I'm so tired

AH! I'm 20!

So I just figured out all on my own how Arby's got its name. Arby's is famous for its Roast Beef. Get it? R..Bs...Arby's. I felt like I stumbled upon some sort of revelation when I realized what the name meant. I feel like I'm one of the only people in the world that knows this secret, but I'm sure I'm wrong. Was this some sort of common knowledge thing? Like how everyone and their brother knows about Tilles having a Christmas light display except me?

I was driving down my street the other day while it was dark and 2 cars flashed their brights at me within 10 seconds. I had my lights on; I don't know what the deal was. I wasn't going extremely slow or fast, so I am really confused about that.

Thank you to 106.5 the Arch for solving a 10 year mystery for me. I had always thought that the song "Hold on Loosely" by .38 Special sounded extremely similar to this other song that I never knew the name to but it went "I'm so caught up in you, little girl, you're the one that's got me down on my knees..." And when I was like 9 I loved both songs, but got them mixed up because I thought they sounded almost exactly the same. I remember being mad at the group who sang the song "Hold on Loosely" because they obviously ripped off some other group and used the same rhythym in this song as the group that made that "caught up in you" song. Well, after not hearing the "caught up in you" song for like 7 years I heard it on the Arch and they announced the name of the song and who sang it. It turns out that the song is "Caught up in You" by none other than .38 Special. I was freaking out in the car because my frustrations with both songs and their singer(s) for 10 years was finally over.

So today's shift at KOMU made me realize how much I hate reporting. My first 3 shifts weren't that bad at all, but today was horrible. I can't wait until week 9, because then I'll be able to do producing or something sports related...as long as my grades are good enough, fingers crossed.

I've got the blues, the reds, and the pinks

So I got to go on a second tour of the new Busch Stadium today (thanks to Katie's dad) and it was just as amazing, if not better, than the first tour I took. I do miss Busch, without a doubt, but I am quite excited about the new stadium. We were standing in the Cards dugout looking out onto the field and it dawned on me that old Busch wasn't there anymore. I almost completely forgot about it since there is no trace of it ever being there. I was so overwhelmed by the amazingness of the new stadium that I forgot about the old. Attention all Cards fans: You will love the new stadium. Trust me. It's beautiful and has an awesome view of downtown, which the old one lacked. That's one thing about the new one that I really like, the attention put into the surrounding St. Louis area. There is a nice view of the Court House, Arch, Bowling Hall of Fame, and surrounding buildings. I also like how it's made to look old. The old stadium pulled out the features of the also-rising Arch, while the new one mimics the Eads Bridge.
I've been dying to watch a good baseball game for the past month. All my sports teams either suck, or suck so bad they aren't in contention anymore. I went to a Blues game earlier this week for the first time in almost 2 years. I thought that this would take my attention away from my need for baseball and maybe get me excited for hockey again. Nope. Although it was a good, exciting game we lost to the Predators. This made me realize even more how much the Blues suck and how much I want my baseball back. Then the stadium tour today made me realize how far away the season is. I think it's because of the fact that the new stadium isn't completed yet. I would look at all the work that has been done and see how much work they have yet to do and it makes Opening Day seem like forever away. But, at least I know where I will be on April 10th at 3:10 p.m. Only 3 more months...

A healthy obsession

My newest obsession is Yahoo! Music Videos. They have a video music station that plays all sorts of videos, none that are too old though, which kinda sucks. But, overall it's pretty sweet. You can have your own video music station and it just shuffles through music videos based on artists and videos that you've rated. Freshman year I used to listen to my Yahoo! music station a lot, but I kinda stopped once I started downloading a bunch of music. I think I need to get back in the habit of listening to that station because it plays an even bigger mix of music I like than my iTunes does. Oh yeah, by the way, My Chemical Romance definitely copied the landing scene from Saving Private Ryan in their new video "Ghost of You". Right down to "Private Jackson" kissing his cross. That video makes me mad, but at the same time makes me wanna watch the movie. I've been meaning to do that for awhile; I haven't seen it in so long. What a great movie.

Here's a convo I had with Mom and Roger recently that I thought was funny...
Mom: (referring to the fact that me and my friends buy underwear for each other quite often) Me and my friends would never buy each other underwear when we were your age.
Roger: You buy me underwear.
Mom: That's because if I didn't you wouldn't have any.

This entry is brought to you by the letter R

I decided to watch Sesame Street the other day, just to see how it is these days. I was pleasantly surprised. I tuned in just as one of the videos they used to play back in my day was ending. They do have a lot of newer, fancy schmancy videos and effects that I'm not too happy with, but what can you expect? Elmo still has his fish, Dorothy, and Oscar still has his pet worm, Slimey. Cookie Monster didn't make an appearance so I can't confirm or refute the rumor about him being some sort of health freak now. And they still have the crappy animations for the Number of the Day.

I love this time of year. One of the simple joys in life is looking at Christmas lights. I've looked at lights a couple times so far. The most impressive display was this one house that had the lights programmed to move with the music that was broadcast from a radio station in the basement of the house. That was pretty awesome. But, I must say that the light display at Tilles was wonderful.

OMG, I hate drama. My group of friends has way too much of it. I think the problem with us is that we care too much about each other. Yes, it is possible. Believe us, we've proven it many a time. We just get into each other's business a little too much. We have good means, but I think it's a little much at times. Since we're on the subject, Lyndsey emailed me the other day. The only thing it said was, "Are you ever gonna talk to me again?" Umm, no. There's your answer, bitch. I finally got all that drama OUT of my life, I'm not going to voluntarily let it back in. For once, I'm standing up for what I want to do and I'm not just going to be the nice girl. After hearing stories from Jen and Jess, she still doesn't think that she did anything wrong. HELLO! Why the hell did I start this blog and stop the LJ one to begin with? That was one of the major problems with our friendship; she was never wrong, it was always me. She's just so self-centered. God, just thinking about her is frustrating and annoying me.

My cats are druggies.

If you have one of those shower curtains that's kinda like cloth make sure to not point the shower head directly on it for a long period of time. Otherwise, your floor will be flooded when you get out. Apparently those cloth curtains are a bit deceiving and don't live up to their name.

One more link

Holy crap, I just finished going through all these photos, and they are truly amazing. They really hurt to look at, but still worth it. The one that really got to me was "A Crushing End" on 10/26. I know I just did that long ass entry about all the Busch stuff, but here's one more link, and this one is really worth looking at. The photos are really close up to the demolition. Don't say I didn't warn you...

http://jgardnerphotography.com/projects.htm

Let the boredom begin

Home sweet home. Yay for Thanksgiving break! Not that I can really say that I'm burnt out from school seeing that I hardly go to class or do any work, but it's still very nice to be able to spend an extended amount of time at home and just be home period. I was starting to get homesick that last week or so at school. So far being home hasn't been that great, though. The first time I see my mom and closest family they are crying (even my Uncle Tom, for those of you who know him you understand) at a funeral ceremony. Fun. At these types of things I like to stay the strong one and not cry. But I've learned that if I see or hear other people crying I start to tear up myself. I didn't cry today, but I was holding back tears pretty hard. I hate crying, it's not fun. After the thing my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over to our place for lunch so that was cool because I haven't seen them in a while. I got to hear funny drunken stories about my Uncle Tom, and those are always good. If there is one adult family member that I want to get drunk with it's him without a doubt.
On a sidenote...There was this flag football game with a bunch of little kids going on in a park in the not-so-nice part of the city today and one of the teams had cheerleaders. They had like actual cheers and uniforms. I thought that was odd.

My tribute to Busch.

"Life starts when the season starts." I don't know where Jason got that, but he puts it in his away message a lot, and I like it.

The beginning of the end started October 19, Game 6. Houston advanced to the World Series and sent the Cards packing. Literally. Everything had to go. The lockers, the seats, the bases, the bleachers, the...everything. Busch had seen its last game. It wasn't exactly the last game most Cardinals fans had pictured, but that was how it was, and we all had to deal with it and let reality sink in. It wasn't easy, and still isn't as I am now finding out. Last Monday at 3 p.m. the wrecking ball fell on Busch. Luckily for some reason Columbia picks up KSDK during the day so I got to witness the horrible event first hand. I figured it would help reality sink in that it was actually happening. I still don't fully believe it. KSDK has a webcam set on Busch and I check it daily, just to see how it's doing. It's looking grimmer and grimmer every day. It hurts to see it. I hate to say it, but I almost wish they would have just imploded it, just to get it over with, like ripping off a band-aid. I have decided that when I go home over break I am driving downtown to see it in person. I need to. I was talking to Mommy and she said she refuses to see any pictures of Busch any less than whole and intact. She doesn't want to have her last memories of Busch be that of nothing but a pile of ruble. I fully understand where she is coming from, but I feel differently.

Speaking of memories, I've been trying to figure out what my favorite memory of Busch is. I've been thinking about it for a few weeks now and I think I've figured it out. The thing is that I barely even remember this memory, but I know that at the time it was pretty awesome. OK, it's 1996 and the Cards are in the NLCS with the Braves. I was lucky enough to be able to go to two of the home games in that series; we won one of them and lost the other one. So, obviously, my favorite memory was from the game that we won. I remember before the game started I got a pressed penny that has the Cards logo on it with "Cards Fever 1996" on it. I also remember that the guy that pressed the penny for me only had a thumb and a forefinger. I was really impressed at the ease that he could press the penny and put it on this necklace thing for me, and all with such great speed. I still have that penny; it hangs from my Cardinal hat that's covered with pins. When the game was over and we won they played that song "Na na na na na na na...HEY! (for you Mizzou kids the one that goes HEY...you suck!), and everyone was going CRAZY. I'm almost wondering if it was the third game that we won, but I seriously have no clue. The Cardinals later went on to go from having a 3-1 advantage in the series to losing in Game 7...and thus my hatred for the Braves begins. So I think that is probably one of my most exciting memories there, even though I can barely remember it. I think the Cards game I got together this summer was pretty sweet though, too, and is definitely up there on my list. All my friends were there just hanging out at the Cards game having a good time. And not to mention a great finish- a 13th inning walk-off homerun by Pujols to end the game with a score of 4-3 against the Astros.

I've been working on this blog entry for a few weeks now and I've put a lot of time and thought into it. In the mean time, I've collected a bunch of websites and pictures that have tributes to Busch. I figured I would compile them all on here to share with everyone else because I know I'm not the only one that will miss Busch Stadium. I hope you all enjoy the websites and photos because they are all really good.

My pictures from the tour of the new Busch Stadium and my last game there.

Pictures from the last game at Busch.

Everyone else's memories of Busch...something Post-Dispatch put together where anyone can send in their favorite memory of the stadium. There are stories from people all over the country in here. It's very impressive.

St. Louis Post Dispatch...who better to put together a tribute to the stadium than the Post? They have a lot articles and photos, including some pretty historic articles.

Busch as Canvas...a huge list of many of the things that people began to write on the stadium as the end of the season approached.

New York Times...an article that appeared in the NYT. You might need to register to see this one, but I think it's worth it.

KSDK...Newschannel 5's "Goodbye to Busch." This page includes the webcam of Busch plus a TON of videos.

St. Louis Cardinals...and finally the Cardinals' actual website tribute to Busch Stadium. It has a lot of videos, facts, figures, and is an overall good source for all Cardinals history.


Here's a little thing I saw on a Facebook group message board:

Not Today

Busch Stadium is not our house.

So I will not waste your time this morning talking about the importance of the Cardinals protecting our house in Game 6 of the NLCS.

I will not broach the obscenity of seeing Houston players spilling champagne on our living-room carpet.

Busch Stadium is not our house.

It's much more important than that.

It's where many of us watched our first game, caught our first foul ball, begged for our first autograph.

It's where Gibby ruled the mound, where Brock ran like the wind, and where Ozzie made all the folks go crazy.

It's where the El Birdos dominated, where Sutter struck out the last batter of 1982, where Mike Shannon has worked since the joint opened in 1966.

The Ol' Redhead managed there. Stan the Man played his harmonica there. The White Rat led us back to glory there.

This is where Gussie drove the Clydesdales, where Willie McGee tracked down fly balls, where Joaquin Andujar summed up his philosophy of life in one simple word: Youneverknow.

This is where Big Mac smacked No. 70, where Tommy Lawless flipped his bat, where GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY...BRUMMER'S STEALING HOME!!!!!!!

This is where the greatest St. Louis team in Busch Stadium's history performed. That's right, the 2004 Cardinals.

They had the best home-record, the best record in baseball. Right on that field. Not far behind them, the 2005 version.

Ted Simmons played there. Kenny Boyer managed there.

And a beloved old man in a bright red jacket told a mournful nation why it was good and right to play baseball after Sept. 11.

My friends, Jack Buck's coffin rested on that field.

Daryl Kile pitched his last game there.

And many of us cannot walk into that stadium without thinking of loved ones who are no longer with us.

Not today.

We don't lose today.

Not against the Houston Astros.

Not even against Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens.

Not against a wild-card team.

Not in Busch Stadium.

No, it's not our house.

It's simply the place where our memories congregate, where our baseball dreams are stored, where the voices of millions of fans and the ghosts of seasons past await their call to arms.

Folks, it's time to wake 'em up.

LETS GO CARDINALS!

Thanks for the memories Busch.

Broadcast 2 or Grade 2?

So I think I just went to the most interesting yet ridiculous class I've ever had. For the most part Broadcast 2 lecture is pretty boring. He talks about how to interview or write and then shows some old news clips as examples for the rest of the class. But not today. We started off with the usual news quiz, which wasn't too bad. After that we all stood up and stretched. Then we had to repeat whatever word he would say...exact, water, duck, ect. Then he walked around the room showing us flashcards with words on them that we had to say out loud...whine, wine; dew, do; pen, pin; ect. He even complimented the class and said that we must have been taught well when we were in elementary school. After that he had the 25 of us get in a huge circle around the desks. We thought we were going to be doing some sort of musical chair thing, which wasn't too out of the question given the preceding exercises. He turned on some hippity hop music and had us walk around in the circle. Whenever we passed by him we had to walk in an interesting way (I did some twirls) and then make various faces like surprised, angry, and sad. After that we went back to our desks and he handed out the poem "The Unicorn" by Shel Silverstein...one of my favorite poems! (Flashback to 1st Grade when each of us in our class had one or two lines from the poem to memorize and we said it for our parents on some Parents Day thing). So we went around the classroom and each person read a line, but we didn't just read it like normal, we had to be overzealous about it. At the end of class we had to partner up and share a funny or interesting story about our childhood with each other. After that 3 volunteers went to the front of the class to tell us their story. But, there was a catch. The rest of us had to pretend we were overexcited, easily distracted 4 and 5 year olds. Man, it was ridiculous and funny. So basically our classmates telling their stories had to talk very slow, repeat everything they said, answer stupid questions and tell us to "shush". I seriously felt like I was back in 2nd Grade, but that wasn't such a bad thing. He had reasons to do all of the exercises he did (sounding conversational while reading a script, knowing the difference between words and pronouncing them correctly, talking slowly and clearly to a TV audience, which is like talking to unattentive 5 year olds). I know y'all are jealous and wanna be Broadcast majors now, right? haha...

Here's the Picture of the Week for this week. Yeah, I know I'm late on this one, too.
We went to our friend Vince's duplex down the road for a Halloween party and this guy dressed up as Michael Flatley, aka Lord of the Dance. This is a still-shot of the video we have of him doing an Irish jig.

Game 6

NLCS Game 6...Astros 5, Cardinals 1
Alright so this one has been a bit delayed, mostly due to the fact that we barely have one functioning laptop in our house, but also because this has been a bit of a sore subject for me. My boys lost. I cannot say that I am pleased with the way they played in the NLCS, but I can say that we deserved to go to the World Series more than the Astros. We had an amazing year. The Astros had a decent second half, just like last year, and they still finished 11 games behind us. Alright back to Game 6...it was storming in CoMO and our cable definitely went out about 10 minutes before the game started. Luckily Jason was at the game and gave me a couple score updates. I missed the first four innings and that's when I gave up on MediaCom and went over to Katie's to catch the game. It wasn't the most welcoming environment seeing that there were Royals, Cubs, and White Sox fans screaming every time they passed by her room. I seriously wanted to punch them out. After the game was over I couldn't bare to sit there and watch them give the trophy and congratulations to the Astros in our house, so I left. I would be a liar if I said I didn't shed a tear that night. What got to me the most was that it was the last game at Busch. It finally hit me that night after we lost. Not a good feeling, it made me very sad. So aaaaanyway, I guess all I have left to say is, Go White Sox. And, no, I am not just rooting for them because Houston beat us. I'm cheering for the White Sox because they hate the Cubs just as much as we do.
Thank you Cardinals for another excellent year.

Game 5

NLCS Game 5...Cardinals 5, Astros 4
Holy Shit. I can't believe that game. I'm still in awe and disbelief. I'm almost at a lost for words. Almost. Wow, I don't even know where to start. OK. Houston took the lead in the 2nd inning, a bit discouraging, but we answered with 2 runs in 3rd. The main problem the whole game, and this series if you think about it, is that we still weren't banking on opportunities with runners in scoring position. Then the bottom of the 7th Berkman came to bat with two men on and homered...4-2 ballgame. Hopes and confidence increasingly started to fade as the game reached the top of the 9th. Oh shit, Rodriguez and the Mabry are the first two up. They both strike out. At this point I can feel the tears forming in my eyes. I don't even have the heart to watch the rest of the game, instead I just stare at the beautiful poster of Busch we have on the wall right above the TV and think about how Busch has seen its last game. Then a little hope in me returns because Eckstein is up and he is sure to make some contact with the ball and get on base. The Astros are one out away from their first World Series berth and bam, Eckstein singles into left field. That's my boy. Jimmy is up. Eckstein steals, and then Jimmy walks. Oh man, here comes Pujols. If there was anybody I would want to be at bat at that exact moment, it was him. He's been known to come through in the clutch many a time. Rejuvenated hope, despair, disappointment, and faith were all competing inside me. Then POW. And at that moment I heard the most beautiful noise ever, silence. The crowd was dead. No annoying bee buzzing, no train whistle, no cheering, nothing. Disbelief and celebration followed. I was shaking so bad. I knew it right off the crack of the bat, that ball was gone. Not just gone, demolished. I can only imagine how far it would have gone if the roof was open. Apparently the ball got lost in the train tracks in there. And that homerun is the motivation we need to go to the World Series. Jimmy's homer from Game 6 last year got us there. Pujols' monster of a shot this year can definitely get us there. Busch has not seen its last game.

Mom sent this to me.

My Mommy also sent me these amazing pictures from Game 5, there's too many otherwise I would put them in here. Make special note of the graphics on the screen.

"There were 45,000 people, and when I hit that ball, it was like when you press mute on the TV. Nobody could say anything. That felt great." -Pujols