Wicked Awesome

Today, we wake up (yet again) in a world that doesn't make sense. A world where some cowardly insane person (or group) decided to hurt many innocent individuals by detonating two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Bombs that killed eight-year-old Richard, twenty-nine year old Krystle, and a graduate student from Boston University whose name is yet to be released. Hundreds of people were treated in local hospitals with many still in critical condition.

Since I went to Boston College, and lived in the city for a year after graduation, I can assure you that Patriot Day/Marathon Monday is one of the best celebrations in the USA. Patriots Day is officially April 19th and it's a holiday only honored in Boston. It's officially celebrated on the third Monday in April. The Boston Marathon has been ceremoniously held on that day since 1969. And the Boston Red Sox have a home game at Fenway on Patriots Day.

To say it's a fun day to be in Beantown is an understatement. Businesses are closed. Schools are closed. Almost every place that doesn't serve food and drink is closed in honor of a day where visitors and locals come together to celebrate the human spirit.

The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon. Considering our nubile country is just a mere 237 years old, that's a pretty amazing statistic. 

Boston College is located at miles 20-21 of the 26.2 mile course. It's lovingly and brutally referred to as "Heartbreak Hill" due to its slow steady incline and that it’s located at one of the hardest segments of any marathon when runners tend to hit that proverbial wall. This may be why I have such fond memories of going out to “Comm Ave” to cheer on the tens of thousands of runners as they crippled by. B.C. students felt some semblance of responsibility to instill in these inspirational runners the need to keep going, to fight through the pain, to make it to that finish line.

I remember the runners who would put their name on their shirt. Genius! We would scream their name as loud as we could. Go Ben! You can do it, Ben! Let's go, Kathy! You're DOING it, Kathy! Keep it up! Congratulations, Sarah! Look at YOU GO! You're awesome, Jack!

Then there were those who ran with a group, or with a school, or put their favorite sports team on their shirt. Let's go, Diamondbacks! Yea, Boston College Eagles! Oh, too bad you are a Steelers fan but you're still doing a good job! It didn’t matter where you were from, what your name was, or which team you rooted for. The masses were united on Marathon Monday.

Marathon Monday is such a fun, beautiful celebration that made me proud to be a Bostonian, even if it was only for a few short years. I left my heart there in 1996 when I had to move home for many reasons beyond the scope of this blog post. I always planned to move back, but alas, life took me in a very different direction which is par for the course.

I'll never be able to root for the Red Sox or the Patriots (what is WITH those teams anyway?!?!?) as they continue to plague my beloved Orioles and Ravens. But my heart bleeds for Boston today. I'm heartbroken to know that Marathon Monday and Patriots Day is forever tainted in history. We'll never be able to find beautiful pictures of Marathon Monday online again because of the thousands of photos and videos of this particular day. The 117th Annual Boston Marathon is forever stamped in our minds as one of those lifetime events that everyone will remember where they were when they heard the horrific news.

My memories will serve as peace as I remember crisp Spring afternoons with blue skies, good friends, food and frosty beverages, and tens of thousands inspirational people from across the globe who were running for their lives...in a good way.

Boston, you are wicked awesome. God bless you. And God please help the many families directly affected by this senseless act.

Oriole Magic

We took Isabelle to her first Spring Training Orioles game today. Even Uncle Don has never been to a Spring Training game before. Ed & I saw the O's play at the Yankees facility many years ago but this was our first trip to the Orioles facility which is actually a new stadium in Sarasota called the Ed Smith Stadium.

It's a really small venue (most of the Spring Training facilities are) so there isn't a bad seat in the house. Unless you get the sunny side of the stadium on a cloudless day. Then you might be a bit uncomfortable. The concessions leave a little to be desired but everything else was just fantastic. The crew were awesome, bathrooms clean, whole stadium was clean, plenty of cool table seating and patio areas to hang out if you can't sit in your seat baking in the sun for hours.

If you ever end up going, be sure to bring a glove and you really must pay attention to the game. Every seat is prone to having a foul ball tipped it's direction so you have to be careful.

A women near us got hit by a foul ball in the 3rd inning today. The guy behind us looked up to see how bad it was. He sighed, turned back in his seat and said, "Eh, she's a Yankees fan. Totally deserved that.". Now I would NEVER say such a thing, Isabelle. But I did have to chuckle. She wasn't hurt THAT bad. And I think she really was over dramatizing the situation.

Anyway, we had a great day at the park. We're hoping to take Grandpa there next month when he comes to visit if Mother Nature plays nice.

No Sleep Til Baltimore

Warning: This is a long boring read just to document our trip back to Maryland. No real funny or interesting tidbits in here, so don’t commit to the long read if you are expecting entertainment :)


We had a whirlwind visit in Maryland last week. Isabelle and I arrived on Friday night (September 21st). We stayed with Aunt Kim, Uncle Chris and Cousins Ronan and Brooklyn for four nights. We hung at Geega’s house Saturday and Sunday during the day to see Uncle Sean, Aunt Jenny, and Cousin Megan, but spent the night with Aunt Kim.

I watched the Ravens game on Sunday night with Aunt Kim, the kids had to go to bed since it was a late game.

On Monday and Tuesday, Grandpa came to Aunt Kim's house to play with Izzi while I worked. On Monday night, we went to visit Miss Theresa and her daughter, Katie. Isabelle and Katie dressed up like rockstars and other strange creatures and ran around the house like banshees.

On Tuesday night we drove to Miss Kim’s (Morrison) house and stayed with her, Mister Zac, and her sons Will and Max. Izzi played with their dog, Jake, all day on Wednesday. He followed her everywhere she went. Miss Kim and I had to work all day.

After work, we went shopping in Hunt Valley since Mommy was trying to find a new Ravens jersey. Hers still says #86 for Todd Heap but he plays for another team now, and there is a new #86 on the Ravens roster. Mommy wasn’t having any luck so we said goodbye to Miss Kim and her boys and started to drive to Mommy’s friend, Miss Nicki's house. Miss Nicki has THREE girls, so they have tons of fun toys and Izzi had so much fun.

They only got to play for a little bit on Wednesday night because those girls had school the next day. But Iz stayed up late with Mommy and watched the Orioles play. On Thursday, Iz woke up with a really sore foot. She got a big splinter and it was hurting when she walked. So Mommy took her to the clinic and the Doctor tried to get it out but she didn’t have any luck. She gave us a referral to go to a Hospital but we decided to let it try to work itself out instead.

After the clinic we met Uncle Don and Grandpa for lunch in Fells Point at a place called Kooper’s Tavern. The sign has a big yellow dog on it but we didn’t see any dogs inside. I got ice cream afterwards which is my favorite special treat.

After lunch we had to race to the airport to pick up Daddy. It was SO GOOD to see him after six whole days without him! We hung out with Daddy in Federal Hill for about two hours and then Daddy went to meet some friends and Mommy and I drove back to Miss Nicki’s house to wait for Sienna, Naomi, and Paige. When they got home from school we played, played, played! The babysitter showed up at 5:30 and Izzi had the most fun with her (Miss Alyssa). Iz was sound asleep by the time Mommy and Daddy got home from the game. The Ravens won but it rained really hard that night so Mommy and Daddy only saw part of the game from the stadium. They had to race for cover and watch the last half on TV.

On Friday, we woke up and drove out to Geega’s house. Geega ended up having to work so we stopped by a special Ravens store to buy lots of purple Ravens gear. Then we went to lunch. Then we drove to the card store where Geega works with Baba at the Mall to say goodbye. Then we drove to Geega’s house to see Uncle Don. We did get to see Geega again for a little while. Then we drove downtown to see Uncle Eric and Aunt Mellisa. We went to a restaurant for Happy Hour, I mostly scribbled in my coloring book.We had a Pajama Dance Party and spent the night.

On Friday morning, Izzi ate two HUGE cinnamon buns that Uncle Eric cooked. Then we went to lunch with Grandpa one last time at Nick’s Seafood. Then Grandpa dropped us back at Uncle Eric’s. We walked up to Federal Hill to look out at the city. Then we walked down to the Inner Harbor and bought some new Orioles gear. We walked around there for a bit waiting for a text message from Uncle Don and walked over to meet him at Pickle’s Pub which is across the street from Camden Yards where the Orioles were playing that night. Uncle Don was going to the game with his friend, Mister Jamie, because it was “Brooks Robinson Night” at the Yard. Uncle Don was pretty excited. The Orioles won that night too.

The Orioles went on to clinch a playoff spot just a few days later (Sunday, September 30th) when the Angels lost a night game. We had won, Yankees had lost, and a few other special things happened to allow the Orioles a playoff spot. We don’t know which spot, where, or when yet but Mommy & Daddy seem pretty excited about it.

On Saturday afternoon, we said our last goodbyes to Uncle Don and drove to Edgewater to see our old friends and neighbors. We stayed with Aunt Jaime, Uncle Jeff, Kora and Utaw. We had so much fun. The Ridgeways, Healeys, and Brookmans also came over. We had a bonfire with s’mores and plain roasted marshmallows. On Sunday we went to the Healey’s house for steamed crabs and football, baseball, and Ryder Cup. We had to leave there around 6pm and go to the airport. We didn’t get home until about 1am and boy were we tired!

All that running around, with very little rest, and we still didn’t get to see everyone. Hoping we can get back to MD often so we can fit everyone in over several visits. It was great seeing everyone, the hospitality was amazing and we can’t wait to return the favor. We have had one family officially visit so far, can’t wait to host more.