Grateful Blog

Today I’m grateful that:

• I have one big, happy, crazy, helpful, fun family. It’s hard (almost impossible) to get the 70+ members of this branch of my family together except on special occasions, and I’m so grateful that we’ve been lucky enough to get group Sox tickets for several years running now, and especially grateful that this year we really lucked out with a weekend game, making a pre-game cookout possible. It was an exhausting day, but it was the best kind of exhausted!
  
• Our seats for the game this year were an improvement over the previous years. Granted, they were in the alcohol-free section of Fenway Park (which, to my Uncle Stephen’s dismay, did not mean that they served free alcohol) but otherwise had a better line of sight and were closer to the action.
• For the third year in a row, we’ve had good weather and a good outcome for our annual family Red Sox game. I feel really, really, really lucky in this respect. The odds were not in our favor weather-wise, but the rain came down only for an hour during the cookout, and the skies were clear throughout the game.

Today I’m grateful that:

• Doris Kearns Goodwin apparently had a prior engagement and couldn’t use her Red Sox season tickets, so somehow they ended up in my hands. Thanks to Chad’s friend, Siobhan, for helping that along, even if it’s still unclear just how that happened.
• I got to watch not only the Red Sox, but the Bruins, thanks to the little TVs that are in the front row of the EMC Club seats.  This was VERY key for this Bruins fan who was happy to take free Sox tickets (esp. since they were the best seats I’ve ever had) but legitimately worried about not being able to watch the Bruins in the playoffs.
• The Red Sox pulled it off in 12 innings, and the Bruins pulled it off in overtime. Really, I experienced Heaven tonight, I am sure of it.

Today I’m grateful that:

• Five years ago on this date, the Red Sox won the World Series! It was truly one of the most fun, special, memorable nights of my life.
• My boss at the time had lived in Boston, understood the Red Sox, and let me work from Boston for the entire week. Wouldn’t have been the same experiencing it from D.C., and this also allowed me to go to Game 2 of the Series, thanks to the best person on the planet, Tyrone Brooks!

• My grandfather didn’t live to see it happen (born just weeks after the Sox won in 1918, and died the year before they next won it) but he was there in spirit. I was grateful to spend that night with some of my siblings and my cousins, calling our dads, and toasting Grandpa.

Today I’m grateful that:

• Jerry Remy returned to the Red Sox announcing booth for the first time in what feels like forever. There’s just nothing quite like listening to the RemDawg and Orsillo!

Today I’m grateful that:

• Chad didn’t listen to me last week when I said we shouldn’t bother spending the money to go to the Sox game tonight.
• We have various connections to Red Sox tickets and are lucky to go to at least a handful of games (or more) each year without breaking the bank. Believe me, I know how lucky we are!
• I never got rid of my #5 Red Sox jersey given to me in 2003, and was wearing it when my old boyfriend Nomar pinch hit late in the game tonight. Also very glad I was not peeing or getting beer when he finally showed up!

Today I’m grateful that:

• My best friend has a cousin with season tickest to the Sox who rarely uses them. Nothing like free, good tickets to Fenway! And thanks to Papi for the home run!
• The cabbie didn’t ram into the rickshaws in front of as we (jokingly) suggested.
• The Real Housewives of New Jersey provided 10 minutes of some of the most quality trashy reality television ever. Thanks to Teresa for the table-flip heard round the world, haha.

Today I’m grateful that:

• My mother has put up with me for 34 years. It hasn’t always been easy. I just hope that the good times have outweighed the bad, and that she knows how much I appreciate her.
• I’ve been lucky to have two grandmothers with such a long and positive influence in my life. I cherish this more and more as we all become older.
• The Bruins, Celtics, and Red Sox provided an exciting end to Mother’s Day. No sports fan in Boston can complain today! Here’s just one of the moments.

Today I’m grateful that:

• The weather was absolutely, completely perfect for the annual Sullivan-Carney-Wisnes-etc. Family Red Sox game. I was just hoping it wouldn’t rain much. I never hoped for such a beautiful night!
• The Red Sox made the game fun and exciting, and gave us a win!
• I have such an awesomely fun family. I like people who know how to have a good time!

Today I’m grateful that:

• The Red Sox scored 12 runs in one inning to make us forget, at least momentarily, the crappy news about Manny Ramirez testing positive for a banned substance, which of course makes everyone look sideways at the time he spent on the Red Sox. I think we’ll need the Sox to keep scoring 12+ runs a game, if not an inning, moving forward.
• My friend, Rachel, donated a ticket to me for Saturday’s game, so I’ll be seeing two Sox games in a row this weekend. Makes me really feel like spring is here!
• A birthday gift card from Rachel that let me buy two books, including the second in the Twilight series, and still have money left over to go back for more … which I’m sure will be the third in the Twilight series. Addicted to those hot-looking vampires!

Today I’m grateful that:

• I’m with someone on Valentine’s Day who gets exactly why I think Valentine’s Day is ridiculous.
• First official Red Sox workout! And Tek is “happy and confident.” That’s how I like him.
• Speaking of the Red Sox, the tickets for the family game finally arrived! For some reason there are four random seats in the middle of the group of 80 that don’t  belong to us. I feel sorry for  the poor souls who have to sit in the middle of us. They have no idea what they’re getting into .