The Cubs Won! And I'm Exhausted.

So, I haven't posted much in the past few weeks but I have a really good reason.

Baseball.

Seriously.  Between the NLCS and the World Series, this Cubs Fan was getting very little sleep, and blogging time was non existent.  Priorities people.

See, baseball has always been a huge part of my life.  My Dad, awesome man that he was, realized that even though his only child was a girl, that didn't mean he couldn't teach her to love sports.  So I spent a lot of my childhood and young adult life (when I lived on the West Coast) going to California Angel games with my dad and my cousins (and no, I'm never going to call them anything but the California Angels.  So sue me.)  Our family relocated to Los Angeles about the same time the franchise started and so my dad, who loved the underdog, became an Angel fan.

However, when one moves to and eastern time zone, like Daddy Bird and I both did, it is really hard to follow a West Coast Time.

So we became Cubs fans.  My Dad always, and I mean always, loved the underdog.  And he loved Harry Carey and his announcing.  So he started following the Chicago Cubs. Because seriously?  Was there any other team that defined "underdog" like the Cubs?

And we fell in love.

Whereas we aren't from Chicago (Mr. Bluebird is, however) and we don't have a legacy like many of my other Chicago Cubs fans do with the team, we loved them none the less.  My Dad, every year, would hope for a championship, and like millions of Cubs fans before him, was disappointed.  When he passed away three years ago, I made sure that he had a Cubs t-shirt with him in his coffin.  He would never have forgiven me if I didn't.

So, for the first year after he died, baseball was more painful than fun.  I didn't have him to call after each game to discuss the plays and the scores and the bad calls and everything.  And I missed that more than you can imagine.  It made my heart break that I didn't have anyone to discuss the Cubs with, as Mr. Bluebird is not a baseball fan (hockey is his game).  And so baseball sort of left my life for a year or two.

And then I met Baseball Boy, and baseball, and especially Chicago Cubs baseball, became fun again.

So now that Baseball Boy (who I also call my nephew because he's told everyone I'm his aunt, and his parents are thrilled by that, so who's to stop him) is in high school I don't see him as much, but we text and talk a lot.  Especially during baseball games.  And it was a fantastic year for us Cubs fans.

And as the season went on, Baseball Boy and I started to wonder if this finally was our year.

And we won the NCLS, the first time since 1945.  (Baseball Boy calculated that my dad was 10 when that happened.)

And then we won the World Series and partied like it was 1908!

And Baseball Boy and I are still just beaming.  And waiting for Spring.  And Spring Training.  And Opening Day.  And another great season.

And in the meantime, I'm teaching him about hockey.