The game last night. Well. Whatever. It sucked. Big ol’ bummer.
However – I watched the game with the great Bill McCabe – and I finally met 2 longtime readers: Mr. Bingley and Dave J. These men are mythical in my mind. Dave J! Mr. Bingley!! So it was great to put faces to the names, and to hang out, drink beer, eat burgers, and watch the Red Sox. I was HIGH afterwards. (High on happiness, I mean.) I smiled like a goofball during my commute home.
My friend David (who did a brief stint blogging here) showed up at the beginning of the night – and joined our crowd for a time. Much fun. Then he left.
Then Mr. Bingley had to leave … and then my sister Siobhan showed up. A table of musical chairs.
The bar was absolutely jam-packed. Going to the ladies room was a 25-minute affair. Everyone wearing Red Sox caps, shirts … an absolutely fanatical atmosphere. Love it.
Conversation flowed, fast, furious … as always. Even though we had all just met for the first time.
It was funny because I was heading down to the Riviera Cafe (the bar for Red Sox fans, an enclave in the middle of Yankee-Land) – to meet 2 men whom I had never met. Bill showed up maybe 20 minutes after I did, so I knew Mr. Bingley would be waiting for me, by himself, somewhere in that bar … so I wandered through the bar … saw a man standing alone, reading a big book … I tentatively approached. Not sure … not sure …
And then I said, shyly, “Mr. Bingley?”
heh heh heh
Of course it was him, and of course he was standing there reading a huge biography of Alexander Hamilton.
My own kind!!
But then again – all of you people who read me are my kind. Curious, intelligent, funny, well-read, passionate about certain things, knowledgeable, generous with that knowledge …
I just want to say, flat out: I had a wonderful time with you fine gentlemen … you are just as nice, as funny, and as interesting as I imagined … and despite the defeat of the Sox at the last freakin’ second (this team! Jesus!!) – it was a great night.
I hope there will be more to come.
had to turn off the game after the Damon HR because the virtuous sons were performing a ninja disco skit for my birthday but being an old Brooklyn Dodger fan I guess that puts me spiritually in the Red Sox camp-
don’t you think Ortiz should shed a few pounds also maybe now they’ll rest Pedro until Oct and he’ll be back on track-it may be a blessing in disguise that they can give up on first place in the east
I had a wonderful time too, Sheila. Let’s do it again (sadly, without Dave) come the playoffs.
[grumble grumble piss on McCabe and Bingley grumble grumble lucky bastards grumble grumble]
Dave J’ll be back this way soon. The 9th hurricane in 2 months will convince him he needs to be up here NOW!!
Obligatory Irish post
Not much to say today, but I got an email from a gent named Dave Beazley. Somewhere in the distant past I posted something somewhere about the lyrics to a beautiful song called “Parnell Square” by a bluegrass group called…
i had a wonderful time! it really could not have been better: we had great conversation and a lot of laughs, and when i had to leave the redsox were winning, so y’all were quite cheerful, and when i got home the yankees won, so all was alligned in the blessed firmament!
let’s do it again soon!
I had a great time, folks: it was a delight finally meeting each of you, even despite the Sox losing. The next time literally cannot come soon enough…nor can my permanent escape from The Land of the Endless Hurricanes.
And, of course, if not sooner, I’m sure I’ll see all you guys for the World Series. At Fenway. So there, Bingley. :-p
So sorry I couldn’t be there… damn Yom Kippur.
Obligatory Irish post
Not much to say today, but I got an email from a gent named Dave Beazley. Somewhere in the distant past I posted something somewhere about the lyrics to a beautiful song called “Parnell Square” by a bluegrass group called…