If You Ain't Been A Part Of It, At Least You Got To Witness

I feel like I'm stomping on my posts. Normally, I would put a new one up every two weeks or so. But for whatever reason, This will be the fourth in the last week. Insane output. Then again, when you have two flights over 5 hours apiece, and with Wi-Fi on the plane, it isn't too hard to figure out where I found the time to knock them all out. You give me a computer and five uninterrupted hours, like a seven figure contract from the Yankees, a new post will magically appear.

You see, I have to always be doing something. It's a blessing and a curse. For example: I grew up living no further than 6 minutes from the beach at any time in my life after the age of 3. Ask me how many times I went to the beach to lay out? Ask me how many times I went to the beach without bringing a board of some sorts? Zero. When I go somewhere, I plan on doing something, and the more athletic/competitive the better. This will partially explain why I am almost always not tan, despite the fact that out of the 52 weeks in a year, I spend 48 weeks on a tropical island and at least two weeks in Florida. I can't stand just laying still for that long, without falling asleep. (And I'm not going to fall asleep at a beach again. I got lucky the one time it did happen. Walking away from that table while I'm ahead.)

So, when I come home for Christmas, and have nothing to study, and no job to work, I start thinking of things to do. Maybe it's just me, but I enjoy making projects for myself to do and seeing how they turn out. It keeps me busy and feeds my sense of accomplishment. As a side bonus, by keeping me busy doing something, it keeps me away from spending money on things I don't necessarily need. (Like the 20+ DVD's I bought over the break. That doesn't include the ones I got as gifts. This is what happens when the local Blockbuster closes and all their inventory is $5 or less. I buy movies simply to have them. The Soloist. Hackers. Reality Bites. Yeah, they're all on the shelf now. It's a little embarrassing sometimes.)

This time, however, I actually had been working on a plan for a couple weeks. To further commemorate my White Sox 2005 World Series Title, I have begun collecting baseballs from that series, signed by all 25 members of the team, and Ozzie. It has taken me a while to track down the 15 I already have. Some of the players will be excruciating to track down. Luckily, I have already been able to pick up most of the back-ups at reasonable prices and a couple of the stars at below average. This might take me years to complete, but it gives me focus on my leisure spending, which I need.

This leisure spending has given me a new problem. These 15 baseballs needed a home. I can't just line them up on the window sill. That would be an insult to the baseballs and to the team. So I built this during the first week I was back.

I know. Pretty fancy, huh. The glare is coming off the piece of plexiglass that I fit into the front of the case. It slides out so I can add new balls when I find them. Or straighten that one out on the third row. I bought a WS Champion patch off eBay and it'll be going in the center compartment behind the mini-trophy. A shrine truly fit to commemorate world domination.

Also, I 'finished' a project that I started about six months ago. In my life, I've attended a lot of sporting events. No really. Between collegiate and professional matches, pre-season, regular season and post-season, I've probably been to over 300 sporting events. And that's a low estimate. A while back I starting making a conscious effort to save the ticket stub. I would put it in my wallet, and whenever I was bored or feeling a little down, I could go to them and remember the good times. I would pull out the one from Yankee stadium, and remember watching Jeter and A-Rod take at-bats, or hear Rivera come out of the bullpen. I would look at the Twins game where Santana dazzled the opposition and the crowd. The Cubs spring training stub, where I got to see the great Leon Johnson before he made it big. (What do you miss most about him?)

Unfortunately, the stack began to be thicker then the rest of the wallet, so I had to take them all out. (As luck would have it, I lost that wallet not even a month after I pulled them out. I would have been catatonic if I had lost them. I could have cared less about the wallet, but those are things I can't replace.) For a while I wondered what I could do with them.
Then I remembered my roommate from Arizona. Cool guy. Not into sports really at all, but the man was deep into the music scene. He had been to more concerts than he can remember. So what he did with his ticket stubs was ingenious. And I copied him.

It hangs over my bed now. It contains tickets from games as far back as 1998 and as current as last week. And I love it.
Word.