Re-Introducing Myself

Today is the day for the Re-Introduce Myself fest! Hosted by Stephen Tremp, Mark Koopmans, Elise Fallson, and C.M. Brown, this fest is a chance to get to know members of the ever-expanding blogging community better. All we have to do is share something about ourselves. Here goes!

I'm a sports fanatic even though I am the world's worst athlete. I can't play sports to save my life, but I love to watch them. I love football (college and  the NFL), college basketball, and baseball. Right now I'm enjoying cheering for the OSU Buckeyes basketball team and anxious for the return of the Cincinnati Reds in April. I love having a sport for every season of the year.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

I'm also a total tv junkie and I'm a huge fan of (some may say obsessed with) Game of Thrones. Ever since I saw this promo for S3 I am counting the days until March 31. This in spite of the fact that I've read the books and probably know everything that is going to happen. I can't deny I may in fact be a little bit obsessed.

 

As this blogfest is intended to be "quick and fun," I'm going to leave it at that. And I'm looking forward to hopping around and getting to know more about my fellow bloggers!

Happy Monday to all. Hope the week ahead is a good one. :)

Healthy Writers and Baseball Blahs

For the past few years I've had a regular exercise routine that I stuck to fairly faithfully and, as a result, I felt better than I had in a long time. But over the summer I lost my motivation and became extremely lazy, losing my routine in the process. So I was glad when I came upon Shallee McArthur's blog last week and discovered her Healthy Writers Club.

I thought the club was a great idea and signed up right away in the hopes that joining in on the project would help me get some of my motivation and discipline back. I know from experience that I am more productive with my writing when I am also walking regularly, so it's a win-win situation for me.

With the club in mind, Clancy and I hit the walking trails around my place this week. Clancy is a fierce advocate for the couch potato lifestyle, so he wasn't thrilled. In fact, this is a fairly accurate depiction of his reaction to my renewed motivation.

In spite of his grumpiness, we managed to get about 10 miles of walking in this week which, while not great, wasn't a bad start.

I'm now hoping I can carry that energy over into getting a lot of work done on my WIP The Ghosts of Aquinnah this weekend.

I really need to be productive over the upcoming weekend, as I spent the vast majority of my time this week engaging in the exercise in futility known as cheering for the Cincinnati Reds.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

When I wrote my R is for Reds post back in April, I was extremely pessimistic about the Reds' season. I should have held on to that pessimism even though the team managed to go on an amazing run over the summer and win their division.

I thought it was safe to be optimistic when the Reds went up 2-0 on the road in the NLDS against the San Francisco Giants. I should have known better.

All the Reds had to do was come back home to Cincinnati and win ONE out of three games in order to advance. The town was electric and fans were thrilled, and I rearranged my schedule, bought party food, and even used PTO time at work so I could watch the games.

What I got in return was a colossal meltdown the likes of which has rarely been seen, as it turned out that winning that one game was impossible for the Reds. They threw away their lead and lost three games in a row, losing the series 3-2. This really wasn't a surprise to anyone here, as all of us in Cincinnati know we have a better chance of being struck by lightening than we do of ever again seeing a Cincinnati team win a championship.

So now that I've been reminded once again that Cincinnati + sports = misery for fans, I'm hoping to get back to focusing on writing for the weekend. I need to do something to get the bitter taste of this latest local sports fiasco out of my mouth.

I hope everyone has had a good week, and has a great weekend ahead! :)

R is for Reds

Source: Wikimedia Commons

As I made clear in my Bengals post, Cincinnatians don't have much to cheer for when it comes to professional sports. Sadly, our baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, is nearly as incompetent as our hapless Bengals.

It wasn't always that way. I grew up during the 1970s and the era of the Big Red Machine, when the Reds won back-to-back World Series Championships and dominated the National League. The Big Red Machine is considered one of the best baseball teams of all time, and it was a lot of fun to be a Reds' fan when I was a kid. But, with the exception of one World Series title in 1990, the pickings have been very lean ever since.

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I always cheer for the Reds, and I love all of the history behind the team. First known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the Reds have been around since 1869, and they were baseball's first all-professional team.

My mom is a life-long Reds fan and first went to games with her aunt at Crosley Field, which was the Reds' home field from 1912 through 1970. Crosley Field hosted the first night game in baseball history in 1935, and saw many historic events throughout its long history. My mom remembers going to see Jackie Robinson play when he came to Crosley with the Dodgers in 1947.

One of the reasons I love sports is the sense of family and connection that is passed down through generations of rooting for the same team. Decades after my mom went to Crosley with her aunt, my sister, brother-in-law, and I went to a game with her last year at the Reds' current home, Great American Ball Park.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

My sister managed to secure seats in the front row right behind home plate, and we had a great time in spite of the fact that the temperature was 100+ degrees on the day we attended the game. The Reds won, which made the heat more tolerable. It was fun to have seats so close to the field, and I was able to get some pictures of my mom's favorite player, first baseman Joey Votto.

Votto was the National League MVP in 2010, when the Reds won the Central Division. We were all very excited and gathered together to watch the playoffs, only to have the Reds go three and out against the Philadelphia Phillies. It wasn't enough for them to just lose, they had to enter the record books doing it by coming out on the losing end of Roy Halliday's no-hitter, which was only the second no-hitter in postseason history. Like the Bengals, the Reds really know how to lose in style. 

But every year is another chance, and the city was buzzing with excitement for Opening Day back on April 5. The Reds won that game, but have only managed to win four games since, giving them a 5-8 record to start the season. Last week, the Reds scored a whopping total of 10 runs while losing five out of six games. But yesterday's win against the St. Louis Cardinals was a bright spot, so maybe things will start to look up.

It's obviously much too early to give up on the season, but it's always difficult to be optimistic about sports in this city. We know way too much about losing around here and, for decades now, we've simply come to expect it.