Sports Fever and the Job Search

I hope I'm not posting too often for any one who reads this but I've got a lot of free time on my hands and some things I've been meaning to write. Scooping ice cream at Ben & Jerry's has been possibly been one of the worst and most degrading jobs I've ever done in my life. I think I might quit even though it is just temp. work. I almost lost it yesterday when one of my scoops I was making fell off and landed on my shoe in front of the customer.

But today's a new day and I'm really gonna sit down and look for real work since it appears no other jobs are coming through. On as side note, Herb had a hamburger for breakfast at 9 this morning, which he reasons is normal because it was already cooked. I never can quite understand how you can eat hamburgers and hot dogs with cokes at 9 in the morning (maybe if I was really hung over and not in my own house). Lots of times I ask my dad for advice about the job's I'm applying to and he'll tell me things like: "You're not gonna get that job. They're looking for a black man," or "yeah, I think they're really looking for a woman." The no experience thing I can understand but the rest?

The good thing about having time right now is that I can watch all of the post-season games which is really exciting because I normally had too much work at MAC. I some times think of needing a fix as I wait to watch the next Red Sox game. My friend Benjy told me: "when you're a sports fan, you're joining the ranks of a lot of illogical people." I definitely think this is true. I've been a sports fan my whole life and even though I've never really understood why. I have no allegiance to Boston except that I live 4 hours away and most of my family is from there. But looking back, my family is really from the former Soviet Block, so why not root for Lietuvos Rytas? It's not like any of the players from Boston are even from there (or any other team for the most part). But the BoSox also spend a shit load of money on players who don't come through their system, many of their fans are Massholes, and they also have more support than any other team in the country. I usually root for the underdog and the Twins could definitely use more fans than the Red Sox. And yet I'm still more of a Red Sox fan. It's probably because childhood sports memories reign much more important than recent allegiances and whether I'd like to admit it or not, I'm susceptible to the usual fan based success that the Red Sox have had. Anyone who say's they like being a fan of some shitty team like the Devil Rays is full of it. In fact, at any given Red Sox-Devil Rays duel in Tampa there are probably Red Sox fans than Tampa fans.

Minus all of the money and annoying fans, even in college I never really felt that much of an allegiance to Macalester sports and I played four years of tennis and 2 and a half years of diving. But that's probably just because the sport's programs at MAC are terrible. Some times I feel bad for old people who have been fan's of teams like the Cubs who haven't won in so long and they are so faithful to their clubs. After 60 years or what ever of treating baseball as religion these people wither away and die without so much even a thank you note or any thing recognizing their support except the occasional player thanking the larger general mass of fans. But that's what being a fan is, you can't take it too seriously. You just gotta have fun and enjoy it for what it's worth because in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter.

Lastly, I know this entry is already too long, but a quick related story. I played golf with my dad's friend's son against our dads the other day in a tight competition. It starting raining, we played through (as gold addicts do). Then it started lightening outside (is that a verb?) and we were on top of a hill so we decided to go inside in the middle of the hole. We all got to the club house except my dad. Finally, 10 minutes later and soaking wet my dad comes in and says: "I got a bogey."