Proud to be an Athletic Supporter

It's easy to love the A's. It's easy, and I do it. Even when they lose. Even when there are only 10,000 fans in the stands with me. Even when it's cold and raining, and there's no ride home from BART after I reach 19th Street and I have to walk the 20 minutes uphill at 11:00pm, on a weeknight. Even when my boss, a FORMER A's fan, hassles me at work the day after they lose a game. Even when the team threatens to leave Oakland and move to the suburbs of my behated Southbay. Even when a lot of things.

The reason it's so easy is not just because I always love the home team, or even that this home team exemplifies me really well with their scrappy sort of attitude. It's because they're fun. Win or lose, they have a good time, and keep it light, and show their spirit, and maintain their camaraderie. With heroic star players or with no-name newly-acquireds, they give me someone to love and cheer for every single time. Take Big Joe Blanton, or not-born-in-Japan Kurt Suzuki, or the new Nick Swisher Andrew Brown -- that's the spirit of the A's club that you'll never find in a contending team like the Yankees. (Plus, the A's have Stomper, who's new Make Some Noise video featuring the Stomper Trumpet Puppet is the funniest thing I've seen at a ballpark EVER. After several viewings, I'm STILL laughing.) So, that's why I love this team. And, it's EASY.

My beloved doesn't write that often. (Maybe that's why, when he does, he commits so many little grammatical errors that the OCD in me flags.) But, when he does write, it's good stuff. It's insightful, it's poetry, and it makes me laugh. And by far, the best thing he's ever written, in my opinion, is this, a blog entry from the past winter break, when the A's front office traded away the fans' most beloved player, Nick Swisher.

I'm not going to complain about anything that happens this season. I'm just going to attend all the home games I can wearing my old Jason Kendall tee-shirt, and being thankful to be back in Oakland, where I can root for my A's in person or over the radio, and I never have to contend with a 9-hour time difference, or the inefficiencies of mlb.com's hissing audio stream.

Let's go, Oakland! Clap-clap, clap-clap-clap!

Seasons Change

So, John got to town on Tuesday night. It was a harrowing day full of tired and weary (I worked the day shift on my own), and then joy and bliss (John arrived and we kissed). It was a nice reunion.

And so far, it's been a good visit. We haven't done a whole lot of sight-seeing thusfar. I blame John's jetlag and my sense of not wanting to sight-see that much in a place that I'd been calling home for the past 5 months. I wanted us to go to the first annual Petrovac Jazz Festival, but the weather (hot and rainy) and my health (tired and pukey) held us back. But, we did take 12 hostel guests and 3 peddle boats out to Sveti Nikola Island yesterday and spent 4 sun-soaked hours on the only completely deserted beach in Budva. No one believed me that the beach was going to be devoid of tourists, but I was dead right. Everyone had a blast, despite one lost t-shirt (by George), one lost pair of prescription glasses (by my beloved), and one lost lunch (by me, my first time seasick!).

It's strange how these past 3 days or so, this town has really emptied out a whole lot. I knew it would happen after August was over and the high season ended, but I wasn't really prepared for it happening 2 days before September, and also at such a dramatic rate! Where normally there would be bathing-suit clad couples and families coming back from the beaches at 5:00pm heading to their vacation rentals, or where I would see teeming hordes of humanity marching along the promenade at 7:00pm at night, checking out the carnival rides, the beach bars, and each other, there just AREN'T ANYMORE! It's sort of sad to see the end of the era of madness. I always hated crowds and never enjoyed this scene as it carried on all around me here in Budva these past couple of months. But, now that we're in September officially, and John is here, so I'm finally on vacation, it's just sad to see the season end.

This is the beginning of another change in my world here in Budva. This next month and a half will be about friends visiting, and taking lots of vacation trips around the region. So welcome, new era. Good-bye, old one. I will miss thee teeming masses and thou crazy hordes.

Tonight, John and I set off on a ferry across the sea. Italy, here we come!!!