Not Wearing the Pink Hat

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I have a confession to make. After the disastrous series with the Yankees, I considered not watching any more Sox games unless they, by some miracle, made the playoffs.

Then I read this article, which made me very sad. And I have now reconsidered. No matter how depressing watching the Sox gets, I will not be a pink hat fan. You know what I mean. Those fans who only watch the Sox games because 2004 made them trendy and Kapler and Papelbon are cute and isn’t this pink hat adorable. The “fans” who are the antithesis of what it really means to be a Sox fan.

Sox fans are their own breed. Every team has fans, but no other team has so frequently been compared to a religion. “Fenway faithful” is a commonly-heard term. “Still, we believe” became a mantra after the 2003 season. People refer to themselves as “devout” or “lapsed” Red Sox fans. My friend once wrote in her blog, “The Red Sox’ performance has been disappointing, but hardly surprising. But I still have faith. If only I could apply this faith toward religion…”

For a long time, believing in a team that hadn’t won the World Series since 1918 was a point of pride for Sox fans. Our religion dictated patience and loyalty, even in the face of infinite disappointments. We rejected the Yankees as Satan and believed wholeheartedly in the Coming of the World Series.

And then the World Series came, and there was joy throughout the land. But all strained metaphors aside, it was an incredible moment that brought together multiple generations: everyone from my ninety-year-old grandparents, who can still remember the play-by-play of the 1946 World Series, to five-year-old kids at the pool club who announce proudly that their favorite player is, “Big Papi!” When I went to the victory parade, everyone was so happy it just trumped anything negative. At least where I was standing, no one was pushy or obnoxious, just really, really happy. In a city where the Sox are such an inescapable part of local culture, where “Still We Believe” and “Why Not Us?” adorn every business marquis board, where people are pressed up against the doors of the T on game days, where the Dunkin’ Donuts has caricatures of the Sox drawn in the windows, it was a moment of unadulterated joy.

But it also kind of gave us an identity crisis. Suddenly, we weren’t rooting for a losing team anymore. We weren’t just going on blind faith; we knew we could win a championship. We were even expecting it. And although we didn’t win again in 2005, we had a good season, made the playoffs, and didn’t lose the final game to the Yankees. So no one came away with too much bitterness.

This August provided the first real challenge to our post-World Series faith. It’s hard to keep a positive attitude when we get swept in a five-game series with the Yankees. Or when it seems like every day, there’s a new injury. Or when David Ortiz has an irregular heartbeat. Or when, in the most devastating piece of recent news, Jon Lester (who’s only 6 months older than me) is diagnosed with cancer.

But you know what? The Sox aren’t’ giving up. Depsite their constant talk of “the future” and “next year,” despite their trading of a certain scary-looking pitcher to San Diego, they’re still determined to win as many games as they can for the rest of the season. Last Friday, they had a ridiculous number of players out and Lester had just been diagnosed- and they still pulled off a win. Pitchers like Kason Gabbard, Kyle Snyder, and Julian Tavarez are stepping up. New guys like Carlos Pena are hitting walkoff homers. Papelbon doesn’t have a tear, just a “transient subluxation event,” which comes from a Latin term meaning, “He’ll be back.” And Varitek and Nixon are finally back in action.

So if the Sox themselves haven’t thrown in the towel, why should we? Moments like this test our faith, and we need to rise to the challenge. I’m sorry that I ever considered doing otherwise. While I can’t afford tickets (hence the “struggling” part of “Struggling Single Twenty-Something”), I’ll be sitting in front of NESN, listening to Remy and Orsillo, throwing my hat into the air as the Sox are victorious once again.

And the hat sure as heck isn’t pink.

Get we-ell, Get Well Soon

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There’s a Seinfeld episode where Elaine gets cake at the office every day because it’s a big office and it’s always someone’s birthday. So she takes a sick day to get away from the cake, and when she comes back her co-workers have a cake for her and are singing, “Get we-ell, get well soon.” That’s my office, at least lately. I’ve been to four goodbye parties within a week, all with cake. One of many perks of working in a large office.

Who Am I?

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2-4-6-0-1! (Ten points if you know where that’s from).

But seriously, who am I? And why do you care? I’ll try to answer the first question as best I can, but for the second I can only hypothesize. My guess is that you’re willing to test my theory that I do, in fact, have something to say. And I appreciate that.

So: my name is Katie. I am a May 2006 graduate of Boston College, where I majored in English. Last month I got a job working for a publishing company that I’ll just call The Publishing Company (TPC), since I’m a little paranoid about blogging about work. It only took me two months out of college to find a job, but it felt like forever. So far, I love it.

I grew up forty-five minutes north of Boston. Just last week, I moved out of the house I’d lived in all my life into an apartment in the Boston area, closer to work. I’m living with my college friend and her brother, and so far, everything’s great. At least, it will be until I run out of money.

So, what do you need to know about me? Well, I was thinking about it, and I realized that most of what makes me me can be attributed to the fact that I have lived in Massachusetts my entire life. I fit so many of the Massachusetts stereotypes (except the bad driver one. I’m a nervous driver, but not a bad one). So, here’s what you can know about me based on where I’m from.

Massachusetts is home to some of the most diverse, unpredictable weather in the world. I wouldn’t call myself unpredictable, but I’m definitely diverse. My interests are many and varied (see my profile).

Stereotypically, I am Irish Catholic. While I do not consider myself terribly political, my politics are generally pretty liberal, as Massachusetts is a famously liberal state- and, I’m proud to say, one that legalized gay marriage. My personality, however, is very conservative, which is fitting, because Massachusetts is actually pretty socially conservative, if you think about it. After all, the Puritans did come here, and even now, you can’t buy liquor in the grocery store (which my friend from California thinks is weird) and you can’t smoke in bars (which is great for those of us who hate smoking, but…kind of an oxymoron). Anyway, I’m not a big drinker myself. I didn’t drink at all until a few months before I turned 21, and I never drink to get drunk.

Massachusetts residents, I’ve found, have this weird stay-in-one-place mentality. Maybe because the state is so small and population-dense. I hear that in other parts of the country, people drive hours for a soccer game and think nothing of it, but here we complain about driving thirty minutes. And a lot of people who grew up here won’t leave- including almost my entire extended family. My mother and my grandmother both hate the weather here, and when I asked them why they wouldn’t move, they replied, “Because we grew up here!” Although I laughed, I do understand that. I am kind of a homebody. Although I’ve flirted with the idea of moving to New York, it’s hard for me to imagine cutting ties with this state.

I walk really fast and am very impatient with people in front of me who don’t, which I’m told is a Massachusetts thing.

Massachusetts is home to about a million colleges as well as Boston, the best college town in the world. It’s also a state that places great emphasis on education. I myself am pretty smart- not a genius, but smart. I always got good grades.

Massachusetts has also been home to many great authors, including Alcott, Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and Dickinson. I taught myself to read in preschool and haven’t stopped since. I read everything I can get my hands on- classics, chick lit, kids’ books, mysteries, short stories, romances, you name it. I also love to write fiction and non-fiction and I would love to be published. Writing to me is like sleep- technically, I can live without it for awhile, but it’s damn uncomfortable when it’s not there.

I am a Red Sox fan. From that, it follows that I am extremely loyal, not abandoning the team even after the disastrous 2003 playoffs. In my own life, I am loyal to everything and everyone I love. I don’t abandon people who need me, and even with stupid little things I’m very loyal- like, it takes me a long time to admit that I have a new favorite movie/TV show/musical artist, etc., because I’m still loyal to whatever I liked before. It also follows from being a Red Sox fan that I am an optimist. I had faith in a team that suffered an 86-year dry spell, and I now know that optimism pays off in the end.

For my interests, check out my profile. Other things you should know about me?

I have a sister two years younger than me and a large, very New England extended family.

I drink hot chocolate like most people drink coffee.

I collect quotes and write them out in multicolored spiral “quote wheels.”

My favorite color is purple.

I draw stars everywhere.

I’m kind of a girly girl.

I love taking baths. It’s killing me that the water pressure in my new place is too weak for baths.

I love animals but don’ t have any pets.

I suck at anything involving hand-eye coordination. I love swimming and running, though.

This past summer, before I was hired at TPC, I had two jobs, one at BC and one slightly off campus. It was the first summer I didn’t work at a swim and tennis club in my hometown of which I’ve been a member since I was six.

And I’m picky about food, movies, and men.

I’m sure you’ll learn more about me as I continue to blog. Please keep reading!