Why The End of Summer Sucks!

While Summer officially ended on September 23rd this year, it has been flitting away from us for several weeks now. The end of summer sucks! It means trading in the shorts, tank tops and flip-flops for jeans, sweaters and boots. Since I am 9 months pregnant, this end of summer also shows that I have no fall clothes that fit, so that makes it all the more fun! Mimi needs to come soon as I will look ridiculous walking around in shorts and a winter jacket!

Summer also means the closing of all the pools, but that does not help when Indian Summer comes around. Last Tuesday, Tom and I had the day off, it was 87 degrees and we could have used a pool. We were stuck with the options of sitting inside in air conditioning or becoming sweaty messes at a Corn Maze. There is something wrong with this picture!

The end of summer means socks! I detest socks, I love to wear flip-flops and cute sandals. It is a 6-month waste of pedicures that are still necessary so your feet do not turn in cow's hooves.

Football takes over as summer ends. While it is fun to tailgate and watch the games, it is not fun to have to plan your day around the traffic patterns of 109,000 something fans who forget how to drive weekly in their search for affordable and close parking. It is not fun to show up at the tailgate dressed one way only to realize you are boiling or freezing and have made a bad wardrobe choice. You need to carry a duffel bag of clothes with you where ever you go so you can be prepared like the Boy Scouts!

Summer signals the end of baseball, something I follow with the passion of a fat kid who loves cake! It means the playoffs (yeah), but also the 5 long months before spring training where there are no good sporting events to watch on TV every day.

While Fall is fine, summer rocks! With summer ending, we are just a quick blink away from dreaded winter!

Misadventures in Sporting

Sports are a passion of mine. I love, love, love baseball (Go Yankees!), dig the hometown Tigers and the Pistons and have been swept up in the mania that is U of M football. However, put some sporting tickets in front of me and it doesn't matter if my favorite team is playing or not, I am there! As we've previously discussed, my adventures at Dodger Stadium are always crazy, but at other times, I wonder, did this really happen?

Let's start when Murph and I decided to go tailgating for a U of M game. Neither of were married at the time so we decided what the heck? Off to the golf course to tailgate with the Volvo, 2 bottles of vodka to make apple martinis with and some martini glasses. Wow! We were sooooo under prepared. No chairs, no food, nothing to amuse ourselves with. As we stood there deciding what to do next, we saw Murph's ex-boyfriend and off to crash his and his wife's party. Let's just say we were a hit with the guys, not so much with their wives and were very tipsy before heading into the stadium!

Then it was off to go old Tiger Stadium. 9 girls packed into 2 cars to go see the Yankees beat the Tigers when Paul O'Neill was still playing. Sitting only 13 rows from the field on the right field line was probably a mistake. Stone sober, we stood up, yelled "Paul" and all threw him air kisses! I have never seen an MLB player so embarrassed! Another time, the girls went to celebrate the arrival of Gary Sheffield signing with the Tigers. Dressed in chef hats, holding wooden spoons and signs, we looked like a bunch of deranged Julia Child's running around the stadium!

Finally, Lambeau Field was awesome when the Packers played the Colts. Having never been there, I needed a cheese head. I wore this cheese head the entire game as I continually apologized to people that I poked, prodded and pushed anyone in my 360 degree area with this hat. I can assure you I was the only one on the plane on Monday morning with a cheese head as a piece of carry-on luggage.

Sporting events for me are never boring. I have worn Yankees apparel and cheered loudly in Atlanta as they were beating the Braves in the World Series, I have gone to play-off games between the Tigers and Yankees in Detroit and taken lots of ribbing, and I have been on ESPN when a home run was hit to the NYY bleachers. All in all, definitely worth the price of admission.