Blessed be this day

I've never been to Opening Day in Cincy.

By the time I was old enough to have the freedom to go, I had moved away from Ohio. Pretty far away, too. For the past 7 years, I have spent Opening Day in Ireland, California, and DC, my current residence where I am spending my fourth baseball season. Sometimes life carries you on this forceful current that brings you far out to sea. Fortunately, technology enables me to see the shore.

I've been "sick" on many Opening Days. In college, I never went to class on this day. I went to sick call twice in the Army and was put on quarters, where once I snuck away to the library to listen online and once was able to stay in my room to watch on my new computer. I was unemployed during one Opener, and the next year at my newish job, I was "ill." Then, a wonderful thing happened - I realized that it was acceptable to miss a day of work for it, and I can freely tell my boss that it's Opening Day and I'm not gonna be in!

So, I'm sitting outside in shorts and a Reds t-shirt enjoying the most gorgeous Opening Day in recent memory and convinced that God Himself is a baseball fan. I'm listening to the Findlay Market festivities on 700 WLW online, have my lunch and some beer ready, dusted off my all red Reds cap, have run my anti-spyware programs and deleted the problems so my computer runs at optimal speed, and am getting some color on my pale legs - probably the same color of my favorite team! I am so excited I can't sit still, and I keep getting chills every time I hear the words "Opening Day." Life doesn't get much better than this!

Someday - sooner rather than later - I will make it to Cincy for this Holy Day. Until then, I'm content to watch my computer screen, listen to Marty and Joe and Thom, and wait for the most beautiful string of words in the English language: ...and this one belongs to the Reds!