My boss is away for the next two weeks. She flew to France yesterday with her six month old daughter and mother-in-law and will be in Nice for 10 days. After that stretch, she will be in London for a week and then eventually back after the Fourth.
Tough gig.
Not only for her (beautiful Cannes in June and then a week long stopover in London sounds pretty good when relishing in either New York City heat, New York City rain or traveling between NY and Chicago with what has proven to usually end up in a rainy, wet forecast thus far this year) but also for me. Sarcasm within sarcasm. Like some sort of sarcasm deriviation of Inception going on in this paragraph. I think. I didn’t see it. But I hear things.
It actually is a tough gig. She must have a great relationship with her mother-in-law as traveling internationally with anyone is quite the experience and if you aren’t tight enough to handle it, it can rip you to shreds. Add an infant to the mix and you have yourself a recipe for potential disaster. Hopefully this trip goes smoothly or else it could be a very long two weeks assisting from a far in any number of situations that may come up.
In addition to writing and production gigs, I am currently working at an ad agency during the day. My desk has become the second home to Prose and Ivy. My computer at home is of course the mothership and this little nook without walls (how 2011. Away with the cubicles!) has become the satellite office. If I am not doing something that I must do then I am doing something I love to do. Two things happen during my day. I either do something I don’t want to do, or I am communicating with you.
It’s a beautiful opportunity to be able to apply a professional paycheck band aid in between gigs that actually apply to my overall writing/producing career. I get paid to make sure others do things they are supposed to do which entails a lot of things I don’t want to do. However, when I’m not having my hand forced into excel documents, shared drives, booking travel and client meetings or making the always exciting call to a car service, I have the opportunity to sit here and write or talk Cubs with you.
Of all the things I could possibly be doing as my ‘day job’ this one is not great, however it isn’t the worst possible thing either. I do what I have to do and then I do what I want to do. If I wasn’t perched at a computer all day, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to watch/listen to the Cubs on MLB.TV. Day games are like gold when it comes to April-October. Talk about an amazing way to pass the day. Twitter would be an account I merely had for occasional blog post promotion and the periodic sarcastic remark. I wouldn’t have the ability to sit here and live tweet a game or discuss the latest in pop culture with over 800 people throughout the day (currently totaling 7,777 tweets as I write this). When doing stand up, an applause break is a fantastic response. To get a retweet or a ‘ha’ or a ‘bwahaha’ or an ‘lol’ etc, is essentially the same exact thing. The Cubs have become something that is not only a love and passion of mine, but also a tool for survival.
In the age old saying that when the cat is away the mice will play, I would be one of the mice. The rest of the mice however are not the co-workers around me in there also sad non-cubed cubes, but all of the Cubs fans on Twitter. The cat is in France or London depending on when you ask me. I will have the occasional occurence of assisting from afar that will be necessary however for the most part, I am ready to play. Two weeks is a long time. And we are going to kick things off with the Yankees.
If I had the ability to, I would be showing up immediately to the block party the Cubs are throwing. I believe it is going to end up being a celebration of not only Cubs baseball, Wrigley, Cubs fans and Wrigleyville, but also the fact that we don’t face Jeter. Six hits away from his 3,000th hit sits Jeter and while it is a milestone that deserves a backdrop with historic proportions such as Wrigley…I’m very glad he will not be reaching the milestone at Wrigley.
If you were at Wrigley and Jeter reached the 3000 mark, how would you respond? I’m assuming a polite cheer in observance of his accomplishment. Thing is, that’s about as far as I could take it as I really don’t care for Derek Jeter or any of the players on the New York Yankees. I don’t like the Yankees and I would not enjoy cheering for one. I would ony briefly in appreciation of what it means to witness a moment as special as that in the grand picture of baseball history, but not because of Derek Jeter. In fact, come to think of it, I would only be clapping because it is hard to do but more so because I was there to see it. I wouldn’t even be particularly happy about it. I just would think it was cool that I ‘was there’ when it happened I guess. I would assume other Cubs fans would react the same way.
Worst case is that it would come on a game winner. How would we be expected to react if he had used his personal feat to defeat our team? I don’t think it’s fair to expect us to applaud while someone raises the ‘L’ flag. Sure it’s about the bigger picture, but we would have lost. I would then suggest Derek go inside the visitor clubhouse and eat some Fudgie the Whale cake or whatever is planned for celebrating when he reaches that mark.
Regardless, we don’t have to worry about it because Jeter is on the DL and won’t be playing the Cubs this weekend. In fact, he won’t even be in Chicago. He’ll be in Florida somewhere rehabbing. So much for those ads pitching Castro v. Jeter in the six gamers. I wonder how people who bought those plans feel. I’m guessing they are happy about it because they thought it’d be cool to see the Yankees play at Wrigley (as I think it would be cool to see the Cubs play at Fenway). If they bought to specifically see Jeter, I would think they’re pretty bummed.
That’s fine though. Let them stay home. We don’t need a Wrigley filled with bandwagon, annoying Yankees fans anyway.
The funny part to me is that it looks like Jeter might accomplish the feat in New York – only – at Citi Field.
Poor, poor Mets fans.
As if this season hasn’t put them through enough…now their stadium with no greatness to show for it could be broken in by a Derek Jeter Yankee milestone? Yikes. I wonder how THEY’LL react if it does in fact happen there. What a horrible situation for Mets fans. I would guess some would cheer the accomplishment out of respect, but, to have it in the same city, a crosstown rival doing it in your own back yard? No thanks.
I look forward to seeing how we do against the Yankees this weekend. It’s very similar to the situation we were in when we faced the Red Sox. Davis, Dempster Wells. Essentially the same level of pitching we through at Fenway. Hopefully, being at Wrigley instead of on the road will make a difference. It was nice to take the series against the Brewers. I would like to go into another series though where I feel like we’re favored to win the series again. Four games against the Brewers was surely not that at all. The Yankees? Nope. And we just recently had that brutal road trip against the Cards, Reds and Phillies.
The season isn’t getting any easier that’s for sure. Glad to see Soriano back off the DL hitting home runs and Fukudome was unreal against Milwaukee. Hopefully, that keeps up. Doug Davis, how about we break into the win column for 2011, huh? In the Cubs situation, I’m not sure who exactly the cat would be. Maybe the cat is always the overall expectations that the city and fans put on this team to finally win it all. Considering they fell about 11 games back recently, the cat kind of went away. The good thing though, the mice came out to play.
F**K the Goat tees were made. Players looked like they were enjoying themselves. We took a series against the Brewers. It’s usually the most fun when the cat leaves and the mice can relax a bit and have some fun. Maybe the DL stints became a bit much to handle so early in the season and watching the team slide back in the standings week after week made one big fat cat for a while there.
It’s good that from what I can tell from fans on-line, the expectations have since diminished for 2011. The key is to have the Cubs recognize it, yet come out to play regardless, motivated even. Fans can give up if they’d like but the key is that Quade keeps the players focused and fighting and playing.
The Yankees are in town and expectations are staying where they are or diminishing even further. That cat’s not coming back any time soon. The cat may have gone away but this is when it can be the most fun…so, the mice must continue to come out and play.
Go Cubs Go! Beat those Yankees.
Prose and Ivy 