Did ya miss me?

Been a while. I feel a little guilty....for some reason I feel that I have to "perform" in my journal. Like if I have a bad post or take too many days off, I'll lose my audience. Probably would actually.


So it looks like they're ruling the death of the OSU student who died at Lake Shasta a suicide. Crazy. I didn't know her well, but I knew her. She was friends with my brother for about a month. She seemed like a pretty normal sorority girl....nothing to suggest she was capable of suicide. Guess that goes to show that it's not just the people in dark trenchcoats with pentacle tattoos or members of a cult that feel the need to end it all. I'd tend to think alcohol played a part in her decision making, but then again I don't know. One of her sorority sisters said that they would remember Gina for her "courage and motivation." Funny how those qualities abandoned her in her final decision........

On a brighter note, Rachel and I went to Seattle Saturday for a college-major league double header. At 1 we watched Oregon State play Washington at Husky Ballpark on the University of Washington campus. Pretty cool baseball field. Right on Lake Washington, plus it has a FieldTurf infield and natural grass outfield with a purple warning track. The game featured some strange occurrences:

~ A swarm of bees descending on the field delaying the game for a few minutes as they made their way over the first base dugout, past home plate, and up over the bleachers on the first base side. Nobody was stung. I think they were focused on making a poor bird's life a living hell for disturbing their hive or something. But it did incite mild panic. Players running for their dugouts, fans not quite sure what to do, some breaking out umbrellas or coats they'd brought, others covering up their young children and running for the nearest cover.

~A flock of Canadian Snow Geese honking and landing in the lake right behind the OSU bullpen.

~A near brawl after a pitch came up and in....quickly defused by OSU coach Pat Casey, who yanked his pitcher immediately, despite him only facing two batters.

~Some of the worst sportsmanship I've ever seen by fans in my life. Grown men and women calling for OSU's pitcher to bean a UW batter. OSU fans bitching when a UW coaches visit to the mound took a little too long. Nevermind the fact that just one inning later, OSU had a conference between the pitcher and catcher, followed two pitches later by a conference between the first baseman and pitcher, followed three pitches later by a coach’s visit. Perhaps my favorite was when UW took a 1-0 lead and got excited and some jackass goes "Yeah you were doing pretty good for a few innings last night too....just wait, your pitcher will blow it," Followed by raucous applause everytime their pitcher threw a ball. I was absolutely disgusted. I seriously considered sitting on the UW side the rest of the game...instead I opted to sit as high up in the bleachers as possible.

The Mariners game was better.....tons of Red Sox fans in the stands made it interesting. The fans were much more good natured about their ribbing. Chants of "Red Sox Suck!" were rebuked with chants of "You Suck!" and laughter....nothing malicious.

A letter to the editor in yesterday's Oregonian compared Oregon's Golden Boy Joey Harrington to Pat Tillman. It seems Joey Harrington bought a former teacher of his a car when he found out that Father Tom of Central Catholic had totalled his. Someone needs to explain to me how buying a car for a friend is the equivalent of passing up millions of dollars to GO TO WAR for your country. Yes, buying a car for Father Tom is a nice gesture, don't get me wrong....very generous of Joey. However, this is the equivalent of a friend of mine finding out that I'd dropped my remote control and broke it and buying me a new universal one. Not that much money to an NFL starting QB. Now on the other hand, turning down a $3 million dollar a year contract and trading in shoulder pads for an M-16 and a soldier's salary is a slightly bigger gesture.

That's all I got for today.....enjoy season finale week(s) on television.