Friday Ramblings

Just stopped by a big chain bookstore (Borders) to pick up a book and a manga comic that I just love. It’s “Win It for…” and “Rurouni Kenshin vol. 13". I’ll talk about the book later. That’s not what I want to talk about right now. Right now, what I want to know is, if I told you a live band was playing at a bookstore, you’d think I was nuts right? I mean c’mon, a band belting out Nirvana and Green Day songs in a bookstore is the last thing you’ll see at a bookstore. Right…?

Well you might as well call me pea right now.

So there I was, barely controlling my laughter as these 16 or 17 year old kids, killed the classic songs “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Basket Case” and “Come As You Are” I mean, the singer’s lungs were pleading him to stop as he screamed out “A Denial!”, along with every person over the age of 30. Me, I just couldn’t wipe the stupid grin of my face while walking around the store looking for my book. The look on people’s faces around the store was priceless. I wish I had my camera with me. I’ll give them props though for their song selection. You can’t go wrong with 90’s Alternative songs with me. You just can’t. The band looked like they were just in their diapers when Kurt Cobain smashed his first guitar. That’s good taste my friends. They were doing it for a good school cause though so, all things considered, it wasn’t that bad. Although someone forgot to tell the old people in the store that. Every one of them looked like they wanted to strangle the next store worker they saw. How much would you have paid to be in the room when the manager said yes to a band playing in a bookstore? In the coffee shop no less! 50$ and I’ll bring my camcorder.

So anyway, the book. Anybody who read my old blog saw the post about the Boston Red Sox and their improbable Hell Freezes Over, World-Upside-Down , 86 years in the making, World Series win back in November. I made mention of a thread on a popular Red Sox message board called Sons Of Sam Horn. It was called “Win It For…” Understand, NO ONE has come back down 3-0 in a seven game series. In any sport. Much less the bad luck Boston Red Sox. Yet somehow, they found a way to tie it up. Tied 3-3, the thread was started as a plea. To win this one game for the people that made these people who they are, devoted Sox and Baseball fans. A sort of “Chicken Soup for the Cursed Red Sox Fan”. I posted the ones that touched me the most back in the old blog and I’ll give you a taste now. And oh, the majority of the proceeds for the book go to the Dan Farber Cancer Institute and Curt Schilling’s Pitch for ALS.

“Win it for…

my Grandmother, Dottie who lives in Worcester, and has been rooting for the Sox for 70+ years. Her husband is sick and so she cannot attend many games, but has never missed a game on TV or the radio.” Ben Rubin (IU Sox Fan5) Swampscott, MA

“Win it for…

my sister Patty

Twenty-nine years ago a tragic car accident in college left 3 others dead and Patty in a coma for almost a year. Talk about courage, this lady has it in globs.

Mom and Dad were told to pull the plug, but they refused.

Patty came out of the coma, her mind intact, but body and voice broken.

Mom, Dad, and Patty follow the Red Sox everywhere.

Patty was just diagnosed with Cancer 2 days ago.

Win it for Patty.

PS: Patty underwent successful cancer surgery in December and is expected to fully recover.”

Micahel B. Hogan Cranston, RI

Last one. “Win it for…

Grandpa Lee, who wrote lovingly of the Sox in his diary on the troop ship going over to France in 1918, and who took me to my first game at Fenway in Teddy Ballgame’s last season. Win it for Dad, who’s waited 81 years and will never give up. And win it for Jonathan and Andrew, because my happiest memories in the last five years have been sitting with them in Fenway during our annual July pilgrimage.” Jeff Lee.

This afternoon, I had the MRI. What a surreal, creepy experience that was. The machine used looked like one of those things they use to take the oxygen out of your body. It had a hole in the middle with a bed. The guy talking to me as we entered the room looked conspicuously like Balki, from "Perfect Strangers". He told me to lie down and get comfortable. “Remember, you have to lie down real still. Don’t move while inside”. So I lie down and he pushes a button. The bed starts to hum and move towards the inside of the hole. Balki keeps telling me to lie still as I watched from above my forehead. Suddenly, it looked like the roof collapsed on me. My eye was literally an inch away from the top of the hole. I was freaking out at the sight. “Stay calm and lie still”. On and on he drones in his Russian accent (ok that was a lie) until the bed stops to a halt. I now have felt what a claustrophobe feels every time they’re in an elevator. I closed my to calm me down and it worked somewhat. I was startled as I heard a familiar Russian voice come through what sounded like speaker. (ok, ok I’ll stop). “Lie still. We’re going to start in a few minutes. Earlier, he gave me ear plugs and instruction on what the machine sounds like .He said it was like someone knocking on a door. He was wrong. Remember the buried alive scene in Kill Bill 2? It was exactly like that. Rhythmic monotonous sounds of dirt being dumped on you. It was freaky. Then the machine started to hum real loud, like big drills opening a new asshole on my back. Not fun. Somehow, I was able to doze off, awaken by the bed moving back to the real world, and Balkyi. I’ll let you in on the results when they come in on Monday.

Finally, a loose end from the last post. Apparently, Michael Zulli’s eBay auction for “The Last Sandman” didn’t come up until yesterday. So here it is and no, I still didn’t bid.

PS: Hello still sucks