so i'm out of long island. comparatively speaking, chicago is heaven. the last couple of months were pretty rough. really rough. horrible? at least i can no longer call the yankees stupid. girardi is still making stupid choices, but they have the best record in baseball, so i'm going to listen to my uncle and not complain.

it's amazing how everything's better out here. sure there are a ton of idiots, but they're nothing like the residents of long island. even working at petco is enjoyable.

looking back, i had so much resentment and anger towards myself, it made people out there that much worse. i still think dropping out of law school was a huge mistake. and i'm pretty much wasting another year here before i can hopefully do something else. who's the idiot now?

i need to find something else to write about here with a theme. otherwise having this will be even lamer than it already was. (is?) maybe beer. i live across the street from an awesome bar. shall i continue to encourage my budding alcoholism? eh, i'll find out when i start getting paid.

shit's fucked up man. shit's fucked up.

::Sigh::

So if I die before October, I can guarantee it will be attributed to one of three things: allergies, living in the ghetto, or the Yankees. So insert Yankees rant here by player who has majorly gotten me angry.

Matsui (34) Too old/hurt to play outfield well. Moved to DH. Has apparently forgotten to hit this year.

Alabaladejo (26) When he comes in to relieve a game, 99% of the time the Yankees will end up losing. Because he sucks. And doesn't realized that the other team should not be scoring millions of runs against him.

Hughes (22) He was amazing for 1 game. Recorded 7 K's. And then either the pressure got to him or he forgot how to pitch. Please stop throwing fast balls over the center of the plate. It results in you being taken out before the 4th inning, and the Yankees down by like 8.

Petitte (36) When he's on, he's on. And honestly he's been doing well this season. BUT he's getting up there in age, and it's starting to show.

Rivera (39) It's obvious that age/injury is getting to him. He's already allowed 4 hr this season, when last year he gave up 5 total. For the first time since 1998, he gave up 2 hr back to back. ERA is over 3, when he is typically under 1.

Sabathia (28) Okay pitcher, but def not worth the money. Hasn't been producing, but at least he's not injured!

Veras (29) See Alabaladejo

Bruney (27) One good reliever the Yankees have. And he's on the DL. Surprised?

Jeter (34) Didn't play today because of an injury. Getting up there in years, not the spectacular player he used to be.

Rodriguez (33) Where do I begin?

Teixeria (28) Sometimes, it's good to bat over .200. And sometimes it's good to not blame the month of April. If you suck, work on it, don't wait for May. And oh, it's May and you still suck.

Cabrera (24) I'll give him the credit, he can hit. But on the field, ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Damon (35) Every time he bends down to field a ground ball, he looks like he is about to throw his back out. The man is def old, and it's showing.

Gardner (25) Again, sometimes it's good to hit the ball. And not have a .214 average. At least he's quick.

Marte (34) So this guy is signed to pitch to 1 LHB a game. Not only does he typically blow it, the guy's now hurt.

Wang (29) Our "ace" (before CC). Surprise! He's hurt. So far this season, he has a 34.50 ERA. Swisher has a 0.00 one :P

Molina (33) Decent for a back up. But def a back up. And very slow. And very injured.

Posada (37) Jorge, I love you. Please stop hanging out on the DL. And never age.

Ransom (33) What's the best way to end a bad season? Get a serious injury!

Cashman Apparently too blind to see that a long reliever is a good thing to have. Or any reliable reliever. Or young talent. A well built team is not based solely on starting pitching.

Girardi A manager should know how to manage. He kind of got the shit end of the stick in terms of players, but it's obvious when players need to be taken out of the game. Or not brought in to the game.

I'm a die hard Yankees fan, but these games are frustrating me so much, with the way they're playing, the Yankees do not deserve to win. I'm getting tired of watching aging, hurt, and poorly managed players get destroyed by everyone else in the league. They need young players. They need talent they can develop. They need to look for guys with a high OBP, even if the batting average is lowish. They need to start playing together instead of playing for themselves. And they need to clone Nick Swisher because he has the right attitude. And they need to give me one of those clones.

Every day I wake up at 6:30, get dressed, and head into work.  And every day I do the exact same mind numbing, menial, miserable tasks that a fucking monkey could do for about eight hours.  But they would probably have to pay the monkey more.

It's the same fucking shit every day.  Don't ask me how my day went.  Nothing important happened.  No one died, nothing exploded, I didn't get promoted.  My life is boring.  Beyond boring.  And right now completely pointless.

It's hard to keep doing the same shit every day and keep caring.  It's hard to take pride in what you do when it's stacking cans for eight hours, only to find that 30 minutes later it looks worse than before.  And it becomes even harder to give a shit about anything when you realize 96% of what you do all day makes no difference in the world.  The world won't end if I'm not around, and hell, most people won't realize I'm not there anyway.  If I don't do my job, someone else will, and they'll do it just as well.

We got another a new manager the other day.  Apparently the mini Communist revolution and work slowdown I incited actually accomplished something.  But really, she's not that different from the previous manager.  I mean, she seems to actually do her job, but she is just as equally miserable, if not more, than well I guess all of us.  And the store has made her curse so much to herself, Rich and I question whether she has tourette's , or will just explode and quit soon.  She's only a few years older than I am, and she completely hates her life.  And I don't blame her.

I've been on this punk kick lately, and it hit me today why.  Every single member of these bands is just as miserable as I am, from either working equally pointless jobs, not working, etc.  But really, work is at the heart of everything.  Every day I am a witness to just how stupid, rude, disgusting, and vile people can be.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not on a "hate my life" kick because I'm working some job that's below me.  Not the case.  To paraphrase from Clerks, this job would be great if it weren't for the customers.  Well, it wouldn't be great, but at least bearable.  Perhaps we'll have to close due to swine flu.  Or at least have a decreased customer base because of our proximity to queens.

Opening Day

So if you've spoken to me in the past two weeks, I probably told you about how I was going to Opening Day at the New Yankee Stadium. It's amazing just how different the atmosphere was in comparison to the final game at the Old Yankee Stadium.

The new stadium is nothing less than gorgeous. And the elevators are probably my favorite added luxury. I love all the added details that are reminiscent of the 1923 stadium. The minor changes that were made from the first exhibition game, like the flags of the other MLB teams flying around the stadium, hung numbers of players in monument park, and the display of the years of World Series wins. And if you ask me my opinion of the new Stadium's design, I will have nothing but positive things to say.

So on to the ceremonies. At 12:10pm, the West Point Band performed various Sousa selection in center field, which was kind of fitting as the Old Yankee Stadium was opened by the same music. At 12:25pm, Fogerty performed "Centerfield" which, most likely no one reading this recognizes, is played before every game at the stadium. And he had a really cute baseball bat guitar (although it's up in the air if he was really playing). Following him, Bernie Williams played his own rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Instead of the typical upbeat tempo, his version was quite somber. Perhaps this was a premonition... At 12:30pm, Yankees alumni were brought on the field, and the home plate and mound from the old Stadium were introduced. Although he didn't get many cheers, I found Tommy John's appearance most hmmmm fitting? Not only is Nady on the DL for what is most likely complications to a previous Tommy John surgery, John started his MLB career with the Indians and ended it with the Yankees. Anyway, following that were baseline introductions and a giant American flag was brought onto the field by West Point cadets. The NYPD/FDNY Color Guard presented the colors. The National Anthem was sung by Kelly Clarkson (grumble) with some F-16Cs flying over the stadium after its conclusions. 1:01pm saw the Ceremonial first pitch thrown by Yogi Berra. At 1:06pm the Yankees took the field. At 1:08pm, CC threw the first pitch, a ball. Approximately seven innings later, all hope was lost, and the seats began to empty.

Before I get into my rant of why Joe Girardi is going to kill the potential winning season, I must say a few things. It's only fitting that Posada hit the first home run in the new Stadium, right towards Monument Park. And that hit clinched his spot as number eight on the team's all time home run list. (He also threw out Grady when he tried to steal second, which is great mainly because it shows his shoulder has healed well.) And then there's Nick Swisher. He can play any position, including pitcher, and is just so happy! He even turned around and saluted the crowd when they chanted his name during the first inning. I totally heart him.

So what went so wrong that die hard Yankees fans would leave Opening Day early? Simply stated, stupid people. Joe Girardi does not know how to coach. He does not know how when to leave a pitcher in, or take one out. And I could rant about the rest of the staff, but as I'm currently watching the Yankees lose to the Indians 20-2 in the 6th inning, my Opening Day frustrations have died off a little. And I've been writing this for a few days now, and I don't want to look at it anymore.

I think it was all the history, all the memories, that made the Old Yankee Stadium so great. And aside from a winning team, that's what this stadium is lacking most. No matter how many museums they erect, however large they make Monument Park, however beautifully constructed, it will never be the same as the old Stadium. This isn't the place I've been going to since before I was able to walk. It's not the building where I watched a perfect game being pitched. And it's not "the House that Ruth Built." And I'm not going to lie, the little Socialist in me cringes at how many things are sponsored by corporations, down to home runs. Don't get me wrong, the new Stadium's beautiful, modern, and well designed, but nothing can compare to my little dilapidated, paint peeling off the walls, baseball cathedral. This new Stadium is just like a shell of its predecessor, and I'm afraid it will never be able to live up to its expectations.

I'm quickly losing faith in humanity...

There must be something about the combination of living on Long Island and going shopping (or maybe just walking into a PetCo) that automatically turns someone into an extremely rude snob. Now normally this involves someone yelling at me over $0.11 or something equally as trivial, but today I witnessed something on an entire different level.

I decided to make a quick stop by the store today to see if the schedule was finally made (because it's apparently too difficult for my manager to make one more than a day before the current schedule expires, but that's another rant entirely) and buy Emma some new food. As I walked through the door and towards the registers to say hi to my fellow comrades, I noticed there was water everywhere on and around register 1. EVERYWHERE. Standing next to the register was an irate looking woman, saying "I don't know where she went. I want to be rung up NOW. And quickly etc." Now I would have been angry as well if I were standing in a pool of water and the cashier had disappeared. Granted not yelling, but annoyed. Anyway, when Karen returned I jokingly asked what she did to make that mess. Apparently that customer's daughter saw a bag of fish sitting at the register, reached her arm out, opened it and threw it to the floor. Obviously the water and fish went everywhere. And what did the customer do? Stood there, watching Karen try to save some dying fish, which she was semi-successful. So not only does this customer not offer to clean up the mess, yell at her daughter for behaving poorly, move out of the way, apologize, etc. she actually stands there yelling that it was taking too long for her to be rung up because of the mess. And then proceeded to ask why there were fish on the counter to begin with, blaming PetCo staff for the mess because the fish were placed there. ::Sigh:: Thankfully the man who was purchasing the fish was extremely understanding and patient. But when did it become acceptable to not apologize for something your young children did, especially if it happened in front of you? And when did parents stop discliplining their children?

Now I know I joke that I'd make a horrible parent. But as the daughter of a charm school graduate (of which I am reminded of weekly) I would never let my kid(s) behave like that. Hell, I couldn't imagine behaving like that myself. Maybe it's the drinking water. The super in my building did tell me not to drink it, something about it corroding copper pipes requiring them to be replaced every two years. Maybe it's all the pollution, although I attended middle school on an old toxic waste dump, approximate eight million medical problems aside, it clearly has not affected me. So I can only draw one conclusion. 99% of the people who live here are douches. And they reproduce with each other, spawning a mini army of douchebags, known as the future population of Long Island.

So what am I going to do about this? Move. Haha. Well aside from counting down the days until I leave for Chicago, I decided I am going to be the anti-douche (well to people working in retail anyway). For example, today I got some coffee from a Starbucks stand in a Stop & Shop. (Note: not stop n shop, as that is the ghetto liquor store by my apartment next to a cell phone store that advertises "no ID required!!!!" Again, yay Long Island!) Usually the coffee's not made correctly, so I don't expect much. And when the guy had to look in a book to see how to make it, I realllly didn't expect much. He asked me to try it while I was standing there, and it was hot so I just took a sip, mumbled "it's fine" and walked away. But it was more than fine! It was by far the best caramel mocciato I've had there. So I went back to let him know. And apparently that made his day, because he had been dealing with the same douchebags that I deal with at PetCo. Apparently now I have a connection there to get some free shots of expresso :) . It's really kind of pathetic, and speaks a lot about the people out here when a simple thing like that can make your day. Hell, I'm just happy when people don't yell at me or speak to me like I haven't graduated from high school. So why am I rambling about this? Probably because I really want some coffee right now, but I think a gang has assembled in my building's parking lot and I don't want to risk my life for coffee. Although apparently people risk their lives for Popeyes, so maybe one day I'll become more adverterous.

Ok enough rambling. The Yankees won today. Andy Pettitte played a great game, and my man hit a single that drove in two runs in the first inning. And yesterday I figured out how to watch Yankees games in HD in Chicago. So basically, life is good!