Oh, Papelbon...

Well, he sure crapped the bed. That's all there is to it. Still, probably not as bad as the Twins losing the final baseball game ever played at the Metrodome to the hated Yankees, or the heavily favored Cardinals being swept by the Dodgers. Baseball is a tough sport, and losing hurts, mostly because I just enjoyed watching our team play more baseball. This was a strange year for our team, and I still can't believe Daisuke didn't throw a single pitch in the postseason, but such is life. As I've said before, losing makes those few and far between championships that much sweeter. The Celtics and Bruins losing game 7's at home last season, the Pats not making the playoffs, it all sucked big-time. But those crushing defeats just make us hungrier for another championship, and the nice thing is we have the confidence to know in our hearts that we will taste that victorious champagne again.
The other part of this whole losing thing that I don't like is the Yankee mentality that a year without a World Championship is a failure. In that case, 29 out of 30 teams fail every year. I personally love watching baseball, and think our team played some amazing games this year. There were the Penny and Smoltz experiments, but there was also the acquisition of Victor Martinez, our catcher of the future who will certainly be more comfortable with our pitching staff come next year. We gave up walk-off homers, but also had our fair share of amazing comebacks. Our pitching staff is still nice and young and constantly improving, but our position players are just getting older and slower, so we might have to let some of our former heroes go, who knows. I like to think that the post-2004 Red Sox fans have grown a little less all-or-nothing, slowly understanding that just having an exciting team and great ballpark is a good enough reason to be happy and proud.
Ok, enough trying to make myself feel better. I hate those stupid Angels. I really just wanted to win one more game so Daisuke could get a chance. And yes, I wanted to punch Papelbon in the gut. But I still love the Red Sox, and so should you!
So my non-baseball life has been going well. Just a quick update, I got to hang out with Dad and Vicki last week, even seeing some amazing chamber music up by Northwestern. Then this weekend I had lunch with Uncle Charlie and Aunt Jeanne. The fun thing about them is that they've been to Chicago so many times they already know the best restaurants. That and they're just fun to be around.
Matt Williams, my buddy from Butler came for the weekend as well. He saw some shows, we hung out, it was awesome. Betsy also stopped by, so the three of us had a ball. We even ate some unreal deep-dish pizza at Gino's! I'm really starting to like this whole Chicago thing.
In terms of the future, I got a job! Walking dogs! I knew it! Hey, it's a start. I also have an interview Tuesday in Skokie, so you know what that means...another awesome Adam adventure into uncharted territory! Then Alan is stopping by because he has a conference here, so we'll grab some dinner Tuesday. And more Butler kids are coming to visit later this week! I feel like a concierge! Hope everyone gets a chance to visit me, I really love seeing everybody, hanging out, and showing people why Chicago is so cool.
And for a final surprise, here are some pictures of my calypso band!! Stay classy, Bostonians!

Just a little further...

First things first: what with moving all my stuff up four flights of stairs, walking miles through Chicago in tight shoes, and just being a clumsy oaf, I messed up both of my big toes. Bad. So gross! The weird part is I'm pretty sure Ben and Dad have done the same thing, do we have a genetic inclination to stub our big toes? Are they abnormally sensitive? I don't think it's ever been this narsty though. Shield your eyes, children:Anyways, me and Nate (my roommate) have been furnishing our apartment slowly but steadily. Betsy's parents gave us an awesome futon, then last weekend we finally got a frame, some rugs, some lights, and a chair, so it's pretty sweet.
I'm still looking for jobs, and right now the best lead is working for College Admissions Assistance. It would involve traveling a lot and signing kids up for this sweet college prep program, which seems really awesome and not as "salesy" as the Chicago Symphony job. Families are invited to a presentation which basically shows how great this program is for finding the right schools, choosing the right major, getting into good schools, and reducing the cost for college. Anyways, we had to go to North Aurora to meet at the boss' house (all I could think of was Wayne's World the whole time), so I took the train downtown, rode the Metra (commuter rail) to Aurora, and biked an hour north. It was intense, but sooooo worth it. Classic Adam, I got there way too early and relaxed by an enormous field in the vast suburbs. That alone made the whole trip worth it. You can even see hints of my enormous shoes in the bottom of the picture:
You may be asking, Adam, how did you manage to bike that far and back? The answer is I brought my bike into the 21st century! Finally! Check out my new helmet, lights, and lock!
Pretty sweet. So now I'm equipped to roam the streets in search of blood...I mean jobs. Tomorrow our calypso band is performing in front of some soccer league or something, I'm really excited to just jam out with my steel-drumming old-timer buddies. I'll try to grab some recordings and/or pictures of us all in matching goofy shirts.
Other than that, Dad and Vicki are stopping by for a day or two on their Midwest trip, should be fun to see them again. And oh yeah, Go Red Sox! Let's put those Angels back where they belong: Heaven!