <i>still </i>cried. I also watched a friend of mine from my Olympic Training Center days, Dartanyon Crockett, win bronze! It was so exciting! And, yes, I cried some more!<br />
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Carioca 2 was the site of one of my favorite bizarre, spontaneous Games memories. On this particular day, a coworker and I went for a walk in Olympic park on a slower morning, again to see the sights and explore (and shop for souvenirs, natch). What we didn't account for was the weather: it was 99 degrees (and humid) that day. We weren't out there for very long before we realized we were very far from the press center and very, very hot. Like, seek-shelter-before-we-pass-out hot. We tried to get into the aquatics arena, but the morning session had just ended and they turned us away. So we headed for the Cariocas, thinking that at least one of them would be open. Carioca 2 was our savior. We sat in the air conditioning, guzzled press-issued water bottles and watched some boccia. These athletes are some of the most severely disabled at the Games, and it was really cool to see people who could barely move without assistance compete with a high degree of skill.<br />
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And Carioca 1 was the site of wheelchair rugby, aka murderball, aka one of the more violent sports you'll see. It's like able-bodied rugby: guys just brutally collide with each other. It's nuts, and so cool. Our guys won silver in a double-overtime nail-biter on the final day of competition.<br />
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Also, the outside of the Cariocas gave you that quintessential Games vibe:<br />
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And from the inside, you got views like this:<br />
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<h3>
Rio Olympic Arena</h3>
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The second stop on our tour led by the OBS volunteers, the Olympic Arena hosted wheelchair basketball. There was a closed practice going on while we were there, so we weren't allowed to stay very long or see very much. But it was an ~exclusive~ tour, so I was still geeked out to the max. I love me an empty arena!</div>
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<h3>
The Tennis Center</h3>
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The tennis stadium was beautiful from the outside, but I never made it inside. The outer courts, though, hold a special place in my heart, as this was where I got to see my first Paralympic action in person!</div>
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<h3>
The Futures Arena</h3>
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Goalball! Guys, goalball was probably my favorite discovery of the Games. It's a sport played exclusively by visually-impaired athletes -- there's no able-bodied equivalent -- and it's just... <i>so </i>cool. I was blown away. It's rare for me to discover a new sport nowadays, so sitting down in the Futures Arena with no idea what to expect and having those nonexistent expectations blown clear out of the water was insanely fun!</div>
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<h3>
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<h3>
The Aquatic Stadium</h3>
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Embarrassing confession: I totally failed at swimming during Rio. There was so much of it, two sessions every single day, so I'd get busy with work and just tell myself I'd go see some swimming another day. I had plenty of time to see some swimming! But on the last day of competition it hit me that, crap, I had completely failed to see any swimming! That night I had my heart set on seeing the women's sitting volleyball gold-medal match, but a coworker and I went to swimming in the 15-minute window we had before volleyball. It was a truly pitiful effort on my part, but I'll never forget those slightly stressy 15 minutes. We were checking the time constantly and got to see Jessica Long finally win her first gold of the Games... and by "got to see it," I mean it was the last race we stayed for and we literally booked it from the arena while Jessica was still crying on the pool deck after her win. Better than nothing, right?</div>
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^ That's Jessica winning!</div>
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And the only picture I got of this building is from the back at the shuttle stop? Man. I'm sorry, swimming. I took you for granted.</div>
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Within Olympic park, I never made inside the velodrome or the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center (though that one wasn't in use during the Paralympics). But I'll include one more venue that was just down the road from the park.<br />
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<h3>
Riocentro Pavilion</h3>
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The home of sitting volleyball! I used to intern at USA Volleyball so I was beyond excited to get over to Riocentro and watch some sitting. I went at least twice: the first time, the U.S. women lost to reigning gold medalist China, 3-2; and the second time, the gold-medal match, the U.S. women crushed China 3-0 to win gold. That place was LOUD! And it was a temporary venue, so the stands would literally shake when the crowd got rowdy enough.</div>
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I'll never forget that gold-medal match. We all thought it would be a nail-biter, but the first two sets weren't even close. It was an utter blowout. My coworkers and I kept shooting each other stunned looks; we couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was easily one of the greatest sports experiences I've ever had.</div>
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On Mondays, we wear green. ;)</div>
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And hey, y'know how I said we left swimming while Jessica Long was crying on the pool deck after she won gold? I was on Getty Images during the volleyball medal ceremony, and...</div>
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Whoops?<br />
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<h3>
The Park</h3>
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And finally, I couldn't leave out some scenes from within Olympic park itself! </div>
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The first three pictures are from before the Games began, hence why it's so empty. Once the gates were open, it was crowded every day.<br />
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So don't let all the sad stories tell the <i>whole </i>story. Olympic park was beautiful and lively and it'll have a special place in my heart forever.<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-12297071667937313092017-05-11T20:07:00.001-04:002017-07-15T17:25:30.027-04:00Without A PaddleObjects at rest tend to stay at rest; objects in motion tend to stay in motion; and Darcis that have slight blogging momentum tend to bang out a bunch of posts all of a sudden after barely picking up the proverbial pen for the better part of a year.<br />
<br />
That's how it works, right?<br />
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In any case, howdy ho and welcome to my quickest second-post turnaround since, what, 2015? Yikes. Blogging was so much easier when I was unemployed.<br />
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Moving on! How 'bout some more <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20Rio%202016?max-results=5" target="_blank">Rio Paralympic</a> things?<br />
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We have a bad habit in the United States of getting into a "gold medal or bust" mentality, when nothing else is good enough. Silver and bronze may be somewhat acceptable, but if there's no medal involved, it's either a gargantuan disappointment or nobody cares about said team/athlete/sport. It's a shame, really. I'm guilty of it myself, but it's important to remember that not every athlete needs to medal to accomplish something great.<br />
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That being said, several days after I attended <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2017/05/paratriathlon-and-patriotism.html" target="_blank">paratriathlon</a>, I was sent to paracanoe to cover athletes that had very slim medal hopes. And I had no idea what to expect.<br />
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The event was held at Lagoa Stadium, which was the Olympic rowing venue. The media workroom was up in this sort of tower they have there, which provided plenty of shade and lots of indoor space -- I'm very pale, so this was a welcome relief! And I'd never covered a water sport like this before, so I was fascinated to learn how the mixed zone and press access worked: there was an area on land that the athletes would be coming through, but there were also some floating pontoons that they'd pull up next to. Volunteers would let selected media personnel down to the pontoons, where you could sit or kneel and chat with the athletes while they're still in their boat. How cool!<br />
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Paracanoe made its Paralympic debut in Rio, so it's still very much a growing sport and the competitive fields were pretty small. We had three women competing, each in a different classification. The top two boats from each five-boat heat would move on directly to the finals, while everyone else had to race semifinals, from which the top four boats of the six advance. So only two boats from each class wouldn't advance to the final.<br />
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Our first athlete, Ann Yoshida, capsized in her semifinal, so she didn't finish and didn't advance. I headed down to the pontoons pretty apprehensively, worried about talking to her when she was angry or upset. But she was... great. Very disappointed, obviously, but very appreciative of the whole experience and happy to have been there at all.<br />
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I was pretty shocked. But in the two mornings I spent at the Lagoa, that was the overwhelming theme: total joy at simply being there.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">#JustParalympicsThings</span></div>
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The finals were the next day, and our remaining two athletes made it through to compete: Kelly Allen and Alana Nichols. Alana is essentially Paralympic royalty; she'd won Paralympic medals in wheelchair basketball and alpine skiing already. So she's a big deal, but was not expected to medal in paracanoe.<br />
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Her race was first, and she finished seventh out of eight. I was kind of bummed, and again, I was a little worried about how this interview was going to go. I had some time to stew with my worry while waiting to talk to her, because NBC's crew beat me there. So I waited patiently while Carl Lewis did his interview. (Yep. I got to hover awkwardly off-camera while <i>Carl Lewis </i>interviewed an athlete. It was amazing.)<br />
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Once Carl Lewis (!!!!!!!) was done, it was my turn to ask Alana a few questions. She was wonderful and gracious, and got to telling me about her morning. She said she was out on the water at 6:15 am and it was so beautiful and she was so grateful to be there that she cried. And as she's telling me this very touching, personal story, she started getting choked up! Holy cow. That's a moment I'll never forget: six-time Paralympic medalist Alana Nichols got emotional talking to me about how grateful she was for her medal-less Rio Paralympic experience. (And then she thanked me for "all the coverage." I love the Paralympics, man.)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">This is what a rockstar looks like.</span></div>
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Kelly's race was next, and she finished eighth of eight. But rather than being disappointed, she was practically glowing when she pulled up to the pontoons. She was, and I quote, "overwhelmed with joy." She was thrilled to have just made the final and helped the sport make its Paralympic debut.<br />
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I was FLOORED by what a positive experience paracanoe was, both for the athletes and for me! I was so energized by their enthusiasm (which was extra great because this was when I started to get sick), and it was such a cool perspective to get.<br />
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Sometimes it's not about medals. It's about the journey, and taking the time to be grateful and cry out on the lake at 6:15 in the morning.<br />
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darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-71779490066075366612017-05-03T19:59:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:25:42.677-04:00Paratriathlon and PatriotismAt this rate I'll still be recapping <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/search/label/Adventures%20at%20the%20Paralympics%3A%20Rio%202016?max-results=5" target="_blank">my Rio experiences</a> on the one-year anniversary of the Games. That's... fine, right? <span style="background-color: white; font-family: "lato" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px; text-align: center;">¯\_(ツ)_/¯</span><br />
<br />
In any case, today I thought I'd start diving into the events I attended as a pseudo-press officer: paratriathlon and paracanoe. My job had me essentially acting as web manager, so for most of the events I attended, I was there as a spectator while working on other things. But for those two sports, I was there specifically to produce some sort of content around the event. I wasn't <i>really </i>a press officer, but I was something to that effect.<br />
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My first sojourn out from behind my laptop was to women's paratriathlon. The triathlons were held at Copacabana -- not too shabby a venue, huh? -- and the media center was up at the top of Fort Copacabana. Luckily I had a travel companion in Joe, one of the U.S. Paralympics photographers who had attended the men's paratriathlons the day before, otherwise I have no earthly idea how I would've found my way up there. The #views were worth the struggle, though.<br />
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I was there to help the <i>actual </i>press officer from USA Triathlon, Cassandra, cover the races. She wanted me to be on the course taking pictures to live tweet, and then help record athlete interviews in the mixed zone once the races ended.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Not a bad place to start a triathlon.</span></div>
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Paralympic sports have a number of different classes for different impairments; so blind athletes compete against blind athletes, athletes missing a limb compete against other athletes missing the same limb, etc. That means there are multiple triathlons for each gender, whereas in the Olympics there's one women's triathlon and one men's triathlon. If I remember correctly, there were three women's races, and two of them started about five minutes apart. It was incredibly hectic trying to a) take good photos, b) figure out who was who and in what class, c) come up with good copy, and d) do all of that in a few seconds and tweet it out to the world. It also felt like it was 100 degrees, so there was a whole lot of sweat involved. But I think I held my own pretty well (and one of the athletes' husbands asked for the original file of one of the pictures I tweeted, so I'll take that as a very high compliment)!<br />
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As both races progressed, Cassandra and I parked ourselves at the finish line. U.S. paratriathletes are easily some of the best in the world so we were expected to win numerous medals, and all in a very short amount of time. The first classification finished and it was a U.S. athlete, Grace Norman, who won gold. Cassandra handled that on Twitter before running over to meet her in the mixed zone, leaving me in charge of the other classification.<br />
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That's how I found myself crammed up against a metal barrier at the finish line of a U.S. podium sweep on September 11th.<br />
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I mean...<br />
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Guys.<br />
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I will never forget frantically snapping pictures, sweat dripping down my back (TMI?), thinking to myself, "DON'T CRY. YOU'RE WORKING. YOU CAN CRY LATER."<br />
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Then I ran to the mixed zone to find out what winning a Paralympic medal on 9/11 meant to <a href="https://www.teamusa.org/usa-triathlon/athletes/Melissa-Stockwell" target="_blank">the first female American soldier to lose a limb in active combat</a>. (GUYS.)<br />
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And THEN came the medal ceremonies, and as much as I had hoped to one day hear the U.S. national anthem at a medal ceremony, I'd never gotten so bold as to dream about a podium sweep.<br />
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<br />
Holy cow.<br />
<br />
After many hours of sweat and grime (like, I cannot reiterate to you enough just how gross I was), we returned to the media center to work for an hour or so. I helped Cassandra get some stuff onto USA Triathlon's website, and when we were done we took an Uber back to the MPC. Or, well, we tried to. Our driver didn't speak English and the area around Olympic Park was unaccessible to unmarked vehicles. So, uh, he drove around fruitlessly for awhile as Joe tried to communicate in part Portuguese, part Spanish, part English and part mime. We must've been in that Uber for an hour and a half, and this poor driver almost ran out of gas trying to drop us off. But even though none of us could understand each other, we were all cracking up at the absurdity of the whole thing, and he eventually got close enough to a nearby hotel that he could drop us off basically on the side of the road. So we trekked to the MPC to get back to work.<br />
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Later that night we were able to take the 10:30 p.m. bus back to the hotel, so all told that ended up being a 15-hour workday. I'm looking at my journal entry for that day, written at probably 1 a.m., and there are several times near the end that my handwriting gets all flat and lazy and veers off the line: I was literally falling asleep on my notebook.<br />
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Working in sports: definitely not glamorous. But man, what a day.<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-15101714207747586502017-03-30T20:40:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:25:54.288-04:00It's Lit!: the Rio 2016 Paralympic Opening CeremonyReasons to journal when you travel:<br />
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1. You can look back on your adventures in some detail whenever you want!<br />
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2. You can wait six months to blog about your adventures because the details have been preserved for you.<br />
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Ha, whoops. <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2016/12/that-rio-thing.html" target="_blank">I was in Rio</a> more than six months ago and I'm only now sitting down to continue blogging about it. But I finally gave this ol' blog the facelift it so desperately needed (and I'm in love with it), and it totally re-motivated me. So here we are!<br />
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I won't dedicate a post to every single day I spent or event I attended in Rio. But the opening ceremony definitely warrants its own post because, <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/p/olympic-bucket-list.html" target="_blank">hello, bucket list</a>! And my journal entry for that day begins as follows:<br />
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"Today was so long but so good and my ears are ringing and I'm exhausted but so jazzed."<br />
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So that kind of sums up a day I'd been waiting for my entire life!<br />
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To get a little longer in the tooth, each country's delegation at the Games got a pre-determined number of press tickets for the ceremony, and we had enough for staff to use. So I laid claim to one without thinking twice!<br />
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Actually, that's a lie. I did end up thinking twice about it that afternoon. Since we had press tickets, we were going to be sitting at tabled seats in the stadium, which meant that we would be able to work. One of my daily duties was to send out a sort of newsletter after all events had concluded each day, and that night I'd be doing it for the first time. As the afternoon wore on I was getting nervous about putting it together at an event, and by myself (my boss wasn't going to the ceremony). I literally had to talk myself out of bailing and remind myself that I'd regret it forever if I didn't go because of nerves. Thankfully that self pep-talk worked! (Related: that happens to me before just about every amazing major life event I've ever had. I panic and briefly think about bailing, and then it turns out to be one of the best things I ever did. So that moment of fear has turned into a pretty good omen for me! Go figure.)<br />
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The group of us that ended up going to the ceremony together was entirely Games newbies. Everyone that had worked a Games before stayed behind, and everyone that had never worked a Games before wanted to go. I still find that pretty amusing, but I 100% guarantee that, should I be lucky enough to work more Games in the future, I will go to every ceremony I have the opportunity to go to. But it was actually really cool to go with other people who were also experiencing everything for the first time. We all matched each others' enthusiasm which, as someone who was <i>extremely enthusiastic </i>about literally everything, I greatly appreciated. :)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">So bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!</span></div>
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Immediately upon getting there, we wandered around taking pictures of things. At one point in the stadium, we ran into two Olympic Broadcast Service employees that had given some of us a tour of one of the Olympic Park venues the day before (so cool!) and gave pins to some volunteers. I'd been asked for pins numerous times since arriving and this was the first time I'd had any to give, so seeing a girl clutching one and saying "preciosa!" after I gave it to her was really great. You hear about pin trading at Games, but it was another thing entirely to actually experience it!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">That guy is my hero.</span></div>
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As for the ceremony itself, it was... flawless? perfect? life-changing? To quote from my journal again (how self-aggrandizing is that?!), "there's a human element to the Paralympics that's so special, and I'm so happy this ceremony tapped into that and ended up being so beautiful."<br />
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I also handily compiled a list of moments/things that made me teary-eyed:<br />
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+ The parade of nations was led by the team of refugee athletes.<br />
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+ The Paralympic flag was carried out into the stadium by eight pairs of disabled kids with their parents; the parents were each wearing this sort of contraption that held their kid to them, so these kids that couldn't walk could feel as though they were walking. When they finished with the flag, they all waved to the crowd and the place went NUTS.<br />
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+ One of the torch bearers was an older woman that walked with difficulty and a cane. She fell as she was walking with the torch but was helped up and finished her leg unassisted. And again, the place was going nuts.<br />
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+ Team USA's entrance. (I mean, obviously.)<br />
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+ The lighting of the cauldron.<br />
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+ As each delegation marched into the stadium, they carried a giant puzzle piece. The pieces were all put together to eventually form a giant, beating human heart in the middle of the stadium. It was SO COOL and so symbolic and holy cow do I live for that stuff.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A man in a wheelchair rolled down that incline and catapulted through the "O"!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">If you squint, you can kind of see that this is Team USA.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It's lit!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I made an attempt at a ceremony selfie. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "lato" , "helveticaneue" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">¯\_(ツ)_/¯</span></span></div>
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And that work I was so stressed about? Totally a non-issue, despite being slightly overwhelming. I<a href="http://www.teamusa.org/US-Paralympics/Features/2016/September/07/Rio-Welcomes-The-World-To-The-Opening-Ceremony-Of-The-2016-Paralympic-Games" target="_blank"> wrote a story about the ceremony</a>, put the newsletter together (with some help from a fellow ceremony-goer, ironically, and lots of emails with my boss) and still managed to thoroughly enjoy myself. The downside of having to do the newsletter is that I was the last person working that night (and every other night), but luckily the group I was with was willing to wait a significant amount of time after the ceremony for me to finish up.<br />
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By the time I was done, the stadium was basically empty. But as we were leaving, we somehow ended up in an elevator with one of the handful of other people still there. And this happened:<br />
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He had me smushed against the back wall, his backpack basically up my nose. A coworker tried to sneak a picture of it, and the flash went off. LOL, beautiful.<br />
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And then we took a couple of media shuttles back to our hotel and, despite it being an extremely late night and knowing it would be an early morning, I cracked my journal open and hoo boy am I glad I did!<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbig-14naZ8" target="_blank">The full ceremony is on YouTube. You should watch it (yes, you).</a> It's wonderful and I still can't quite believe I was there in person and I'm going to treasure this experience for the rest of my life.<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-72029115071149773622016-12-31T16:15:00.000-05:002017-07-15T17:26:44.594-04:00That Rio ThingI went to Rio this summer.<br />
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You might not've known that. I went from not having time to blog to not having any desire to blog to a combination of the two, and suddenly more than half a year has passed since I last posted here (and 2016 is over?) and so much has happened in the interim. (So, so much.) So if we don't talk on a regular basis and/or you don't follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/darcisays" target="_blank">Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/darcisays/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> (shameless plug), you definitely won't have known that.<br />
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So hi, I went to Rio this summer!<br />
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It wasn't for the Olympics. It was for the Paralympics. And it was perfect.<br />
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In March of 2014 -- after the Sochi Games ended -- I wrote a post titled "<a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/03/im-not-crying-i-just-have-paralympics.html" target="_blank">I'm Not Crying, I Just Have The Paralympics In My Eye</a>." And honestly? That's more true now than it was when I wrote it. I've been pretty vocal about my support of adaptive sports in the years since, but being at the Paralympics in person... man. I swear the Paralympics are the sports world's best-kept secret. There's a human element to the Paralympics that you just don't get at other sporting events, plus all the drama and elite competition of the Olympics in a smaller, friendlier package that has all the kinks already worked out... it's great. GREAT, I tell you.<br />
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Before the Games, people were extremely concerned about what the situation was going to be in Rio; ticket sales were almost nonexistent, logistics were a mess, there were endless budget cuts to try to make ends meet, and on and on and on. But you know what? Venues were <i>packed </i>(packed!), crowds were loud and rowdy, and logistics were a little messy due to those budget cuts but what's life without an adventure and some questionable bus rides? The main press center gave off unfinished vibes and the media shuttle schedules definitely left something to be desired, but I wouldn't even change any of it. To be fair, I did hear stories about some venues being sketchy and honestly kind of scary, but I was lucky and only ended up going to nice ones.<br />
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Like, really nice ones.<br />
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My job was to help manage <a href="http://www.teamusa.org/US-Paralympics" target="_blank">USParalympics.org</a>, so most of what I was doing involved sitting behind a computer in the U.S. Paralympics office in the MPC. But I <i>was </i>sent to help out with two sports, which were both unbelievable and totally worth the 14+ hours I worked those days. I spent two mornings at paracanoe, where we didn't medal but our athletes were so beyond overjoyed just to be there that I had to stop myself from getting teary-eyed while talking to them.<br />
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And I spent a day at paratriathlon, where we <i>did </i>medal and I ended up smushed against a metal barrier at the finish line so I could snap a picture of a Team USA podium sweep to tweet for USA Triathlon.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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SWEEP! Seely, Danisewicz and Stockwell own the Paralympic podium for Team USA! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paratriathlon?src=hash">#Paratriathlon</a> <a href="https://t.co/5yxYCaaxxz">pic.twitter.com/5yxYCaaxxz</a></div>
— USA Triathlon (@usatriathlon) <a href="https://twitter.com/usatriathlon/status/774978925147615238">September 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Do you ever have those moments when you almost literally have to pinch yourself because you don't understand how what you're witnessing could possibly be real?<br />
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And speaking of not understanding how what you're witnessing could possibly be real, guess what else I got to go to!<br />
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I finally got to experience an opening ceremony in person! It was phenomenal and I'm obsessed with it and it was every bit as magical as I ever imagined it could be. And what was really great is that I was with a group of people that were just as thrilled about it as I was. ('Cause, y'know, when you're going to check an item off your bucket list, you don't want to be surrounded people who'll mock you when you inevitably cry about it.) We were all working our first Games so we were like kids on Christmas morning, taking pictures of absolutely everything and getting emotional and watching it all unfold in a general state of disbelief.<br />
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Related: I worked with the most amazing people. Press officers and web managers and photographers and athlete liaisons, USOC employees and contractors, men and women, Games newbies and veterans... everyone was fantastic. I wasn't expecting that, to be plugged into this unit and bond with them over competitions and bus rides and copious amounts of meat. We were like a weird little family that passed around cold medicine and was always wearing matching clothes.<br />
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I'll cut myself off here and write more posts about more specific moments and experiences because holy hell do I have a lot of them (and hundreds of pictures!). But in the meantime, the Games ended months ago and I'm still kinda pining for them... so, y'know, I'm doing about as well as you'd expect. :)<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-45795627133156705202016-05-30T21:12:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:27:05.696-04:00Perfectionism and Ugly Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hi, I'm Darci, and I'm a perfectionist.<br />
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I wanted to write a blog post tonight -- because it's the end of the month and apparently my new thing is squeezing a blog post in right at the end of every month, and I didn't want to let May pass without blogging a single time -- and I was struggling so much with it. I didn't have any good ideas. Eventually I sort of settled on writing a "life lately" post, but I couldn't even force myself to start writing it. I sat around all day avoiding Blogger and dreading it.<br />
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Why? At first I thought it was because I worked a lot this weekend and was just feeling lazy, which, okay, is definitely part of the reason. But when I thought about it a little more I realized it's because a "life lately" post felt... so weak. When I used to blog three times a week, running out of inspiration every now and then and needing the crutch of an easy post once in awhile made sense. But now I blog once every four weeks! I shouldn't be this stumped! I should have something to <i>say </i>after not blogging for four weeks, I shouldn't need to cobble something together that's lame and unimportant and not all that interesting!<br />
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But THEN I thought... why does it matter? This is my blog. I should just do whatever I want with it. I don't need to be perfect every time I post something. I'm not making money off of this, so does it matter whether or not I impress anyone? NO! It doesn't matter! I started blogging because I felt like it, and continued because I enjoy doing it. If I want to write a freaking "life lately" post, and if that's all my wrung-out brain can come up with, that's what I should write! Who cares?!<br />
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Answer: me. I care. I'm a perfectionist. If I can't do something well, I will often be loath to do it at all. I'm like this with my blog. I'm like this at work. I'm like this with completely unimportant things like makeup or drawing or doing <i>literally anything</i>. If I won't be able to completely knock a task out of the park, I have to literally force myself to even start it. I am paralyzed by perfectionism. And that's absurd.<br />
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So my goal going forward is to be kinder to myself. This summer is about to be INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE -- and not like "woo party!" insane, but like, "I might work 100 hours this week" insane -- and I'm not going to have the time or the energy to beat myself up about... anything, really. My last boss would give me permission to have an "ugly day," i.e. to totally suck at whatever I was doing, to take some of the pressure off, and I need to start doing that for myself. I'm gonna have some ugly days. My first draft of a project at work might be super lame. My blog post might be nothing substantial. But I'm not going to accomplish anything or ever get better if I'm stuck trying to do everything perfectly.<br />
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And look at that. My struggles ended up solving the problem I was struggling with in the first place. Ain't that something?<br />
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Anyway, that's all from me for now. Hope everyone's been doing well. Give yourself permission to have a few ugly days once in awhile. :)<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-53764590684963321712016-04-30T20:37:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:27:27.790-04:00Things I Could Be Doing Instead of Watching SportsGuys, I have a confession to make: I watch a LOT of sports.<br />
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I watch sports for fun. I watch sports for work. I watch sports for fun <i>at </i>work. And when I found myself thinking, "ah, can't do [insert task or activity here] at that time, that's when the game is on," or wondering what on earth I should do with myself on an off day, that's when I realized... <i>I watch a freaking ton of sports.</i><br />
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And that got me thinking. If I watched less sports, I could be doing so many other things! Imagine what I could accomplish if I wasn't spending three hours a day glued to Mets games! There's a whole world of possibilities!<br />
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<b>1. Working on this blog. </b>Being a long-distance Mets fan, my only access to games comes via MLB.tv, which I watch on my laptop, which means other Internet activities are very limited. If I had those three hours a day to spend elsewhere, I could maybe write more than one post in a month, update some pages, clean up the broken images... Ugh, I should probably do all of that anyway. This place needs a major facelift. Might be time for some spring cleaning.<br />
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<b>2. Sleeping. </b>WHOA, what a wild concept. Instead of staying up late or getting up early to watch an international event I could, y'know, actually get eight hours of sleep. Pretty sure the bags under my eyes would thank me for that one.<br />
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<b>3. Reading a book.</b> I did read a book several weeks ago, but you know what it was about? Sports. Surprise! But if I had more free time, I could actually crack open a novel again. (Actually, I should do that either way.)<br />
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<b>4. Going outside. </b>Well, maybe not right now because it's snowing. Actually, it might not be snowing, it might just be the brutal wind blowing the snow around. (Yes, it's May tomorrow. Yes, it snows right around May 1st every single year I've lived here. No, I don't know why I'm still surprised.) So needless to say I'll be staying snugly in my apartment for the foreseeable future, thanks. But when the weather has actually been nice, I could've <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/03/spring-in-springs.html" target="_blank">gone exploring</a> (which I really do want to do!). I could've gone to a museum, gotten some culture in my life. I could've gone to see <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/12/ilovecoorsfield.html" target="_blank">a Rockies game</a>! ...Wait, that defeats the purpose of not watching sports. Damn.<br />
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<b>5. Working out. </b>Dude, it has been way too long since I've done any physical activity that isn't climbing four flights of stairs in the parking garage at work. If I wasn't spending so much time watching sports, I could be whipping my butt into shape. On the flip side, I could turn baseball games into workout opportunities; do 10 squats every time the Mets score a run! (Though in light of their 13-1 win yesterday... yikes.)<br />
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<b>6. Cooking an actual meal. </b>Raise your hand if you're super lazy in the kitchen! *waves both hands wildly* Most of my cooking lately has involved making a box of pasta and throwing some tomatoes on top of a bowl of spinach. Gourmet, I tell you. If I had a few spare hours, maybe I'd dig up the motivation to spend some time with my crockpot.<br />
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<b>7. LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE. </b>I could watch a movie. I could draw something. I could write in a journal. I could make something in Photoshop. I could pick my nose, for all I care. But no, I spent multiple hours every day stressing out about some athlete or another -- usually multiple athletes simultaneously -- and hoping they do whatever thing they need to do so they/their team can win.<br />
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I started writing this blog post this morning, and it wasn't finished until late evening. Why? Well, because I went grocery shopping around noon and then watched the Met game for three hours. And so it goes.<br />
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But hey, this is the life I've chosen for myself. Some of this sports-watching pays the bills, which is pretty rad. Some of it is probably going to give me gray hairs and take years off of my life, which is slightly less rad. But all of it is definitely fun.<br />
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Catch you on the next off day! *finger guns*<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-45950049672225524702016-03-30T22:02:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:27:44.397-04:00An Ode To My First CarIf you had told me several years ago that one day I'd cry over a car, I would've laughed in your face. But here I am, putting off writing this post for two weeks because I'm afraid I can't do my first car-love justice.<br />
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Two weeks ago, I cried when my first ever car was towed out of my life.<br />
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It's kind of crazy. I bought that car <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-mile-high.html" target="_blank">when I moved to Colorado Springs</a> with $2,600 while telling myself, "it's fine, I just need something that can get me eight miles to and from work every day for three months." I named him <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/10/miracle-monday-buzz-schneider.html" target="_blank">Buzz</a> and we trundled off into the sunset together.<br />
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Three months turned into six months turned into almost three years, me and my reliable old rust bucket of a car. (Oh look, and here I am getting a little weepy again as I'm writing this.)<br />
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You know that Liberty Mutual auto insurance commercial with the girl talking about the car named Brad? "You two had been through everything together! Two boyfriends, three jobs, you were like, 'nothing can replace Brad!'" That commercial weirdly resonates in my soul. Buzz was my Brad. Five cubicles, four jobs, three home addresses, <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/04/snippets-from-road-vagabond-life.html" target="_blank">two cross-country road trips</a>, and a partridge in a pear tree. Well, no partridges or pear trees. There <i>was </i>a <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2013/11/hey-sanka-ya-dead-halloween-2013.html" target="_blank">cardboard bobsled</a>, though.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Road trip number two.</span></div>
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My life has gone through a lot of pretty major changes since graduating college, and Buzz was the one constant. It wasn't always smooth sailing, though. There were a few times <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/05/things-that-make-me-charlie-white-happy.html" target="_blank">I wanted to kill him</a>, that one time <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-manitou-cliff-dwellings-or-why-my.html" target="_blank">I worried that I actually did</a>, and that one time I <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/01/happy-friday-or-something.html" target="_blank">accidentally locked the keys in him while he was running</a>. He never killed <i>me</i>, though. He plowed through snow without any sliding around, he zipped from Colorado to New York getting 30 miles to the gallon, and the one time his engine died he made sure to do it in the parking lot outside my apartment building. He never let me down. (And now I'm misty again. Fantastic.)<br />
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But eventually, a 21-year-old car becomes too costly and work-intensive to maintain. There were new brakes, new spark plugs, and all sorts of new gadgets and gizmos that I couldn't even begin to remember the names of. My dad, the saint he is, had been helping me pay for all of it and finally decided enough was enough. He bought himself a (giant) pick-up truck as his midlife crisis and gifted me the car he was moving on from.<br />
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I contemplated selling Buzz on Craigslist, but ultimately ended up donating him to Kars 4 Kids. It felt like a fitting next step for a car that had been so good to me for so long; now he gets to go help a worthy cause.<br />
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The Kars 4 Kids donation form includes a field that asks about the condition of the car. I said: "Brakes occasionally skid, the AC compressor isn't long for the world, the transmission slips out of overdrive, and it's pretty rusty. But it still runs very well, all things considered."<br />
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LOL. Probably time to move on, no?<br />
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Nonetheless, it was an extremely bittersweet morning when the tow truck arrived. The driver was a very nice man who's been towing cars for longer than I've been alive, and he was very familiar with people getting sentimental about their cars. Before I could even ask, he offered to take some pictures of me and Buzz in our final moments together and "directed" the whole "photoshoot" (and when my phone mysteriously died, he took them on his and texted them to me afterwards). What a guy.<br />
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And then I cried a little bit as I said goodbye to my first car.<br />
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Now I'm driving a 2010 Dodge Nitro, an SUV dubbed Thor, who's very big and very nice and who I'm sure will treat me very well. But there's still a small part of me that misses Buzz's comfy seats and crank windows and chipped paint, and I hope he's found a new home somewhere.<br />
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The first day and the last day. Goodbye, old friend.</div>
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com99tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-87975638188501760172016-02-29T22:30:00.000-05:002017-07-15T17:28:02.981-04:00A Hockey Day In DenverHappy leap day! Is it weird that I'm motivated to get a post up today just so I can have it up on February 29th? Probably. But hey, in this period of blogging drought, I'll take whatever motivation I can get!<br />
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This past weekend, there was an NHL game played at Coors Field as part of the Stadium Series. As someone who's been to several Colorado Avalanche games and spent <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/12/ilovecoorsfield.html" target="_blank"><i>kind of</i> a lot of time at Coors Field,</a> it was really weird to see the Avalanche playing at Coors Field. It was incredibly cool, sure, but really weird. And it reminded me that, hey, I've blogged about Coors all over the place but I still have some hockey adventures that I haven't blogged about yet!<br />
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So today we're throwing it all the way back to October 10, 2015. Honestly, I only know the date because it was the night of game two of Mets/Dodgers in the NLDS. I missed Noah Syndergaard's first career playoff start AND I missed the Chase Utley slide that caused the recent rule change. But you know what? It was kind of worth it. Hockey's a great time.<br />
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Anyway!<br />
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I went with my friend Barbara, she of all my <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/12/snow-angels-in-outfield.html" target="_blank">prior Coors Field adventures</a>. As the hockey game was at night, our initial plan was actually to tour Coors Field that afternoon and hang around Denver until the game. But lo and behold, all stadium tours were cancelled that day. (That would become something of a pattern with our attempts to tour Coors.) We decided to make a day of it in Denver anyway, and started things off with a stop at Voodoo Doughnuts. Real talk: if you go to Denver, go to Voodoo Doughnuts. I got a buttermilk bar and a grape ape donut and, because the shop has no seating, we drove to (shocker) Coors Field to sit outside on the benches and eat. That's when I took this very embarrassing ~purple aesthetic~ photo:<br />
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And holy wow, guys. Those donuts. So good. It was a beautiful day outside, I saw a bunch of people wearing Mets gear (in Colorado! WHAT?!), Barbara met some dogs, and it was basically just a great life decision.<br />
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After a little bit of time we wandered down Blake Street to Union Station, where we were given some free yogurt (Denver rocks) and explored a little bit. It's a really cool building, and you know how much I love those! (Though, I will admit, it's a little underwhelming compared to some of the train stations I experienced in Europe. But hey. No complaints.)<br />
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We killed some time in the Tattered Cover bookstore in Union Station, and then... walked to the real Tattered Cover store down the block and killed some time there too. Because books are great. THEN it was off to Larimer Square for a quick stroll-through.<br />
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It seems like a cool area to shop and eat, but as we were interested in doing neither of those things, we weren't there for very long. Instead, we adventured our way to the Denver Museum of Art. It was a pretty decent walk, but I love a good wander through a city. (And we came across a guy giving away free iced tea on the street. Seriously, Denver rocks.)<br />
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Another thing I love? REALLY COOL BUILDINGS.<br />
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<br />
*drools*<br />
<br />
We didn't even go to actually "go" to the museum. I just wanted to see the building. We would've walked around the museum if we a) had more time, and b) didn't have to pay for admission, but instead we sat in the cafe for a bit to rest (and finish our donuts, of course). Then we walked back to the car, and it was time to actually, y'know, go to a hockey game.<br />
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I was very excited about this game because the Avs were playing the Dallas Stars. The Stars used to be the Minnesota North Stars, and I'm the proud owner of a Neal Broten Minnesota North Stars sweatshirt (because <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/08/miracle-monday-neal-broten.html" target="_blank">I love Neal Broten a lot</a>). So I finally had an excuse to wear my sweatshirt! It was strange wearing the color of the enemy while rooting for the Avs, but I survived.<br />
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We went to the arena really early so we could get close to the boards for warm-ups. It was very successful.<br />
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I was taking a panorama and the lighting changed. Awesome.</div>
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<br />
We were total newbies and ended up on the Stars' side of the ice by accident. But in the sweatshirt I was wearing I totally fit in, so it worked.<br />
<br />
And then we went to our (kind of nosebleed) seats and watched the Avs destroy the Stars for their first home win of the season. It was AWESOME.<br />
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<br />
Hockey games are so intense. I'm not really a yeller when it comes to watching sports, but at live hockey games, everybody is a yeller. It's great. You should try it sometime.<br />
<br />
...And then I left the game and discovered that Noah Syndergaard had a playoff loss to his name and that Chase Utley had broken Ruben Tejada's leg. What a night.<br />
<br />
While I can't recommend losses and broken legs, what I CAN recommend is Denver and donuts and hockey. ;)<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-34108925697363749992016-01-31T22:37:00.001-05:002017-07-15T17:28:28.175-04:00Winter WonderlandEver go through a period where you blink and suddenly you haven't blogged in a month?<br />
<br />
Heh. Whoops. Maybe I should stop proclaiming that I'm going to be a better blogger again and just come to terms with the fact that I'm a pretty bad blogger right now.<br />
<br />
To be fair, though, this has been quite a whirlwind of a month. I'm writing this after working all weekend (#TeamNoDaysOff), which is probably what my entire February is going to look like. And I moved! Surprise! I'm now living in my very own one-bedroom apartment and, let me tell you, it's pretty phenomenal. I love my new place, and I love how I managed to decorate it, and I love that it felt like home after I'd been living here for approximately 12 hours. But most of all, I love that it's <i>mine. </i>I have sole control over the TV and don't have to worry about getting in anyone's way in the kitchen and at no point will anyone be waking me up by being too loud in the middle of the night. It's entirely wonderful and exactly what my introverted heart needed! But it also meant, y'know, packing and moving and unpacking.<br />
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Lucky for me, I've been #blessed with the best family ever. My mom and dad flew out to help me with furniture <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/06/things-i-did-this-week-instead-of.html" target="_blank">the last time I "moved,"</a> and this time around, my dad and brother made the trip to do the heavy lifting for me. [praise hands emoji] And, since I only moved to a different apartment in the same complex, it was pretty quick and painless. (On my end, at least. But I wasn't the one that had to carry my dining room table up and down the stairs.)<br />
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The move was done on a Friday, and the next day we threw caution to the wind and went on an outdoor adventure... <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/06/when-whitewater-rafting-becomes_28.html" target="_blank">despite what happened last time</a>.<br />
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The adventure? Snowmobiling! The goal? Don't end up in urgent care.<br />
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We made the two-ish hour drive to Breckenridge, my dad joking about avoiding the inevitable avalanche that was going to kill us and me yelling at him to STOP IT. The scenery was pretty, though.<br />
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We were outfitted in snazzy snowsuits -- I felt like the little kid in A Christmas Story when he was padded with so many layers that he couldn't put his arms down -- and given helmets. Shockingly enough, the boys in my family were game for selfies.<br />
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Then the whole group of us (probably around a dozen people) piled into a van and went to go meet our machines. (Note: all of the following pictures were taken by my dad, because there was no way I trusted myself to take my phone out in the snowy wilderness with heavy machinery.)<br />
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I was pretty nervous. My dad and brother are big into all vehicles with engines. Me, on the other hand? Not so much. So I knew I wasn't going to be the most talented snowmobiler of the group. But what I didn't expect was for my sled to die.<br />
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I was cruising along (slowly and not very gracefully), and when we came to a stop, my sled wouldn't restart.<br />
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Our group had two guides, and it took the two of them to get it going again. But the next time we stopped, I didn't even hit the kill switch before it puttered into silence. Cool.<br />
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Long story short, we had to circle back around to base so they could get me on a machine that actually functioned properly. You know me, always the problem child! It kind of reminded me of <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2013/11/biking-bowling-and-bruising-my-ego.html" target="_blank">that failed attempt at a bike tour in Berlin</a>: struggle city.<br />
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Getting a sled that, y'know, <i>worked</i>, was a big help. I still wasn't particularly fast or agile, but at least I was functional! And hey, a guy in our group did fall off at one point, and I did not! So I wasn't <i>totally </i>the worst!<br />
<br />
Anyway, we rode some trails for a while, and I actually found myself thinking of that bike tour. In both cases I was so focused on just trying to get where I needed to go and keep up with the group that I wasn't able to fully appreciate my surroundings. (Note to self: stick to walking tours. You know how to walk.) But nonetheless, it was extremely beautiful, and eventually we pulled off into a clearing to have some free-ride time. It was nice to get off my sled and stretch a little bit (and, y'know, reunite with my speed-demon family members), and it was also nice to get to ride around without worrying about how fast I had to go and following in someone else's tracks. (It was also pretty hilarious to watch my dad fly across this field. Whatever that gene is, I'm missing it.)<br />
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On the way back to base, we got to pull off to the side of the trail to take some pictures.<br />
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And then we headed back down the mountain, and did NOT go to urgent care! I was definitely stiff the next day, though. Turns out a death grip on your handlebars turns into sore forearms. Who knew? <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Lato, HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px; text-align: center;">¯\_(ツ)_/¯</span><br />
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So that's kind of where I've been these last few weeks. Please forgive my long absence, and cross your fingers that I don't end up in urgent care during my next one!<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-63388660677212511682015-12-30T20:41:00.002-05:002017-07-15T17:28:48.271-04:00Snow Angels In The OutfieldThings I need to stop doing in 2016:<br />
<ol>
<li>Going almost a month without blogging.</li>
<li>Saying I'm going to stop blogging about baseball.</li>
</ol>
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I mean, seriously. I work a lot of hours, yes, but I need to stop being lazy. I've also blogged about baseball enough times now that I should probably just come to terms with the fact that baseball is now amongst the topics I will regularly post about. You have been duly warned (if you haven't figured it out already).</div>
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I still have some hockey adventures to recap, but I figured I'd wrap up my 2015 baseball adventures before the new year (and, y'know, before spring training). That makes sense, right? Right. So, onwards!</div>
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If you recall, <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/12/ilovecoorsfield.html" target="_blank">my friend Barbara and I found something of a home at Coors Field this season</a>. At some point we decided that, after so many hours spent there already, we should really take a tour. We tried to go one weekend in October... but tours weren't being given that day. We tried to go one weekend in November... but tours weren't being given that day. (It was like a bad joke, honestly.) But finally, in mid-December, we did it!</div>
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...In the snow.</div>
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It was snowing in Colorado Springs when we headed out, and it was snowing in Denver when we arrived, and it continued snowing for most of the day. Perfect day to visit a baseball stadium, amirite?</div>
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Well, as long as you don't mind seeing grass and infield dirt, it was actually really cool.</div>
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The tour was slightly modified to keep us outside as little as possible, which was very appreciated. I've been on a pretty good number of stadium tours at this point, and they're all more or less the same. But one thing that stuck out to me was learning that Coors Field opened in 1995 and is the second oldest ballpark in the National League, behind only Wrigley Field. And Wrigley is over 100 years old. That is <i>nuts! </i><br />
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And the building we were standing in when I took the above picture -- now a restaurant within the stadium -- is actually older than Wrigley. Who knew?!<br />
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Tours only go into the visitor's clubhouse, as seems to be the industry standard. Apparently home clubhouses are significantly nicer. (Goals: see a home clubhouse one day.)<br />
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While we were on the field and milling around in the dugouts, someone opened the case to the bullpen phone. Our tour guide informed us that that's what triggers the call and, within a few seconds, we actually heard the phone in the bullpen ringing from clear across the field! That was a new tidbit for me! And of course, it's always pretty freaking cool to get to be on the field and in the dugout.<br />
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Also pretty cool? Mets stuff!<br />
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On the left is an apple that the Mets gave to each team in honor of the 2013 All Star Game that was hosted at Citi Field. And on the right is a David Wright jersey; in the hallway leading to the visitor's clubhouse, there's a jersey from each team displayed on the walls. Pretty neat!<br />
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After the tour, Barbara and I spent a few minutes in the team store (because when in Rome, right?) before grabbing an early dinner at a nearby restaurant. By the time we left to head home, it was dark outside and we were treated to some festive lights!<br />
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How cute is this! Do other stadiums get decorated for the holidays? Is this a phenomenon I've been missing out on? If so, I can't believe I didn't know this adorableness was going on. If not, Coors Field is my favorite.<br />
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Actually, Coors Field is my favorite either way.<br />
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I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, whatever you may celebrate, and happy new year!<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-70894268124215578222015-12-02T21:36:00.001-05:002017-07-15T17:29:05.553-04:00#ILoveCoorsFieldIt's after Thanksgiving and I'm STILL talking about baseball! It's a beautiful thing. (I mean, it's partially due to my own laziness, but it's also because the Mets were playing baseball into November. What a world.) At this rate I'll still be talking about the 2015 season when the 2016 season rolls around, but bear with me.<br />
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I'd been to two Rockies games before this year, mostly because Denver is kind of a schlep from Colorado Springs, and also because most of my friends out here don't particularly care about baseball. (I know, right? What a shame.) Last year I managed to scrounge up people to go with me <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/05/things-that-make-me-charlie-white-happy.html" target="_blank">when the Mets were in town</a>, and this year I was prepared to go by myself. Because the <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/09/an-open-letter-to-new-york-mets.html" target="_blank">2015 Mets team</a> was worth a two-plus hour round trip and sitting by myself at Coors Field for three hours. But the day before the game, my friend Barbara offered to go with me, and suddenly I had a baseball friend!<br />
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We headed to Denver intending to buy tickets at the stadium, and let me tell you, there are definite perks of going to games when the home team is bad. At will call, we just sort of asked what was available, and ended up walking away with field level seats for $20 a pop. TWENTY BUCKS to sit <i>at field level</i>. I'm sorry, what??? Even when the Mets were terrible (er, just about always), I think I only sat at field level once in my life. So this was pretty stinking cool.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
A<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Dickey compatriot!</span></div>
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And look at these idiots!<br />
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The children on the starting rotation thought it would be a good idea to sit on top of the wall during pre-game warmups. Children, I tell you.<br />
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The Mets played three games in Colorado, and I chose the Sunday afternoon game to attend... because it was Harvey Day. I wasn't missing an opportunity to see Matt Harvey pitch. But this was August, when he was making more headlines for his innings limit than for his pitching, so of course, this was one of his starts that was skipped. We ended up seeing Logan Verrett's first ever MLB start, and he was actually phenomenal. He pitched something like eight innings of one-run ball and the Mets won 5-1. It was great. Really hot, but really great. (Don't worry mom, I brought sunscreen and reapplied liberally. *thumbs up emoji*)<br />
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Two weeks later, the San Francisco Giants were in town. Barbara is a Giants fan, so it was back to Coors for round two. After such good luck at will call the first time, we headed up there with the same plan. We asked what was available, and the woman in the booth -- after seeing Barbara wearing a Giants shirsey -- said, "if I give you tickets, will you go inside and buy a Rockies shirt?" We both said yes, of course, and just thought she was joking about not selling us tickets because we weren't Rockies fans... but no, she actually meant <i>giving </i>us tickets. For free. <i>She gave us free tickets.</i> FREE TICKETS! So we did, in fact, run inside and hit up the team store. I got a shirt, Barbara got socks, both for the price we would've paid for tickets anyway, and then we enjoyed the game from our FREE SEATS.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">ZERO DOLLARS!</span></div>
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The final game we went to -- two weeks later -- was for the simple reason that Coors Field had been so good to us. The Rockies were playing the San Diego Padres, and both teams had pretty terrible records so the game was essentially meaningless, but on the last weekend of summer it was only fitting to squeeze in one more game. Again, we asked will call what was available for around twenty bucks, and we got club level tickets for $25 each. Guys, Coors Field is the best place. If you're ever in this neck of the woods, I <i>highly </i>recommend catching a game there, because the price and customer service experience is out of this world. (Also, get the Helton burger. Delicious.)<br />
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That was not the end of our Coors Field adventures, though. Two weeks later (noticing a pattern yet?), Barbara and I were all set for hockey season and headed to Denver for our first Colorado Avalanche game! Our hockey adventures will get their own post at a later date, but for now I'll leave you with this: I noticed that I was eating a purple donut in front of a purple stadium. ~Aesthetic~ ensued.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">...I hate myself a little bit.</span></div>
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We're planning on taking an actual stadium tour soon because, at this point, how could we not?! Coors has sort of become our touchstone in Denver; we've been so many times that we sort of know the area a little bit now. It's kind of crazy, but now I kind of feel like I have <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/05/guaranteed-to-have-heck-of-day.html" target="_blank">a second sports home</a>. So hey, Coors, thanks for being awesome. :)<br />
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<center>
<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-15749706423972071942015-11-18T20:39:00.000-05:002017-07-15T17:29:37.755-04:00My (Totally Fake) Fantasy Baseball Team: The ResultsWhat, just because baseball season is over you expected me to be done talking about it? Ha, no. I need to catch up on all my backlogged baseball posts! (Okay, it'll only be one more after this one. Maaaaaybe two.)<br />
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Anyway, back in April I created a <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-totally-fake-fantasy-baseball-team.html" target="_blank">fake fantasy baseball team</a> with the idea of helping me learn about some new players on the teams I follow; the Mets (obviously), the Blue Jays (for R.A. Dickey), and the Rockies (my new hometown team). I don't think it's my fantasy team's doing, but I definitely feel more attached to all three after this season; the Mets and the Blue Jays both made it to the playoffs for the first time in forever, and I went to three Rockies games within one month this summer. It was a wild season, guys. So let's check in with the players I chose and see how they did!<br />
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<b>CATCHER:</b> <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/518595/travis-darnaud" target="_blank">Travis d'Arnaud</a>, NYM<br />
2015 Stats: .268 AVG, 12 HR, 41 RBI, FPCT .995<br />
I am SO HAPPY I picked Travis. He was injured for a lot of this season, which was really unfortunate, but he improved in all facets of his game from the 2014 season: his home run/RBI numbers are almost identical even though he played in much fewer games, and behind the plate he has so many fewer errors and passed balls. I'm psyched about this dude. He's great. Needs to work on preventing stolen bases, but I cannot wait to see how he develops next season.<br />
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<b>FIRST BASE:</b> <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/446263/lucas-duda" target="_blank">Lucas Duda</a>, NYM<br />
2015 Stats: .244 AVG, 27 HR, 73 RBI, FPCT .997<br />
Part of the reason I picked the Dude was because he led the Mets in home runs and RBIs last season. So what does he do this season? Leads the Mets in home runs and RBIs. What a guy. :) His season was pretty streaky -- he'd either be hitting home runs in every single at bat for a week, or not at all -- but I'm very pleased with the season he had. Also, Curtis Granderson started an Instagram account for him: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wefollowlucasduda/" target="_blank">wefollowlucasduda</a>. It's just Grandy following Duda around and documenting him. It's the greatest thing that's ever happened on social media.<br />
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<b>SECOND BASE:</b> <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/518934/dj-lemahieu" target="_blank">DJ LeMahieu</a>, COL<br />
2015 Stats: .301 AVG, 6 HR, 61 RBI, FPCT .988<br />
Look at that batting average! Holy cow! He led the Rockies in both batting average and on base percentage, and that is just damn impressive. He was one of the very bright spots on a Rockies team that had one of the worst records in the league. I'm here for this guy. I dig it.<br />
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<b>SHORTSTOP:</b> <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/408314/jose-reyes" target="_blank">Jose Reyes</a>, TOR (traded to COL)<br />
2015 Stats: .274 AVG, 7 HR, 53 RBI, FPCT .968<br />
...It's hard for me to talk about Jose, as he was just recently arrested for assaulting his wife. Needless to say, I can no longer be a fan of his. Numbers-wise he had a pretty good season, and I loved that he was traded from one of my teams to another and has now played for all three. But now it's all just kind of ruined.<br />
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<b>THIRD BASE:</b> <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/571448/nolan-arenado" target="_blank">Nolan Arenado</a>, COL<br />
2015 Stats: .287 AVG, 42 HR, 130 RBI, .966 FPCT<br />
Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Guys, Nolan had himself a season this year. He led the Rockies in hits, home runs and RBIs. League-wide, he was third in home runs and first in RBIs. <i>The most RBIs in the entire league! </i>He's also won Silver Slugger, Gold Glove and Defensive Player of the Year Awards for his efforts. The guy is absurd. #NolanBeingNolan<br />
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<b>LEFT FIELD:</b> <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/150212/michael-cuddyer" target="_blank">Michael Cuddyer</a>, NYM<br />
2015 Stats: .259 AVG, 10 HR, 41 RBI, .973 FPCT<br />
Oh, Cuddy. People were so disappointed with his numbers this season, and it makes me really sad. Statistically, yes, he didn't live up to expectations (as much as I so, so wanted him to). BUT he was a critical piece in the Mets' clubhouse -- <a href="http://nypost.com/2015/06/17/mets-channeling-their-inner-wwe-with-postgame-award-ceremony/" target="_blank">after wins he gives out a championship belt to the MVP!</a> -- and I really don't think the team would've been the same without him. (Does anyone else have those players that might not be "great" but that you'd get into fights to defend them? That's Cuddy for me. Come at me about him.)<br />
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<b>CENTER FIELD: </b><a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/453568/charlie-blackmon" target="_blank">Charlie Blackmon</a>, COL<br />
2015 Stats: .287 AVG, 17 HR, 58 RBI, .991 FPCT<br />
Charlie (or <a href="https://twitter.com/Chuck_Nazty" target="_blank">Chuck Nazty</a>, as he's known on Twitter) ended up being a very happy accident for me. One, he had a pretty dang nice season! Two, he's so freaking weird and SO FUNNY (seriously, please just look through his tweets). And three, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEXpwveBeC8" target="_blank">this is his walk-up song</a>. I mean, come on. This guy is definitely a new favorite of mine.<br />
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<b>RIGHT FIELD:</b> <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/430832/jose-bautista" target="_blank">Jose Bautista</a>, TOR<br />
2015 Stats: .250 AVG, 40 HR, 114 RBI, .987 FPCT<br />
Ooooh boy, Joey Bats. He had himself quite the season. But all you really need to know is <a href="http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/instantawesome-BautistaBatFlip-1501014/let-take-closer-look-jose-bautista-epic-bat-flip" target="_blank">THE BAT FLIP OF THE CENTURY</a>. Legendary. Iconic.<br />
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<b>STARTING ROTATION:</b><br />
1. <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/285079/ra-dickey" target="_blank">R.A. Dickey</a>, TOR<br />
2015 Stats: 11-11, 3.91 ERA<br />
Eh, okay, this really wasn't R.A.'s best season. It started off... really bad, actually. But his second half of the season was pretty phenomenal, and he won something like eight or nine starts in a row. Crazy. So while I wanted better for him, I'm incredibly happy with how he ended up performing!<br />
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2. <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/518774/matt-harvey" target="_blank">Matt Harvey</a>, NYM<br />
2015 Stats: 13-8, 2.71 ERA<br />
This season was quite the wild ride for the Dark Knight. Unfortunately a lot of it was bogged down with innings limit controversy and other off-the-field drama. But there wasn't a ton of drama on the field, and Matt was <i>almost </i>back to his pre-Tommy John form. When he was on, he was <i>on. </i>And it was phenomenal.<br />
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3. <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/594798/jacob-degrom" target="_blank">Jacob deGrom</a>, NYM<br />
2015 Stats: 14-8, 2.54 ERA<br />
Can I be honest for a second here? I love Jacob deGrom. Absolutely adore him. Totally heart-eye emoji about him. His season was so wonderful. He finished sixth in the league in ERA and was in Cy Young talks for a stretch of the season. He made his first All-Star team and struck out the three batters he faced in 10 pitches. TEN PITCHES! And his postseason... oh man. Ohhhh man. This is my <i>guy.</i><br />
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4. <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/596057/daniel-norris" target="_blank">Daniel Norris</a>, TOR (traded to DET)<br />
2015 Stats: 3-2, 3.75 ERA<br />
It's been a rough 2015 for this guy. Not just in baseball, though -- he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and is currently recovering from surgery. I'm still trying to keep my eye on him (even though he's playing for the Tigers now) and wish him nothing but the best!<br />
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5. <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/572750/eddie-butler" target="_blank">Eddie Butler</a>, COL<br />
2015 Stats: 3-10, 5.70 ERA<br />
Um, so, this was not a good season for Eddie. Like, at all. To be fair, all pitching on the Rockies this season was bad. But yeah, this gets a thumbs down. Whoops.<br />
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<b>RELIEVERS:</b><br />
1. <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/446399/brett-cecil" target="_blank">Brett Cecil</a>, TOR<br />
2015 Stats: 5-5, 2.80 ERA, 5 SV<br />
Brett was a pretty critical piece of Toronto's bullpen. He ended up not being their closer, but they relied on him as a set-up guy and really settled into that role. Bullpens are really tricky, so a reliable guy in this position is super clutch. I dig it.<br />
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2. <a href="http://m.mlb.com/player/457429/boone-logan" target="_blank">Boone Logan</a>, COL<br />
2015 Stats: 0-3, 4.33 ERA<br />
Yikes, this is pretty bad. I've already said that the Rockies' pitching was all-around bad, but it bears repeating: the Rockies' pitching was really bad this season. Boone's numbers did improve from 2014, but that's... not really saying much.<br />
<br />
<b>THE VERDICT</b><br />
So, what bit me? The back end of my starting rotation, and my bullpen. How true to life is THAT? Hah. Other than the pitching weaknesses (and, y'know, Jose Reyes being a domestic abuser...), I'm pretty pleased with the way things turned out, especially considering my comparatively limited knowledge of these guys earlier in the year. Now I'd be able to put together a much better team (and <i>not </i>put any Rockies on my pitching staff).<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-2763091858279995652015-11-15T18:15:00.000-05:002017-07-15T17:29:55.799-04:00"There's No Crying In Baseball" And Other Lies*blows the layer off dust off of this blog*<br />
<br />
Hey there, folks. What is this, the third time this year I've sort of accidentally taken an unplanned blogging hiatus? Sheesh, remember when I used to post three times a week, every week? (Nope, me neither.) And I would apologize for this one too, but honestly, I ain't even sorry.<br />
<br />
It might sound kind of ridiculous to say that I was on hiatus because the Mets were in the playoffs, but... I was on hiatus because the Mets were in the playoffs.<br />
<br />
Remember back in spring training when I followed my blind, misguided Mets faith and <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/03/ya-gotta-believe.html" target="_blank">predicted they'd win the World Series</a>? Well crap, they came far closer than I ever would've logically thought they would! And way back when I wrote that post, I didn't really think about the reality of what a Mets playoff run would mean. I mean, the last time they were in the playoffs it was 2006. Not only was I was <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2014/07/8-things-i-learned-from-being-reality.html" target="_blank">a little preoccupied with other things that summer and fall</a>, but it's long enough ago that I wouldn't really have many memories of it anyway. Before that? It was 2000. I was 9 years old. So, for all intents and purposes, I had zero playoff experience going into this season.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsYaEeMlRGANgfc0bDP-IzyNM4-1nZA-O-jyyHN-iDBSKpxJj31ItfJYIHj4PXDvKdsm8Tb9w2MM7lYKcJ1miIkgpLiIDvii9C9sLOGRYzTPTyyroJH4BoBIY-oNSPwHYGfcOUvdloYSw/s1600/mets-worldseries-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsYaEeMlRGANgfc0bDP-IzyNM4-1nZA-O-jyyHN-iDBSKpxJj31ItfJYIHj4PXDvKdsm8Tb9w2MM7lYKcJ1miIkgpLiIDvii9C9sLOGRYzTPTyyroJH4BoBIY-oNSPwHYGfcOUvdloYSw/s1600/mets-worldseries-1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">2000 vs. 2015. The picture on the right was taken right before the Mets clinched their World Series berth. I was having A MOMENT.</span></div>
<br />
Which brings me to my first point: "there's no crying in baseball" is a lie.<br />
<br />
I've been a Mets fan for close to 20 years. I watched them collapse in 2007 and 2008, and then death spiral from 2009 through 2012. I watched them through six consecutive losing seasons, punctuated with losing <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/03/my-favorite-baseball-player-is-totally.html" target="_blank">my favorite player</a>(s) and all sorts of general awfulness. I could probably have counted my positive Mets memories on one hand. But suddenly I was subscribing to MLB.tv so I could watch the Mets clinch the NL East, blinking back tears when David Wright hit a home run to seal the victory. Suddenly I was FaceTiming my mom during the NLDS so we could watch the last out together, my free hand pressed over my mouth, unable to figure out if I wanted to laugh or cry and ending up doing a little bit of both. Suddenly I was watching as Jacob deGrom turned into Cy Young and Daniel Murphy turned into Babe Ruth, doing that same laugh-cry thing when Jake struck out eleventy million Dodgers in the NLDS and when Murph hit his sixth home run in six consecutive games to close out the NLCS against the Cubs. And if you think I was dry-eyed when they won that series too, you don't know me very well. And then, before game five of the World Series, when their elimination was a very real possibility, I was wiping my eyes at the thought of this season being over.<br />
<br />
...That's right. I sort of cried a little bit because I didn't want the season to end. I'm embarrassing. It's fine. BUT I've said before that <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/09/an-open-letter-to-new-york-mets.html" target="_blank">this season felt like lightning in a bottle</a>, and the playoffs did nothing but reaffirm that. It was magic (...until the World Series. But. Let's not go there).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicuTM6lOygd95QL11_opdhmyHXHaDEs3V-dq-LJ4Ti_6FsWO8TTNWJo71KJc1NSD-G-FjmHZ8w3EDNOBW9PjapFdILtqeMZ1YvTlST1xC2mde4eybrnbOE-fRv8ZKuPfSL5E_zVaOugzQ/s1600/mets-worldseries-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicuTM6lOygd95QL11_opdhmyHXHaDEs3V-dq-LJ4Ti_6FsWO8TTNWJo71KJc1NSD-G-FjmHZ8w3EDNOBW9PjapFdILtqeMZ1YvTlST1xC2mde4eybrnbOE-fRv8ZKuPfSL5E_zVaOugzQ/s1600/mets-worldseries-2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">I decided to take the plunge and buy that <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-shirsey-struggle-of-female-sports.html" target="_blank">deGrom shirsey</a>! Best. decision.</span></div>
<br />
Which brings me to my second point: "<a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/31963832" target="_blank">fans of bad teams are happier because they have low expectations</a>" is a lie.<br />
<br />
The Mets have been bad for approximately 95% of my life. Even they had fairly good records, they were bad (ahem, 2007 and 2008). And I sure as hell wasn't happy about it. Granted, this badness allowed me to emotionally detach from the team, and view losses as expected and wins as surprise bonuses. But for the most part, it wasn't really all that fun. It wasn't NOT fun, per se, but it just kind of... was. There was a lot of apathy.<br />
<br />
This season? There was no apathy. Right from the earliest parts of the season, when the Mets won something like 11 consecutive games, I cared. A lot. June and July were definitely not pretty, which involved a whole lot of anger on my part, and the World Series was kind of a train wreck and had me mad enough to breathe fire, but at no point was I emotionally checked out. And when I look back on this season, the low moments pale in comparison to the highs. I'll remember literally happy-dancing in my kitchen during wins, and screaming myself hoarse for strikeouts and home runs and, yes, crying happy tears.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It's a pennant pennant! And I can't believe this is a real thing. 2015 National League Champions. Wow. Wow. Wow.</span></div>
<br />
Sure, I spent most of the postseason stressed out to the point of nausea about baseball. But I have never had more fun as a sports fan, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Give me sweaty palms and an unsettled stomach and a sore throat and a racing heart over numb apathy any damn day of the week. It's better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, or something like that. (This post puts it into words way better than I can: <a href="http://aviewfromthebench.mlblogs.com/2015/11/10/i-almost-married-the-2015-new-york-mets/" target="_blank">I Almost Married The 2015 New York Mets</a>.)<br />
<br />
So, I was absent because I was in a relationship with my baseball team, and then because they left me standing at the altar, more than a touch heartbroken. (#dramatic.)<br />
<br />
BUT! Now I'm back, my time is my own again, and I'm frantically keeping up with offseason news and ready to do it all again next year.<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-31009843440324136592015-10-14T22:43:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:30:19.452-04:00Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: Brianna DeckerWow, did anyone out there watch that Mets game last night? I definitely spent three hours of my evening clutching my face and feeling like I was gonna barf, and this post very nearly almost didn't get written after that. But then I decided to get my ish together, because the National Women's Hockey League had its first games this past weekend, and that is EXTREMELY exciting. I mean, a paid professional women's hockey league? I am <i>so </i>here for that. And I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to talk about my favorite female hockey player!<br />
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+ Brianna here has been a big deal in the world of women's hockey for a pretty long time now. She grew up playing on boys' teams before playing four years of high school hockey at the acclaimed Shattuck-St. Mary's School, which is known as "the Hogwarts of hockey" and is <a href="http://www.mprnews.org/story/2010/03/18/shattuck-st-mary-hockey" target="_blank">"to hockey what Harvard is to law."</a> Other alums include Zach Parise and Sidney Crosby. It's no joke. She won three national championships there, scoring 122, 124 and 126 points in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons, <a href="http://ssmathletics.org/sports/hockey/girls_prep/alumni/Decker_Brianna" target="_blank">respectively</a>.<br />
<br />
+ After graduating high school in 2009, Brianna attended the University of Wisconsin. And she basically kind of dominated everything. She holds the program record for highest career plus/minus (the measure of a player's goal differential) with +175. UMMM, holy cow. Her <a href="http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/w-hockey/mtt/brianna_decker_489106.html" target="_blank">college athletic bio</a> is basically a laundry list of insane accomplishments, including the 2011 NCAA Championship and the 2012 Patty Kazmaier Award (given to the nation's top women's collegiate player).<br />
<br />
+ Brianna tried out for her first Olympic team in 2010 and didn't quite make the cut. But it wasn't long before she was making her mark on the senior national team the way she had on the junior level. At the 2012 world championships she led the tournament with a +13 rating, and in 2013 she led the tournament with six goals, was named to the media all-star team and was voted one of Team USA's top three players. She DID make the Olympic team in 2014, scoring two goals and four assists in five games en route to the silver medal (let's... not talk about it). She is, however, a two-time world champion and served as alternate captain for the 2015 team (and scored the winning goal in the gold-medal game against Canada. Hell yes).<br />
<br />
+ After all of this, Brianna played a season with the CWHL's Boston Blades. She was completely dominant, scoring 32 points in 12 games (omg?!) and finished second in the league in scoring. <a href="http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/top-10-womens-players-from-last-season/" target="_blank">"What Decker accomplished this past season would be like Connor McDavid breaking into the NHL next season and eclipsing the 150-point plateau."</a> Yeaaahhh buddy. The Hockey News lists her as the top women's player in the world after her 2014-15 season. She's now with the NWHL's Boston Pride, makin' history, y'know, all casual.<br />
<br />
+ But personally, my favorite thing about Brianna is that she's comparatively tiny. She's only 5'3", which is really small for a hockey player -- she has to <a href="http://www.teamusa.org/News/2015/April/03/Team-USA-Athletes-Spill-Their-Secrets" target="_blank">ask her taller teammates</a> to help her get her helmet and gloves down from the top shelf in her locker before hitting the ice. (Girl, I feel you so hard on that!) But she plays a really physical game anyway, is deceptively strong for her size and is able to use her low center of gravity to her advantage; so basically, she turned her weakness into a strength. #yaaaasss<br />
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Like I said, Brianna's playing with the Boston Pride now, and all NWHL games will be streamed (fo' free!) on their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFwEggLD91IcxpZvGqltJvw" target="_blank">YouTube channel.</a> So check out a game or two (or all) and watch this tiny blond girl crush her competition. :)<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-36647452883555540622015-10-11T21:47:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:30:39.662-04:00I'm Skinny... And Really Insecure About ItHi, my name is Darci and I hate my wrists.<br />
<br />
I'm aware that this seems like a very arbitrary body part to hate. But my wrists are the embodiment of something that I'm very insecure about, and it's almost impossible to cover them up.<br />
<br />
They're really skinny. And there's absolutely no way to hide it.<br />
<br />
I wore a watch every single day, from elementary school until college, partly for time-telling reasons but partly because it added some bulk to my left wrist. Long sleeves do the trick sometimes, until they ride up a little bit, or I get hot and roll them up myself. Then I'm just stuck looking at my bony wrists all day. And what can I even do about it? Is there a way to bulk up wrists? Do I do forearm curls?<br />
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<br />
Hi, my name is Darci, and I'm really thin and really insecure about it.<br />
<br />
Now, I understand that we live in a society that glorifies thin-ness, and that it's much more difficult to be overweight than it is to be thin. I'm in no way implying otherwise. But to think that thin people don't struggle with insecurities about their weight is to be incredibly incorrect.<br />
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I wasn't always insecure about being thin. I've been insecure about my wrists for a really long time, but it wasn't until people started commenting on my thin-ness that I started feeling weird about it. A casual comment about how, oh, you're small so you must not like food. Someone who saw me eat every single meal every day for a month saying she nonetheless thought I was anorexic (<i>seriously?????)</i>. One too many people showing me that, look, I can wrap my fingers the whole way around your wrist!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And what the HELL are these sizes that I have to wear????</span></div>
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Those things wore me down. Now when people say, "wow, you're so tiny!" I don't know how to respond. Thanks, I think? Are you telling me that as a compliment or because you think I have an eating disorder? When my family members ask what I've been cooking for myself, I instantly get defensive. Are you curious about my cooking abilities or are you worried that I'm not eating enough? When I wear boots, I always try to wear fleece-lined leggings and boot socks to beef up my calves a little bit. When it comes to jewelry, literally all bracelets are too big for me and don't even get me started on rings. When someone has to put a wristband on me, I always get the urge to apologize for my skinny wrists making it hard for them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I'm sorry. I'M SORRY.</span></div>
<br />
I feel like I should make clear that I <i>don't </i>have an eating disorder. I never have. My doctors have always told me I'm a perfectly healthy weight. I eat three meals a day, and more when I'm hungry. I just make healthy food choices, have been blessed with a fast metabolism and thin bone structure and small appetite, and (sometimes) work out. When you're not much more than five feet tall, you <i>really </i>don't have to weigh all that much. I'm a proportional human being, I promise.<br />
<br />
And I generally like being thin. It's nice to always know what size clothes to get; small, always. Extra small if it's available. Petite sizes, even better. (That's not to say they'll always fit, because I'm often too small for the smallest sizes, but at least it's a good place to start.) And it's nice not to have to worry about losing weight. But just like you wouldn't comment if someone was overweight, I'd appreciate not getting comments on the other side of the spectrum. (Seriously, let's just stop feeling entitled to comment on people's weight.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbCktBqvn3NWrfHwvTji1Hti6UtIScIbxEO1n7zf74VKRGBXkg7zX6kF6rEoBGPo4ji1o4ND8u0uN81b5sjJS9s-V6G04ijPuxbfcya0i8-G4sL5ranv98Z_wVQWIzZdHBZHscgNBFPHI/s1600/skinny-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbCktBqvn3NWrfHwvTji1Hti6UtIScIbxEO1n7zf74VKRGBXkg7zX6kF6rEoBGPo4ji1o4ND8u0uN81b5sjJS9s-V6G04ijPuxbfcya0i8-G4sL5ranv98Z_wVQWIzZdHBZHscgNBFPHI/s1600/skinny-1.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Because for every person that says "zero isn't a real size," there's someone who wears size 00 yelling at you to shut up.</span></div>
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Do any skinny girls out there feel me on this?<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-799742789080263492015-10-07T23:21:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:31:01.659-04:00Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: Malaika UnderwoodGuys, baseball! Are you feelin' it?! 'Cause I sure am! I haven't been this excited about baseball in <i>approximately </i><a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/09/an-open-letter-to-new-york-mets.html" target="_blank">nine years</a> and I am just all about it right now. So today we're chatting about a <i>female </i>baseball player. There is, in fact, a U.S. women's national baseball team. I didn't know such a thing existed until this summer, but suddenly it was like I'd been waiting for it my whole life. And Malaika Underwood is like the original version of Mo'ne Davis.<br />
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+ Malaika has been ballin' since day one. When she was in eighth grade, she knew she wanted to continue playing baseball in high school. But she also knew that not all high school teams would give a girl the chance to play. So she wrote letters to the coaches at various high schools she could attend, giving them her Little League stats and asking for a fair shot at making the team. (Keep in mind that this was in 1995.) One coach said he'd give her that shot, so that's where she decided to go to school.<br />
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+ In high school, Malaika played on the girls' volleyball team in the fall and the girls' basketball team in the winter, and the boys' baseball team in the spring. But because the basketball season overlapped, she could only join the baseball team late in the season. She was never guaranteed a spot on varsity and had to earn it, despite pitching and playing second base on junior varsity for two years. But she was just as good as all the boys, so don't worry, <a href="http://www.sdnews.com/view/full_story/26785597/article-A-lovers-quarrel-fueled-Malaika-Underwood-s-baseball-career?" target="_blank">she earned it</a>. And the craziest thing? She was so good at <i>volleyball</i> that she attended the University of North Carolina on a full volleyball scholarship and was a four-year starter and ACC tournament MVP. As one does.<br />
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+ Once Malaika headed off to college, she figured her baseball days were done. She graduated in 2003 and spent a few years coaching Little League. But in 2004, USA Baseball decided to establish a women's national team, and Malaika joined up in 2006. She's since been on the national roster seven times, which is pretty unprecedented in women's baseball, and is one of the undisputed team leaders. The head coach calls her "the ageless wonder." She's played in the Women's Baseball World Cup five times (one first, two second and two third place finishes).<br />
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+ So, it's probably no surprise that Malaika is team captain of the women's national team. And this summer was a pretty nice time for her to be captain, as it was a pretty big summer for women's baseball. The Toronto 2015 Pan American Games included women's baseball on the program for the first time. And when I say "first time," I mean that this was the first time that women's baseball has ever been included in a multi-sport Games. <i>Ever. </i>Sooooo, kind of a big deal. The U.S. women went undefeated on their way to a gold medal (talk about a league of their own!) and Malaika was at the top of <a href="http://results.toronto2015.org/IRS/en/baseball/individual-stat-women.htm" target="_blank">almost every single offensive category</a>. She was first in batting average (.600), stolen bases (2) and runs scored (7), and second in slugging percentage (.667). Defensively, she was third among first basemen with a .975 fielding percentage (with 38 put-outs and three double plays, both category-leading numbers). So baseically, girlfriend killed it.<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeamUSA?src=hash">#TeamUSA</a> manager <a href="https://twitter.com/CoachPollard">@CoachPollard</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/malaikau">@malaikau</a>: "There is no greater face for women’s baseball walking this earth.” <a href="http://t.co/D30dsprHbw">pic.twitter.com/D30dsprHbw</a></div>
— USA Baseball WNT (@USABaseballWNT) <a href="https://twitter.com/USABaseballWNT/status/625652123775201280">July 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Malaika Underwood: the hero female baseball fans deserve.<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-89719332872094085062015-09-30T21:29:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:31:18.721-04:00Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: April RossIt's about time we got some volleyball going on here! And with the beach volleyball world tour finals happening as we speak, there's no time like the present to appreciate the best player in the world. (Yeah, I said it. Big words.)<br />
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+ April began her volleyball career as an indoor player, as a good amount of beach players tend to. In high school she was the top recruit in her graduating class, won the National Gatorade Player of the Year award when she was a senior, and played on the U.S. Junior National Team. Then she took her talents to USC, where she won just about everything (including back-to-back NCAA championships). She still holds USC's record for points and points per game, like, a decade after she graduated.<br />
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+ She began her pro beach career in 2006 and was named AVP Most Improved Player that season. She partnered with Jennifer Kessy before the start of the 2007 season and things immediately took off for the pair, as April was named the FIVB Top Rookie and they upset Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings at an AVP tournament. Their roll continued into 2008, but they <i>just </i>missed qualifying for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games -- they were ranked 7th in the world, but there were two other U.S. teams ranked ahead of them, and each country can only send two teams per gender. So April and Jen missed out by a hair... but then they stormed back to win the 2009 world championships. That season she was named the FIVB's Best Hitter and Best Offensive Player.<br />
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+ April and Jen kept killin' it for the next couple of years -- April was named the FIVB Best Hitter and Best Server in 2011 -- and finally got their Olympic berth at London 2012. They went 6-0 before the finals, only dropping three sets in total, before winning silver behind Misty and Kerri. Not too shabby! April was also named the FIVB's Best Server again (and you should be noticing a pattern by now).<br />
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+ The 2013 season was April's last playing with Jen as she was stepping away from the sport, and they won all sorts of medals right up until the end. As Jen finished up in the middle of the season, April ended up playing with three other partners to finish out the year: Kerri Walsh Jennings, Jen Fopma and Whitney Pavlik. She and Kerri won two tournaments together (wasting no time!), and at the world championships, she and Whitney finished fourth. (Fourth in the world with someone who wasn't her regular partner. Casual.) April also led the AVP tour in hitting percentage, was second in aces and fourth in kills per game.<br />
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+ April began her partnership full-time with Kerri in 2014, when they won all seven AVP events and four FIVB events (out of the 10 they competed in), tying for the most of any pair. Not to sound like a broken record, but she led the AVP tour in service aces and kills per game, and was second in hitting percentage. 2015 was a strange season, as Kerri got injured and April had to split her time among a slue of other partners. But, as in the past, she just keeps doing great things with <i>everyone</i>. She played in an AVP event with Lauren Fendrick -- their first time playing together, ever -- and they won. She's with Lauren again right now, for the FIVB world tour finals, and they just beat the best team in the world. She played with Kerri while Kerri was dealing with her shoulder injury (and unable to serve overhand or attack effectively), and April literally kept their team afloat. She's been incomparably dominant this season.<br />
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Now, due to how the Olympic qualification system works, every international tournament this year matters in the rankings. So April's heroics could have very, very important implications for Rio.<br />
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Long story short, April is the bomb dot com and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3592098168234113173.post-53121938460641039472015-09-29T21:05:00.000-04:002017-07-15T17:31:36.274-04:00An Open Letter To The New York MetsHey Mets. Hey. How're we doing? (Dumb question. You clinched the NL East for the first time since 2006 this weekend. We're all doing pretty fantastic.)<br />
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It's probably pretty dumb to be writing a letter thanking you for this 2015 season before the playoffs have even started -- because, knowing you, you could bomb and lose the first three games of the NLDS and that'll be it -- but it's been a long road to this point. A very long road. So I'm going to take advantage of the positivity right now and just go for it.<br />
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I've been a fan of yours for the vast majority of my life and, for the vast majority of that time, I've regretted it. There were playoff berths in 1999, 2000 and 2006 (and a trip to the World Series in 2000!)... but that's it. I was so young in '99 and '00 that all I remember is Roger Clemens throwing a splintered bat at Mike Piazza (I still hate him for that).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBcknVUYFu3TQuYesr_TE6PCX848eiLVwxcPak454YOva6auAE6t4kzNX8FTr-Veu4U-QfrpS7uLOs1Mct87CyPegIfRZ23HF5NZI1Imm86jS8a8yHy2FjTL6xkx7FbbvIYtcjQiRdMk/s1600/mets-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBcknVUYFu3TQuYesr_TE6PCX848eiLVwxcPak454YOva6auAE6t4kzNX8FTr-Veu4U-QfrpS7uLOs1Mct87CyPegIfRZ23HF5NZI1Imm86jS8a8yHy2FjTL6xkx7FbbvIYtcjQiRdMk/s1600/mets-8.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It's like my brother and I already knew what the future held for our respective teams.</span></div>
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And any good memories from 2006 were completely wiped away by the agony of 2007 and 2008. Remember that, guys?<br />
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As a kid, I was fairly content to root for a bad team. I wasn't all that invested. But in 2007 and 2008, I was old enough to be invested and, quite frankly, horrified. I was embarrassed to call myself a Mets fan. That embarrassment endured for years. I have an extensive collection of shirseys from the players of my childhood, but stopped collecting them as my discontent grew. Digging into that pile of t-shirts is like opening a weird time capsule.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A small sample.</span></div>
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When people asked me which baseball team I root for, I answered with, "the Mets, unfortunately." When I moved away from New York to go to college, games were no longer easily accessible and I happily grew more detached. The only thing that kept me invested, honestly, was <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/03/my-favorite-baseball-player-is-totally.html" target="_blank">RA Dickey</a>. But I despised the way the organization treated him, even when he won the Cy Young Award in 2012, and very nearly called it quits when he was traded after that season. (I cried. And I'll always harbor a touch of bitterness about that trade. Sorry.)<br />
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I tried to abandon ship. I really did. I hated everything about the Mets franchise and wanted out. I was tired of suffering with no payout, and I went so far as to say "I'm done being a Mets fan." That didn't last, though, and I still found myself getting angry at boneheaded organizational moves, disappointed at losing seasons and attached to the all too likable players taking the field every night. And, yeah, I was bummed when most of them got traded too.<br />
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But then 2015 happened. Jacob deGrom was the 2014 National League Rookie of the Year and Juan Lagares was a 2014 Gold Glove winner, and <a href="http://freedom-of-excess.blogspot.com/2015/03/ya-gotta-believe.html" target="_blank">spring training left me with some unprecedented optimism</a>. And that 11-game winning streak at the beginning of the season! Wow! The Mets were the best team in baseball! But this was a .500 team by the All Star break, and things weren't looking much better all through July. Everyone was injured, David Wright with a back condition that many athletes never come back from, and I was fully expecting the Mets to pull a Mets. I'd thrown in the towel and expected absolutely nothing from this season.<br />
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But suddenly, the team that was notorious for never making moves... actually made some moves! The roster needed some big bats, so some big bats were acquired. Guys recovered from their injuries and returned to the lineup. Promising prospects were brought up. And the most mind-blowing thing? <i>Everyone was doing what was expected of them. </i>Hitters were hitting. Pitchers were throwing gems. And I had absolutely no idea how to handle the idea that games were suddenly meaningful because the playoffs were an actual possibility. I downloaded the ESPN app just so I could get game updates sent directly to my phone and found myself checking it obsessively. I low-key started keeping an eye on the magic number when it was in the 40s, and started an actual countdown when it reached 10.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It was so great going into work yesterday and getting to cross off 3, 2 and 1. SO GREAT.</span></div>
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It doesn't hurt that the 2015 team is obnoxiously likable, y'know. I mean, just the pitching staff would've been enough to have me hook, line and sinker. The Dark Knight? Thor? deGnome? Bartolo? Check please. I love all of them. But there does not seem to be a bad human being on this team. How did you <i>do </i>that?! How did you do <i>any of this</i>?! How did that bungled Wilmer Flores situation leave us with a folk hero? Where did the rally parakeet come from (and, pray tell, how did it match Yoenis Cespedes's sleeve)? How has this team swept the Nationals TWICE this season, the second time with three late-inning come-from-behind wins? How have Mets fans turned every ballpark around the country into a home ballpark? (Seriously, where did all these fans come from? Was everyone just hibernating because they were as embarrassed as I was?)<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I got to be one of those "away" Mets fans when they came to Denver to play the Rockies!</span></div>
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So, even if this season does amount to nothing, I just want to say thanks. Thanks for giving us diehards this beautiful, shining season that feels like lightning in a bottle. It has been more fun than I can even put into words. Who knew that stressing over games with playoff implications was so enjoyable?! Thanks for giving me a team full of wonderful men, and wonderful baseball players, who could win and do it with complete class. Thanks for giving me a team I can be proud of.<br />
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Now I don't root for "the Mets, unfortunately." I root for the Mets.<br />
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The east is ours. Ya gotta believe. Amazin' again 2015.<br />
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Let's keep it rolling.<br />
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<img alt="post signature" class="left" src="http://i.imgur.com/bXlzCmB.jpg" /></center>darcisayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14289513215271079392noreply@blogger.com0