Relocation Domination: The Bandwagon

Having just relocated to San Francisco, I find myself asking a familiar question: who do I root for now?  Fortunately, I've walked this path before. It isn't, however, a smooth road.

As a child, my allegiances were so clearly defined: 'Skins, O's, Cap's, Bullets, and Blast.  Life was so simple back then. There were no Nationals, Ravens, Warthogs, or MLS for that matter.  Oh, how I yearn for those olden days!  Since then, the trials and tribulations of life have...complicated things.  First the Ravens arrive in Baltimore and later NISL goes bankrupt (again), and later I relocate to Boston.  Still, my allegiance remains in tact.



...and then it happened.  Things changed.  Slowly at first and then faster.  Before I knew it, all of "my" teams were miserably bad.  They had betrayed me.  Meanwhile, the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics were all winning championships!  I had had enough!  First I dropped the Orioles in favor of the Red Sox. To this day, it's one of the best decisions I've ever made.  After I started rooting for the Sox, it
wasn't hard for me to dawn the Celtics green and Bruins yellow.

The only affiliation which I still waiver is the Patriots/Redskins. I don't know why?  The 'Skins are still bad and a turn around isn't in site.  I'm certain Dan Snyder will find a way to screw-up RG3's best
efforts.

Now I find myself in a new city with a 2-outta-3 baseball team and a promising football program.  An interesting factor in the battle for my allegiance is that SF doesn't have a pro basketball or hockey team.  By that account, the B's and C's are safe.  My recent subscription to MLB.tv and NFL Ticket serve to further (un)complicate the issue.

It is cool, however, to go to work and have a front row seat for the Giants Championship parade last week. Time will tell, my friends.  Time will tell.

Jay Peak, Vermont

As previously reported, I am certainly NOT a strong skier.  I am, however, working to take full advantage of the mountains around me.  This week, I spent a long guys weekend in Jay, VT.

I’m so new at this stuff that each new mountain that I ski is like its own little adventure.  Cheesy…I know.  It is though!  This one was cool because:

1. I was going with eight very strong skiers and/or snowboarders.  My buddy Kyle is the one that plugged me into this group.  Many of these guys even skied on their college teams. 
2. This was the furthest north that I’ve ever been without buying a plane ticket.  In fact, if someone were so brazen as to take the Tram to the top of the mountain, one could see all of the way to Montreal.  …too bad that only the most difficult trails are accessed by the tram.

This was a lonely day of skiing for this here rookie.  No one else was willing to ski the green trails with me.  I really don’t mind though.  Skiing alone relieves a lot of the pressure and I don’t feel as though I’m slowing down the stronger skiers.

I skied about a half dozen different trails at Jay.  We got over six inches of snow the night that I arrived.  As a result, these were, by far, the best ski conditions that I’ve ever had.  I also found a new favorite trail: Deer Run.  I think it’s funny that the double black diamonds bare names like Green Baret, Timbuktu, and Derick Hot Shot.  Meanwhile, my cruiser trails have names like Harmony Lane, Sweetheart, and Grammy Jay.  Here’s a picture of the top of Deer Run.  Awesome!

As always, I call it a successful day when I can come home bruiseless.  I rushed home on Sunday to watch the Super Bowl with Wifey.  Apparently, that was bad luck for the Pat’s.  It’s going to take a while for us New Englanders to get over this loss.  Be sure to check out a few of the other landscape pics that I took while on the slopes.