It stinks. This man, Daniel Briere of the Flyers, is the most important person in my sports life right now. He will lead us to victory or let us die again, in utter misery. Over 100 sports seasons for Philadelphia have come and past, without one single championship. Sure, we made the finals in 1996 with the Flyers and lost 4-0 in the series. We scored all of 6 goals. Then, in 2001, the Sixers made the Finals. We won game 1. I was estatic, I was in the city watching the games and after we barely won in OT, the streets were the most jubilant I've ever seen. I was high-fiving people on the street I didn't know and it was like Mardi Gras. Then, we lost 4 straight and lost the series. I later found out that the Lakers had been on vacation the week before the first game and hence, that is probably why they didn't beat us in game 1, they were still recovering from their time on the beach. Then 2004, the Eagles v. the Patriots. We were down but not out and came back to get within 3. Then, McNabb pukes, symbolic of all the years of banality of Philly teams. Would our symbolic puke leave us forever? Nope. McNabb gets intercepted and we lose.
Forward to 2008. The Flyers are up 3-1 against the Capitals. The Sixers are playing the Pistons, who've we beat 2 of 4 times in the regular season. The Phillies are rich with talent; Rollins, Utley, Howard, Burrell, Jenkins, Feliz, all easily capable of 20 HRs, 80 RBI. Hamels is healthy, Myers looks good, even Eaton is throwing well. So, after 17 games, we should be 11-6, right? No, we are 8-8, soon to be 8-9. Three of our losses to those heartless babies, the Mets. Last year, they made the playoffs and played the Rockies. Awesome, I live near Denver. So, I gather some Phillies fans, we hit a Philly bar in Denver and make it to game 3 in Denver. I am so pumped up as Shane Victorino hits a dinger and ties it at 1. My hopes are high and think we are going to come back and win. No chance. The Rockies score another run in the 8th and we lose 2-1. I get heckled as I leave and call the Rockies fans "pot smoking hippies".
Next Tuesday, I am going to watch the Phils battle the Rockies at Coors. I have great seats and a free parking pass. Hopefully, we will win so I can bask for 1 day in glory. Because it may be another 9,125 days (25 years) until a Philadelphia championship. I am going to go cry in my Gatorade.
It's official. Yesterday, I put in my two weeks at Amgen Boulder and will be moving to Bellevue, WA on May 3 to live with Kajal. This is a photo of Lake Washington which is just minutes from Bellevue and a great place to rent a boat and go cruising. I am still looking for work in Philadelphia, but while in Washington, I plan on working at an animal shelter. I really want to develop some of my interests outside of work and if in my trials of doing other work, I find something I'm really passionate about, I may not go back to biotech at all. We'll see. Life's too short to do a job you don't really like.
I am feeling pretty good about this decision. I have been away from Kajal for way too long. She is still working on getting her working visa, which should come next January. She is also working on her leaf paper plate idea, has pitched it to Whole Foods and is working on a patent. We are going to have fun this summer, hiking on Mount Rainier, eating good seafood (well, me at least) and boating on Lake Washington. Hopefully, we can play golf with Dan and Dana as well. ;-)
I would like to move back to Philly by late August (Steph is getting married!), but I will wait until I find a job that is normal hours. I'm sick of working weird off-shifts.
In other news, I will be going to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at the end of April. Girish's uncle has a timeshare down there, so him and Vidisha (his wife), Kajal and I will all head down. We will stay 4 days, while G and V will stay for a week. Should be a nice place to reflect on my time in Colorado and think about what is next in this crazy life. By the way, don't go see the movie "The Ruins". It was terrible.
