Jen Meets LA, Part One

Yes, it's been a while, I know.  Regular blogging will return soon.  I know I say that all the time.  I wrote most of this blog while on the plane to LA on Friday.  I'm totally stoked.  I finished packing at 1:30am and went to bed.  Good times, I know.  I was gonna get up at 5:30am to shower and get ready to leave, but my body decided that 4am was a much better time.  Luckily I got a bit of a nap on the plane.  That was helpful.

When I woke up from my nap on the plane, I had a brilliant idea.  I was going to Angels Stadium for two games.  I couldn't go and leave without putting something on Nick Adenhart's memorial.  So on a day when our nation was remembering the thousands of lives lost at the hands of terrorists eight years ago, I remembered the young man whose life was lost at the hands of one individual five months ago.  Here's my letter:

Dear Nick,
I have never cried so much over a person I've never met or heard of until the day you died.  When I saw pictures of the accident scene, I was physically ill and cried harder.  You didn't deserve that.  I cried when I saw your agent, coaches, and teammates cry.  I cried for you because you were the same age as me.  I cried because such a promising career was tragically cut short.  I wish I could have seen you pitch.  I hope your family and friends find comfort in knowing the entire baseball world still misses you.  Stay our Angel, Nick.
Love,
Jen Jezierski
White Sox fan

Strangely, writing that out and then retyping it here still gets me choked up.  But talking about 9/11 doesn't.  Maybe it's because Adenhart's death is still so recent.  Maybe it's because we've talked about 9/11, al Qaida, and the war so much more.  Maybe I've become immune to it.  Don't get me wrong.  I'll NEVER forget that day and what I was doing (waking up to go to school since it was, like, 6am in San Francisco).  And I'll NEVER stop remembering all the men and women who have died to prevent this from happening again.  But it seems liken we've been a little desensitized by the media.

OK, that's the end of my somewhat political commentary.  I'll leave that to Jeff and Allen since they do it better than I do.  On to baseball.

The White Sox spiraled a little further into the abyss since I last updated.  They lost two of three in Minnesota, although they won their very last game in the Metrodome.  But then they switched it on for a bit.  They won the makeup game with the Cubs.  Rachel and I and her uncle Jim drove past Wrigley after the game playing Sox-related music because we're horrible people...at least Rachel and I are.  :)  But it was fun.  Then Boston came to town.  The week prior, we lost three of four in Boston.  This week?  We WON three of four.  Mark Kotsay absolutely beat up his former team.  It was pretty much amazing.  That series was followed by a two-game set with Oakland.  We lost the first game, and we would have won the second game in nine innings, but Tony Pena came on and messed that up.  In the 13th, Alexei Ramirez singled and my favorite, my love, my AJ Pierzynski hit an RBI-double to win the game.  Thanks, AJ.  It's like you knew I didn't want to fly into LA with that chip on my shoulder.

I'll give you game recaps from my two games in tomorrow's blog.  Yes, two blogs in a row!  I'll have pictures that I want to share, so I HAVE to blog again tomorrow.  :)  Unfortunately, I'll be missing Mark Buehrle vs. Scott Kazmir.  Which happens to be the same pitching matchup as July 23.  You all know what happened that day.  And when I get home, I'll get the Bears-Packers game on Sunday Night Football.  On that note, BEAR DOWN CHICAGO BEARS!!!

Final Musings
If you read Kylie's blog (which you should if you don't), you'll know she has a pair of pants which have been dubbed The Pants.  They're purple and have the Rockies logo on them.  Well, the Sox have a pair like it.  So guess who bought them on Thursday and brought them with her to LA and dubbed them (with Kylie's help) The Pants The Second or TPTS for short?  :)

I named my car!  I didn't get a lot of suggestions, and I've been calling it The Beast for a long time, so that's what stuck: The Beast.

I've never flown out of the Orange County airport.  My dad says it's an experience.  I'll let you know in tomorrow's blog.

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I'm on my dad's laptop cuz it's smaller than mine, so I have no pictures to add today.