A book I really want to share

A few weeks ago I was asked to review a copy of the book Gifts From The Heart by Victoria Osteen.  I had made the decision not to do reviews a few weeks previous to the offer.  Because I was curious about the story, I decided to go ahead and review the book anyway.  I am very glad I did.

The book is very heartfelt with it's tale of children who wish to honor a king but have no money for gifts.  Instead the children decide to put on a show to celebrate the king.  They learn that each one of them has a special talent even if it comes from within.  I read the book with Chick and she loved the bright, colorful pictures and the rhyming of the story.  The illustrations were playful and the prose was fun and creative.

We enjoyed reading this book together so much that I'm giving away one copy for you to read with your child!  Here's what you can do to win a copy; simply leave me a comment and tell me who you would read this book with (or who you would give it to as a gift!)

The giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents and will run through next Tuesday, November 2.  It will close at 11:59 pm eastern time.

Good luck!

You can keep that, thank you very much

Yesterday about 11:45 something occurred that has never happened to me before.  Out here in the wilds of Kentucky, they have tornados.  Real ones.  When I got up yesterday morning and checked into Twitter I saw lots of local-ish people talking and retweeting information about the warnings for tornados.

I went to meet a friend for coffee.  I asked all kinds of questions about tornados and how I would know what to do and what to be aware of.  It seemed unlikely that anything was really going to happen except wind.  When I got home I put away all the chairs on the patio and put away the toys.

As soon as I took off my shoes the sirens started...

...and I started to shake.  My hands were shaking, the windows were rattling with wind and I could not stop this feeling of panic that crept up from my toes.

In emergency situations you are never supposed to panic.

I couldn't help it.  I sat in the stairwell to the basement clutching my phone while furiously chatting with a friend to keep myself sane.  This tornado and the siren turned out to be not a whole lot of anything, at least for me.  There were seven tornados reported in Kentucky though.

Chick's teacher called me as the second siren went off to let me know that they were keeping the kids at school (she was past her time to be home).  For the first time in her twenty years of teaching they had to take the children into the basement for safety.

I am very glad that Chick's teacher is a communicator.  She emails everyday and for her to be able to call me and tell me not to worry was such a wonderful thing.  I am sure Thor was okay as well (he goes to a different school).  I worried about him because when they did tornado drills last year he did not know what he was supposed to do and he'd told is teacher he was scared.

We have never lived anywhere where tornados are something we needed to be worried about. We've survived hurricanes coming up the Delaware River.  Floyd brought immense rain.  Hurricane Isabel (which to this day I still have the newspaper clippings from it) rocked our house and made me feel like the entire thing was going to blow over.  70 mph winds will do that. We lost power for twenty-four hours but things were pretty much undamaged.

I will take a hurricane any day of the week over a tornado.  A hurricane I know is coming.  I can plan, buy supplies and if necessary flee for safety in advance.  The scariest thing for me about a tornado is having no idea it's coming, no way to get away from it, no idea where it will wreak havoc.

I know what happened yesterday wasn't really that big of a deal to most people here, but for me, as a first timer it scared me.  I didn't react well at all to those sirens.  It is something I'm going to have to deal with hearing in the years ahead though.  I just hope I'll get used to it.

Have you ever been through a natural disaster or severe storm?  Share your story in the comments.

RTT: Funny stuff I can't say any other day and still be coherent

Won't you be...won't you be...won't you be my neighbor!  Hi Neighbor.

I do it all in the name of Random.  Get crazy. Go here:



So, the mail came yesterday and amongst seriously crappy bills and stuff was the latest REI catalog.  I don't know why they sent me one.  I haven't been to REI since like...1996?  Anywho, cool stuff.  I just really really want one of these:

A helmet camera.  For snowboarding or skiing.  Really, everyone just needs one of these babies.

My other favorite?  It's this.  Neve Sweater.  I'm telling ya, I want one.

My favorite part of it is the way they are selling it.  The description reads as follows: Inject some playfulness into her ski wardrobe.


What idiot would actually buy one of them as a gift?  A breakup gift maybe...Is it just me though?  I would seriously never be caught dead in that.  Or alive actually.

Did you all know I'm a hockey fan?  So now that baseball is over, you get to listen to me talk about the Flyers.

I left a comment the other day, um actually yesterday I think, about baseball and how people can be so mean and rude and down right nasty if you like an opposing team.  The person didn't believe me when I said I was unfollowing people on Twitter because it'd gotten so bad.  Not everyone is this way but some.  I wrote a whole post about it over here, When Enough is Enough.

I haven't dropped my phone yet.  It's something of a miracle.  I did buy the Otter Box Commuter TL for it just in case.  The second I do I'm splurging for the whole next case the Defender.  The salesman threw his phone in a defender case across the store and it survived with nary a scratch or blip.  That's really the sort of thing this Butterfingers Mama needs.

NaNoWriMo starts next Wednesday (in case you didn't know).  I signed up this year (my third year).  I did some initial plotting on my whiteboard today.  There's a general feeling of excitement about this project.  My previous one is shelved for the month because you have to start from scratch and it needs to be one of those Write for Quantity not Quality things.  My other piece is definitely all about quality versus quantity right now.  Either way I'm pretty sure I don't have time to do it, but I signed up anyway.

Last week I joined my fellow Reds fans and joined the Better Off Red BORFitClub.  I started using the app MyFitnessPal.  It's fantastic!  you record what you eat and what exercise you do.  It looks up how many calories you should eat daily.  Then you can enter your food and it tells you how many calories you ate. (Even down to such exact choices as Starbucks Tall Latte Whole Milk - 180 calories or Stirfry Noodles, Teriyaki Yakisoba 210 calories).  It's kind of awesome like that.  Until today when I went to enter my Starbucks 'breakfast'.  Did you know their Lemon Loaf (one freaking slice) is 490 calories??

Based on that info, if I ate the same amount of calories I did today (330 over my allotted daily total), I'd gain 5.5 lbs in five weeks.  In other words; I have to make much better food choices.  And exercise.  I skipped my workout today because...even though the afternoon sucked, anything I can say is just an excuse.

By the way, any idea how to get kid pee out of a couch?  You just let me know cause I'm looking for advice after yesterday.

I went to a Reds bowling party Saturday night.  Go me!  I didn't actually bowl but still I got out on a  Saturday night.  The proof.  Me, Better Off Red's Jamie Ramsey and fellow Reds Fan,  Cindy.

Halloween is in six days.  I have neither bought my children's costumes nor carved a pumpkin or purchased halloween candy to pass out.  I'm personally going to see just how close I can cut this one cause I like the little extra boost I get from anxiety.

That's all the Random I'm capable of today.  If you need more be sure to go and visit Keely.  She'll keep you entertained.

Two Points: Should kids have cell phones?

Recently I had a discussion with two parents on Twitter about whether or not kids should have cell phones.  Tony and Cindy both have excellent reasoning behind their opinions.  They agreed to allow me to post their thoughts today.  Weigh in and tell me what you think.


You can find Tony on Twitter @Tonester5  Tony is against giving kids cell phones.  Here are his thoughts:

Let me start this out by saying, this is my own opinion and no one has to listen. I am against youths being given cell phones by their parents. I believe that any child younger than fifteen should not have a cell phone. Fifteen is when a child really becomes a young adult, not twelve, thirteen, or fourteen. I believe that the responsibility that goes along with a cell phone is much too great for a child. My main points are peer pressure, accountability, and honesty.

Just for a little background, I currently live with a domestic partner. Her name is Alicia, and she is a wonderful lady. We grew up together in the same town and know each others parents pretty well. So, we basically know how each other was raised and the strictness in our childhood. Alicia and her ex-husband have allowed there twelve year old son, Dylan, to have a cell. He is a very good boy, who hardly had a spec of problems with school or wrong crowds before getting a cell. Since acquiring the phone his behaviors have changed and more problems have started to arise from friends he is around.

Point number one and two deal with peer pressure and accountability. Now that Dylan has more availability and capability to chat/text, we see him less around the house. He is always asking to go somewhere with friends we may or may not have met. We check on him and require him to check in with us. There has been a few times he tells us he is one place, we go there, and he is somewhere else. There are also times he does not check in. The excuse is always; I was there but my friends asked me to go over here or I forgot. The latest problem is that he was pushed off the top of a fifteen foot playground slide and broke his right arm. The girl who pushed him is not someone we know and he has never brought this girl around to meet us. She refuses to come to our house now, since the incident occurred.

Point number three has to do with honesty of texts and use. I realize that a cell phone provider can put in place ways to stop photos, keep message records for parental review, limit internet use, and other similar hard stops. How do we, as parents, know if the kids are using a slang or code in certain texts to mean others things? Dylan’s mom and I check his phone regularly, there are some texts that we cannot decipher what the kids are actually saying. We have asked that this type of texting be stopped; from time to time we still see them.

I understand people want their children to have a way to contact them in case of trouble or emergency. I understand the availability of pay phones is very limited. That does not mean you give a “child” a cell phone and feel better about it. You communicate with your child, show them by example how to be a good person, and limit what you allow them to do until they are at an age that can deal with life’s harsh realities. Cell phones give children freedom to be less accountable for there actions and words.

When I was a child there were no cell phones and if there was they cost way too much for a middle income family to afford. There was no GPS, no pagers, and most families only had one vehicle for transportation. Older children were expected to take care of the younger siblings. If you went somewhere you were where said you were. If you needed to check in with mom and dad, you either called from a friend’s house or you went home and checked in to let your parents know what you were doing. I’m not saying that I was an angel, because we all have our moments where we made bad decisions. The consequences of getting caught back then were far worse than they are today. I’m thirty nine, I believe I’m a good person and hope my values are being seen and learned by my children and my partners children. I would not be the person I am and have the value set that I do, if not for my parents requiring more of me, as a child, to be respectful, accountable, and honest in my daily affairs.

Cindy can be found on Twitter @Samlau53  She believes that a cell phone is right for her daughter.  Here is her view:

Recently I had called our wireless provider to get my daughter's cellphone service cancelled as she had lost her phone last year and we were still paying for it. After much internal debate I decided to change her features but let her retain her service and replace her phone. After meeting with some controversy, I wanted to explain my reasoning.

My daughter is nearly 11 now. When she got her first phone she was 9 and I now realize that was probably too young. My daughter likes to push herself sometimes and will be in three after school activities this year, one will take up two nights, so four nights a week my husband and I need to pick her up after school. There has already been an occasion this year when she could have been picked up earlier but was too shy to ask to use the school phone and instead had to sit with her advisor for an extra half hour.

Also our street makes a circle and she likes to ride her bike around the block. She has my coordination, lord help her, and if she would wreck on the backside of the block, we wouldn't know as she has been taught not to approach a home unless she knows who lives there, unless an emergency. A few years ago she was rollerblading and had fallen in the street. A woman my daughter didn't know stopped to make sure she was okay and offered to give her a ride home. Thankfully my daughter declined and told us later but we had no idea until later. Had she had a phone then she could have said 'thank you but my parents will be here in a second'. She wasn't seriously hurt thank goodness just bumps and bruises.

Lastly my most valid reason, at least to me. My daughter doesn't look 10, poor thing developed a little faster than most kids her age. While we know and trust all of her friends' parents, you never know what goes on behind closed doors. I don't want her being stared at like she's a Thanksgiving turkey by someone's father or brother and she have to try to come up with a valid excuse to use their phone to call me. She's shy anyway and wouldn't be able to lie to them at least halfway convincingly, which isn't necessarily a bad thing under different circumstances.

With all that being said I think I have brought my daughter up to be responsible enough to use good judgement but there are circumstances beyond the usual 'but mom everyone has one' for a young girl to have a cellphone.

What do you think?  What choice would you make for your children?

In the middle of the night, this is what I think

Of late I've found my creativity is lacking. The freelance writing I've found, which is little, offers no value. The subject matter is of little consequence and my name isn't even a part what I've written. It suits me fine, I'd much rather not be linked to five hundred words about car insurance.

The second site that was recommended to me is more of the same, albeit at a slightly higher price. I have yet to 'order' a topic to write about. It doesn't interest me, even though I was initially excited.

The problem is, I don't want to merely regurgitate facts, I want to document an experience.

I wonder if this attitude stems from simply being a person who hungers to be more meaningful in what they write. Or is that I really just can't gather the energy to be bothered?

If I was smart, I'd take my chances and write the not even remotely interesting article, pocket my measly $15 and be on to the next one. But something stops me. Pride? Quite possible I suppose.

I've always believed if you're going to do something you should do it well. I would like to make that be something enjoyable. Possibly even something that counts.

Have you done anything worth enjoying lately?

I'm still waiting...

Random Tuesday Thoughts: She's a fighter

It's time to rumble because it's Random Tuesday Thoughts day with The UnMom.



The girl looks like she's been in a prize fight...and lost.  Bandaid hides the dent and scraped off skin achieved by smacking the sharp edge of the kitchen counter.  Puffy eye from falling into the radiator at school.  Sigh.

Please send bubble wrap...lot's of bubble wrap.

I got my latest issue of Bazaar magazine yesterday!  So yes, more Fashion Victim posts are coming your way (You lucky lucky people.)

I was also having a great discussion yesterday with a couple people about whether or not kids (like 11 -15) should have cell phones.  I think that's a whole post in itself but if you have an opinion leave it and it'll give me something meaty to include when I do talk about it.

I'm writing this on the fly while waiting for the school bus.  Spelling errors are just going to have to be lived with.

My english skills have also fallen off the wagon.  Sorry about that.

I've been told that if I go to FancyFlours.com I will want to bake.  I've been promised.

According to this months Real Simple magazine, they've made a live-action 3-D version of the Nutcracker.  Umm, okay.  And they changed Clara's name to Mary.  WHY?  It's a ballet and Russian, Mary just doesn't seem to fit.  I love the Nutcracker and used to go every year as a kid.  I'm sorry, she's always going to be Clara and there's nothing that's going to change my mind about that.

Not even free chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate I joined up BORFitClub.  It's like FightClub but without the hitting.  And instead of whatever they do in fight club they do something else in FitClub.  In FitClub we exercise and eat right and encourage other lazy souls to do the same.  It's pretty cool.  So far Day One was a success.  I was aware of what I ate, made better food choices and did a workout video.

I'm pretty sure I now hate Jillian Michaels if me yelling at the TV while she made me do squats is any indication.

Just saying.

Do you decorate for holidays?  Halloween?  Thanksgiving?  Christmas?  Surely there's someone out there like me who just doesn't care if I still have snowmen placemat's in July and beach rocks and flowers in December.  I am just not a seasonal decorator.

I've decided sleep is overrated.

But something that is worthwhile is this: RTT over at Keely's place.  Go on over and feel like your life has a purpose.

Monday's Muse with Cinnamon and Honey: All the Above

Today is Monday's Muse with Cinnamon and Honey.  The day where Robin invites us to write about something that makes us feel inspired.


(Adding an intro and the button now because obviously you should never write a post when sleep deprived.)





All the Above by Maino featuring T Pain

My favorite lyrics:

It's easy to hate,
It's harder to love me
Ya'll don't understand,
Ya'll quickly to judge me
Put your foot in my Nikes,
Picture you livin' my life,
Picture you stuck in a cell,
Picture you wasting your life,
Picture you facing a charge,
Picture you beating the odds,
Picture you willing to bleed,
Picture you wearing the scar
Thank you for making me struggle,
Thank you for making me grind
I perfected my hustle,
Tell me the world ain't mine
You've been seein' me lately,
I'm a miracle baby

(lines edited out because of content)


Ain't you happy I made it?
That I'm making a statement?
Take a look and you can tell
That I'm destined for greatness

I much prefer this version of the song (for which I could not find a good video)

I first found this song because Ryan Hanigan from the Reds uses it as his walk up music.  I think it's a great symbol of the Reds and the year they've had.  They came from nothing and made it to greatness.  I listen to this song if I need a little nudge to remember what is to start from the bottom and work your way to the top.


If you want to see more Monday's Muse go visit Robin at Cinnamon and Honey.

Friday Fragments with Half Past Kissin' Time

Excellent idea from Half Past Kissin' Time

Thank you to Gina for participating in this event so I would know about it.

I'm in complete love with the Black Keys.  Thanks to all my Reds Twitter peeps like pitcher Sam LeCure and Kalee Maloney (wife of the pitcher Matt Maloney) for talking about the Black Keys and the concert they went to. I can't get enough of them.  Everlasting Love is the best song.  Ever.

I found an ad in a magazine for MetroMint Water.  Just sounds really good.  Not sure why.

Intense Debate is eating comments so three from yesterday went missing and I don't know why.  This is opposed to when ALL the comments from the whole blog went missing a few weeks back.  It's resorted to blogger comments and ID is installed but apparently not functioning.  I'd just like to scream and make it all go away.

I think Chick has an invisible friend like Soren Lorensen in Charlie and Lola.  She keeps telling me to stop it but I swear, I'm not doing anything.

The book Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is this crazy bestseller.  I can't get past page 26.  Honestly I tried. It's freaking BORING. And hard to follow and I don't really care except everyone keeps telling  me to get past chapter 3.  Thats at page 68.  Never going to happen.

I didn't sleep for 36 hours straight this week.  I take absolutely no responsibility for anything I may have said during that time.  Just saying.

At the end of the month I'm supposed to run in that charity race but my foot has put the stop to that.  Now I don't know what to do about the money I've been asked to raise.  If you still want to donate please go to the link for Run Like Hell in the sidebar and donate.  I will still wear my cape that Friday and take pictures while I put my foot on ice and watch a movie.

My car now fits in the garage! Yea!  I get nervous every time I pull in though.  Just a helpful hint Drees Homes, you really should look at just how narrow those single garage doors are even though they look good.  It's like fitting a hand in the opening of a soda bottle.  Really hard to do.

If you have a Friday Fragment head over to Half Past Kissing Time and let it out!  If my blog eats your comment then I'm sorry.  Any that are emailed to me (like they are supposed to be) I will repost.

Facebook: Just how young is acceptable

When I was in Idaho visiting family last week, my 10 year old nephew asked to be my Facebook friend.

Let me back up.  For those here who are my friend on Facebook, you'll know I never use it.  Like ever.  The other night I posted baseball pictures because someone else had tagged me to see a baseball video (and I was actually in it, twice!)  But before that I hadn't been there since...August maybe?  I've just never found the value in Facebook that others have.

I've professed my conversion to Twitter and that's primarily where you can find me wasting time throughout the day.  I've just never gotten into Facebook.

I was more than a little shocked to hear my nephew uses it.  Admittedly, I haven't been to his page yet, but what would someone that young possibly post on there?  I thought you had to be 13 to get on the site (and this is no knock against my sister.  He has an older brother who does everything and has a cell phone.  Once the first kid does something, fegettaboutit.)

It does lead me to wonder what the site can offer a young person.  Wouldn't it be the perfect spot for creepy people to try to get at kids?  Is Facebook more protected than other sites like My Space?  I know you have to 'friend' someone on Facebook to see their information but it just seems scary to me that a child would be on the site.

Even someone like me can accidentally type in the wrong address in the web bar and bring up a whole lotta things they never planned to see. (Just FYI, Dick's Sporting Goods...not the address you'd think.)  I guess I wonder how closely we should monitor our children's internet use.  Obviously we need to approve of what sites they can go to.  Thor is only allowed to go to the Chess Foundation website that was provided by his school.  Even then, I type the address and never allow him to do it himself. 

I don't know what to do when he wants a Facebook account.  He doesn't know what it is currently but I'm sure that will be changing in the next few years.  He certainly knows what Twitter is, not that I'd let him anywhere near it.

What age do you think is appropriate to let kids start wandering the internet? What sites do your kids use and do you monitor what they do there?  Sound off in the comments.

*Some comments have gone missing. I don't know why but I'm working to fix it!

It's RTT without a whole lotta fat

It's Tuesday which means it's been a week since I posted.  I was on vacation. Eh.  764 blog feeds marked as read, sorry everyone. Not gonna happen. If something really cool happened in the last five days...email me!


Today you need to go here after you peruse these pictures (which after vacation is all I can manage. I'm still trying to deal with being here and not there.)  Complain to her that I've got nothing for you but pictures.



The pictures below are what I commonly refer to as The Lake (Coeur D'Alene Lake in Idaho) where I pretty much spent the first 18 years of my summer life.

I have no idea exactly why this guy is here but...Lewis and Clark maybe?

I got to go watch my oldest nephew play youth football.  Even though they ended up losing it was a lot of fun.  But some of the parents...it was like being at a Phillies game.

If you need more you know who to click. Keely.

It's BYOB otherwise known as Random Tuesday Thoughts

How's everybody on this fine Tuesday?  Egads, I haven't written anywhere in a week.  Very bad blogger am I.  But I always like to chime in on Random Tuesday Thoughts day because it's my favoritest day of the week.  For all the latest and greatest you need to go here and see Keely:



Or here: The UnMom.

Okay I have a question for Keely, the Questionable Advice page on your blog, does it pop up in the reader if you write on that page or is that one of those I have to keep checking back kinds of things?  I love Questionable Advice.  I don't want to miss out.

Would it even be Tuesday if I didn't say something about Twitter?  Cause I usually do.  Wow.  In case you didn't know (cause you live under a rock and don't spend enough time on my blog where I haven't written lately...meh) the Cincinnati Reds are facing the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round of playoffs starting Wednesday.  Let's just take a second to say OMG.  Both my teams, against each other...I may just cry.  The only way I can look at it is that at least someone will be moving on (hoping it's the Reds)  How does Twitter play into this you ask?  Well, I've never seen people smack each other down like Phillies and Reds fans.  It's (mostly) in jest but some people...I hope I never meet you in a back alley.  Just gonna say that and get it over with.

Chick told me she ate dirt at school yesterday.  As a mother I'm so proud.

She is also in charge of the class pet (Tim the Turtle).  If he goes missing...well, God bless the girl, she is cute.  Even in Preschool Jailhouse Orange.

Leaving tomorrow...just in case I haven't mentioned it. Can't. Wait.

This does mean things here and here will be even more sporadic.  Either I will have loads of time and catch up on the 500 plus blogs in my reader and possibly write something or you may just get pictures.  Beautiful pictures of changing leaves and a river and a lake.  And maybe my nephew kicking butt playing football.  If his mom says it's cool that I post pictures here.  He was less than 4 pounds when he was born and I think it's fantastic that he now plays football. 

I mean wrap him in bubble wrap please, but as a teen I don't think he's going to let anyone do that.

I cleaned my office yesterday.  How many times am I going to say that?  But this time I actually took everything off my desk and truly started over.  Wanna take bets on how much stuff that's not mine ends up there this week while I'm gone?

I've had several people offer to write over here.  I can't even tell you how grateful and honored I am.  Truly.

I checked out a book from the library called Tortilla Curtain.  Again, a book that sold it on the title alone.  And the cactus on the cover.  It is fiction.  I have no idea what it's about though...

I want to watch the Wizard of Oz.  It all started with this post over at Better Off Red, the brainchild of one Jamie Ramsey, the Reds baseball media mogul. (something to that effect, he did give me a free, most awesome, BOR t-shirt.)  (read the captions, get to the one with Joey Votto talking to Scott Rolen, it doesn't get better than that...oh wait it does...) Thanks to Cindy, without whom I will never look at the movie again without giggling and saying #BORgiggles.  Best invention yet.

I want to have more Random but I don't know if it's in me today.  I am knackered.

You'd think that my sleepy pills would help me out there.  But nope, I feel just as tired lately as if I never slept at all. 

I said two weeks ago that I velcro'd a monkey's butt.  I really did.  I velcro'd a sock monkey to the dashboard of my car.  I didn't really think about it at the time and the car is a lease and they may not like a monkey's butt stuck on there.  Things you think of after the fact. 

That's got to be Random enough right?  If it's not, go visit Keely.  Go forth and be Random.

Even now words fail me

You may be wondering why I am writing this post so late.  So long after.  I’ve been a Phillies fan for over a year now and a Reds for just one short season.  I’ve been to Phillies games and I’ve posted about the excitement and the energy of being at a game and watching my team win.  I usually can’t wait to talk about it.

Last night’s experience watching the Reds take the NL Central Championship is like nothing I can really describe.  This is the main reason I didn’t do more than post pictures thus far.  I had to have almost a full 24 hours to wrap my head around the experience before I could truly get down what last night was like.

If you’ve been around this blog or over at Blogging Mama, you know I love baseball.  I love every bit and part and fact and even all the incessant stats that go along with it.  Baseball is a religion.  I’m not the person who originally wrote that but I believe it with all my heart.

Just like I believe the Reds can do anything. 

The game started pretty much like most others for me.  I arrived early (actually later than my usual, about six o’clock.)  I wandered into the stadium and right away I felt it.  The Magic was on the tip of everyone’s fingers.  No one really dared to say the words out loud, Division Champions, to do so would jinx the entire thing.  Baseball and it’s fans are nothing if not superstitious.

I made my way to the designated Moon Deck where I had planned to be a part of the Reds Tweet Up event (more info here).  I sat watching the players warm up, the fans start to trickle in and that feeling of anxiety started.  What if I witnessed something spectacular tonight?  What if Reds fans finally got to see their team walk off as a victor?

That pulsing energy never really left and it only grew as the grounds crew finished their preparations and the players were announced.  I found myself sitting next to several lovely ladies, and we chatted idly about the Reds.  They were both longtime fans, I was the newbie.  It didn’t matter much; we were all excited and slightly nervous for what was to come.

I have to pause because I can’t recall the words I want to use to describe the actual game.  It was tough and a battle from the get-go.  When Drew Stubbs (a player who deserves so much recognition in my eyes) made that heart stopping catch; I was right there, mere twenty feet away, if that.  The crowd, myself included, went absolutely wild.  We were celebrating not only a spectacular catch, but a moment that had Magic written all over it.  If that ball had had a little more to it, maybe I wouldn’t be writing this today.  Maybe I would still be writing about the hopeful win of the Reds.

The fans are amazing.  Just as they grumble and gripe, those around me truly believed in the Magic of the Reds.  Listening to the group of men behind me heckling, nothing made me smile more.

Almost nothing.

With the Reds down a run, then tied, everyone was on their feet screaming and yelling; I don’t know if my voice or my hands have recovered from all of that yet.   I don’t even know if I truly can see Bruce stepping to the plate, it’s all so jumbled up in a blurry vision of…if I had to say anything it would be pride.  I’m proud of the way the Reds battled for a good pitch staying alive and working so hard to get not only themselves but also their fans what they deserved; a Championship Title.

When that ball just kept going and going, myself like everyone around me and everyone in the stadium went crazy.  Jumping. Screaming. Hugging. Absolute and total elation lifted the crowd as the fireworks went off and the Reds converged on the field in triumph.  I can’t even write those words without getting chills.

It was such a moment in my early love of baseball, that I don’t think I will ever forget it.  I’ll be telling my children about it for years.  The celebration on the field went on long after I, reluctantly, had to leave for home.  I wish I could have stayed.  But I took that elated and energized feeling home with me and carried it long into the wee hours of the morning unable to sleep.  Even today, I’m sitting in awe unable to process what I had the honor of being able to witness.

For me it was, and has, been an honor to share in the Reds 2010 season.  I am a fan.  And I believe in Magic.

Originally published at The (Virgin's) Guide To Baseball