Day 2

Waking up this morning, I did my usual, listened to Howard Stern while getting ready for work. Artie Lange was talking about staying up to watch his beloved Yankees play the Angels in the baseball playoffs. It reminded me of how my great upcoming weekend was ruined. I had planned on flying to Cleveland on Friday, going to the Tribe playoff games Friday and Saturday with my mother and brother, then going to the Browns/Bears game on Sunday. Then reality set in. The Tribe, like all of my teams seem to do, had successfully choked away their chance. Its like they woke up last Sunday morning, looked in the mirror saw "Cleveland" across their chest and remembered who they were playing for. Where does this all lead? Leah, the amazing sport that she is, watched every single heartbreaking game with me last week. She had said to me on Friday in the 12th inning of a game "I'm glad your father isn't around to see this, because they would be giving him a heart attack." She was right. The previous week, I went to the Tribe/White Sox game here with my friends Ags and Dave. In the 7th inning, Tribe DH Travis Hafner came up to the plate. Down 0-2 in the count, he battled back to 3-2 and then fouled off 5 pitches before crushing a 3 run home run to silence the crowd. The three of us went crazy. I jumped on Dave's back. Ags gave me a big bear hug. Then, a deep sadness came over me. Dave knew it - he had lost his father to cancer 3 weeks before my father had passed. This was one of those moment. The first thing I wanted to do was pick up my cell phone and call my pops, like I had done so many times over the past 11 years of living in different states. Nobody would have enjoyed that moment more than he did. I have these moments every day. Whether it be his favorite Seinfeld episode on TBS or hearing "Taking Care of Business" by BTO on the radio - one of his favorite songs - I just have these moments where I cannot believe he isnt here. I look to the sky and smile. He is in my heart every minute. Again, I don't mean to get too heavy, and on many days, I'll be ranting about other things, like the fact that I am completely annoyed by the fact that Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are having a baby or how I don't believe that we should be praising the allmighty man upstairs, because he isn't there. Be prepared for that too.

Too all of you reading this, thank you for your constant love, support and understanding why I feel the need to do something like this. Especially Leah - you are my rock and truly the best.

Song of the Day: "Soul Rebel" by the incomperable Bob Marley. Download it today. "I'm a rebel....soul rebel."

Bigups to Ryan Sturch, doing his thing in Southern Utah and making the world a better place.
TD