It’s 11:53 pm and for some reason I can’t sleep, so I decided that I’d write an entry letting you all know that I’m having trouble sleeping tonight.  It might have something to do with the fact that both the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins won tonight, giving both teams a very good shot at advancing into the next round of each of their respective playoffs.  It’s been really funny being a New England sports fan lately, because on any given evening (like tonight) you could have the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox playing at the same time.  I’d like to thank the people who invented 1) the remote control, allowing me to flip and watch the Celtics and Bruins at the same time.  And I’d also like to thank the person who invented the DVR, because I was able to tape Dancing with the Stars, and not miss a minute of my reality tv addiction.  OK, I’m going to try and go to bed.  Maybe not.  Letterman has Alec Baldwin on.  He’s always good on Letterman.  I may not sleep for days if this sports thing continues.  Or if Letterman keeps getting good guests.

Nothing really exciting is going on in my life right now.  We’re trying to get from one snow storm to the next here in Massachusetts.  We’ve had such mild winters lately that I’ve forgotten what -10 degrees feels like.  I have about 3 feet of standing snow in my backyard, and their projecting another storm for mid week.  I end up layering my clothes, because everyone has the heat cranked up.  It’s really uncomfortable to wear a t-shirt under a sweater, under a sweatshirt, with my winter coat.  Ugh.  Tuesday is ground hog’s day.  I don’t care what the darned thing sees or not sees, I will go crazy with another 6 weeks of winter!

I’ve gotten back in my regular routine now that 2009 is in full swing, and the most exciting thing I do is grocery shop at 11:30 pm, right before Stop and Shop closes.  I find that I can get in and out of the store really quickly at that time, and since the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson doesn’t start until 12:35 am, what else am I going to do at 11:30 pm?

I’m still trying to figure out my calling.  The more people I ask about how they figured out their calling, the more questions I end up asking myself.  Maybe my calling is to figure out what my calling is?

A musing on life: Life has become totally upside down when friends of my mom’s (and her age) are telling me to make them a friend of mine on Facebook.  Yeah, that’s just what I need, information about me getting back to my parents via Facebook.  If my mom or dad want to know what I’m up to, they have a couple of options.  They can pick up the phone and call me, or can get a Facebook account themselves.  It’s bad enough that my brother Dave has started posting family pictures.

I started reading C.S.Lewis.  I think I’m going to kill Faye, who suggested that this reading would be interesting.  Cross this off my New Year’s Resolutions.  I’d rather wear a mouth guard because of lock jaw.  Oh wait.  I do wear a mouth guard because of lock jaw.  Any suggestions on how to get into reading something that is really hard to get started reading?

I guess I should be happy that the New England sports teams are actually doing well now.  The Red Sox begin Spring Training in Ft. Myers, FL in less than three weeks.  YEAH!  The Boston Celtics basketball team are doing well, but the Boston Bruins hockey team are in first place, and are SO much fun to watch!

Oh and to top it all off, I have a sinus infection, and it took 4 days for the anti-biotic to begin working.  I’m still really tired, but at least I don’t have pneumonia again, like my cousin Staci does.  Poor thing.  She’s really sick and is a stay at home mom.  She has a great husband, who was able to take off of work, but Staci’s alone and sick with the kids again.  Oh the joys and pitfalls of being a parent!  Get well soon Stace!

Do you know where you were in October 26 years ago?  I know where I was.  I was at the old County Stadium in the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin cheering on the Milwaukee Brewers the last time they were in the playoffs (and the World Series against St. Louis.)  My family had tickets to the playoffs and the World Series, which was absolutely unbelievable!!!  My dad grew up a die hard Boston Red Sox fan (at that time, the Sox hadn’t won the World Series since 1918) and loved baseball.  And my dad taught my brother and me to love baseball too.  When I was growing up, the Milwaukee Brewers had a great program for families, where for a really low price, you could buy something like 6 or 8 tickets a year for children under 13 and the parents would get a reduced price as well.  So going to the baseball games was the big entertainment for our family.  We didn’t take vacations, with my dad working full time and my mom being a full time student getting her Ph.d, and them both doing full time parenting, so being together at Brewer games is really what I remember most.  And then as a teenager, my friends and I would go to a couple of games together.  (Q. and I had some crushes on players as I remember ?!?!)

Back to 1982.  Because my dad had lived his entire life watching the Red Sox lose, when the Brewers made it to the playoffs, my dad told my mom and I quote “if we have to mortgage the house to get tickets, we’ll do it.”  Wow!  Well, they didn’t have to do any refinancing, because when mom went down to County Stadium to see if tickets were available, they had just released the tickets that other baseball clubs didn’t want, so we had tickets for both series BEHIND HOME PLATE.  It really was a dream for all of us (except for the Brewers losing the World Series to St. Louis.)  I think my photos from that time are at my folks, so I’ll post them when I find them.

I was back in M’waukee a year and a half ago and stocked up on Brewer gear for my family (they changed the logo a couple of years ago.)  So I’m set to watch the Brewers.

And my beloved Red Sox made it as the wild card in the American league, so they’ll be playing too.  I don’t know what I’m going to do, with all of this baseball going on!  Luckily I have enough Brewer and Red Sox gear to be able to go a couple of days without doing laundry, I’ll just switch hats and shirts (and even socks!) when I need to!  Thank goodness hockey season doesn’t start until later in the month, otherwise, I’d be really confused!

I’ve already posted that I’m not a huge basketball fan.  I love the other professional sports: baseball, football, soccer, ice hockey, just not basketball.  Oh and golf.  I hate golf.  Watching professional golf on tv is worse than waiting for a cake to bake, and let’s get real, we all know how much I hate to cook!  But technically I should love basketball, because I played it for like, four years in junior high and high school.  Wait maybe that’s why I hated it.  Once I found that throwing myself into band and drama was really my passion, I was a lot happier.  Yep, that’s it.  I hated, absolutely hated, playing basketball.  Ok Ms Hedlund let’s get back on track.  Back to the Celtics.

Well, the Boston Celtics won the basketball championships in 6 games against the LA Lakers.  I couldn’t stay up that late to watch the final game (although if it were hockey or baseball, I’d be up watching!)  So they had the rolling rally in Boston, like they have every time one of the teams wins a championship.  Only I’m used to seeing the rallies in the midst of winter (the Red Sox ones have been in November and the Patriots in January.)  So to see the duck boats (a boat with wheels that can drive on land and then go into the water and float like a boat-pretty cool!)  with the Celtics on them.  It was also a little weird seeing all the green-the Celtics color, when we’re used to the red, white and blue of the Sox and the Patriots.

So tonight, through the rain, the Celtics are being honored before the Red Sox-St. Louis Cardinals baseball game.  They came out in the duck boats and drove around the outfield of Fenway Park, before Paul Pierce will throw the starting pitch before the game.  If only the rain will stop.  I think I’m more bummed that the Sox game is being postponed, than I am that we won’t get to see the Celtics on the infield (because it’s wet!)  Oh well.  At least the Sox are wearing their green jerseys today.  It’s the second time in two years that they’ve worn them.  Red Sox wearing green.  Pretty interesting.

The New England Patriots, who play at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA (which is about 15 minutes from where I live) won their final game of the season giving them a perfect 16-0 record.  Boy, was tonight’s game a close one against the NY Giants, but the Pats pulled it off, just like they’ve done all season.  I’m not as big a football fan as I am a baseball one (just to remind everyone that my beloved Red Sox won the World Series this year!)  But it’s been cool living here near where the Pats play, especially tonight, because other football records were broken too.  The Pats broke the record for most points scored in a regular season (589) Tom Brady broke the NFL record for most Touchdown passes in a regular season (50) and Randy Moss broke the record for most TD passes received/caught during the regular season (23).  This is so awesome!!!  (And many apologies to my Cheddar Head friends in the Dairy State that I switched my football allegiance from the Packers to the Patriots, um, about 13 years ago.  It’s been much more interesting )

Well the Red Sox went to Colorado and beat the Rockies 10-5.  That’s like a football score (Touchdown and field goal against field goal and two point conversion, if that’s possible) 

I’m trying a new tactic here.  Now you have to understand something.  I’m sick right now.  Not the, I’m coughing a little, or I have a tummy ache because I ate too much kind of sick.  I have the full body aches, a fever, dizziness, I’m sleeping in 13 hour spurts, not really hungry, sore throat and hurt ear kind of sick.  There is a name for this, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue.  I’ve been battling these diseases for about 15 years.  When they hit, they take control of my life.

So the ickiness has set in and I knew I had to sleep last night.  So I video taped the game and watched it this morning.  I have to say that part of the game of baseball is anticipation.  It’s the time in between pitches that gets our hearts pumped and our minds invested in the game.  It totally loses something fastfordwarding through commercials and boring commentators.  Although this game was the longest game in World Series History at 4 hours and 19 minutes, so I guess it was probably the best one to watch on tape.

Another piece of history was made.  It was the first time that 2 Rookies- Jacobi Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia (who just happen to play for the Sox) had a combined 7 hits and 4 RBI’s in one game.  Just an interesting statistic.

GO SOX 

(Oh, PS the Patriots won again today.  They are undefeated)

It’s quarter after midnight here in the Massachusetts part of Red Sox Nation and due to the awesome pitching of Kurt Schilling, Hideki Okajima (the Player of the Game,) and of course our closer Jonathan Papelbon the Red Sox squeaked by with another win tonight.  Mike Lowell drove in the second (and game winning) run for the Sox which was scored by David “Big Papi” Ortiz.  The final score of tonight’s game was 2-1 Red Sox. 

In addition, in the 4th inning Jacobi Ellsbury stole second base and with that stolen base Taco Bell will offer a free taco to everyone in America on Tuesday, October 30 from 2-5 pm at participating restaurants. (Whew, I got all that information in )  So thanks to the Red Sox-even you Rockies fans can eat for free! 

Enjoy the pictures of Mike Lowell, Kurt Schilling and Hideki Okajima (I got them from the official Red Sox site.

GO SOX!

As of today Ben has been deployed for 39 days.

I’d like to place a wager with my friend K who lives in Denver (home to the Colorado Rockies) that has something to do with the outcome of the World Series. 

I KNOW that my beloved Red Sox are going to beat the pants off of those Rockies and I am letting the whole world know.  I’m thinking something like that if the Red Sox win, K, you’ll post on your blog that I and my Red Sox are the ultimate and coolest things on the planet and you will give me a gold star.  If the Rockies, somehow manage to beat Manny, Big Papi and Papelbon, I will declare you and the Rockies to be the supreme coolest things and will give you a gold star.

Gauntlet thrown down.

Ben has been deployed for 35 days.

I am totally all for free speech, but some TV shows need to put a better list of the content of the programs somewhere.  Oh wait, that’s called “TV Guide Magazine” or the Info button on my tv remote.  I just failed to use either today.

I think I’m a little bit more sensitive to what I watch on TV, since I’ve stopped watching all the different the Law and Order and CSI series last spring.  (They come on later at night here in the East Coast and I was getting nightmares, so I stopped watching them altogether and my sleep has been much better, thank you.)  So I basically watch the news (local, national and my favorite, BBC America, which has the best news, I think) sports (duh, if you’ve read any of my postings on this blog, you’d know my views on New England sports ) and I will admit that I tape my soap opera every day to watch when I have time.  (I’ve been watching the same soap- “As The World Turns” since I was a tiny speck in my mommy’s tummy.  I call myself an “in-utero soap addict” HA )

Ok back on track, I was watching the show “Ghost Whisperer” tonight and the episode dealt with an American serviceman coming home from Iraq and having the spirits of his dead unit buddies “haunting” him.  I totally lost it.  I was crying and weeping that snotty kind of tears, thinking about my brother Ben still being in Iraq (“still”, he hasn’t even been there a month!)  About what kinds of horrors Ben is going to see and how this experience is going to change him.  I was praying that Ben comes home safely to his friends, family, his parents, his siblings, his girlfriend Lindsey and especially that Ben comes home to his little girl Hailey.  I pray that all our service men and women come home safely.

I think I need to be far more careful in what I watch.  I’m really good at deciding what kinds of movies I watch and what kinds of music I listen to.  I realize that I am a mentor to some kids who really do look up to me and I realize that the decisions that I make can affect the kids, so I try and make good decisions.  (I quit swearing about 7 years ago as part of Lent, because I realized that swearing was taking the Lord’s name in vain.)  So for my own good, I think TV comes next.  Does anyone know if “Wheel of Fortune” can cause any bad side effects?

I leave you tonight with a nice prayer for those in need of comfort:

Make Me Brave for Life

God, make me brave for life: oh, braver than this.
Let me straighten after pain, as a tree straightens after the rain,
Shining and lovely again.
God, make me brave for life; much braver than this.
As the blown grass lifts, let me rise
From sorrow with quiet eyes,
Knowing Thy way is wise.
God, make me brave, life brings
Such blinding things.
Help me to keep my sight;
Help me to see aright
That out of dark comes light.

Author Unknown

Today Ben has been deployed for 25 days.

I suppose I should give kudos to the New England Patriots football team who just beat the Cleveland Browns 34-17, and are now 5-0 on the season. I’ll admit that I haven’t kicked into football gear yet, because my Red Sox are still playing (literally.)  I was watching the football game and as soon as the game ended on CBS I switched the channel to TBS to watch the Sox play Anaheim in game 3 of the Division series.  (We’ll see if Cleveland can knock off the Yankees later tonight.)

I love this time of year, the best of Baseball being played.  Football all the time (not that I want all football, it’s just comforting to know it’s there), and Hockey just beginning.  I’ve just recently gotten reintroduced to the game of ice hockey and now it’s awesome to watch the Boston Bruins play.  (I may even get to go to some home games this year!)

I’m not a big sports fanatic, it’s just really cool living in an area where there are so many opportunities to watch (in person and on TV) some quality sporting events.